If you’re like me and can’t quite let go of Addy, Hugh, and Princess, you might enjoy some little tidbits of history and inspiration behind the story of Once Upon a Haunted Knight (my new novella published in Dragonblade Publishing’s 2023 Halloween anthology Once Upon a Haunted Romance). As always, there’s a Pinterest board for that with pictures and links, but here are a few highlights:
Adeline was always meant to be a housekeeper assigned to dusting duty, but her family’s background came to me as I was researching large estates in Lancashire, specifically Leighton Hall, the ancestral seat of famed furniture-makers (aka cabinet-makers) the Gillow family. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Gillows furniture was a byword for quality, and other designers used Gillows to manufacture their furniture. Gillows furniture is referred to by Jane Austen, Thackeray and the first Lord Lytton, and in one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas.” Once I saw the stunning pieces they created, Addy’s whole past opened up for me.
Likewise, Sir Hugh couldn’t just be any ol’ knight. I had visions of a battle-hardened medieval warrior who, as Addy puts it, “looked like a man who would drive others to seek refuge.” The problem is that medieval portraiture is both scarce and a little too flat to be captivating. It wasn’t until the 17th and 18th centuries that the more epic, large-scale portraits became popular. So, Hugh’s portrait gets a little update every 100 years, courtesy of his curse. Yep, I’m kind of a weirdo.
Speaking of being a weirdo, normally I share a playlist for each book that I write, but this time, I got stuck on one song. Just one. It’s called “Declaration” by Johannes Bornlöf. I must have listened to it a hundred times while I wrote Addy and Hugh’s love story, and it still makes me sigh. It’s that beautiful. Check it out below or listen on YouTube.
Elisa Braden 