#BadMoonRising Beyond Castle Frankenstein by Paula Cappa #shortstory #historicalfiction #supernatural

On By Teri PolenIn Uncategorized

How many of you have read horror stories based on historical events? It’s a fascinating subgenre in which I’ve read a few books over the past year. Today’s author brings us a short story based on Mary Shelley and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. As an added bonus it’s FREE for a limited time (links below)! Take advantage of this treat – it’s no trick (see how I worked that in?). Welcome Paula Cappa!

Would you rather sleep in a coffin for one night or spend the night in a haunted house?

I’d rather spend the night in a haunted house because I am curious and fond of meeting ghosts. Spirits of the dead have been an enduring magnet for me since childhood. I would have a lot of questions, one specifically, What happens in that last moment of life during the final breath when you transition out of earthly life into the afterlife?

Has a movie or book scared you so much you couldn’t sleep?  Which one?

The Exorcist. The idea of evil possession is terrifying. It’s the spiritual trap from an entity existing in the eternal that makes me shudder. The fact that Blatty based his fiction on a true case history gave me extra fear.

Would you rather use a Ouija board or participate in a séance?

Séance. Again, contacting spirits is the attraction and learning what they have to tell us. And using a skilled medium makes it feel safer. I’ve never attended a séance.

Do you write to music?

Yes. I use classical music mostly and sometimes the new age/meditative chants. Also ocean waves, nature sounds like birds and wind. The “Eternal Ohm” is another favorite to give me a steady rhythm in my writing.

Which comes first for you – plot or characters?

I get a combination of both character and plot at the same time. Chaos in a way and it all swirls around me. Then I have to take one thing that grabs me and begin there. Character then leads the way to all the action. So plot becomes the result of letting the character breathe and live on the pages.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on my fourth supernatural novel. It’s about the power of nature, good and evil, and exploring the mystery of death. Magic plays into the theme, especially river magic.

Mary Shelley is haunted. Haunted beyond cemeteries and tombstones. Love and madness rattle her every day. Scandal and drama steal her sleep. And finally it is the stab of her own impending death that drives her to conjure the dead.

Inside the ruins of Castle Frankenstein in Darmstadt, Germany, a ghost resides within the painting Casa Magni by artist Francesco Bagnara. Art collector Robert Beauclerk purchases the Casa Magni and discovers a letter hidden between the backings. This letter is hand-written by author Mary Shelley in 1850 to her dead husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Come into the cracking dark to experience Mary’s secret journey, a harrowing and heartbreaking attempt to find her dead husband’s ghost. Will Mary escape or succumb? Who will set her free?

Beyond Castle Frankenstein is historical fiction, a short story, originally published in Journals of Horror, Found Fiction, edited by Terry M. West, at Pleasant Storm Entertainment, Inc. Paula Cappa is a five-time award-winning author of three supernatural mystery novels and a published short story author in over ten literary magazines and journals.

Buy Link on Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Castle-Frankenstein-Paula-Cappa-ebook/dp/B08BJGPCBZ
Buy Link on Smashwords  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1028313

Beyond Castle Frankenstein is a FREE short story on Amazon and Smashwords for a limited time.

Author Bio

Paula Cappa is the recipient of a Chanticleer Book Award and American Book Fest’s Best Books Award Finalist for her novel Greylock. She also earned the prestigious Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Readers’ Favorite International Bronze Medal for Supernatural Suspense, and is a Gothic Readers Book Club Award Winner in Outstanding Fiction. She is the author of Greylock, The Dazzling Darkness, and Night Sea Journey—print editions published by Crispin Books, Milwaukee WI.Night Sea Journey was featured as an on-air reading at RiverwestRadio, Fearless Reader Radio in Wisconsin.Cappa’s short fiction has appeared in ParABnormal Magazine, Coffin Bell Literary Journal, Unfading Daydream, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, Whistling Shade Literary Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Sirens Call Ezine, Every Day Fiction, Fiction365, Twilight Times Ezine, and in anthologies Journals of Horror: Found Fiction, Mystery Time, and Human Writes Literary Journal. She is a freelance copy editor and writes a short story blog, Reading Fiction, at paulacappa.wordpress.com. Paula Cappa is Co-Chair of the Pound Ridge Authors Society in Pound Ridge, NY.

Social Media Links:

Website and Reading Fiction Blog: paulacappa.wordpress.com

Facebook.    https://www.facebook.com/paula.cappa.94

Goodreads URL:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6553133.Paula_Cappa

Twitter     https://twitter.com/PaulaCappa1

Instagram   paula cappa@instagram.com    

Amazon Author Page:    https://www.amazon.com/Paula-Cappa/e/B009P2HZ7A/

67 thoughts on “#BadMoonRising Beyond Castle Frankenstein by Paula Cappa #shortstory #historicalfiction #supernatural”

  2. I love the concept of taking an historical figure and bringing her into another story. (And I LOVED the novel Frankenstein, so I think Shelley was an excellent choice of authors). Best wishes to Paula.

    Thanks, Teri.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Tessa, any kind of evil really scares me. Sometimes, we think of evil as more powerful than good. It really isn’t. It’s just that evil is so traumatic and larger than life. All my stories have a winning element of goodness.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. Another new (to me) author with an intriguing bio and interesting story to tell. I’ve always loved the Shelleys and Bram Stoker, partly because they are linked in my mind via the stories I read about them and their writing. And of course, I read Frankenstein and Dracula at somewhere around 12 years or age, and then many times again over the years. Beyond Castle Frankenstein is going on my TBR pile, for sure. Thanks for another great Bad Moon Rising guest, Teri, and thanks for being here today, Paula. Sharing!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. Lynda is a very gifted visual artist and knowing that she works in such detail when she has profound loss of sight is truly amazing. Glad you liked the post, Paula. I enjoyed this one, too, and am looking forward to reading Beyond Castle Frankenstein. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  10. Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:
    There’s still a Bad Moon on the Rise over at Teri Polen’s today, and you should definitely check out this post. I’ve always loved the original Frankenstein and Dracula books, and have been intrigued by the Shelleys, too, though I’ve never done any research on them. Paula Cappa’s story Beyond Castle Frankenstein, sounds great, and is going on my TBR pile for sure. Hope you’ll enjoy the interview as much as I did and will share it far and wide. Thanks, and as always, thanks to Teri for such a fun series of posts. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. Great answers to your questions, Teri. It was nice to meet Paula and learn something about her and her story. My favorite question/answer in the series is about plot or character. I love hearing how inspiration strikes and stories come into being. Happy Haunting.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. D., It is stimulating to learn about writers’ creative process and how character vs. plot develops. I do like to read writing books to get ideas on structure. So many authors seem to get plot and outline initially. I’m likely the odd one out with my mix going on. But it is exciting to me to discover as I go along and sort through. It’s that discovery of the unknown that motivates me to keep writing.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    2. Great to know you too, Jan. Reading historical ghost stories is my favorite. That is one of the reasons why I like to write them. I have other historical ghost stories, Between the Darkness and the Dawn is about Nathaniel Hawthorne and the ghostly happenings at his Old Manse in Concord, MA.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  18. alexcraigie

    Thanks, Teri, for introducing me to authors who had somehow steered under my radar. Paula’s books sound like excellent company for the end of the month…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  20. For some reason I’ve never gotten around to researching this. But I’ve long wondered how the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley felt about his wife coming up with the idea for a book while a teenager that became more famous than anything he ever wrote.

    Like

    Reply

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