Figgy adventures
August 29, 2025 • No Comments
With all the back to school vibes around, I began to wonder what the experience was like for kids in the time of the Hellion House books, or at least the Victorian era. There were differences in curriculum, but the experience of leaving summer freedom behind for the drudgery of the classroom would be consistent. No doubt back to school was woe and excitement in equal measure then as now.
Not surprisingly, the details of the experience depended a lot on who you were. There were boarding schools and day schools, and arrangements around meals provided by the school varied, especially between the economic brackets of the attendees. I did a little investigation into the kind of desserts/puddings kids would get (any excuse to research old recipes). There were intriguing names, such as “spotted dick” and “roly-poly.” They tended to be starchy and filling, with preserves or dried fruit as the primary interest. This makes sense, because a) children are bottomless pits b) the dishes could be cheaply produced in bulk and c) preserved fruit made sense in an era without reliable refrigeration and a still-evolving network of rapid long-distance travel.
Currants and raisins were the most common fruit in the recipes I found. Another staple was dried figs, which tended to appear on more upper-class menus. This interested me as I had a bag of dried figs and no idea what to do with them. In the spirit of deep research (and fridge cleaning) I looked around for period options and their modern equivalents to concoct an enjoyable, historically-adjacent treat. I ignored the figgy pudding of Christmas carol fame because where, o where, is my pudding basin? and also it’s still too warm for any dish I need to douse in alcohol and set on fire.
Happily there were plenty of non-flammable options. The first effort out of the oven was an apple and fig tart. It had some interesting features, including a layer of ground almonds at the bottom of the pie to soak up a yummy maple syrup sauce. Though promising, it wasn’t quite a five-star result. I like my pie fillings ooey-gooey and this was too dry and under-stuffed. Different apples and changing up the proportions would be necessary to make a properly sinful filling. I will give this one another go.
The second option I’m happy to share because it is a nicely-textured loaf that tastes like autumn. It rose well, has a moist crumb, and properly balances the sweet and spicy elements. This recipe soaks the dried figs in black tea to soften them, which imparts a faintly smoky taste that pairs beautifully with the other seasonings. I highly recommend grating the nutmeg fresh for maximum pop. I could see the students at the University of Londria wrapping a slice in a napkin to eat while they bolted to their next class.
Here’s the recipe for that one. Pro tip: be sure to cut the woody stems out of the figs
Preheat oven to 350F
Sift:
1.5 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (grated fresh)
Cream:
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
Add: 3 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla
Then add the dry ingredients a bit at a time, along with:
1.5 cups of dried figs, chopped and soaked in very hot black tea for a half hour (then drain before adding to recipe)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes
Cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Enjoy!
Price of Admission
July 14, 2025 • No Comments
(From the story universe of Hellion House)
To prospective students at the University of Londria:
Thank you so much for expressing interest in attending our institution. We are more than delighted to escort you on a guided tour of the campus on Tuesday next.
Please note: since the fall of the Citadel and withdrawal of protection by the Conclave, there are changes in campus policy and practice. The tour will begin at three o’clock sharp. Please be punctual so that the tour, which is expected to take two hours, may commence and therefore conclude well before sunset. Those more than ten minutes late will be dropped from the guest list.
All college gates are closed and locked at dusk for security. Visitors are advised to clear the grounds before that time. Furthermore, visitors are encouraged to plan for emergencies, specifically defense against the Unseen. The University of Londria is not responsible for incidents of a predatory nature, so please arm accordingly.
This tour will be conducted on foot. Ladies are encouraged to dress in footwear suitable for running.
Yours most sincerely,
Bertram Miles, Esq.
Assistant Dean of Admissions
The Univeristy
The existence of Londria’s university arose organically out of the earliest books. As soon as Olivia Fletcher existed, so did her academic aspirations and therefore an institution where she could realize them.
This is a departure from the typical Victorian milieu, where the female of the species exists to cast a warm, fuzzy glow at the heart of the home and occasionally die of consumption (artistically, of course). Londria is under siege by monsters, and therefore women share in the work of survival, regardless of class.
That said, there is still pressure, in the uppermost income bracket, to devote oneself to the role of society wife. This may include promoting familial advancement through marriage, arranging salons, and designing witty canapes, which does constitute a full-time occupation even without the demands of social media. Nevertheless, everyone starts out with an education aimed toward a paid occupation. An individual with sufficient means and intelligence would attend university. For those without means but with outstanding brains, scholarships are available.
As humans rely on technology (and magic) to keep the Unseen from devouring all and sundry, the study of science and engineering receives the most attention. After all, someone has to design all those clever ray guns. Yes, there are faculties of literature and fine art, although they enjoy less emphasis. Humanity differentiates itself by the stories it tells itself and the beauty it creates, but not getting eaten is still top of the to-do list.
