Welcome back to Middle Grade Monday! Today, I'll be discussing how to deal with adults in middle grade fiction because, and I hate to break this to you, kids just don't want to read about adults stealing all the fun. Consider your favourite books from when you were younger. Mine was The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner. It's a story about a brother and sisters - kids, of course - who have magical adventure in the English countryside. There's danger, magic and battles. What's not to love? And yes, there are adults. But they are kept on a very short lead by the author. The most powerful character in the book, debatably, is Cadellin. He's a wizard who has a startling knowledge of the secret world of magical beings. He would find it so much easier to win in the end, but it has to be Susan and Colin (the kids) who are the centre of the book. So, what can you do with adults in middle grade? How can you make sure they get out the way? Some authors take the orphan option...
The Curse of Heatherwell House (Working Title) came from a slightly different place than many of the other stories in this collection. When I decided that I was going to put together a collection of short stories with the theme of Gothic Horror, I quizzed Clemency on what would scare her. She said “zombies”. Not the easiest thing to work with for Gothic Horror – give me a ghost any day. Here are some thoughts about how I went about creating The Curse of Heatherwell House…
Once I had spoken to Clem about the things she finds scary – and discovered which of my back catalogue she found the creepiest – I started to get an idea for a story. It involved a vicar (obviously the younger son of a wealthy family, as all these Gothic vicars seem to be) who took over gravedigging responsibilities because the rest of his parish were too sick to do it. I was pleased with the premise – and perhaps it will turn into another story. Watch this space…
But there was one major sticking problem: whilst the premise was a good one, the story had no actual plot. Gothic Horror is a slow burn by its nature, but embarking on an entire story with no plot in mind might have been a bit too much of a challenge!
So, I returned to the drawing board, trying to work out how to make zombies work in Gothic Horror. The Monster in Frankenstein has elements of a zombie, of course, but with more of a heartrending backstory than we give most zombies. Zombies belong in modern films and tv programmes, where they can be shot or have their brains bashed in with baseball bats. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a notable exception, but that is more comedy that actual horror.
I take a pride in mastering the spooky ghost or, as Clemency and Ginny would argue, the water demon. Zombies do not seem, to me, to be Gothic enough. However, a chance happening with some slug-invaders gave me the start of the story which I was looking for.
During October/November 2024, we found that an increasing number of slugs were managing to slide their way into our house. Sometimes, you didn’t see them but would just find silver trails which caught the light for days afterwards. Other times, you’d find them crawling shamelessly up the walls. (I saw on Twitter that someone had found one in a kettle – they had a harder time, obviously!) Finally, furious with the horrible little intruders, Mum decided to put salt down around where they were coming in.
The idea of covering carpets in salt appealed to me. Bear in mind that the word salary comes from salt, because Romans were known to pay wages in salt. I imagined how profligate it would have seemed to our forebears to coat a carpet in salt just to keep away slugs and, from this thought, came forth my plot.
The next thing I did was create the setting (always a key moment for me) and invented Heatherwell House, which is supposed to be a medium-sized country manor house, perhaps twice the size of where I live. The character of Sir Lionel was rather more snippy than most of the main characters I have written before, and I can’t say I warmed to him. His aunt was a matriarch, a character trope that I more often reference than explore, so that was quite fun too.
Then the zombie came into it and, much to my surprise and relief, it worked. I believe I have created a story which fits the High Gothic genre, but includes a zombie. I even have the zombie wandering around in that classic outstretched-arms pose, but I believe the impending fear in the story comes from the sense that zombies just keep going. The main character, terrified after removing his last defence, must attempt to run away, but that isn’t enough when your pursuer never tires.
I hope what my foray into zombie writing proves to myself (and perhaps to others) is that anything can fit into the Gothic Horror genre. I wrote the story shortly after listening to an audio recording of M.R. James’ classic story, Rats, and I think there are elements of that in The Curse of Heatherwell House.
Perhaps I should just call it “Slugs”.
[You can read Judith's earlier Gothic Horror blog posts here]
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