Rebecca Jones-Howe's Blog, page 4

MOODBOARD: “The Fruits of Wartime”

Recently, I received a request to write a piece for an upcoming gothic horror anthology from Quill & Crow Publishing House. I mentioned this request in my recent R&R rejection debacle. I was beyond excited to produce another piece of gothic fiction so soon after writing “Woman of the White Cottage”. My new story will soon be appearing in Ravens & Roses, an anthology of gothic horror penned exclusively by women. The story is “The Fruits of Wartime”.

“The Fruits of Wartime” Premise

After World War 1 cripples the Porter estate, young Jacqueline finds herself the final house servant of Cecelia Porter, an aging widowed mother of 2 who mourns the loss of her dearest son Peter to the war. Night after night, Jacqueline stalks the halls of the home in search of the late Philip Porter’s old gambling earnings with the hope of moving to the city and starting life anew as an independent woman. Then Cecelia’s estranged son Matthew returns, bringing with him some of the obscenities of the city, which Jacqueline finds herself unable to resist.

An Abandoned House

It was my first ever request and I was beyond excited to produce another piece of gothic fiction so soon after writing “Woman of the White Cottage”. Of course, a part of me was wary that I’d be able to enter that world again. I did manage to gain a lot of inspiration for “Woman of the White Cottage” from an urbex video, so again I dove into YouTube searching for a setting.

It took me a bit of watching, but I finally settled on one of my favourite videos the Uplands Mansion in Baltimore, Maryland:

This video, filmed in 2017 by the great Dan Bell showcases a lot of the original beauty of the mansion. One of my favourite parts of the mansion is that narrow spiral stairwell in the servant’s wing, which featured the then-locked Room 66.

It was that little corridor, as well as the library, the main hall, and the parlor-type area with the piano that really inspired me. I watched several other videos of the mansion to get an idea of the house’s layout. I found myself disheartened to see the house succumb to further vandalization through the years. But alas, I had a story to write!

Period Drama Research

I felt a bit wary about attaching my story, “Woman of the White Cottage” to a specific point in history. With “The Fruits of Wartime”, I vowed to choose a more specific time period and settled on the early 1920s, a time period that I have a reasonable amount of knowledge with, pretty much just from my watching of Downton Abbey and Boardwalk Empire.

There’s something about the turn of the century that always grips me. It’s old enough to feel really regal and glamorous, but still modern enough to not feel entirely detached from modernity. The first world war forced society to change in so many ways, specifically for women. Shows like Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge convey much of this reality on the working class.

During the war, the men went off to fight. Many women found themselves filling in for the roles that the men had left behind. However, when the war ended, life had been forever altered. Many of the great manor estates, both in the UK and the USA also started to fade out, leaving servants like Jacqueline to consider new roles.

Fashion Fetish

I’m sure many of you know me as a bit of a fashion fiend, and I must tell you that the Edwardian era, as well as the 1920s are two of some of my absolute FAVOURITE decades of fashion. I did quite a bit of fashion research on corsets and petticoats and other such old-timey garments. Corsets were never as uncomfortable or dangerous as some articles might have you think. They were essentially supportive garments, which are slowly coming back into favour in more modern forms today. I also learned about the “combination garment” of the Edwardian era, which is essentially a camisole and bloomers mixed into one.

I watched a lot of “getting dressed” videos from CrowsEye Productions. These videos provide a lot of insight of the daily rituals of women in earlier times. Getting dressed was a bit of a process back then. It is interesting comparing earlier garments (corsets) to the ones we now wear today (bras and Spanx, essentially).

Here’s the video that inspired Jacqueline’s daily attire. “The Fruits of Wartime” takes place in the early 1920s but I see her still donning attire that would seem more dated by 1920s standards. This video also inspired me to make Jacqueline a Suffragette (in America), so her character does strive for some form of modernity and the new age.

The 1920s, however, brought extreme change for women’s fashion, as women rejected corsets entirely in favour of loose and comfortable garments both for work and recreation.

Some Smutty Influences

A part of me has always had a thing for Victorian-era smut. Much of it is pretty ridiculous. It doesn’t read “sexy”, though some of it weirdly is? So much of it was very tongue-in-cheek. I love that the Victorians were seen as such prudes when they probably were just as dirty as we are in the 21st century.

One of the most popular Victorian-era works is a book called The Way of a Man with a Maid, by Anonymous. The book is basically about this guy named Jack who kidnaps a woman and essentially, uh, rapes her to the point of Stockholm Syndrome. She falls in love with Jack and finds more women for Jack to turn into some kind of harem. The novel sounds horrifically awful in premise, but the novel itself is a pretty ridiculous read.

It’s hard not to read it and wonder what people thought at the time. Erotic publications were difficult to find and often it was only the wealthy who managed to get their hands on copies, but while I was reading The Way of a Man with a Maid, I was like, “Well, obviously this is something Matthew would enjoy!”

“The Fruits of Wartime” contains a reference to vaudeville theatre and Eddie Cantor and The Way of a Man with a Maid, not so much to paint the character of Matthew as a particular deviant, but as a different kind of misunderstood man entirely.

“The Fruits of Wartime” Playlist

I enjoyed putting this playlist together, although it proved difficult meshing several genres of music together. “The Fruits of Wartime” focuses a lot on the dichotomy of music, specifically “classical” piano (which Peter often played for Cecelia) and vaudeville show tunes (which Matthew favours).

Obviously, I put in a lot of Chilly Gonzales tunes in there, as his style and creative use of keys definitely mimics the sort of music that Matthew would play. I was also heavily inspired by the Boardwalk Empire soundtrack, specifically songs by Eddie Cantor, who was a popular stage performer at the time. He sang a lot of comedic songs, and a lot of them were pretty misogynist, which is why Matthew would see Eddie as a hero of sorts.

Sadly, the first volume of the Boardwalk Empire soundtrack isn’t currently available on Spotify, so if you don’t have it in your library (and you really should, because it’s amazing), then you won’t be able to listen to the soundtrack in its entirety.

Here are the links to the missing songs:

“My Man” – Regina Spector“The Dumber They Come The Better I Like ‘Em” – Stephen DeRosaRavens & Roses Anthology of Gothic Women’s Horror

Cassandra L. Thompson of Quill & Crow Publishing House requested a story for Ravens & Roses, an anthology of women’sgothic horror. Honestly, the gothic genre is still new to me, but it meant a lot to get this request. My first gothic story, “Woman of the White Cottage” appeared in their first anthology, Anomalies & Curiosities.

