Announcing The Spirit Circle
Books, volcanoes and billionaires, oh my!
Hello! Welcome to a long-overdue newsletter. Feel free to imagine an exciting reason for the delay. Bonus points if dinosaurs are involved.
The Spirit Circle
Starting with the big news: my second novel, The Spirit Circle, will be out on January 7, 2025, from Text Publishing. It’s set in Melbourne in 1888, and is about spiritualism, family, and the ghosts we carry inside us.
When her dearest friend Harriet joins a spiritualist church, sceptical Ellen Whitfield vows to free her from its influence by revealing the trickery behind what Harriet believes are visits from the dead. But Ellen, too, is soon drawn into the spirit circle—a curious church of women devoted to their charismatic leader, Caroline McLeod.
Victorian spiritualism fascinates me, as it was so respectable and mainstream—not at all the occult subculture of today. I’m particularly interested in the intersection between spiritualism and Christianity during the era, so it’s no surprise at all that The Spirit Circle explores an ostensibly Christian church combining religious worship and weekly séances.
Ad Break
I’m always interested in the ads that get served up to me as a writer & reader on Instagram. A lot of them are aimed at making money by exploiting writers’ dream of being published. A recent advertiser was “The Authors Book Launch and Expo”, which they call “the perfect platform to launch your book, reach a wide audience of potential readers, connect with other authors, and gain valuable insights from industry leaders”. The reality, of course, is that participation in this costs $1495, and the audience is likely to be made up largely of writers who have also bought the “launch” package. If you dig a little deeper, you discover that the expo is run by the people behind Able Publishing Press, a vanity press run by a husband & wife team with “over 20 successful companies and businesses”. I couldn’t find the fee schedule on the website, but the fact that you have to pay a $500 “initial deposit” simply to submit an expression of interest is probably a guide.
I can see why the idea of launching a book on stage appeals to writers, when we all crave an audience for our work. But finding that audience is so book-specific—and doesn’t have to come with a four-figure fee or the kind of marketing you usually see from You Too Can Be A Billionaire! type events.
Explosive History
I’ve always been fascinated by volcanos, so I was excited to read this recent article about Australia’s dormant volcanoes. Apparently, the sleepy volcanoes in Victoria’s western district are unlikely to ever wake up, but new volcanoes are “inevitable”, as it remains an active volcanic region.
Even more interesting is the fact that aboriginal oral traditions about the Budj Bim volcanic complex have been combined with geological data to confirm “human habitation in this region at least 34,000 years ago”. Archaeological sites older than 10,000 years are scarce, so this application of oral history to science is a great way of using the information we do have to further understanding of the distant past. It certainly makes the Victorian period I write about seem very, very recent.
Booktalk
Given the long gap between newsletters, I shan’t list everything I’ve read since I last invaded your inbox. Some highlights, however, have been The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (yes, I know I’m late to the party), The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (ditto), Back to Bangka by Georgina Banks and Matrix by Lauren Groff. Back to Bangka is historical non-fiction, while the other books are all historical fiction and I highly recommend them all.
Well, that’s enough from me. I shall hopefully return relatively soon, perhaps even with a cover reveal!
T.