The House Without a Summer

Reads 12
Votes 1
Parts 3
Time 32m

Reads 12
Votes 1
Parts 3
Time 32m

Northamptonshire, England.  1816.

It has been a harsh winter, with killing temperatures and heavy snow.  The Christmas holidays have passed.  Colin deserves to escape from the old family ruins--or, rather, one of the grandest country houses in England, Penderbrook--and resume his post-Napoleonic debauchery in London.  He has a rather large allowance to waste in profligacy, and he hasn't even made a dent in it yet.

His older brother William, the heir to Penderbrook, had too weak a heart to fight in the wars.  Instead he has been progressing the amount of scientific knowledge of England--a quieter war, but not without its own battles.  Ones that he is patiently winning, becoming one of the most renowned naturalists of his time.

Then one day William walks out onto the frozen pond in the middle of a blizzard and shoots himself.

Colin and William's studious, schoolmarmish fiancee Lucy are left behind to discover what caused William to self-murder.  A lost journal, a dead factotum dealing mainly in orphans, a factory plagued by a fungus that seems to be colored with blood, dark shapes moving through the neverending snow...

The clues point toward something more monstrous than even a rake like Colin could ever imagine.

WORK IN PROGRESS.  I need support on this one, it's like my fifth major rewrite on this thing.  Please say something nice.  Lie if you have to...All Rights Reserved

Table of contents

3 parts

Content Guidelines

You may also like

Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son. ***** Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice. [[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]] [[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]

The Hound

Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son. ***** Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice. [[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]] [[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]

More details