While writing “The Fruits of Wartime”, I didn’t really feel like I was writing horror. Deep down, this tale is yet another one of my sexy frolics with a dangerous man. Yet, what I loved about this story was the impact of the time period.

Jacqueline is just another vaguely slutty protagonist enjoying the thrill ride of casually romancing a dangerous man. The true horror in “The Fruits of Wartime” is that, despite the many changes that WW1 brought to the world, true change for women was still a long fucking way away.

Want to read “The Fruits of Wartime”?

The Ravens & Roses anthology releases on June 25th, 2021, but pre-orders are available now!

The post MOODBOARD: “The Fruits of Wartime” appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

My New Obsession: Gothic Suspense (Romance?) Covers

Over the last handful of years, I’ve got more in touch with my goth side. Goth Rebecca lurks in the corners and has maybe haunted the hallways of my life since Beauty and the Beast. The whole aesthetic of the dark and spooky castle? The danger of leaving? The Stockholm Syndrome? Like, I get the problematic aspects, but also, I’m super down for all those elements, which is why I’m kind of shocked that it’s taken me so long to finally embrace the whole “woman running from houses” book trend of the mid-century.

I read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca in the 11th grade. That book made me finally appreciate my name. It also woke something in me. Prior to Rebecca, I wasn’t much into reading “old” books. After reading Rebecca, I still didn’t seek out “old” books. Of course, I read some V.C. Andrews then, but I was honestly too judgemental and couldn’t just embrace fiction trends once I noticed them. I detested cliches, and therefore, I also detested genre fiction.

A Gothic Change of Heart

I’m 34 now. I live a pretty mundane and exhausting life as a parent of two young children. This life really sucks sometimes. Like many other young mothers in my boat, I crave easy escapism. Unfortunately, modern escapism reading trends don’t get me. I dislike alpha males and I also think we should be eating the rich instead of boning them.

Somewhere along my new journey of writing gothic fiction, I found all those Pinterest boards full of gothic suspense covers of women running away from dark and brooding mansions. Looking at these covers, it’s easy to see the appeal. They trigger the Beauty and the Beast lore in me. They evoke a safe but intriguing adventure. They are pure escapism, which is exactly what I dove into recently when I cracked open the cover of my very first trashy gothic suspense book, The House of Fand by Anne Maybury.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rebecca Jones-Howe (@rebeccajoneshowe)

The hair. The dress. The house. The colour palette. This is literally book heaven for me. Now, the book itself isn’t…great. Goth Rebecca wouldn’t hope for great writing, but this book is fulfilling all her needs. It has a naive but determined protagonist. It has a suspenseful crime plot. And, most importantly, it has not one, but TWO mysterious and devious dudes who she doesn’t know she can trust.

There’s also a “woman falls down the stairs” scene teased on the first page that I haven’t gotten to yet, but when I do, I can promise you that I will tell you all about it.

Apparently, I’m a horny housewife of a different era. I just didn’t know it until now…

Introducing my new “Gothic Suspense Review” Series

I’ve been very much enjoying writing my Grown-Ass V.C. Andrews book review series. I never thought of myself as much of a reviewer, but embracing the ridiculous plot points of V.C. Andrews books with a sassy tone has been really helpful to my non-fiction writing. The reviews get great feedback and I’ve met so many other fellow V.C. Andrews fans since I started the series back in 2019.

Ideally, I’d like to do the same thing with gothic suspense (or romance) novels from the 1950s – 1970s. At this point, I’m not sure what to call this new series but it’ll likely have something to do with me being a horny housewife. I dunno. I want to take a more sexually aggressive tone with this series, despite the fact that the love scenes are pretty tame and non-existent.

What I Love About Trashy Gothic Suspense

It’s the friggin’ danger. The intimate danger. Ever since I was a kid, I always kind of appreciated that sort of thing. Growing up female, I was always taught to fear men. But then I was also taught through Disney movies to fawn over them relentlessly. Now, we can talk about the problematic elements of these stories until the cows come home, but the truth is that these cliches do trigger a lot of feelings that I can’t help but embrace. And embrace them I shall.

I have no other choice but to write stories about devious men. Or to read stories about them. And now, I enjoy reviewing books or movies, or shitty short-lived Quibi shows about sketchy but weirdly attractive dudes.

When it comes to the aesthetic, I’m kind of down with the forced femininity of the plots. The women are always wearing fancy nightgowns and always look terrified, which ties into the later trend of the 1980s V.C. Andrews covers as well. I’ve always loved Halloween and dark and spooky settings. I love things that are a bit old-fashioned. There’s so much to love and I’m just fully enjoying this new obsession of mine.

Have you read any gothic suspense?

I’m not the only one. I kind of feel like the trends in fiction are leading in that direction. Today’s trend of “domestic thrillers” traces back to Rebecca, as well as other gothic horrors of earlier days. And, if the recent best-selling book Behind Her Eyes is of any indication, I do think that the mainstream literary world is treading back into some of that more horror-inspired surreal territory.

What gothic horror have you read or watched? What tropes do you enjoy? And, do you have any books that you suggest I read?

The post My New Obsession: Gothic Suspense (Romance?) Covers appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

The Highs and Lows of Getting My Revise & Resubmit Manuscript Rejected

Last time I talked to you all about my novel, I had painstakingly worked through the 2020 holiday season putting the final touches on my R&R request from an agent. At the time, I didn’t know a lot about R&R’s, or “rewrite and resubmit” requests, but after tightening up all the plot points of my novel, I was absolutely certain that I had an agent ready to fucking sign me.

I sent that thing out feeling so high, so excited, so fucking sure of myself.

But hey, that didn’t happen…

Stage 1: The Rejection

So it’s late afternoon and I’m at home with the kids. I’m working with another publisher on edits for a short story, “Woman of the White Cottage,” which had been recently accepted for this anthology. It’s going well. THEN, I get an email and it’s from the agent. I take a deep breath and open it.

