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WORK TITLE: The Curse of the Braddock Brides
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.ericaobey.com/
CITY: Manhattan
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
Lives in Manhattan and Woodstock, NY. * http://mountainhikingsite.com/erica-obey/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Wife of George Baird, photographer.
EDUCATION:Yale University, B.A.; City College of New York, M.A.; City University of New York, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Writing professor, Fordham University.
AVOCATIONS:Hiking and gardening.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Erica Obey is a writer and professor. She teaches courses on mystery fiction and Arthurian romance at Fordham University. Obey received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University. She went on to study creative writing at the City College of New York and then received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the City University of New York. Obey and her husband split their time between their homes in New York City and Woodstock, New York.
The Curse of the Braddock Brides
The story of The Curse of the Braddock Brides takes place in New York’s Hudson River valley in the late nineteenth century. The protagonist of the story, Libba Wadsworth, daughter of the wealthiest man in the Hudson valley, is in the market for a husband. After a visit to England with the goal of finding a suitor proves fruitless, Libba is disheartened. Yet when she returns to New York, a man she met in England, Lord Hardcastle, continues to pursue her.
When she returns home, impoverished orchid smuggler Will Ransome warns Libba against Lord Hardcastle. As Will begins to court Libba, murder victims begin to show up throughout the valley. As the two characters investigate the murders, they must figure out what to do with their mutual attraction. A contributor to Publishers Weekly described the book as a “smart, witty, and self-aware mash-up of British social scandal with American industrialism and Tammany Hall politics.” A critic online at the Historical Novel Society called The Curse of the Braddock Brides a “well-researched romp tinged by an acerbic Wildean humor.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, March 6, 2017, review of The Curse of the Braddock Brides, p. 46.
Reference & Research Book News, May, 2007, review of The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest.
ONLINE
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org (November 15, 2017), review of The Curse of the Braddock Brides.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com (October 22, 2017), review of Lazarus Vector.*
Erica Obey
Author Erica Obey at Rip's Trailhead.
Author Erica Obey at Rip’s Trailhead.
Erica Obey is the author of the newly-released mystery, Back to the Garden, as well scholarly works on folklore and folklorists. And when she’s not writing or teaching writing at Fordham University, you’re most likely to find her on a hiking trail. Her favorite kind of vacation is backpacking across Dartmoor or among the hills of Wales in order to find new and exciting legends to inspire her own writing. Along with their macaw Fasolt and a rotating assortment of cats, she and her husband/hiking partner/photographer, George Baird, divide their time between New York City and Woodstock, where they live right across the road from a hiking trail. Find her on the web at www.ericaobey.com.
Facebook page: facebook.com/EricaObeyAuthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/EricaObey (@EricaObey)
Check out Erica’s Books:
Back to the Garden – Order online
The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest – Order online
Biography
Erica Obey
There are three places you can find Erica when she's not writing or teaching courses on mystery fiction and Arthurian Romance at Fordham University: on a hiking trail, in her garden, or at the back of the pack in her local road race. Her favorite kind of vacation is backpacking across Dartmoor or among the hills of Wales in order to find new and exciting legends to inspire her own writing. After she graduated from Yale University, her interest in folklore and story led her to an M.A. in Creative Writing from City College of New York and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the City University of New York, where she published articles and a book about female folklorists of the nineteenth century before she decided she'd rather be writing the stories herself.
Along with their macaw Fasolt and a rotating assortment of cats, she and her husband divide their time between New York City and Woodstock, where they spend far too much time gardening. Check out this gardening link for pictures.
The Penmen Profile: Folklore Enthusiast Erica Obey
by Rebecca LeBoeuf
Library users. Dr. Erica Obey.Paranormal mystery, fantasy and historical romance author Erica Obey discovered a passion for creative writing through her interest in folklore. This discovery led to her obtaining an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.
Obey’s debut novel, “Back to the Garden” (2013), garnered praise from fellow authors Pat Conroy and C.E. Lawrence.
Two new novels, “The Lazarus Vector” and “The Curse of the Braddock Brides,” will publish, respectively, in 2016 and 2017. For more information about Obey and her novels, visit her website.
Have you always written?
