Mary Hades by Sarah Dalton
(Mary Hades #1)
Publication date: June 2014
Genres: Horror, Young Adult
Synopsis:
Not many seventeen year old girls have a best friend who’s a ghost, but then Mary Hades isn’t your average teenager.
Scarred physically and mentally from a fire, her parents decide a holiday to an idyllic village in North Yorkshire will help her recover. Nestled in the middle of five moors, Mary expects to have a boring week stuck in a caravan with her parents. Little does she know, evil lurks in the campsite…
Seth Lockwood—a local fairground worker with a dark secret—might be the key to uncovering the murky history that has blighted Nettleby. But Mary is drawn to him in a way that has her questioning her judgement.
Helped by her dead best friend and a quirky gay Goth couple, Mary must stop the unusual deaths occurring in Nettleby. But can she prevent her heart from being broken?
The first in a series of dark YA novels, Mary Hades follows on from the bestselling Kindle Single My Daylight Monsters. A spine-tingling tale with romance, readers will be shocked and entertained in equal measure.
Purchase:
~~~~~~
Five
ways Mary Hades is different to your average YA series
I'm
pretty excited about this project. I find Mary the easiest character to write
because she is such a free spirit. However, there's a part of me that's nervous
about this series. I've mixed things up. Mary Hades doesn't follow a
formula.
Here
are five things you can expect, and five examples that are a little different
to most YA books.
1.
It’s not a trilogy:
At
the moment, the series is open ended, which means I’m planning to keep it going
for as long as I enjoy writing it. To me, this is almost like a long-running
television series, where each book will focus on a specific challenge.
I will be bringing in long-arc storylines at some point, but the first few
books are almost standalones.
2.
Each novel is a snapshot:
Like
the novella that started it all—My Daylight Monsters—each novel, and each
story, is a snapshot into Mary’s life. That means that not all the books will
link on from each other. The first book has a resolution and no cliff-hanger,
but it sets up the rest of the series, because it shows Mary what she wants to
achieve with her life. This is going to continue throughout the series. Think
of them as brief instalments into her very interesting life. Characters will
come and go. Not all of the novels will be set in the same place. There is a
lot of scope for the series. It could go on as Mary goes to University, or a
spin off with different characters could occur. There are no set rules here.
Think of it as an urban fantasy series, but more contemporary.
3.
The novels are short:
The
main reason I write Mary Hades at a shorter length is because the tone is very
deep first person POV present tense. The books are meant to be
all-encompassing. I want the reader to be drawn into Mary’s world, and that is
an intense ride. These sorts of novels are almost always short. Think of the
wonderful How I live Now, or the engrossing Never Let Me Go—they are both short
novels and that suits them very well. The first instalment of Mary Hades will
be about 280 pages. On the plus side, shorter novels means I can write the
instalments quicker, so you won’t have to wait long for the next book. And, as
the books are shorter, I’ve decided to charge less for them, so you won’t be
paying more for a shorter novel. However, quality almost always beats quantity.
;)
4.
This is dark fiction:
When
I started writing My Daylight Monsters, I was very influenced by Gothic
literature. That’s a very broad brush. I always loved Victorian Gothics, like
Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Grey. These novels always have a supernatural
element and always have some sort of dark, looming presence. In My Daylight
Monsters, that presence is the hospital, and the deepest fears we harbour
there. In Mary Hades, that looming presence is the Yorkshire moors—of course,
inspired by Wuthering Heights. Other influences could include Daphne Du
Maurier. I had a few scenes from Jamaica Inn playing in my mind as I wrote this
book. Mary Hades is much more grown up than my other novels. In the past, my
books like The Blemished and White Hart have been more suited to younger YA.
Mary Hades is best for older teens and adults.
5.Horror
AND Romance?
Yup,
you better believe it. In the midst of fighting a really scary ghost, Mary
manages a holiday romance. Hey, call me a romantic, but I think a girl needs to
take some time off from her ghost hunting once in a while.
In
all seriousness, I want the books to be scary AND uplifting. There’s a definite
contemporary feel to the writing, and hopefully that ties in with the romance.
~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
The whiskey, and Seth’s company,
has elicited whatever happy hormones needed to help me slip into a state of
relaxation. I lean back in my seat and tilt my head to the sky. On any other
night I hate to look up at the stars. I hate to be reminded that we’re in this
huge universe that we don’t understand, and we’re a speck of insignificance on
a great big piece of rock circling around a ginormous lump of fire. Tonight, I
could get lost in space. I could stare up at the moon all night.
“Shooting star?” Seth asks.
“No, an aeroplane,” I reply.
“Somewhere you want to go?” he
asks.
I turn my eyes back to him. We
hold gaze. “No.”
No smiles. No impish grin.
Instead—his eyes on mine. His eyes coming closer, until I feel as though his
eyelashes might graze my cheek. His lips near mine. The scent of musk, whiskey
and smoke. Sweet. Sweet scent. Him.
Jolt.
Groan.
The wheel stops. We break apart
and laugh.
“Looks like Damo’s giving us a
little sightseeing time,” Seth says. He pushes his fingers into his lush hair.
There’s a ring on his right hand. The silver of it catches one of the flashing
lights, so that it turns green, and then yellow. “You haven’t told me why
you’re here? You local?”
“I’m on holiday,” I say.