By this point, I had had enough rejections to like, understand how these emails look, how they start and how they end. So instead of reading, I kind of skimmed. And found the BUT in the email. If you’re any decent writer, the BUT is always the worst part. A good rejection always starts with a handful of praise, but you know, then it guts you and fillets you with the rest of that awfulness.

So I kept reading, my heartbeat in my skull, my grasp slipping from my phone as the kids played and screamed. WHile reading, my head started spinning and I was like, “OH NO, IT’S THE REJECTION. It’s my worst nightmare coming true.“

It was just me and the kids.

I wasn’t going to cry, or was I?

Could I hold it together until my husband came home?

Could I just shrug it all off?

It was just a rejection. I’d get over it. I’d move on. Fuck the agent.

But then all those months of work came flashing back and I realized that I’d told myself that this would be hard. And my face started burning and I put my phone down and I just started sobbing. Fucking sobbing.

My 6-year-old daughter came up and asked me what was wrong, and I was still spiralling out of control so I told her that I’d just received some “bad news”. She asked what happened again and I asked if she could look after her brother and I ran upstairs.

Not to my room, but my son’s room, because it’s the only upstairs room not connected to the neighbour’s unit. Why did this matter? Because the neighbours didn’t need to hear me come so absolutely unhinged. Problem is, my kids heard this, and even though I told them not to worry, they both came into the room. My 6-year-old daughter was concerned. My 2-year-old son even came and patted my head, his face expressing all kinds of worry.

That shit was too much, man. I hugged them. I needed it. Sometimes when you’re an introverted AF parent, those hugs are all you need. I did also have to somehow explain what was going on to my daughter, and I did the best I could in the simplest terms. She empathized with me and it felt good.

But then my husband came home from work and I fell apart all over again.

Stage 2: The Response

I spoke with a few writer friends, needing to like, vent and express sadness. Later that night I also posted my crying face on Instagram, which felt a bit self-indulgent and “woe is me!”, but at the time I also felt raw enough to want to show some of my reaction, as rejection isn’t really the sort of thing that writers often share about the whole writing experience.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rebecca Jones-Howe (@rebeccajoneshowe)

One of my friends told me not to drink too much. I said I wouldn’t drink at all, and after having a sad bath and crying a bit more, I put the kids to bed and proceeded to continue working on the edits for “Woman of the White Cottage”. I really tried to focus on the story because I was really proud of it. But then the alcohol kicked in and I threw on some “WAP” by Cardi B. Then I ran out of vodka coolers and I cracked open the rest of the leftover Bailey’s from St. Patrick’s Day, and at some point, the drunk tweets started and I kind of blacked out.

The Next Morning…

I woke up hungover. My daughter had school, but she woke up and found me lying on the floor and knew that it was because of my “situation”.

“Mom, you should rest today,” she said. “You need to rest because you feel like moldy cheese and old cucumbers and that’s what you feel like when you feel like garbage. So you need to rest. I don’t think you even have time to get dressed so just wear that.”

She pointed at my sweatpants. I didn’t plan on getting ready but I ended up throwing up and then she suggested I call my husband to take her to school instead. Which I’d already planned on doing anyway, so at least we were on the same page.

That catastrophe aside, I slept in for another hour, then got my son up and went about my morning. That evening I had an appointment to get my first Covid shot, so I did eventually put on clothes and get my daughter from school. I didn’t feel like myself, partly because of the lack of makeup and also because I just didn’t even feel like I was even there.

I legit hadn’t felt that empty since my bout of PPD, so I just tried to dwell in it for experience sake.

Stage 3: Depression Sinks In

I got my Covid shot, which was a small exciting moment, until I decided to open up the agent’s email and read it while I was waiting the required 15 minutes to see whether or not I’d go into shock or whatever.

Got home. Ate McDonald’s. Later that night, my arm grew sore from the vaccine. I got tired pretty quickly, though I wasn’t sure if it was due to the vaccine or the depression. I went to bed early and had a nightmare that Marilyn Manson kept on breaking into my house to steal my kids or something. It was weird because I kept kicking him out and then he kept crawling back in up the side of the house and through my childhood bedroom window (because dreams never make sense). I woke up unsettled and a bit sweaty, but still felt absolutely drugged tired and fell asleep.

Thankfully, Marilyn Manson didn’t come back.

My alarm woke me up at 6AM and I still felt tired and empty, but put on makeup and forced myself to throw an outfit together. I broke the news about the rejection to my parents, who aren’t exactly the best at being “empathetic”. Like I’m pretty sure they think my writer dreams are never gonna come to fruition. My mom wants me to be a nurse, or a realtor, or a fucking landlord, whatever industry makes money. So the devastation slipped quickly into the subject of my Covid shot. Like immediately after. No talk of the rejection at all.

Anyway, I dropped my daughter off at school and went to work. Of course, I originally planned on calling in sick because I was just so absolutely tired from the vaccine side-effects, and also, depression was sinking in pretty hard.

Either way, it was smart to force myself into some semblance of normalcy. Because what else would I do otherwise? So I played normal and hung out with people and talked about shit that wasn’t my novel and that was pretty great, honestly.

Over the coming days, I gave myself a break. I watched Clueless. I listened to every True Crime and Cocktails podcast episode.

Stage 4: Losing Myself in Other Shit

Much of this part was a blur. It took a couple of weeks for me to shake off the awful feelings of rejection. It didn’t matter what I did because the memorized passages of that email were burned into my skull, and any time I had a free moment of thought, I’d instantly recite a sentence or two.

I feel like this is the part that many authors don’t often talk about, which is what I would call “the part where all your writer bullshit affects the rest of your life”. In this case, for me, it was my family. My husband never understood why I was so moody and upset over everything. I’d try not to blame it on those feelings of shame, on the email that I kept on rereading, hoping for more insight, more clues as to why my book was the worst thing ever written.

“IT’S THE REJECTION!” I’d say over and over, and I’m sure at some point he was just sick of hearing it.

A writer friend offered to have a look at the novel, so I gave him a couple weeks. He said he enjoyed it and sent back his notes, but it took a few more weeks before I even felt like I could open it because I didn’t want to touch that fucking thing. It was trash and I knew it.

Stage 5: A Distraction

Then I got a request from Cassandra Thompson of Quill & Crow Publishing House to write another piece of gothic short fiction for Ravens & Roses, an anthology of gothic women’s fiction. This request helped a lot. She said so many nice things about my writing, and so I embraced this new genre that I’d just dipped my toes into.