Campus
The university’s original buildings are old, built before the Great Disaster that occurred in late Tudor times. Clever observers recorded that was the moment everything went dreadfully awry, mostly due to dragons and other hungry monsters, and building programs were diverted to making a great big wall. Civic buildings took a back seat. Ergo, the core of the campus is medieval, much like Oxford or Cambridge, but smaller.
As Londria is a walled city, real estate is at a premium and the university aims to support itself with kitchen and rooftop gardens wherever they can be accommodated. There are limited open lawns and playing fields, and what exists is multi-purpose and carefully scheduled to maximize access. However, the span of the river safely within the city walls is popular for boating, and there is a very popular rowing club dedicated to mayhem and occasional water sports.
Buildings adjacent to the university were absorbed as the student population expanded, but with resources at a premium very little was torn down and rebuilt. One exception is purpose-built residences on site for students. In addition, faculty might reside in town or have rooms on campus. Olivia’s professors reside in Starling Hall, with their personal quarters attached to the study where they tutor students.
There is, of course, a main library as well as faculty-specific collections. However, given the cost of producing and shipping books in general, the libraries do not lend out their treasures freely. Most required reading happens on-site.
Student Life
University is (in general) the time for many young people to find mentors, lovers, and their first defining pratfalls and victories. For Olivia, the highly competitive Faculty of Mathematics offers her the environment she likes best – structured, rational, and with clear markers of achievement and hierarchy. She knows where she fits in. For the first time, she has a serious suitor and a set of friends that is uniquely her own. She exists beyond her siblings and her home.
Sadly, in Queen’s Tide, that precious structure is shattered and her inner resources are tested because, well, the plot requires blood. Authors are horrible. Readers are ravening beasts demanding trial and tribulation in the name of entertainment.
There will be a fictional characters’ union meeting shortly after the university tour, assuming anyone survives.
Moody, Broody, and Tropey
May 12, 2025 • No Comments
The title does not refer to yet another remake of Snow White. I’m pondering the genre referred to as Dark Academia. I’ll say off the bat that I’ve found more references to clothing and décor than literature, and that some of it looks a bit like All Creatures Great and Small had a love child with The Munsters. All the same, I get (and adore) the overall preponderance of antiques, leather-bound books, mugs of tea, autumn rain, and resplendent classic fashion. Add a little string quartet music in the background and one is ready to think deep thoughts and get all moody and Byronic.
But, material trappings aside, what tropes define the literature? This isn’t the “high school for vampires” academy stories. This skews older and generally unhappier. Romance may or may not be the central theme. My favorite entry in the genre has so far been Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House series, which has paranormal elements, but many Dark Academia books do not.
So what’s common to most of the genre? To start with the obvious, a school. Preferably an old one with appropriate brick-and-ivy trappings. It should have a Classics department or an arts focus, definitely a lot of quotable literature about the place. Astronomy would be acceptable, but modern technology—y’know collider thingies or genetic whatsits—would require special handling. Mad botanists is one thing, but leather elbow patches just look odd on lab coats.
The characters are important. There’s usually a mentor figure—the resident Dumbledore—and close-knit friends. The protagonist is often an outsider, whether a newcomer to an elite group, or a super-brilliant person in an elite group, or an elite person with deep dark secrets in an elite group or—did I mention that there is an element of elitism here? Probably because those are the only social strata who can afford tuition at one of those old schools.
And secrets. Always secrets, and the unveiling of guilt, and squishy emo everywhere. Sometimes that means murder, corruption, and the explosion of the friend group. The protagonist—typically a young adult—learns that the world is a cruel place and their innocent little heart just got stomped. But fashionably, and with excellent black coffee, and while quoting Jacobean poetry.
I love this stuff. It’s aspirational and ridiculous in equal measure. Best of all, it slides into my steampunk world with ease. Olivia attends the University of Londria, so creating a Dark Academia adventure for her—complete with murder mystery—was a perfect fit in Queen’s Tide. I’m having a ball. Watch out for the sea monsters.
Rapping with the Dead
February 7, 2021 • No Comments
Who doesn’t love a good coincidence, especially when it involves ghosts?
Who doesn’t love a good coincidence, especially when it involves ghosts?Recently I was blathering with a friend about contacting the dead (as one does while folding laundry). I’m stocking up on ideas for a new story, and it was an unplanned but fruitful topic. Literally minutes later, I got an email for a virtual event.
Cue Weird Homes Tour and Atlas Obscura featuring Brandon Hodge. Hodge owns an Austin, Texas residence stuffed with Spiritualism-related objects. For one very fun hour, Hodge took viewers through his collection of antique planchettes, Ouija boards, and other paraphernalia.
It was like a gift-wrapped package falling through the monitor and into my lap. Spiritualism fascinates me, and Hodge’s enthusiasm and fab website are an ideal introduction to the subject.
