The story behind the story: Winthrop Hall

What inspired me to write this gothic romance.

In order to reclaim a bit of time and review my creative process, I’m treating my subscribers to a series of “The story behind the story” this summer. I’ll be taking a look at short fiction I’ve published. Oceanus will still be published on Sundays.

Before you go any further! You can read the story here if you haven’t already and want to avoid the spoilers.

What inspired me to write Winthrop Hall

I’m all for stepping out of my comfort zone. To try something new is to make yourself vulnerable and I enjoy doing that, weirdly. Only when you’re vulnerable and open can the magic start to happen. 

This was certainly the case with Winthrop Hall. 

I felt so vulnerable sharing it. For context— I am like a six year old boy when it comes to Romance fiction. No, I’m not emotionally constipated. I am absolutely fine with love and romance in a personal capacity but to write about it? I’m practically Bashful the dwarf. Seriously, I used to stop breathing in scenes of Friends where Ross was baring his soul. I just find it is such a difficult thing to write about. I always want to get it right without cringing, so I’ll keep trying.

There are many authors here on substack who do it beautifully.

A Vignette

I stuck to my guns when it comes to my style of short story: The reader takes it wherever they want to go. I personally can’t stand an “explain everything” story and I certainly hate writing them. I like to empower the reader to read it how they want. After all, I have no control over what happens in your mind. I’ve read enough (and frankly— hilarious) reviews on Goodreads to not really care too much about readers who won’t get it. We can’t all like the same things, can we?

Where did this idea come from?

Like most of my stories, the idea just arrived in my head and wham, there we go. I can’t remember what I was doing or what particularly inspired me but there were a few things that must have helped me start thinking:  

• Kathrine Elaine wrote a beautiful, haunting story for the fourth Wicked writing contest in January called Bruyeres. It really had an impact on me and as the prompt was music, the theme was a piano composition. It brought to me a reflection about music and how much of an inspiration music is to me as an author. 

• Kathrine also hosts the weekly Thorny Thursday and I do not consider myself a romance writer at all but it was time to have a go. I wanted something laced with fairy tale love but tainted with reality. Whatever happened, I wanted it to convey the unconditional, irrational power of love and what it does to us as people. We think we have it all figured out. We think we are the masters of our own destiny but no, love happens to anyone, anywhere—at any time. We can’t explain it away, we can’t rationalise it and we certainly can’t control it. Winthrop hall was a love story that certainly drew on elements of that power. 

• The Lunar awards was open for two submissions and as the fiction had to be speculative, I thought “This is tentatively on the line” but it works. I’d already submitted the (not so very thoughtfully titled) Take Your Daughter To Work Day and wanted to send another. After all, two submissions were allowed! 

What’s the story about? 

Winthrop Hall features an unnamed heroine who is a music graduate desperately seeking employment in an economy that is hostile towards the arts. She secures a job as a housekeeper in a little known country mansion near her home. Again, I have an unnamed location but we can guess it is somewhere in England, possibly in the home counties. I chose the vague location because my beloved British isles are teeming with mysterious manor houses, holy ruins, empty shells of castles and much more when it comes to buildings with a bit of history to them. 

She disliked it when she approached the wrought iron gates every day and had to press the buzzer. The camera zoomed in on her face every time as she rolled her eyes and waited for someone to let her in. 

Portraits of lords and ladies adorn the hallway and the landings of the mansion but she is particularly fascinated with the last one: the portrait of the current Lord Winthrop. He is said to be a very old man and no longer living on the property but she takes a particular interest in the portrait of him as a young man. He is handsome and staring right at her with “sad eyes” that capture her imagination. 

she would look up at the imposing portraits that decorated the walls of Winthrop hall with their exquisite, gilded frames from eras that had spanned well before her time. All were of handsome lords and ladies. Some posed with dramatically large feathered hats, rifles, swords or hounds.

The girl finds a bit of time each afternoon to play some music on the abandoned, grand piano in the drawing room. As she is led to believe that she’s the only one in the house, she sees no harm in it. 

When she finds a note on the piano one day, she is pleased and feels the surprise and flattery of being asked to play. She does play Moonlight Sonata as requested and tries to catch a glimpse of her audience. She knows she has one, after all.

At this moment, I wanted to create the impression that he had been listening to everything, perhaps even watching her as she cleaned the house each day. He hides in the shadows because, as he tells her, she “would never return” if she could see him.  

This was the point in the story where I slowly revealed pieces of Lord Winthrop. Is he a monster? We don’t know yet. I mean, he does live in a gothic, grotesque mansion that the locals know nothing about but still, I have yet to confirm anything. 

He should be “very old” but she doesn’t spy an old man in the corner of her eye. She tricks herself into believing she has seen Lord Winthrop as a young man. 

“I love to hear you play.” He said in a hoarse voice. She didn’t look straight at him but maintained his gaze in the corner of her eye.

No one can resist a beauty and the beast story arc, myself included. Someone playing music for him brings his humanity back after all those years of isolation. No wonder he falls in love. 

When I was doing a postgrad course, I stayed with an auntie for three days a week while studying at the university near where she lived. She’d just started a new job after losing her husband to lung cancer and was trying to get sober after at least a decade of alcoholism. I remember throwing some tea in the oven for us one night because she was working late. She came home after work and was so taken aback. Seriously, it was only Aunt Bessies or something but she was teary eyed and remarked how lovely it was to “feel human”. That stayed with me forever. Those little things you do for others really matter.

As for my heroine, I wanted her to have made such an impact that he would do anything for her. When the mansion is broken into, he saves her life, risking his own in the process. Is that not what it’s all about? 

The cheeky “it was worth it” was left just for the readers. Is he dead? Is he going to live? Is his curse over and he will stand up again in a minute? I’ll have to leave you hanging with that one. Sorry. 

Will there be more of Winthrop hall? 

No. I think it is nicely contained in a snapshot. However, who knows what the future holds? If I’m really compelled to write something, nothing can stop me.

How would I describe this? 

The most magical part of reviewing my writing is seeing what has subconsciously  influenced me with my storytelling. What I had produced reminded me of the music video of the late Meatloaf’s I would do anything for love and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories. I’d just describe it as a mishmash of that.