The story I wrote somehow managed to cash in on everything that I enjoyed writing about, plus a little more. It’s set in 1920. It details fashion and feminism and has a troubling male love interest and lots of sex. The story didn’t come naturally at first. I struggled a bit, but it was the right kind of struggle, and by the end, I sent in a story I could be proud of.

Stage 6: Real Life Happens

On Mother’s Day I went to a funeral for my late step-mother-in-law, who passed away suddenly back on December. It was nice to have a proper weekend off work, focused solely on family. We had to drive there and I realized that it had been 9 MONTHS since I’d had a proper road trip anywhere. So, while the occasion was a sombre one, being out of town to both honour and spend time with family I don’t often see was much needed.

Three days later, though, I was notified that I’d been exposed to COVID-19 and had to quarantine. My parents took my daughter to school and I spent all my days at home with my son, who is now at the age where shows about humanoid vehicles can keep him distracted for HOURS. And yes, I let him watch. And no, I have no shame in doing so.

Anyway, with ALL THIS FREE FUCKING TIME ON MY HANDS, I finally opened up my friend’s notes on The View From the Basement. The book wasn’t horrible. Not really. Parts of it read really well. Others felt rough, and they weren’t all the new parts either. At this point, however, I was still seeing all the shit the agent had seen.

Now all the thoughts in the rejection email were my own.

Stage 7: Resident Evil Village Comes Out

I don’t why I came so late to the party, but by the time I’d heard about the tall vampire lady, I was excited for the game’s release because I knew it’d be somewhat like Resident Evil 4, which was the first time I watched my husband play back when we first met and I have so many fond memories of spooky nights spent with him over that playthrough.

These days, my husband and I have no time to play video games for hours on end, so when talk about Resident Evil Village’s “baby monster” started circulating online, I sought out a playthrough so I could see it for myself.

And damn, what an adrenaline rush.

Then I went and watched a playthrough of Resident Evil 7 and I appreciated the pure gory horror of the game. I needed the horror to charge me up a bit because with that charge came a bit of a realization…

Stage 8: Time to Dissect

I originally wrote The View From the Basement to be a psychological thriller. I wanted so badly for it to be “the next Gone Girl“, except I called it a psychological horror because it just sounded better somehow. Why? Because thrillers are getting a bit stale, honestly. I know the trend is still very much in demand, but basically every recent thriller I’ve dug into has left me disappointed. And, after my recent rejection, I started to actually doubt that mine was going to be the new “exception”.

I never thought I could actually write a horror. I get scared too easily and I don’t like gore. But I love the genre. There’s so much to love. The View From the Basement even references a bunch of horror, mainly The Shining, but there are plenty of other gothic horror tropes in it too. The literary agent who rejected me even said that in her phone call with me.

I so desparetley wanted to be that new book that changed the “domestic thriller” game, but after getting enough “this was so close to being AMAZING but I think it’s missing something” kind of rejections, well…

The View From the Basement is going to be a fucking horror.

Step 9: Time to Start All Over Again

At first, I didn’t think that I’d need to do much work, but after attempting minor surgery on the manuscript, I realized that I was gonna need to do some more extensive gutting. I’m going to ease into my chair at the end of every night and re-devote myself to these characters. I’ve already spent 5 years of my life with them. I can spend a few more.

I also struggled a bit with the idea of ruining what the original meaning of my story was. It was supposed to be about postpartum depression. It was supposed to be about what I learned when I became a mother for the first time.

This horror change is going to alter that meaning to a degree. Coming to terms with that kind of made me realize just how much of myself I’d put into the book, and how much of that pretty harrowing time I WANTED it to be about. But it’s been over six years since I became a parent, I now have more extensive experience with the horrors of being a parent. And I can use those horrors for this book.

What I’ve Learned From Getting My R&R Rejected

There’s little out there about what it’s like to do an R&R. And while I was writing mine, I literally found NOTHING about what it’s like for a writer to do one and then get rejected anyway. So that’s why I’m sharing this story with you.

It’s been the worst experience of my writing journey. But if you want to be a writer you kind of have to accept that this is all par for the course. I know I’m a good writer. Rejection is just a part of the evolution. I’m also impatient as fuck. I just want this book out there, on bookshelves in all the mainstream stores. I want you to be able to buy a copy while buying a bag of chips at the grocery store. I want it fucking NOW, man.

Which is why getting rejected hurt so much. And maybe I’ll never get accepted at all, what with the constant changing trends in literary world. Shifting into horror might be a mistake, but in my gut I feel like it’s going to benefit me. Maybe I won’t get published but I’m not against going small press if things don’t end up going well.

What I do know right now is that I’m close. I’ve had enough full manuscript requests and “this was so close!” rejections that I know I’ve got something right. Some books just take time, and some books just need the right inspiration. Sadly, Resident Evil Village didn’t come out early enough for me to get it before sending the agent my R&R.

Sadly, I was stubborn, rushed things, and wasn’t willing to really do proper surgery on my novel. But I’m going to do it now. That’s just what writing is, I guess.

Turning this baby into a new beast is going to take a bit of time.

The post The Highs and Lows of Getting My Revise & Resubmit Manuscript Rejected appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

“Phantom Pains” in Now Out in PEACHFUZZ MAG

I know that I literally just shared my gothic horror story, “Woman of the White Cottage”, but I’m back with another new story. It’s an erotic crime story called “Phantom Pains” and it appears in the latest issue of Peachfuzz Magazine.

This is my very first story appearing in a nudie mag, so I’m pretty excited about it.

Normally, I’d post a moodboard and share some details about my upcoming releases before they come out, but this acceptance and subsequent publishing came in short order and I am also short on time with another writing deadline. I do have a moodboard post in the works but in the meantime, you can read this nice excerpt and buy yourself a copy of Peachfuzz Magazine and say that you’re buying an adult magazine for the articles!

PHANTOM PAINS

AN EXCERPT

There’s a man at the ATM. He stands in an Adidas tracksuit, his arms crossed. He’s wearing sunglasses even though it’s cloudy outside. The plastic lenses cover his eyes but I know that he’s looking at me. I hold his gaze until the woman in the queue line approaches my terminal.

“Must be nice to sit down on the job,” she says, nodding at my chair.