A Victorian Obsession
The Spiritualist movement gained traction in the mid-1800s. It gave us mediums, automatic writing, ectoplasm, spirit photography, and table-rapping.
Essentially, it’s summoning the dead for a chat. Believers included the rich and famous, from Lucy Maud Montgomery to Arthur Conan Doyle.
For a buttoned-up society focused on industry, cataloguing, and petticoats for the piano legs, it’s interesting how Victorians embraced the paranormal. Their enthusiasm can be seen by the many, many periodicals dedicated to the topic, such as The British Spiritual Telegraph.
Celebrity
Mediums achieved a kind of celebrity, like the Fox sisters in America. Some grew rich. Others were ingloriously debunked for coughing up gauze
“ectoplasm” or manipulating the seance props with wires.
The majority of mediums were women. This was one place she could take center stage without question. And, since the bereaved were willing to pay, she could also make a good living.
Spiritualism carried on—unsurprisingly—through the disasters of WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic until fading in the 1930s.
Stories
I’ve used the highlights of Spiritualism before. In A Study in Ashes, Evelina and Tobias attend a séance. At the time, I’d wanted to delve more deeply into the subject, but that wasn’t part of Evelina’s story. She simply paved the way for more.
Now—thanks to a chance lockdown presentation—I’m anxious to do more research. After all, what’s more perfect than something that is Victorian, paranormal, and involves intriguing devices? I’m positive there is a role for a planchette or two in my Hellion House series.
It’s all in the cards!
August 20, 2020 • No Comments
Would you like me to tell your fortune? For a silver coin, I will consult my tarot cards. Ah, yes, I foresee you’re about to encounter a large to-be-read pile…
I imagined a unique set of tarot cards while planning the Hellion House series. The images in the deck came to me very strongly while I was first making notes about the books. Scorpion Dawn, Leopard Ascending, Chariot Moon—these are all airships, but those vessels got their names from the cards. Fortune’s Eve recounts the first time that tarot comes into play. For those who like to follow story breadcrumbs, pay attention to that scene.
Of course, it had to be a deck I’d never seen before, which meant recording the entire thing as it appeared in the story a bit at a time. Here’s what I know so far…
Suites
The deck has five suites (sky, fire, earth, water, spirit) of thirteen cards each. Each suite relates to an aspect of being. For instance, earth rules the material plane.
Images
Most of the images on the cards are single animals, plants, or other straightforward objects.
Readings
To cast a reading, lay out the cards in a triangle. They naturally fall into the rising, descending, or hidden positions on the three sides. Therefore, the leopard in an ascending position means that its influence is on the rise and all that fiery animal passion is going a-prowling. The closer it is to the apex of the triangle, the more pronounced its energy will be. If the leopard is on the other side of the triangle, it would indicate the hunt was waning or going awry. If the card was at the bottom of the triangle, it would mean kitty’s energy was turned inward, either asleep or rebuilding for a future time. A fulsome reading would involve a dozen or so cards.
Scorpion Dawn refers to the first awakening of the protective scorpion. The legend has it that when the mighty hunter Orion slaughtered far too many animals, the goddess sent the lowly scorpion to protect her creatures. Too small to be noticed, the scorpion nonetheless poisoned Orion with a sting to the heel. Never underestimate the little guy—or girl—especially if she gets this card.
The main function of the cards in the story is as a means of exploring the characters and their drives. Like all such elements in fiction, it’s a seasoning and not a main dish. Too much and it gets awkward, but it’s a useful way to highlight a moment here and there.
Custom illustration by Leah Friesen
The polite use of zombies for discerning gentlefolk
June 20, 2020 • No Comments
This first appeared in my newsletter, May 24/20
In strange worlds different from the Very Strange World we currently inhabit, work on the Hellion House series continues. I’d like to take this moment to address the notion that the series contains zombies. In a word, no. The forest beyond the walls of Londria contain many strange creatures, but not the walking dead. There are the Unseen, which are scruffy flesh eaters with shockingly bad social skills, but they are very much alive.
Then what are the Unseen and where do they come from? Can they be taught to use a napkin? Do they vote for a particular party? Those, dear reader, are the story questions of Leopard Ascending, the Hellion House installment currently under construction.
In the meantime, I’d like to offer some general advice for those occasions when one does have a zombie on one’s impeccably-gloved hands.
- For hostesses short a guest to make up the correct numbers at table, the recently-deceased might be pressed into discreet service, given sufficient repair. Of course, no one wants to admit that it was necessary to summon the dead to their party—it smacks of disinterest on the part of the living. As a precaution, instruct the footmen serving the meal to politely but firmly decline the revenant’s insistent request for brains.
