I read the first book, Conjure, last year and it was really creepy and good. So I wanted Lea to write about something to do with the setting. And I got lucky, I got an amazing guest post about the setting along with photos as well!
Let's welcome Lea to the blog!
Thanks so much for having me, Candace. It’s a great pleasure to be here!
Why
the South Carolina Lowcountry is the perfect setting for the Hoodoo Apprentice
series
My book, Allure, the second installment in The Hoodoo Apprentice series features three teens who use Gullah hoodoo magic to battle an ancient-soul sucking curse and a hideous monster that will stop at nothing to consume its prey. The series is set on St. Helena Island,
South Carolina, one of the Sea Islands that lies between the Atlantic and the
US mainland. This area is known as the Lowcountry, and it’s one of the most
beautiful places I’ve ever visited.
In the right light, it can also be one of the creepiest which makes it
the perfect setting for a series about good and evil, heinous crimes and
retribution, and hopefully, with a little luck, salvation.
I don’t feel like I picked the location so much as the location picked
me. Early on before I wrote a single word, I knew the ancient curses in the
stories were created to punish a band of vicious pirates for a horrible crime.
The first step was to figure out where those nasty pirates would most likely be
lurking during the early eighteenth-century. A few clicks on the Internet told
me that South Carolina was the perfect candidate.
After a bit more digging, I was reminded that the Sea Islands were also
the home of the Gullah, descendants of freed slaves who developed their own
culture and language. I also learned that some of the Gullah practice a unique
brand of plant-based folk magic known as hoodoo. With this rich history and the area’s amazing
atmosphere and distinct features, it was as if the universe had handed me the
perfect place to set this series.
I mean seriously, what’s more beautiful and spooky than dripping Spanish
moss? The lowcountry is covered with this clingy, spongy stuff and it pops up
all over the place in Allure and the
first book in the Hoodoo Apprentice series, Conjure. This is a picture of my daughter on a recent scouting trip
to St. Helena and surrounding islands. She thinks it’s as cool as I do.
And here’s a photo of one of St. Helena’s many gnarly live oak trees. Can
you imagine walking through the woods at night, wondering if one of these
things is going to reach over and grab you?
Any location with hundreds of years’ of history is likely to have really
old cemeteries. In Allure, a private family graveyard is a huge set piece so
you can imagine how happy I was to visit an eighteen-century abandoned
churchyard that contained these gems:
These are so old and weathered, you can barely make out the names and carvings on the stones.
Check out these rusted iron motifs. They’re actually flowers, but from a
distance they look like smiling skulls. Creep-tastic!
And this empty mid-nineteenth century crypt was equally squeal worthy—in
a good way—because a certain crypt plays an important role in Allure, too.
With all these cool elements, I can’t imagine a better place to locate
this series!
Thanks so much for having me. I hope you found this introduction to the
lowcountry as fascinating as I do. So how about you? What types of places freak
you out?
~Lea
Lea Nolan writes the kinds of stories she sought as a teen—smart paranormals with bright heroines, crazy-hot heroes, diabolical plot twists, plus a dose of magic, a draft of romance, and a sprinkle of history. She holds degrees in history and women’s studies concentrating in public policy and has spent nearly twenty years as a health policy analyst and researcher. She lives in Maryland with her heroically supportive husband and three clever children. You can learn more about Lea on her website, on Facebook, Twitter and on Goodreads.
Worst. Summer. Ever.
Emma Guthrie races to learn the hoodoo magic needed to break The Beaumont Curse before her marked
boyfriend Cooper’s sixteenth birthday. But deep in the South Carolina Lowcountry, dark, mysterious forces encroach, conspiring to separate Emma and Cooper forever. When Cooper starts to change, turning cold and indifferent, Emma discovers that both his heart and body are marked for possession by competing but equally powerful adversaries.
Desperate to save him, Emma and her twin brother, Jack, risk their lives to uncover the source of the black magic that has allured Cooper and holds him in its grip. Faced with the horror of a soul-eating boohag, Emma and Jack must fight to resist its fiendish power to free Cooper long enough to join their strengths and face it together, before it destroys them all.
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Something Wicked Returns is in full swing, be sure to stop by Rainy Day Ramblings for Laura Bickle: The Outside as well as Curling Up With a Good Book and her feature of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tucholke. Find the full schedule HERE.