Bank customers always acknowledge the wheelchair instead of me. The woman slides a cheque across the counter and I glance again at the man, the triple white lines of his tracksuit a momentary distraction.

“If I had to stand like all the other tellers, my feet would be killing me by the end of the day,” the woman says.

Taking money from the drawer, I count the bills into her waiting grasp. “My feet still kill me.”

Her smile twitches. “Oh?”

“It’s a common misunderstanding that paraplegics can’t feel their legs. Mine usually feel like they’re being stabbed with hot knives.”

The woman shifts. She tucks the money into her wallet and stands awkwardly, doesn’t say goodbye, doesn’t apologize, doesn’t wish me well. She heads for the door and nearly misses the man. I meet his blackened gaze a third time and that’s when he finally turns and leaves. 

He didn’t even use the ATM.

Buy Peachfuzz Mag (Vol. 8 Issue. 2)

and read the rest of this sexy crime!

The post “Phantom Pains” in Now Out in PEACHFUZZ MAG appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

“Woman of the White Cottage” Now Out in ANOMALIES & CURIOSITIES

Today, Quill & Crow Publishing House released its very first anthology of gothic short fiction, Anomalies & Curiosities. In recent days, I teased my contribution to the anthology on my Instagram. And if you missed it, you can check out my recent moodboard post on “Woman of the White Cottage” as well. You can buy yourself a copy in ebook, paperback, or glorious hardcover now. But, if you need a bit more convincing, then allow me to provide you an excerpt from “Woman of the White Cottage”.

WOMAN OF THE WHITE COTTAGE

An Excerpt

The first time Mary saw the man through her cottage window, he was cutting down a tree with an axe. The tree had already slipped out of the earth during the last storm. For weeks it lay there, growing mushrooms at its base. Leaves twisted off the branches and rustled against her cottage windows like fingers tapping, trying to get her. 

The man made good work of the tree. His axe slipped easily into the trunk, severing limbs and revealing the wood’s rotted insides. He exerted so much effort, yet made his task seem so easy at the same time. 

Mary found herself fixated. She stood at her door, her flesh prickling hot with the rash that kept her isolated in her cottage, often for days on end. Normally the rash affected her hands, but now the burn shifted to her chest, making her heart beat sparks inside of her. With that prickling came a desire. A need.

She made the man a cup of Earl Grey tea and pushed at her screen door. Her hesitant steps sunk into the mud as she crossed her strawberry patch to meet him.

“Thank you,” he said, lifting the cup to his lips. “You’re very kind.”

His smile closed the vastness of the sky above her. It made the woods feel a little less expansive. The tea flushed his cheeks and warmed his strong demeanor. Then he handed her back the empty cup, taking notice of the red bumps on her hands.

“It’s only a rash,” Mary said. 

“But what might be the cause?”

Mary took a step back and stumbled, getting dirt on her skirt. “I’ve always had it,” she said. “It comes and goes.”

“Can I see?” he asked, reaching out.

Mary hesitated, feeling the prickle in her stomach as she offered herself to him. He ran his fingers over her skin, his grit scratching the itch, if just for a moment.

Want to read more?

Buy your copy of ANOMALIES & CURIOSITIES now!

The post “Woman of the White Cottage” Now Out in ANOMALIES & CURIOSITIES appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

MOODBOARD: “Woman of the White Cottage”

Recently, I mentioned that my new story, “Woman of the White Cottage” was accepted for the Anomalies & Curiosities anthology of gothic medical horror over at Quill & Crow Publishing House. This story is my first piece of “legit” gothic horror. It’s historical (to a degree!). It contains some standard horror tropes, plus some feminist extras. It was also inspired by Cardi B’s “WAP”. I have so much to dive into, so let’s go!

“Woman of the White Cottage”

The story follows an isolated woman named Mary in an undetermined time period (sometime in the very late 1890’s). While tending to her garden in a cottage on the outskirts of a nearby town, she finds a man cutting down a tree on her property. Over the next days she befriends the man, who takes notice of the strange rash on her hands. The man becomes determined to help her, and well, that’s where things pick up.

A White Cottage in the Catskills

Years ago, I stumbled upon this woman’s tiny little cottage in the Catskills. Here’s another link with the photos if your free New York Times articles are used up. Basically, the woman decided to build her own cottage just to have a “womanly place of her own”. Upon reading it, I was like, “THIS IS EVERYTHING I NEED IN LIFE!”. I mean, I have dreams of having my own place that I’d decorate with lace and floral prints like an old British lady. That is my ideal.

Anyway, recent months got me thinking of that cottage. I don’t know why. Probably because the mess my husband and kids produce gets frustrating to clean and my mind goes wandering to fantasy versions of a different reality. An aesthetic reality. Where I’m single. And alone. And maybe a man comes over, but then he fucks things up by getting his dirty stuff all over my nice white cottage. So that’s where the story idea came from.

I honestly just wanted to write a short story about a woman’s place getting destroyed by a man. I started writing but the story had nowhere to go. It had no complexity and I didn’t want to just focus on it being a “sexy story”. I wanted some character and depth. So yeah, I shelved it, hoping for better inspiration in the future.

YouTube Urbex Inspiration

Now, this isn’t the first time that my YouTube viewing habits have inspired me. I’m a BIG fan of The Proper People. They’re a pair of urban explorers who visit some pretty great spots. They’re probably my fave channel out of the urbex genre because they’re really chill and never resort to stupid clickbait stuff. They just have a general interest in the places they visit. Anyway, I ended up watching this video of the now-demolished Allentown State Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania:

Flashback time!

Now, lemme just admit that I went through a BIG phase of being obsessed with mental illness in my teens. Mostly because I was quite the angsty teen myself, but there’s something about insane asylums and their dark history that really kept me infatuated. Most of this stemmed from watching Session 9 when I was in the 9th grade (which was filmed at the famous and mostly-demolished Danvers State Mental Hospital), but my love of abandoned asylums and urbex in general really stemmed from that film in particular.

As I got older, my interest waned, but something about this particular asylum really got to me. I loved the architecture. I loved the marble floors. As the Proper People boys mention in the video, it’s those bright and open hallways that REALLY give this place a special spot in my asylum-loving heart.