He raises an eyebrow. “And you
came to Nettleby?”
What I don’t tell him is that I’m
with my parents. That would be even more embarrassing.
“Are you local?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says with a sigh.
“Maybe you could show me around?”
Mary, what on Earth are you doing?
He grins. “Sure.
He moves a little closer and
wraps his arm around my shoulder, pausing not once but twice, as though almost
changing his mind. There’s a slight flush of pink on his cheeks. It could be
nerves, or it could be the whiskey. Lacey would be proud of me. For the first
time ever, I’m on a normal date with a great guy, and it’s going well. There
aren’t any Things, or ghosts, or people with psychiatric issues. There is me
and Seth—alone.
Warm, fuzzy feelings spread
through my arms as I lean into him. We stay silent for a while, watching the
lights from the campsite. Beyond the fairground I know there’s a forest, but
it’s now a black fade in the night. The fairground is dark, with the occasional
torch light and one or two flood lights to help the men as they lock up for the
night.
“Damo’s taking his time,” Seth
says. His eyes narrow with concern.
“Something the matter?” I ask. We
do seem to have been still for a while.
“I dunno,” Seth says. He turns in
his seat so that he’s leaning over the ledge, and pulls his arm out from under
me. Cupping his hands around his mouth he yells, “Damo! Hey, Damo. What’s going
on, mate? You gonna get this thing started or what?”
A chill runs through me. Am I
such bad company? Does he want to get rid of me? To get this date over and done
with?
“Sorry,” he says, turning back to
me. “I get a little nervous with these rides. When you know how they work, you
know how much can go wrong.”
“Oh, okay.” I think back to his
safety conscious worrying over the safety bar. Wow, a carnie who cares about
welfare, that’s a first.
I glance at my watch. 11:30pm,
time flies. I should try to get home before midnight so that the ‘rents don’t
have simultaneous coronaries. When I realise that this is going to end soon,
heavy weights pull at my stomach. I like being with Seth.
The wheel lurches forward with a
groan.
“There, it’s—” My blood runs
cold. The Ferris wheel jerks forward, no longer running smoothly like it did on
the way up, but worse than that, worse than the possible failure of the ride, I
see a dark shadow, and then I see it.
“No,” I mutter without meaning
to.
“What’s wrong?” Seth says.
I shake my head. This can’t be
happening now, not on the first date that has made me feel normal.
It crawls up the ride.
Bony fingers cling to the metal
framework.
An x-ray of bones shine through
its skin. I lean forward and grip the safety bar with my fingers, gripping so
hard that the whites of my knuckles protrude through my skin, like the bones of
the Thing climbing up to me.
“What do you want?” I whisper.
“What did you say?” Seth asks.
“Nothing,” I reply.
“Are you all right? You look a
little pale? It’s the ride, isn’t it? Don’t worry, it gets a bit stiff
sometimes, when it’s been inactive for a few minutes. Did I frighten you with
what I said? Honestly, it’s fine. Damo knows how to—”
Screeeeeech.
The ride stops so abruptly that
I’m thrust forward against the safety bar. My head snaps forward, painfully.
One of the bears slips from my grasp and hurtles down towards the black ground
below.
“Shit.” Seth grabs hold of my
shoulders and pulls me back against the seat. “That’s never happened before.
Are you all right?”
The Thing is gone. It has passed on the warning, showing me its hideous
face. Now I have to wait for whatever horrible event is about to happen.
Are we going to die?
The Ferris wheel bench rocks back
and forth, suspended halfway down the 80 foot full height of the wheel, as
boasted on the sign by the ticket booth. Seth holds me tight, his anxious face
turned down towards the control booth below.
“Damo?” he shouts. “Damo, what’s
happening down there, pal?”
There’s the scrape of a door
opening and a small voice calls up. “Summats up, mate. The controls have gone
funny. I keep trying to get you down, but then it… it’s like it has a life of
its bloody own.”
Seth rubs his chin. The wheel
lurches forward again, this time making me cry out and grip onto Seth’s arm
tighter.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs. “It’s
gonna be all right.”
I shake my head. No it isn’t.
When the Things show up, it’s because someone is going to get hurt. It’s not
usually me, it’s someone else. Death follows me.
“This is my fault,” I whisper.
“What?” he says.
“Bad things happen… you… you
should get away from me.”
Our seat rocks forward, forcing
us both up against the safety bar. “This isn’t your fault—”
The bench drops an inch to the
left, but my heart drops to my knees. We slide together, hitting the edge. In a
moment of utter panic I realise that the chain has come loose at the top.
There’s a good chance it will break altogether and we’ll fall…
~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
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Sarah grew up in the middle of nowhere in the countryside of Derbyshire and as a result has an over-active imagination. She has been an avid reader for most of her life, taking inspiration from the stories she read as a child, and the novels she devoured as an adult.
Sarah mainly writes speculative fiction for a Young Adult audience and has had pieces of short fiction published in the Medulla Literary Review, PANK magazine and the British Fantasy Society publication Dark Horizons. Her short story 'Vampires Wear Chanel' is featured in the Wyvern Publication Fangtales available here:
Sarah's debut novel The Blemished is a fast paced young adult dystopia set in a fractured Britain. It follows the events of Mina Hart, a young Blemished girl who has a dangerous secret, as she tries to escape the dreaded Operation and get out of Area 14.
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