"THE LONG CON": RESEARCHING THE NIGHT SIDE:

 Pre-writing: The Research Stage

When a new story idea is formulating in my head, the first thing I do is pick out a beautiful notebook, usually a large-sized lined one that becomes the dedicated notebook for that novel. I now have two bookshelves filled with notebooks. They're a reminder of all the work that went into each book.

Once I've jotted down some of my ideas and have a loose story structure, I begin researching for details and background info that might help me flesh out the story. In the case of THE NIGHT SIDE, I did a great deal of reading about psychics, the Tarot, and the investigators that make it their business to search out the con artists and grifters who use their psychic business as a cover for extortion and fraud.

The Facts and Figures

A recent US study on psychic businesses (Tarot card/palm readings/astrological advice etc) outlines the following statistics:

• 4 in 10 US adults believe in psychics
• there are at least 94,000 psychic businesses in the US
•  it's a $2 billion-dollar industry
• online business is expanding at an increasing rate, especially since COVID..
• psychics solicit business through the mail, on social media, telephone hotlines, open storefronts and sometimes even approach prospective targets on the street.

While the majority of psychics offer legitimate services at reasonable prices to clients who understand what they're going to receive for their money, there are those who cross the line into criminal practices. Who might promise to remove a curse, restore a client's health, make them rich or find the love of their life only if they come up with enough cash!

 Manipulating the Target 

Psychic scammers prey on grieving, lonely, emotionally, mentally and physically vulnerable people. They gaslight the victim and manipulate them by:

• forcing them to pay for costly services with escalating fees
• involving them in rituals that require the purchase of expensive items (candles, herbs etc)
• threatening them with future bad consequences/more curses if they don't keep paying.

What Motivates the Scammer?

These scammers are driven by complex motives, probably a combination of the following:

• greed
• dishonesty: many are consummate and practiced liars
• desperation/monetary burdens
• ego and the drive to build wealth
• the thrill of manipulation
• the 'buzz' they get from fooling others.

Many of these scammers rationalize their wrongdoing by neutralizing their actions, convincing themselves they're actually helping their victims who are only getting what they asked for. This eradicates GUILT!

More on inspiration for THE NIGHT SIDE in my next blog post!

BOOK NEWS

Here's some great news about THE NIGHT SIDE:

• the audiobook version of THE NIGHT SIDE will be out on March 12th. You can pre-order here

I'm thrilled that the amazing Helen Laser is narrating it! Helen is nominated in the Audie awards for  Best Audio Narration 2023. She narrated YELLOWFACE, the best audiobook of 2023 as well as THE PERFECT FAMILY MAN! You can find out more about her here.

• the paperback version of THE NIGHT SIDE will launch in the UK on 27th June 2024. Pre-order here. In the US and Canada in August. Pre-order link coming soon.

EVENTS

Check out my podcast episode with Crime Writers of Canada. Listen to it here.

BOOK REVIEWS

Devils At The Door by Tessa Wegert (Book 5 in the Shana Merchant series)

After I finished this taut small-town mystery, I found myself wondering why I'd never met Shana Merchant before. As a main character she's so compelling: gutsy, brave, stubborn, flawed and emotionally vulnerable. In other words a thoroughly human and relatable character. 

In this instalment of the series, Shana is struggling with the traumatic events of the past as well as the idea of settling down with boyfriend, Tim and maybe having children. Her life is complicated even further when her brother asks her to take in her troubled teenage niece, the rebellious and sullen, Hen. who lands on her doorstep and begins to cause havoc in their small town when she's found at the scene of a suspicious drowning that results in the death of a local teen.. Shana finds herself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find out how exactly Hen is connected to the crime. 

The world of Alexandria Bay is so vivid and well drawn that I was immersed in the small town, its colourful characters and unique setting on the St. Lawrence, near the Thousand Islands and the Canada/US border. The story is thoroughly engrossing with so many twists and turns that keep you guessing right until the surprise ending. A great read that kept me luring me back for more.

The Angel at the Hearth

THE ANGEL AT THE HEARTH

While doing research for my book,The Savage Instinct, I kept coming across a term that was used to define the role of women during the Victorian era. The term Angel at the Hearth or Angel in the House defined the ideal image and essence of womanhood. It was widely portrayed in the art and literature of the time and was used as a standard to define the perfect woman, mother and wife.
This idea actually gave rise to a whole genre of painting known as domestic pictures in which the ideal wife was portrayed as an earthly though angelic Madonna, soothing, comforting and submitting to her husband. Selflessly encouraging, watching over and nurturing her children while presiding over a well ordered, highly moral household.
A poet named Coventry Patmore actually coined the term in his narrative poem The Angel in the House, first published in 1854 and dedicated his first wife, Emily, whom he considered the ideal woman.

Emily Patmore, painted by John Everett Millais

Though the poem wasn't very well received at first, the ideas soon took off some years later with popular artists and writers. Julia Margaret Cameron, the celebrated Victorian photographer offered her own interpretation of The Angel in the House. In this portrait of Emily Peacock, Cameron frames her subject in soft, white fur and uses muted lighting to give the appearance of gentle beauty.

Painters vied to portray the ideal Victorian household. The picture below entitled Home Sweet Home by W.D Sadler is typical of paintings of this era.

While this might seem like a perfect way of life for some, it could be stifling for a woman with aspirations or interests outside the home. Middle or upper-class women who were unmarried were regarded as "redundant" and unimportant with no actual status or role, and when they sought to fulfil themselves by working outside the home they were seen as rebellious and unusual. In popular media of the time they were often portrayed as objects of ridicule. Check out this late 19th century cartoon from Punch in which the elderly and unattractive (of course!) spinster tells her friend she's given up campaigning for women's rights, to dedicate herself to finding eligible widowers or women's lefts.

At the other end of the spectrum, lower-class working women like seamstresses, governesses and maids were seen as objects of pity and portrayed by socially conscious artists such as Richard Redgrave whose painting, The Poor Seamstress, captures the image of the poor working class woman, slaving from morning till night, sacrificing her life in a dark attic to feed her children.

And those women who dared to step away from the rigid bounds of respectability became fallen women, who would suffer dire consequences as portrayed in Redgrave's, The Outcast, in which a young woman and her illegitimate child are forced from the household into the dark, snowy night by the stern, respectable patriarch of the family. Earnest entreaties from a distraught sister go unheard, while Mother comforts her sobbing son.

Perhaps it is Edmund Leighton's painting, Till Death Do Us Part, that truly portrays the idea that many Victorian women had little choice in determining the course of their lives. In this picture, the dejected young bride casts her eyes downwards in sorrow as she walks down the aisle with her rich elderly suitor, while her dashing young lover looks on, knowing she's lost to him forever.

The only self-determined choice for a fallen woman was depicted in George Frederick Watts' painting, Found Drowned, based on Thomas Hood's poem, The Bridge of Sighs. Here a poor young woman atones for her sins by paying the ultimate price.

These are just a few of the paintings I came across in my research, but they're a fascinating way of understanding the mindset of that era and the way it has influenced us and continues to influence us to this day! 

Also, the fact that these pictures were painted around a hundred and thirty years ago is a sign of how far we've come in terms of women's rights in many areas of the world, but should also serve as a reminder that a large majority of women still suffer terrible restrictions to their rights and freedoms in many other parts of the world.