One other thing I love about asylums is the confusing layouts. I recall reading that the confusing floor plans were intentional to keep patients from wandering off, but correct me if I’m wrong there, history buffs! Watching the Allentown exploration really gave me the idea of just how scary it would be to wander around one of these buildings with somebody in pursuit, which really gave me the inspiration I needed for my “white cottage story”.

I wasn’t sure how I’d make my white cottage lady a sudden mental patient, but hey, that was all I needed to dig up my original story again.

Female Hysteria

I like to think that my work is always grounded in feminism, so of course, I spent several hours researching “female hysteria”, which was basically the catch-all diagnosis for any and all issues surrounding women’s mental problems. And sexuality. Like any woman in the prudish days of the Victorian era pretty much was considered hysterical. And no, contrary to what this movie would have you believe, vibrators were NOT actually made to cure hysteria.

I probably spent more time diving into the subject of hysteria than I needed to, but I did discover this short article during my research that mentioned a Canadian doctor, Dr. R. Maurice Bucke, who basically did a bunch of hysterectomies, assuming that it was kind of cure-all for hysteria. I am, of course, being blunt, but reading the speech he gave on his practice really enraged me.

Inside, I was like FUCK THIS DUDE.

But then I got really obsessed with the concept of these dudes utilizing their patients as subjects to raise themselves into some kind of glorious status, and I figured it would make for some great villain fodder.

Good Body Horror

Honestly, I NEVER in my lifetime would have ever considered myself a writer of “body horror”. Then came my novel, The View From the Basement, which features a protagonist that’s recently had a C-section. Having had experience with this surgery twice now, I can say that my squeamishness has eased.

Prior to writing “Woman of the White Cottage”, I never would have dreamed of writing a surgery scene, and well, taking that horror of being wheeled into a surgery room and fleshing it out in fiction proved fun. And safe. And I love the whole idea of taking a real fear I once had and forcing a reader to endure it but in an even worse and more horrific way. At the end of the day, writing fiction is a bit about breaking reality.

The “Woman of the White Cottage” Playlist

A very special source of inspiration for “Woman of the White Cottage” was the song “R.R.E.A.M.” by Kitty.

A play on Wu-tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.”, Kitty’s version depicts her daily struggle with her stress rash, and I threw it on my “Woman of the White Cottage” story playlist without really thinking. At the time I was just trying to get some female-led hard beats, but then I spent a bit more time listening to the lyrics and got (without giving too many spoiler!) some further characterization for my protagonist, Mary.

Madonna’s “Human Nature” was the first song that entered the playlist. I then added some other salacious female-led staples like Nelly Furtado’s “Maneater” and Peaches’ “Fuck the Pain Away”. Also included is Cardi B’s “WAP”, of which you will find its most infamous line in the story as a bit of an Easter egg for you all.

Mood-wise, this playlist hardly fits the story at all. BUT, its empowering sex-positive jams tell the ultimate message of the story.

Anomalies & Curiosities Anthology of Gothic Medical Horror

I wrote this story specifically for Anomalies & Curiosities, an anthology of gothic medial horror from Quill & Crow Publishing House. Thankfully, the story fit right in with editor Cassandra L. Thompson’s vision and here I am now, telling you all about this new foray into gothic fiction.

I don’t know why I didn’t write it sooner. Historical fiction always intimidated me, but I’ve watched enough Downton Abbey to feel comfortable with the fashion and customs and language of turn of the century, honestly. Plus, YouTube is full of fun historical wormholes of knowledge. It’s hard to mess things up. But honestly, most of my fiction has dabbled with gothic themes and tropes. I also literally have an entire review series devoted to the QUEEN of mainstream trashy gothic horror, so I see this story as the beginning of something new for me.

Wanna Read “Woman of the White Cottage”?

Get your copy of Anomalies & Curiosities, support an AMAZING new small press, and be sure to let me know what you think!

The post MOODBOARD: “Woman of the White Cottage” appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

A LOOK BACK: “Coping Mechanisms”

To view this content, you must be a member of Rebecca's Patreon at $2 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the source

The post A LOOK BACK: “Coping Mechanisms” appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

The Highs and Lows of Getting A Rewrite and Resubmit Request

Back in December, I told you all about the highs and lows of querying my novel. At the time, I really didn’t want to crack it open in order to figure it out. I had no idea what was wrong with it, and none of the agents who rejected it previously felt quite comfortable telling me what was wrong with the third act. My biggest hope was that the next rejection would come with some guidance. But hey, I ended up getting a rewrite and resubmit request immediately after publishing that post, which is even better.

DECEMBER: The Request

I dropped my daughter off at school on December 8th of 2020. I pulled my son out of the stroller, then turned on the espresso machine to make a second cup of coffee. It was my day off and I planned on doing a whole lot of nothing. Relaxing. The Christmas season was in full-force, which can take a lot out of a retail worker. So I was gonna enjoy my coffee and rest. But then I checked my email. I was stoked to see that one of the literary agents with my full manuscript had responded. I opened it expecting another rejection.

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY: The Rush of Victory

Instead, I got this:

Hi Rebecca,

Are you free sometime this week or next to hop on the phone? I finished my read and there is so much I LOVE / am terrified by in this, but also I have some thoughts. I’d love to chat to discuss!

My heart started pounding halfway through reading. I smiled. My whole body warmed with adrenaline.

I read the email over again and doubled over, thinking of Matt Dunstone’s celebration when he made this game-saving curling shot. That fist pump. “FUCK YES!” I screamed. My toddler stared at me with concern as I jumped in the kitchen. I was exited and I made every effort to remember that feeling because it passes so fast.

But then, of course, once the adrenaline died down, I read the email again and rationalized that uh, there was the big ole BUT included in the email. This BUT kept me reading over and over about something called an R&R, or rather, a rewrite and resubmit, which was something that I’d only just recently (and shamefully) learnt about on Query Tracker.

The concept seemed simple enough. An agent sees potential in the manuscript but thinks a few (or sometimes many) changes need to be made before they can officially take on the client. At the time, though, that concept seemed like the most painful and agonizing thing ever. Sure, I celebrated that foot in the door moment, but the fear of rewriting my book was what I slept on the night before the phone call.

The Call

The next day I made the call with a series of questions. Honestly, I wasn’t really ready to ask any of these questions, knowing about the whole R&R thing already, but I managed to pick a handful out of the myriad of questions that all the YouTube videos I watched told me to ask. At heart, I’m really not much of a planner. I like to get a feel for things and figure them out as I go.