- For committee work, whether charitable or in commerce, it is commonplace to send a proxy when it becomes impossible to manage every meeting. Many do send the dead for this purpose. If you have long suspected there were no signs of life amongst your fellow board members, now you know why.
- As a post-script to the above, employing zombies in any capacity is optimal where there is plenty of fresh air and discreet staff prepared for unusual emergencies. More than once, a garden party guest has been quickly disposed of among the rhododendrons, much to the gratitude of the greenery. Imagination and flexibility are key. So are a shovel and quick lime.
- Finally, while the care and feeding of the dead requires human brains, please do so sparingly. There appears to be a general shortage.
The World of Hellion House
April 27, 2020 • 2 Comments
I started planning the series some time ago, as good worldbuilding (at least for me) needs time to mature. I wanted something that was a little more fantasy and less strictly Victorian than my previous steampunk books, mostly to provide scope for adventure.
I have a fascination with how people live under threat, whether that’s in gated cities or under strict social regulation. Crime doesn’t take a holiday just because everything else is turned on its head. Even dire circumstances, we still manage to form hierarchies, establish ceremonies, build a system and then cheat it. It’s the phenomenon that launched much of reality TV.
When I wrote the Baskerville Affair, I found inspiration in a map that marked the boundaries of various utility companies. This time, I went back to a 1572 map of London and then took a left turn. What if history had gone on as per normal until the Elizabethans, and then…well, science was in a different place back then. What we now regard as fact was mixed up with alchemy, astrology, and theoretical systems we don’t use in the lab these days. Burning witches at the stake was fine entertainment. What better time to unleash something that transmogrified the world?
Fast forward to my characters’ era, in what would have been Victorian London. Cities everywhere are fortified physically and by magic to protect the populace from the wilderness—now occupied by monsters. Airships and river boats are a necessary means of travel, because going by land is suicide. Agriculture is a harrowing endeavour, with private armies and mages on tap. There are dragons, huge wildcats, and the ever-hungry Unseen. Probably Nessie. Undoubtedly trolls. (Please note, there are no zombies, as they are smelly and prone to leaving their body parts in inconvenient places.)
However, because people are people, there are also Society events, fashion, slums, politics, crime, detectives, murder, whorehouses, gentleman’s clubs and newspapers. But civilization comes at a terrible price, as our protagonists discover.
And then there’s the River Rats, and astronomy, and the tarot, but more on that later.
Image by Comfreak on Pixabay
Georgian Cosmetics: Beautiful Corruption
October 25, 2019 • No Comments
I’m fascinated by cosmetics from past ages and cultures. Since the Georgian Age is one of my particular interests, I’m naturally intrigued by their makeup. The sensibility is so distinct, it’s impossible to mistake for anything else. It’s not that I want to replicate the look. To me, it seems an uncomfortable mix of Goth and Barbie.
Rather, the attraction lies in the conflict between beauty and corruption. In the eighteenth century, painting one’s face was an artifice that only the wealthy could indulge in. The major exception was the demimonde, who catered to the appetites of the monied class. Needless to say, most of their careers burned bright and brief, until drink, pox and hard living had their way.
The white and pink face was meant to capture the unspoiled looks of youth. Sadly, the cosmetics of the day were poisonous. The more a person painted, the more their natural good looks would be damaged. Some of the ingredients in common use were lead, mercury, and arsenic. Eventually, that stuff could kill you.
Here’s a thankfully toxin-free version of “the look” from a respected source:
Around the Coaching Inn
October 18, 2019 • No Comments
Almost every historical novel has a scene set around the local coaching inn. Because people came and went there, it was a natural place to meet an exciting stranger. Like a train station or a harbor, it’s filled with the possibility of far-away places.
Similarly, important characters drive signature vehicles, whether they’re rakes or rectors. No Jane Austen dowager is complete without her smart carriage.
It’s important to get vehicles right when creating a historical novel, so I was very happy to find this video about old coaches:
Fun with Airships
October 9, 2019 • No Comments
The Hellion House series (the first installment, Scorpion Dawn was introduced in the Rogue Skies box set) involves a great many floating objects. The plot centers around the Fletcher family, who own one of the largest and wealthiest airship fleets in the city. Besides being nifty, the airships serve an important purpose in their adventure.
Don’t leave home without one
Haunted by hungry creatures, the wilderness is extremely dangerous. Humanity has been driven into walled enclaves. No one dares to travel outside the city on horseback, much less on foot. The only options are by water—which is extremely risky—or by airship.
Hope floats
How does humanity retake the countryside from lethal foe? The only way to find allies and solutions is to look outside the city, and the only way reach new friends is through the clouds.
There’s money in the sky
The patriarch of the family, Norton Fletcher, wields considerable social influence. Fletcher Industries has made the family rich and respected even though the founder is a commoner who came from nothing. But every success comes at a cost. Who will pay it?