No, but I’ve always daydreamed. It was entirely liberating when I finally decided to ignore my mother’s repeated pleas to stop making believe and decided to try to earn a living from it instead.
What’s your process in developing your storyline and characters?
I recently gave a faculty talk at Fordham University on “The Mystery and Romance of Place,” because that sums up not only the genres I write, but the way I write. I see a place that intrigues me with some kind of mystery–anything from the Bronx cathedral that inspired “The Lazarus Vector” to the Catskill guest house now converted to a “Matreum of Cybele,” occasionally purveying “fresh eggs,” which launched my current WIP, “Ryland’s Bride.” Anything that gives me a sense of “something happened here”—or more accurately, “something ought to have happened here.” I do enjoy historical research, but I am never wedded to the facts—hence, the “romance” in the title. And I do like happy endings.
What challenges do you face in your writing, and how do you overcome them?
My teacher/Ph.D. mind. I am, by nature, very orderly and disciplined (those who love me best might venture the word “obsessive”). Don’t get me wrong; a lot of good comes from that. But I have to work very hard at making myself come up for air, turn my back on a problem, and let my subconscious do the work. A good, hard run works wonders, as do hiking and gardening.
What has the road to publication been like for you?
Up and down – as it is with most writers. Just a year ago, “The Lazarus Vector” was rejected by my original publisher because they had decided to specialize in westerns. Nine months of collecting rejection slips, and suddenly I find myself with contracts for not one, but two books, and, more importantly, an editor in Kristy Blank Makansi, who not only made a book I was happy with an order of magnitude better, but whose edits also showed me what I needed to be doing with “Ryland’s Bride.” Not to mention terrific support and enthusiasm from every member of the Amphorae Publishing Group. So I guess I’d say I’m on an up now.
How do you market your work? THE LAZARUS VECTOR FRONT SM
Ouch. Not my wheelhouse. My first reading came about when my dentist told me one of his patients owned a bookstore, and I heard a voice that could not possibly belong to me emerge from my mouth and ask, “Would you mind if I contacted them to set up a reading?” I’m still working on cultivating that voice – although it is easier with a second and third book on the way. Still, the fact that my “Facebook reach” literally leapt 10,000 percent after my magazine marketing maven of a sister-in-law, my hairdresser, and my two college-age nephews shared my cover reveal for “The Lazarus Vector” suggests I still have a lot to learn.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started writing?
That you need to write as though you don’t care about publication–and revise with nothing else in mind.
Who are the authors that have inspired you most, and how have they inspired you?
Vera Chapman–who published her first book at age 77, after she served as the President of the Tolkien Society under the nom de guerre of Bella Took for years before that. Talk about being true to yourself. And T.H. White, who somehow managed to produce 600 pages of the most textually complex prose I’ve ever seen, while writing a thoroughly entertaining and emotionally satisfying book.
If you could keep just three books in your library, which would you choose and why?
Oh, come on. Aren’t you supposed to be allowed 10? But okay, here are three with annotations:
1. Jacobus de Voragine. “The Golden Legend.” Saints and saints’ lives are better than T.H. White and J.R.R. Tolkien combined. (Both of whom I’d sneak in too, if I could.)
2. Thomas Malory. “Le Morte d’Arthur.” (The main reason “The Once and Future King” isn’t on the list. A little redundant. And if you’re going to put a broadsword to my neck and force me to choose…)
3. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. (Actually, if you allowed me the complete Andrew Lang Color Fairy Tale Books, I’d take them instead. But if you’re going to force me to choose only one, I have to go with Grimm.)
And I’ll probably tuck “Orlando Furioso” into my cleavage and hope I can sneak it in as fourth.
