SPRING!
What am I, Leanna Renee Hieber, looking forward to most about spring? Why, spending time in my favourite place in all the world: Central Park! At the capstone vista of 19th Century romantic imagination, The Bethesda Terrace.
As you can see from my blog title I write Gothic Victorian novels with fantastical, magical paranormal elements. If any of you have visited Manhattan's incredible 843 acre slice of heaven in the center of the big city, you might recognize that gorgeous expanse pictured atop my blog. That's the Bethesda Terrace in the 1880s, the time period in which my Magic Most Foul saga (Now Available) and upcoming ETERNA FILES saga (2014 from Tor / Macmillan) are set.
The park was always a bold venture representing an idealistic, imaginative city as ambitious and interesting as it is populated. It is a park for the people, entirely man-made and sculpted to beautiful perfection by visionary minds of Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. The land was set aside by the city in the 1840s and construction on the park lasted for the next many decades with an ongoing maintenance budget that numbers in the millions of dollars. There were countless obstacles along the way to what much of the world considers to be landscaping engineering perfection but the park exceeded all its challenges, silenced any of its early critics, and has become a national treasure. It is impossible not to find its hundreds of varying vistas beautiful. It is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world, both financially and as a New Yorker, spiritually too. And I believe the Bethesda Terrace to be the park's crown jewel.
I've just launched my serialization of the finale in the Magic Most Foul saga, THE DOUBLE LIFE OF INCORPORATE THINGS, a Gothic paranormal adventure in 1880 New York City featuring two young lovers trying to escape a demonic conspiracy that has threatened not only their own lives multiple times and in elaborate measures but has destroyed their families, targeted their friends and if the ugly dark magic is not stopped, the entire city could plunge into chaos. And in the second chapter of THE DOUBLE LIFE OF INCORPORATE THINGS, I send my hero and heroine to that very Bethesda Terrace, giving some historical detail and context along the way. Stop by to catch the free serialization continuing every Tuesday!
TO ENTER TO WIN A COPY OF MY NOVEL DARKER STILL: comment below on your favourite spring activity or share your favorite historical haven for a chance to win a copy of DARKER STILL, book one in the Magic Most Foul saga! Please leave an email or Twitter handle so I can get in touch with the winner which will be chosen via randomizer on 3/31!
TO ENTER TO WIN THE SLEW OF AMAZING GRAND PRIZE STUFF: FILL OUT THE RAFFLECOPTER here, but please comment below for DARKER STILL, as a separate giveaway: a Rafflecopter giveaway
HUZZAH! Come back every Tuesday for the first installment of THE DOUBLE LIFE OF INCORPORATE THINGS - Serializing just like the Victorians did, RIGHT HERE! Read 1.1 now!
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