Haunted Heights and Ally Blue

Hi folks! Ally Blue here. Thanks to Jadette for having me as a guest on her blog today :) I’m going to tell y’all a little bit about my latest release, These Haunted Heights from MLR Press, and how I came to write it.

It all started with a poem. “I Found Her Out There,” by Thomas Hardy, one of my favorite poems ever. I copied the whole thing here for you, because you really need to read it to understand where my inspiration for the book came from. Here it is:

I found her out there

On a slope few see,

That falls westwardly

To the salt-edged air,

Where the ocean breaks

On the purple strand,

And the hurricane shakes

The solid land.

I brought her here,

And have laid her to rest

In a noiseless nest

No sea beats near.

She will never be stirred

In her loamy cell

By the waves long heard

And loved so well.

So she does not sleep

By those haunted heights

The Atlantic smites

And the blind gales sweep,

Whence she often would gaze

At Dundagel's far head,

While the dipping blaze

Dyed her face fire-red;

And would sigh at the tale

Of sunk Lyonnesse,

As a wind-tugged tress

Flapped her cheek like a flail;

Or listen at whiles

With a thought-bound brow

To the murmuring miles

She is far from now.

Yet her shade, maybe,

Will creep underground

Till it catch the sound

Of that western sea

As it swells and sobs

Where she once domiciled,

And joy in its throbs

With the heart of a child.

The poem was written for Hardy’s wife, Emma. After her death, he was guilt-ridden because he felt—too late—that he neglected her during her life. I always loved the vivid imagery in this work, and the melancholy, regretful feel of it. So naturally I wanted to turn it into a gay romance. Why, yes, it did turn out chock full of angst, why do you ask?

At first I thought I’d mirror the poem exactly, only with two men. I was going to set it in England and everything. But then the original short story I had planned didn’t get picked for the anthology I’d aimed it at, and I started rethinking things. I figured, wouldn’t it be more interesting to switch things up a little? Or, as it turned out, a lot? I set it on the Oregon coast instead of England, and that was just the first of many changes. After I got through with it, you’d never know the book was inspired by Hardy’s poem at all, if it weren’t for the title. Okay, one of Our Heros does have a boat named Emma. Heh. Parallels to the poem do exist, in a way, but you’ll have to read the book to find out what they are. No spoilers allowed!

Blurb: 
The tiny town of Sebastian's Bluff is a photojournalist's dream come true. But Ron Winters doesn't expect the moody, mysterious man next door to get under his skin and stay there.

When Drew LaSalle meets Ron, feelings he thought twenty years gone stir to life again. He wants what he could have with Ron. But does he want it enough to get past his own walls and grasp it?

Secrets, spirits and tragedy converge as Ron peels back the layers of Drew's past and Drew fights both Ron and his own ghosts on the haunted road to happily ever after.

You can read an excerpt from the book on my website:

http://www.allyblue.com/TheseHauntedHeights.html

Thanks, y’all!