Gothic Romance The Cougar

The Cougar is a Gothic romance novel in the tradition of Mary Shelley or Edgar Allen Poe. I wrote it myself and recently published it on kindle for the first time. It is also available in paperback and I hope one day to see it in stores. Normally I write on musical subjects and I also love to write poetry, so the world of fiction is a new thing for me.

What I wanted to do here was to share my love and enthusiasm for British Columbia and its beautiful scenery in the context of a fun book. It is a novel for adults because of its subject matter, it is not pornographic but it is sexually explicit in places. These scenes are essential to the story in a way that the scenes in Lady Chatterley's Lover are but they are not the be all and end all of the tale.

When I wrote this, it was in the context of four decades or reading horror fiction and watching horror movies and my vampires are different. They are not evil killers, nor do they have to kill to survive, but there are some scenes of violence obviously. What I wanted to do here was to tell a different story, to pose some moral questions in a lighthearted way and though I hope this is a tale that can be enjoyed without deep thought or struggling with deep concepts it does ask some questions about self-acceptance.

For instance, coming out is always hard. As Ash Beckham so eloquently says, there is no harder - there is only hard - and the closet is no place to live. Whether the closet is telling someone you love that you are gay, bankrupt, pregnant, suffering from cancer or even - as in Raffaelo's case - that you are a vampire you are still better out than in. In this novel the characters all have their own closet. Owen can't commit to one woman and doesn't want children, Angela is bisexual and Owen's abuse brings her out of denial, Berenice is over five hundred years old and still in mourning for her dead husband, Ingrid is a transexual woman on the rebound from an unhappy break-up with her ex, Raffaelo is a vampire pretending to be a normal man and these secrets hang heavily between the characters as the story flits from Renaissance Italy to modern British Columbia.

Finally, as a poet I wanted to describe some of the things I know and find beautiful in this world. My hope is to have written a story that is certainly dark but is not sickeningly horrific. One that has an ending that will leave more questions in your mind. A tale that adults can enjoy however they identify.... A big ask? Only the reader can tell me.

It is available to borrow free if you are an Amazon Prime member and with the new subscription service, Kindle Unlimited, or to buy if you prefer.

There are scenes in my book involving bears. In one case which is loosely based on my own experience, Berenice and Angela are canoeing on Lake Alouette, the bear is simply heard "woofing" in the undergrowth and there is no interaction. There is also a bear attack in my story. Now black bear attacks are actually pretty rare, but they do occur and I did a fair bit of research on predatory bear attacks on government websites as well as checking some videos out. The consensus is that black bear attacks are in the main defensive and "bluff charges" - but not always! An offensive attack can occur and hikers and campers should always be "bear aware".

This is NOT a ferocious bear attack. This is a defensive charge. The men sneak onto his territory to hunt deer. No attack was meant and there was no need for any action. I am just grateful they didn't shoot the bear!

This is a documentary involving a predatory attack. The bear chooses the weaker target and sneaks up on her. There is no charge or vocalisation.

These people are watching the bear from (I think) up a tree. This is not generally a safe thing to do. The bear paws the ground and woofs, he makes several bluff charges, but fortunately this is not an offensive attack.

A study of black bear fatalities by the University of Calgary. The bears to watch out for are the quiet ones that follow you, not the ones that warn you with noise and displays. Basically about two people a year are killed by black bears, this study is intended to help people understand what is going on and how to avoid attacks.

Watch how fast this 500 pound bear climbs a tree! If you are the victim of a predatory attack, climbing a tree will not work.

I made this video trailer for my novel, The Cougar. I composed the music, Colin Mason provided the art work. It explains a little of the storyline.