Anyway, I got myself nice and caffeinated, took some deep breaths and made the call. Of course, the call started with simple introductions, and chill small talk about the weather and what parent life was like, which led nicely into the novel, which is about postpartum depression and millennial motherhood. The agent asked me what my writing process was like, how often I wrote, how long I’d been writing.

We didn’t delve into too much before getting into the novel itself. I sat back and tried to savour it because the agent basically said everything about my novel that I wanted to hear. I recall them saying that my book was “super fucked-up and dark” and it contained so many “gothic elements”. In the heart of the moment, I thought, OMG THIS IS THE MOST VALIDATING MOMENT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!

They said that my book could “totally be the next Gone Girl”, which was kind of all I ever wanted to hear ever since I read Gone Girl. My dreams are really dumb and I’ve thrived on that dream of writing that next big thriller. But the comments made it pretty obvious just how much the agent loved the book and wanted to rep it.

Now the Bad News

Then came the rewrite and resubmit part. This also takes us back to the problems that I already KNEW my novel had in the first place. I expected rejection, but what I got instead was a phone call full of an agent’s perspective. Thankfully, in my case, the rewrite part came in the form of some subtle modifications to the third act. They were very rational about their suggestions, telling me what they thought was wrong without telling me out to change the plot in order to make it better.

I really appreciated their editorial approach because it allowed me to brainstorm new ideas, which immediately came to fruition during the conversation. I really felt the magic in our conversation. The agent clearly understood the tone of the book. They understood that it said something. Their only other suggestion was to commercialize the writing style just a touch. Of course, they knew that my background was in minimalist short fiction. They understood that, but also urged me to give it a slight bit more broad appeal.

Which, honestly, was exactly what I wanted to hear.

JANUARY: Rewrite and Resubmit Time!

Well, I went to work and boasted to all my coworkers about this news. I eagerly dug into the first chapters of my rewrite and diligently worked night after night through the first half through Christmas. Then January came, and with that, came the meat of the book that I had to fix.

My pace slowed. Doubt wore in. The agent sent me a quick message in the new year, which was promising and kept me going for a little while longer. But, as the months wore into true SADS time, I really stalled and grew exhausted juggling parenthood with work and writing. Most nights I barely even had the time to address a chapter. It became difficult remembering what I’d changed from one night to the next.

But I finished the edit and I bought myself a new binder from Staples, printed it out took it everywhere I went, marking up the pages with secondary edits that I planned on changing before sending it to the agent.

THE DEAD OF WINTER: Depression Sinks In

Then, in February, in I got another painful rejection from another agent who had the full:

I felt the plot moved along too slowly; it wasn’t until about halfway through that the setup started to really come to fruition, and after that, I didn’t always fully understand why the characters were making the choices they did.

I was gutted. I don’t know why, because if it came down to a choice, I still would have gone with the first agent. Truthfully, I had been stalking this agent for a while on Twitter, hoping they would love the book to death because they’d originally devoured through the sample chapters months before.

This rejection addressed all the parts of the novel that I’d already changed. I quickly became a horrible mess of paranoid anxiety. And lemme tell you, I KNOW that I’m a good writer. I KNOW this book is good, but that rejection just stung so hard in the moment. I literally just laid on the floor of the living room, buried under a blanket while my kids climbed all over me.

It took a few days for me to even want to touch my novel again.

MARCH: A Full Day Alone

My husband and I quickly got in the habit of watching Superstore every night instead of doing anything productive. I didn’t give a shit. Of course, every time I’d stumble across another writer’s happy publishing news on Twitter, the angst would settle in. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough and that I’d never get anywhere by being sad.

Deep inside, though, I still wanted to write.

Instead of working on the novel, I started writing a new story story. And then, I had a story accepted in a pretty big deal anthology, which just amped me up beyond my expectations. The acceptance hyped me up. The new story kept me excited about a new project, and then, of course, the novel came back into play. Then my daughter got sick, and it being Covid and all, my parents offered to take her and my son for the week, leaving me alone. At home. With no kids. And a story and novel that demanded to be addressed.

So I literally took my days off work to write. I worked on over half the novel in one day. I worked on the new short story at night. Then, because spring break came, my parents took the kids again and I managed to edit my way through the rest of the novel in one fucking day. I fixed every plot point. I cut out every redundant scene.

It really shocked me how productive I could be with one single day. I hadn’t had that in uh, quite a long time, and in the future, I’d love to try to schedule proper revision days for myself. It just made it so much easier to remain grounded in the story, as opposed to taking one or two hours at the end of every night.

My Rewriting and Resubmitting Takeaways

From what I’ve researched, some R&R requests can be pretty intensive, and it’s up to the writer to decide if they really want to do all that work. Sometimes it can be changing settings or major plot points. Sometimes it can be changing the targeted demographic, such as making an adult thriller into a YA thriller.

Shortly after receiving the rewrite and resubmit request from the agent, I actually got a second rewrite and resubmit request from a different agent. This other agent, however, wanted me to hire a fucking copywriter to help me fix it, which was kind of a major red flag. One would assume that a literary agent would have some notes to give or suggestions to make, instead of asking me to pay money out of my rather thin pocket to fix the book myself. I only mention this part of the story because there are “schmagents” out there who only see dollar signs in a manuscript and likely won’t do the work into turning that manuscript into something they can market themselves.

Fortunately for me, my R&R suggestions were pretty minimal. The first agent actually considered themselves an “editorial” agent, which is exactly what I want in one. Some agents also expect R&R requests within a certain time frame, but this one gave me an unlimited time span.

I finished my rewrite and resubmit request in about 3 months and eagerly sent it back in March with good prospects.

APRIL: The Worst Low of my Entire Life

I got my response a month later, on April 15th. It uh, it was not good. This happened on Monday and my feelings are still VERY raw and hard to talk about. I really and honestly thought that my book was better and that I had representation in the bag, so yeah, that talented perfectionist in me really took a fucking pillowcase full of oranges beating on Monday night.