The Curse of the Braddock Brides
Publishers Weekly. 264.10 (Mar. 6, 2017): p46.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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* The Curse of the Braddock Brides
Erica Obey. Walrus, $15.95 trade paper
(310p) ISBN 978-1-940442-18-1
The beauty of the grand estates of New York's Hudson Valley in the late 19th century is the stage for Obeys smart, witty, and self-aware mash-up of British social scandal with American industrialism and Tammany Hall politics. Libba Wadsworth, the daughter of the richest quarryman in the Hudson Valley, has been on the marriage mart for several years, with no success. After a failed family visit to Cornwall, England, for introductions to Lord Hardcastle, she's annoyed that he continues pursuing her and intrigued by secret visits from orchid smuggler Will Ransome, who claims to be Hardcastle's batman and aims to prove that her suitor is an imposter to his title. Romance-first readers will enjoy Libba's tough attitude and circulating library--inspired imagination, but may be disappointed by her primary role as a pawn in the men's business dealings and unconvinced by adventurous Will's developing fondness for her. Nevertheless, Obey (The Lazarus Vector) provides the Victorian romance essentials: a deliciously scandalous story with an unequivocally stable and happy ending. This is a smoothly unfolding, satisfyingly twisty tale of lurid legends, deadly blackmail, hidden identities, international spycraft, and practical romance. (Apr.)
The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest
Reference & Research Book News. 22.2 (May 2007):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
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9780934223881
The Wunderkammer of Lady Charlotte Guest.
Obey, Erica.
Lehigh University Press
2007
226 pages
$47.50
Hardcover
DA565
Anyone not knowing her early history would understand her as a gentlewoman dedicated to collecting porcelain, playing cards and fans. But she ran her first husband's ironmongery upon his death until she could pass it on to her son, married a man 14 years her junior, and was, of all things for a Victorian lady, published. Lady Charlotte Guest Schreiber was the able translator of the Mabinogion, the Welsh Arthurian legend, a feat which impressed no less than Arnold and Tennyson and inspired them to come up with their own efforts. Yet her work and her life were tangled with the proper place of a lady, the legend came closer to a sentimental fairy tale as others adapted it, and she raised debate about antiquarianism, folklore collection, and philosophy. Obey (Fordham U.) illuminates the more personal recesses of Victorian intellectual life through Lady Charlotte while firmly avoiding stereotype. Distributed by Associated University Presses.
([c]20072005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
The Lazarus Vector
Erica Obey. Blank Slate, $16.50 trade paper (350p) ISBN 978-1-943075-22-5
In this fascinating contemporary paranormal mystery, Obey deftly combines political intrigue, tests of ethics, and the danger of miracles. Dr. Clare Malley long ago lost hope that her career as a medievalist would lead her to adventure. Then she is invited to investigate the question of whether a man called Father Enoch is performing miracles. Jonas Croswell survives an attempted murder—and those who saw him shot say Father Enoch healed him. But the thaumaturgy of Father Enoch is not unfailingly a blessing. He also miraculously healed a young boy who then terrorized the people around him and disappeared. Obey delicately balances a religious procedural investigation with a science fiction twist. Defying genre convention, the characters do not rely upon violence to combat the horrors that surround them. Each could justify giving in to the temptation of revenge, casting aside morals in favor of pragmatism. Obey instead depicts wit and humanity as the only fitting weapons against evil. Heroic acts of kindness and decency subtly demonstrate the power of honest faith, and are contrasted against the brutal reality of a secular world. The delightful prose style propels the narrative to a satisfying conclusion full of hope and love. (Oct.)
The Curse of the Braddock Brides
BY ERICA OBEY
Find & buy on
This Gilded Age story is first in a series inspired by the stately homes of the Hudson River Valley. For this book, the inspiration is Rhinecliff’s lovely and eccentric Wilderstein. Libba Wadsworth is an American heiress being courted by Will Ransome, aka William, Lord Hardcastle, a new, impoverished English earl and experienced spy and orchid hunter. It takes a brave man for the job, as, since colonial days, the Braddock family brides have a habit of slipping over cliffs. Their suitors come to similarly mean ends. Then there’s the business of poor Libba’s being on the shelf and both a “hoyden and a bluestocking,” her father’s work in the quarryman’s trade, and her beautiful mother’s secret past.
But Will is up to the task, once he establishes his bona fides over an impostor suitor, who soon becomes a murder victim, with bodies to follow. The mysteries are two generations thick in this well-researched romp tinged by an acerbic Wildean humor. Convoluted sentence structures and abrupt viewpoint shifts sometimes get in the way of the storytelling, but our self-deprecating hero and oft-confused but always delightful heroine come to the rescue. Looking forward to more adventures set in the historic Hudson River Valley.