What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write The Codex Arcanum 1888 (The Alchemical Chronicles Book 1)?
Late-Victorian London sits at a fault line between science and superstition, progress and unease. I was drawn to that tension, to the British Museum as a keeper of hidden knowledge, and to figures like Helena Blavatsky, who moved between scholarship and the esoteric. Clara Whitmore grew out of the question: what happens when an observant, intelligent woman stumbles into that world?
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of The Codex Arcanum 1888 (The Alchemical Chronicles Book 1), what would they be?
Clara: “Gnossienne No. 1” by Erik Satie — spare, inward, and quietly determined. Mary: “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine — bright, curious, and lightly mischievous.
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
Victorian fiction, alternative history, and thrillers. Yes, it is 🙂
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
A Gargoyle’s Guide to Murder by Gigi Pandian
The Science of Magic by Dean Radin, PhD
The Journal of a Thousand Years by C.J. Archer
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
Clara’s discovery of the hidden grove—the moment her understanding of the world shifts.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
Watching the birds outside my office window while thinking through a scene.
Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?
Stoicism, especially this line from Epictetus: “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
That history is stranger, deeper, and less settled than we like to believe.
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