I did, however, post about it a bit on Instagram. At the time I thought I was over-reacting and having too much of a pity party, but honestly, the response was welcome and I honestly appreciate when people appreciate honesty:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rebecca Jones-Howe (@rebeccajoneshowe)

Getting a “Rewrite and Resubit” request is difficult. Working on one is painstaking.. Not much is really said of them, so I do plan on speaking to this more. I also failed to find any stories from authors who did a “Rewrite and Resubmit”, only got rejected after, so if you have questions, feel free to ask them here or on the above Insta post.

Eventually, I’ll be an open book.

The post The Highs and Lows of Getting A Rewrite and Resubmit Request appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

Pre-Order ANOMALIES & CURIOSITIES Now!

I recently had a new short story accepted by Quill & Crow Publishing House for their Anomalies & Curiosities anthology of gothic medical horror. “WHAT?!” you ask. To which I say, “Yes, I wrote a historical gothic horror story!” This is me breaking out into new spaces. The story is called “Woman of the White Cottage” and it’s about female hysteria. It’s also an insane asylum story. Also, it’s got some fun body horror.

And I guess it depends who you are and what you’ve read of mine, but body horror has always been my no-go space for fiction. Which is one cool thing about having a C-section. I kind of got over that queasy feeling enough to use my experience in writing.

“Woman of the White Cottage” features a lot of things I never really thought I’d write, or write about. Like insane asylums. And gardening. And a (sort of!) surgery scene. And a reference to Cardi B’s “WAP”. It’s a nice long 7000 word story and which I got such wonderful feedback on from my beta readers. I even did some pretty extensive research this time around, which was too much fucking fun, honestly. I will be posting more details on the story, including the MOODBOARD post soon, but in the meantime, just hang tight because I’ve got a lot of fiction coming your way in the and I’ve had to make a ton of graphics.

Anomalies & Curiosities drops in May of 2021 but you can pre-order it now (currently on Kindle), so if you do the whole ereader thing, be sure to head on over and pre-order! Also be sure to follow Quill & Crow on Twitter and Instagram to get updates and teasers on this anthology, as well as their other gothic fiction offerings.

A GOTHIC HORROR ANTHOLOGYAnomalies & Curiosities

A new adventure in gothic fiction, Anomalies & Curiosities features ten terrifying tales of the medically macabre. A collection that explores the intricacies of the human psyche, leaving you with the curious sense of dread that only gothic horror can achieve. 

PRE-ORDER NOW

The post Pre-Order ANOMALIES & CURIOSITIES Now! appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.

MOODBOARD: “The Tower Made of Glass”

This Wednesday, on June 16th, 2021, the I will be doing a live reading for PULP MODERN LIVE. Thankfully, I had a wonderful short fiction piece waiting in the wings to read, a little dose of modern horror called “The Tower Made of Glass”. Originally written for the monthly flash fiction challenge over at Crystal Lake Publishing’s Patreon, I didn’t have much time to really talk about it. I came in third during the voting, but had no plans for what I would do with the piece after. Thankfully, you’ll be able to hear me read it live soon, but in the meantime, allow me to give you some of the background details for “The Tower Made of Glass” MOODBOARD post.

The Original Challenge

The original Crystal Lake Publishing prompt was “hotels, motels, and apartments”. Instantly, I had the perfect concept of an Airbnb in a metropolis, inspired by a trip I’d taken a couple of years back when I went to see Mike Birbiglia in Vancouver, B.C. We rented an AirBnb apartment in a high rise in downtown Vancovuer, which gave us some nice views.

That said, the experience was also really awkward because the apartment wasn’t exactly cleaned all that well and all the public spaces in the building had signs all over the place forbidding short-term rentals. Honestly, the whole concept of short term rentals in a city with a MASSIVE housing shortage problem troubles me, and I don’t plan on ever using AirBnb on again based on that principal alone.

Nevertheless, that experience did give me some fodder to write “The Tower Made of Glass”, as I love big cities and skyscrapers and just the chaos of the concrete jungle in general. As a person who doesn’t drive, lemme just say how much I fucking love big city transit.

1200 Words?!

I don’t write flash fiction, I have a very difficult time with it, as most of my recently-published stories hit between the 6000-8000 word mark. Keeping the story contained to the 1200 word limit proved tough but I fucking did it and felt so fucking good about it.

Taking on that challenge was quite fun. The larger story lover in me, however, feels almost like I “wasted” a story idea that I could have expanded. Perhaps one day I might, but every time I read over this thing, I feel like I got the tone and the concepts down enough to create a decent impact.

“The Tower Made of Glass”

This story is about a young man named Shane, who books a short stay in an AirBnb in a high-rise apartment so he can apply for a job at a nearby Amazon Fulfillment Center. Through this “vacation”, aspects of his small town past haunt the apartment and his future prospects as well.

All About Amazon

I enjoy listening to political podcasts when I’m getting ready for work. One of my faves is The Majority Report with Sam Seder. Often times they interview authors of some rather interesting books and this one with Alec McGillis, the author of Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, proved major fodder for “The Tower Made of Glass”.

Now, I enjoy joking about eating Jeff Bezos as much as the next person, but the whole concept of Amazon’s absolute retail domination over the western world is pretty scary to me. It doesn’t just impact stores, but entire communities, as is evidenced in this interview, which I def urge you to listen to if you’re interested in Amazon at all.

At the 22 minute mark, the interview touches on a particular subject within the book, a young man who grew up in Dayton, Ohio. After his father’s trucking business went under in the great recession, Todd went through a copious amount of low-paying jobs to support his family. Eventually, he got a job working at a factory that made cardboard boxes for Amazon. The author talks about how his economic disparity affected his family life and his mentality in a negative way.

Male Stories

It’s stories like Todd’s that always make me excited to write about men. Other than breakup stories, I do always love writing about men’s issues. Now, I realize that as a feminist that I should probably be telling female stories with my perspective, but I completely disagree. As tempting as it is to joke about “straight white men”, I’ve made it a part of my philosophy to not disparage others who are struggling.

Men struggle in plenty of ways. I’d argue that plenty of them stem back to the concept of toxic masculinity, but I also hate arguing about feminist stuff and would prefer to just…put all that shit in a story in order to encourage empathy instead.

So yeah. If you wanna know what’s what, then reserve yourself a spot for the very first PULP MODERN LIVE!

The post MOODBOARD: “The Tower Made of Glass” appeared first on REBECCAJONESHOWE.COM.