Spectral City and the Importance of Women in Community

Leanna Renee Hieber, one of my favorite authors, has visited The Gothic Library before to discuss the varieties of female strength in her Strangely Beautiful Saga. Now she’s back to talk about her latest series, The Spectral City, and why she writes about women in community. Read on to learn about why relationships between women are so important, especially in the Gothic…

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One of the common plot devices in early Gothic literature is isolation of women. Or women placed in competition for limited resources or attention. A culture of scarcity. These aspects were very often being utilized in the historic Gothic as a direct message and cautionary tale; an alarm bell, a lens by which to view the limitations placed upon women in the various time periods where the Gothic has resurged.

Throughout my Spectral City series, when the women do isolate themselves, then that’s when things begin to go very wrong. In this, I never entirely leave the Gothic tradition, I just make sure that the traumas and victimization aspects of the Gothic tradition, if implemented, are inverted and resolved so that it’s the alienation itself that is part of the problem-solving in my novels. Everything I write will feel familiar to those well-versed in the Gothic, but my books are entirely built and rely on team-work as the core foundation of my wind-swept castle on a dark and stormy night. (No castles in my books, really, just weather-beaten townhouses sat across from mass graves.)

In my work, I am far more interested in allowing my female characters agency, movement and complex community among women than I am interested in confining them. Captivity isn’t my preferred conflict. And ad nauseum limitations aren’t historically accurate. Women have always been innovating. Just as history has always been diverse.

My books retain a Gothic framework and sensibility, feel, tone, look and atmosphere, while highlighting the fact that women have always done bold and incredible things. Alongside other women. By the Gilded Age, working women were in all kinds of new fields and technologies, artistic endeavors and positions of visibility. Of course gains had to be fought for, but their stories of persistence exist. I am interested in focusing on what was and is possible, all with a paranormal flourish to entice and illuminate. My books are set in realistic 19th-century settings in which paranormal things happen and those paranormal circumstances always allow for greater choices, freedoms and opportunity.

And let’s be clear; women means all women. No matter what identity I feature in my casts, it has to be inclusive. With characters from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, different orientations and identities, a trans woman who utilizes the limited language of the time period without ever compromising herself or her truth; if the team-work and community isn’t intersectional, it isn’t one of my books.

I am grateful that the Spectral City series has been commended for an immersive Gilded Age setting and compelling characters, highlighting female friendships. I have four female psychics who make up the Ghost Precinct and each of them has their own talents. Each also has their own dynamic position that changes and evolves as the series continues. There are sometimes tensions as is the case with any group. Found family is key. Mentor / mentee relationships thrive in all my books and are just as vital as ever with “Gran,” Evelyn Northe-Stewart, a matriarch through nearly all my books who is a lighthouse and safe haven. She stands for all the elders I have loved and learned from my whole life. She’s both my heart and my life goals. I want to be Gran when I grow up; elegant and fierce, resource and spiritual advisor to those who need her.

I want my characters to be relatable and inspirational to all. The strength of the Ghost Precinct of the Spectral City is in distinct individuals who are dedicated, full of purpose and a sense of mission. My characters are allowed as much of a range of emotion, presence and possibility as I can fathom. All on a gaslit cobblestone street I hope I can directly transport readers to with atmosphere, prose and passion.

A Sanctuary of Spirits deepens all the relationships of friends, found family, love and profession that I’ve been building for years. Yes, there are mentions of Eve’s parents and their past troubles, no, you don’t have to read Darker Still to understand their pain. Much like fighting in a war, sometimes people just don’t want to talk about it. History is complicated and often pieces are missing, some parts of the past unspeakable. I make that very real for my characters. We don’t know everything about everyone. I allow for those tensions to exist and come to light between all kinds of relationships. In the end, I am interested in healthy connections, albeit often complicated. Valuable relationships are always worth fighting for and making better book by book. I’ll leave unhealthy and toxic connections to the villains.

The slow-burn romance between my heroine Eve Whitby and detective Jacob Horowitz has been one of the most delightful things I’ve written in some time. It honestly surprised me, how hard I fell for those two darlings; they delight me, fill my heart to the brim and I am constantly refreshed by their awkward, adorable, innocent natures, even as they try to be consummate professionals. They can at once be innocent and extremely powerful in their own right. I want for my characters what I want for everyone; to be able to be multitudes.

I hope you’ll enjoy the adventurous thrill and the spectral chill of A Sanctuary of Spirits and join our found family of strength and purpose. Blessings and Happy Haunting!

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You can find The Spectral City wherever books are sold, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process through this affiliate link. A Sanctuary of Spirits comes out November 12. Stay tuned for a review!

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Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright and the author of thirteen Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy novels for adults and teens for Tor, Sourcebooks and Kensington Books such as the Strangely Beautiful saga, the Magic Most Foul trilogy, the Eterna Files trilogy and The Spectral City series. The Strangely Beautiful series hit Barnes & Noble and Borders Bestseller lists and garnered numerous regional genre awards, with revised editions now available from Tor. The Spectral City, Leanna’s new ghost-filled series set in 1899 NYC with Kensington Books, has been a bestseller across several genres and platforms. A four-time Prism Award winner and Daphne du Maurier Award finalist, her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and her books have been translated into many languages. She tours the country with By the Light of Tiffany: A Meeting with Clara Driscoll, a one-woman theatrical presentation about the 19^th-century designer of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s lamps. A proud member of performer unions Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA, she lives in New York City where she is a licensed ghost tour guide for Boroughs of the Dead and has been featured in film and television on shows like Boardwalk Empire and Mysteries at the Museum. More at www.leannareneehieber.com. You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.