[Today, we sit down with eclectic witch Lucya Starza, author of the forthcoming novel, Erosion. Here, she discusses her book, her writing process, and her upcoming projects.]

Forests Haunted By Holiness: Erosion: Of Friendship, Dreams, and the Edge of a Cliff, your first novel with Moon Books, is set to be released in April 2024. Congratulations! How did the book come about? Did you approach Moon Books or did they come to you?

Lucya Starza: Thank you! Erosion was written back in 2021. I’d always wanted to write a novel but was so busy with other freelance writing I’d stuck to what I knew I could get published. Then we had the long lockdowns in the pandemic and I decided to fulfil my dream and get my novel written. I then spent about a year editing and honing the first draft, but was unsure what publisher to approach. Although Moon Books has published several of my non-fiction Pagan Portals titles, I didn’t initially think it would be interested in Erosion because Moon isn’t primarily a fiction imprint. Then the editor, Trevor Greenfield, mentioned the possibility of branching out into novels, so I put mine forward and it was accepted. 

FHBH: The narrator of Erosion is Alison, a wanna-be novelist determined to write something “great and worthy,” not “trashy” like a horror novel. Yet the story she relates as she writes it down IS a horror story. How do Alison’s expectations drive the story, and how do they change over the course of the novel? How do her dreams, as noted in the subtitle, change?

LS: Well, I don’t really want to give away too many spoilers, but the other two factors in the subtitle – friendship and the edge of a cliff – kind of get in the way of her novel-writing. The book starts with Alison moving into a shared house and making friends with her house-mates. There’s a lot of partying, then they find some old bones on the edge of a cliff and decide to have a séance. What happens after that changes all of their lives. 

FHBH: What sort of research went into Erosion? Long hours at the library? Walking along the beaches in Kent?

LS: I was stuck indoors in lockdown and unable to get to libraries or walk along beaches, although those are things I normally love doing. My novel was my escape in my imagination to the places I wanted to be, and the friends I’d love to be with. The inspiration came from my own past. I lived on the coast in shared houses while I was a student at Kent University and then for a couple of years after that. I loved walking along beaches there. While I was writing Erosion I did plenty of online research into things like archaeological sites in Kent. I’m glad we have so many resources on the internet these days!

FHBH: Erosion is set during The Great Storm of 1987. For those who didn’t experience it, what was The Great Storm? And what was it like?

LS: The Great Storm of 1987 was basically an unexpected huge storm. It caused massive amounts of destruction. Trees were blown down, cars were crushed, houses lost roofs, caravans were blown into the sea. It changed the landscape. I remember going for a walk the day after the storm and seeing trees toppled all over the place. It was very scary.

FHBH: Erosion is part of the grand tradition of British gothic novels. In addition to your own, which other gothic novels would you recommend?

LS: My favourite gothic novel is The Haunting of Hill House by American author Shirley Jackson. In terms of British writers, I love MR James’ ghost stories, Angela Carter’s tales – particularly The Bloody Chamber, and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I also have soft spot for older gothic novels such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

I also recommend the Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch although they’re primarily urban fantasy rather than gothic. Ben was kind enough to endorse Erosion, and you can see his words on the front cover: “An elegiac tale of memory, growth and regret set along the crumbling coast of 1980s Kent.”

FHBH: Where will readers be able to find Erosion?

LS: You can order copies via Collective Ink, which Moon Books is part of.

If you’re in London, I’d recommend buying copies at Treadwell’s Bookshop, 33 Store Street, London, WC1E 7BS. The shop will have the very first copies to go on sale and I’m doing a signing there on April 6^th. You can also order copies via usual outlets such as Bookshop.org, Waterstones or, of course, Amazon.

It will be available both as a paperback and an ebook.

FHBH: Which book fairs, conventions, or other events do you hope to attend in the foreseeable future?

LS: I’ve already mentioned that I’m doing a signing at Treadwell’s on April 6^th. You can pop in any time from 3.30pm and either see me in person or pick up a signed copy later on.

On Friday April 26th I’m doing an online launch event for Erosion on Facebook Live. It starts at 3pm and the recording will be available to watch later.

I’m currently chatting to other bookshops and festival organisers about events later in the year.

FHBH: What other projects are you working on?

LS: I do quite a bit of writing for horror roleplaying games for Chaosium, under the name Lucya Szachnowski (my Starza last name is a pen name based on my Polish ancestors). I’ve written for the Call of Cthulhu RPG and contributed to Rivers of London The RPG. I’m working on a scenario for Chaosium at the moment, but sadly my contract means I can’t say more than that.