The history
I’m writing out of order to let you know something special.
In short, I’m bored. Querying is a long, slow process and I want to do something fun, something just for me. I also have this wonderful Gothic horror novella that’s finished and ready to meet the world. Win-win, right?
Only I’m doing it under a penname, Alice J. Ryan, which is going to be my self-publishing identity! It’s an alias I’ve used before and it already feels like home.
The inspiration
In Boccacio’s The Decameron, a group of aristocrats sits in a castle to wait out a plague and, in the process, they tell each other 100 short stories. This idea stuck in my head, along with some flavors of Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. What if the people in the castle had been lured there? What if someone was trying to murder them, one by one? Throw in Seven Deadly Sins—and seven short stories—and we have ourselves a novella.
The cover
Cover design by me, C.J. Subko!
The pitch
THE GHOST OF HIGHTOWER POND is a 40,000-word Gothic horror novella pitched as Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted meets Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Mexican Gothic meets Bocaccio’s The Decameron in Victorian England.
Cordelia Delacroix has only been in London for a season when plague strikes. Desperate to escape both the plague and her declining financial situation, she accepts a mysterious invitation to join a party of pleasure at Hightower Castle with six other young guests—including Henry Ashford, a wealthy young man who could form all her ideas of both love and a fortune if she can only catch his heart.
At first, the strange party and its mysterious host are a welcome diversion from the doldrums of plague as the seven people engage in parties, galas, and telling stories about the legendary Ghost of Hightower Pond. That is, until strange things start happening in the castle: winds that shutter all the candles, mysterious rooms with magical texts, disembodied screams, and finally, one of their number dying in the night. When they try to escape, they’re sealed in, as though by magic.
Desperate to escape, the guests must battle the supernatural happenings in the castle and their own growing madness and fear as they search for a way out. Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that they were each invited here for a reason—and if they can’t figure that out, any of them could be next to die.
CW: suicide, homicide, child death (off page)
The details
Coming out: October 3, 2026
Free Advanced Reader Copies on Netgalley: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/861217
Author instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alicejryanwrites/
If you are not on Netgalley but review books or would be willing to blurb and want a free eARC, please email me at ohaliceryan(at)gmail(dot)com !
In conclusion
I’m so excited about this project! I hope you are too.
