My new novel, The Talking Cure, will be available November 25^th. Over the next few weeks I’d love to share my journey into this bit of fiction with you. I found this story, and my way back to it whenever I got sidetracked, through setting.

The Talking Cure is the second Sean Joye Investigations novel. It starts shortly after The Big Cinch’s conclusion. One of The Big Cinch’s antagonists insisted I tell her side of things, and I found her story through a setting detail that had been on my mind for years.

Setting as Story Seed

I’m a child of the eastern Ozarks and was reared in a river valley. I’ve always found the broad sweep of the American prairie impressive, overwhelming, and a bit scary. Like the ocean, in a way. At some point in my writing journey I began to see in my mind’s eye a mansion alone on the prairie. What is this place? Who lives there? What’s going on? The mansion on the prairie remained a mystery for a long time.

A Setting for a Mixed Genre Story

I had no firm answers until Violet’s story began to shape up. The Talking Cure is my response to a challenge to combine unlikely genres issued during a Gen Con writing workshop. ( I discussed this in more detail in a Literary Underworld blog.)

After the talk, I sat in the Indianapolis Marriot’s lobby and made two long lists under the key terms: “Cthulhu” and “Cozy.” I followed up with what turned out to be the basic elements for “Violet’s Novel.” The big question in the margins, “How cozy? How Cthulhu?”

The cozy aspect is evident in the setting, a favorite mystery trope: a small group of people isolated in a country house at which a murder occurs. Yet while my protagonists Violet and Sean collect evidence to solve the mundane crime, a hidden eldritch agenda becomes evident. The house is a key element, even a character in the story. And the prairie setting itself downright menacing, its evocative similarity to the ocean important.

Establishing Setting

While The Talking Cure didn’t entirely start with setting, it was an idea hanging around for a long time. It waited for the right combination of elements with which it could react: Telling Violet’s story. Combining genres in an interesting way. Sharing my dis-ease in wide open spaces.

Setting can be tricky in fiction; long information dumps or guidebook tour descriptions are seldom appreciated. The reader wants to experience the setting as sensory input along with the character. The character can react emotionally, and the reader share that emotion. Violet has some variety of synesthesia, which gives us an interesting take on what she sees, hears, and touches. Sean shares his a magical view of the landscape with the reader.

All in all, setting is one of my favorite aspects of storytelling, and I hope you’ll enjoy a visit to the haunted Illinois plains through The Talking Cure.

Does setting inspire you to tell a story, either to yourself or others? Comment on the blog. Navigate to my website, click the blog title, and complete the dialogue box that will open at the end of the post.          

If you enjoyed this blog post, you might like to read The Where: Setting of a Story.

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The Talking Cure ebook preorder is available now; you will receive the ebook on November 25^th. The paperback is also available for pre-order (I’ll be fulfilling those orders, so it will arrive to you in mid December), or you can order from Amazon on November 25 and receive it at Amazon speed.

Sean Joye Investigations, Book 2
Haunted woman claws her way back to reality by reconnecting with her magical powers in The Talking Cure, a supernatural Yuletide follow-up to The Big Cinch.

Committed to an insane asylum, Violet Humphrey is isolated on the Illinois prairie with only her own thoughts and a persistent new voice in her head for company. When she is accused of murder, Violet suspects her road to both freedom and recovery lies through confronting her painful past and solving the crime. Magically summoned, Sean Joye skids through an ice storm to help Violet, but can they catch the killer and defy an eldritch horror before Violet loses her tenuous grasp on reality?

“The Talking Cure is a marvelous story—an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery infused with a strong sense of the Weird… and a hearty dose of magic on the side. It’s ideal for all fans of the sinister, the surprising, and the strange.” —Cherie Priest, award-winning author of Boneshaker

The Big Cinch

And now is an excellent time to read the first Sean Joye Investigations novel, The Big Cinch from Montag Press. In this award-winning supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown, Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions…

I started this blog thread on the gritty details of the writing process over on my Facebook Author page, @kbkathylbrown, but think I might be better served putting it over here. If you’re interest in following my writing process in an informal way, you’ll find a few posts on Facebook that might interest you. You can subscribe to the blog from the website landing page (scroll down).

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

Subscribe to the email list for exclusive content and announcements of new books and appearances. And, of course, I’m selling books. Get The Big Cinch from Bookshop.org or Literary Underworld. Check out all my stories at Amazon.com  or visit my Shop off the landing page menu to buy from me directly or Barnes and Noble.

Wolfhearted is also available as an Audible audiobook, here.

St. Louis Writers Guild just published Weird STL, an anthology celebrate the strange, spooky, and just plain wonderful stories of our hometown. This volume of short stories, poems, a play, and essays includes a Sean Joye universe short story, “Big Magick.” Joseph Arwald, one of the baddies from The Big Cinch, tells us what really happened to the Ferris Wheel from the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair.

Reviews, even a line or two, put the books you enjoyed in a more prominent position on Amazon and are vital for independent and small-press books to find their audience. Remember your most recent read? Leave a review for it on Audible, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads.

The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here, and Water of Life, here. Thanks in advance.