Guest Blog: Hollow's End by Marianne Morea

UFI welcomes Marianne Morea Author of Hollow's End. Thanks for Joining us!!

The inspiration behind Hollow’s End

People always ask me about the inspiration for my stories, and I always answer that it comes from everyday life, from the people I meet and the places I go. My books to date have been mostly Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance. I love the idea of a ‘what if’ world. A world of magic and of things that go beyond what we can see and comprehend. I also love to laugh. Humor to me is the most powerful aphrodisiac around. I love to find humor in almost everything, even when life gets heavy. It’s the reason I try to make my readers laugh, even when my stories get dark.

With Hollow’s End the inspiration was a bit different. I still love the whole idea of ‘what if’, but in this case the question of what if came after the actual historic fact. The inspiration for Hollow’s End came from the story of Cornelius and Elizabeth Van Tassell. Cornelius was an American patriot fighting against the British during the Revolutionary War. At that time in 1777, tensions were high, and the American forces were starting to become a thorn in then Governor Tryon’s side. He gave the order to “Burn the Tarrytowns” and that included the hamlet of Sleepy Hollow. The Van Tassell home and lands were on the list to be burned, and Cornelius captured as a prisoner of war. On the night of November 17, 1777, one of the coldest of the year, the burning occurred at the hands of a hessian commander by the name of Andreas Emmerich. He was so vicious in his command, that he burned the house with the Van Tassell’s two year old daughter, Leah, still inside. As Elizabeth Van Tassel cried for her daughter, her husband Cornelius was dragged away as a prisoner of war tied to them back of one of his cattle. BUT, a soldier in Emmerich’s command, also a hessian, broke rank and rescued the child, reuniting her with her mother and bringing the two to safety in a root cellar to await help. Town legend then takes the story further, that when this same soldier was later killed, decapitated in a skirmish, the Van Tassells had him buried in a clandestine Christian burial and interred in an unmarked grave in the Old Dutch Burial ground. It was to repay kindness with kindness, but him being a mercenary on the side of the British, they couldn’t bury him outright in a patriot strong hold such as the Old Dutch Church. THAT, my readers and friend, is the inspiration for Hollow’s End. A wronged spirit in the graveyard, dishonored for centuries as being a harbinger of horror as the headless horseman…

__________________________________

I'm a New Yorker, born and bred, and for the most part my stories and my characters embody the grit and complexity of the city. An avid traveler, I use my experiences from around the world in all my books. There isn't a place my characters live or travel to that I haven't been myself.

Like most authors, my love affair with the written word started as a child with the books I read. Even today, I love to read almost as much as I love to write. My favorite stories are the ones that transport me, that bring me to places and introduce me to characters that leave me breathless...the ones that spark the fire of my imagination, allowing me to dream in the world of 'what if?'

I've always been a scribbler, and from the time I could write my name I've been making up stories. So it was no surprise when I earned degrees in both Journalism and Fine Art, but after working in the trenches of Madison Avenue as a Graphic Artist, I decided to do what I love most full time. Write.

In the meantime I am also a founding member and former President of The Paranormal Romance Guild, a not-for-profit organization for readers and authors of the genre...and when I'm not 'bichok' (but in a chair hands on keyboard), I'm spending time with my husband and our three kids, traveling to exciting, romantic places ...for inspiration, of course!

Find Marianne and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

__________________________________

Hollow's End
The Legend #1

Amazon   BN   iTunes  

 The dark water of the Hudson River isn’t the only blackness looming in the distance of the quaint river town of Sleepy Hollow. Two hundred years of secrets and lies are bleeding into the present, and high school seniors, Hunter Morrissey and Rowen Corbett, find themselves linked with unseen forces shrouded in mystery and violence.

Truths, buried and long forgotten, have risen at a time when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest. Only Hunter and Rowen hold the key to locking the past in the past, and setting old wrongs to right. Can justice be served? Can the two find a way to straddle both worlds and solve the mystery when they don’t understand the clues? Inspired by true historical events that surround the village of Sleepy Hollow and the famous legend that shares its name, this Young Adult Horror takes you on a journey full of history and suspense with a splash of romance and the paranormal.

__________________________________

__________________________________