Writing a Mixed Genre Story
When I first heard
the history and urban legends surrounding Madame
Delphine Lalaurie, I knew I had to write the book. She was a colorful piece of New Orleans
history and it was important to gather as many historical facts about the
woman, the times, the culture and the physical locations as I could. The research took eighteen months (after
which, two very good history books were published that would have saved a great
deal of duplicated efforts if they had come out just a bit sooner.
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People pay for tours
and line up every day to see the Lalaurie Mansion, to visit the grave of Marie
Laveau, to walk down Pirates Alley. I knew it was more than just the (sometimes-boring)
historical facts that draw all these daily visitors to see the places where my
story takes place. Nearly two centuries
of urban legend add to the fun, the thrill, the motivation to visit these
historic sites, and if my book was to entertain, the best of that legend needed
to be included.
L'immortalité:
Madame Lalaurie and the Voodoo Queen is both historical fiction and
horror…and something else. Fans of
historic fiction tell me that I captured the times, what things looked, smelled
and sounded like in 1833. Horror fans
will find the macabre, a mad scientist torturing people in his attic, the
mystery of voodoo and a smattering of ghosts.
A closer look will, I hope, reveal the book as a meditation on the
various ways people seek to persist beyond their mortal lives. Even those who do not believe in the
existence of the soul seek to live on in the minds of others. I believe the real value of the book is in
its reflection on immortality. Let me know what you think.
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