Who doesn’t love an old castle, rife with secrets and lore and mystery? Of course, most readers tend to imagine Scotland or England when incorporating a good castle, but what about Midwestern Wisconsin? Believe it or not, Wisconsin boasts a castle or two, and they’re not necessarily White Castle, the home of the hamburger sliders. It was with this (the castle, not the hamburgers) that I decided to write a dual-time Gothic mystery surrounding a castle, vanishing women over decades, with heroines who are determined to find the lost and save their tragedies from being unremembered. Of course, taking inspiration from history is always a must and therefore as the author I entered the realm of study, focusing on one of the worst female serial killers known to humankind. Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian countess, is most widely known as the woman whose fascination with the torture and bloodletting of young women took the lives of possibly hundreds in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. With this purported fascination, reports funneled in of not only the disappearance of local girls in the surrounding areas but also of women from the more notable families. This inspired an investigation that landed Elizabeth in…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  THE NIGHT PORTRAIT: A Novel of WWII & da Vinci’s Italy 2–What is it about?  THE NIGHT PORTRAIT is a dual-timeline historical novel about the creation of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings, Portrait of a Lady with an Ermine, and the woman who fought to save it from Nazi destruction during World War II. It’s a story of two women of art, two men of war, one painting, and one obsession.  3–What word best describes your main character(s)?  Determined. Brave! 4–What makes your story relatable?  I wanted THE NIGHT PORTRAIT pinned squarely on the historical record, but my goal was also to bring these two very different eras to life. I want readers to ask themselves what they might do in similar situations. The four different narrators deal with challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable. I believe historical fiction allows us to relate emotionally to the larger human experience. Following a protagonist’s story makes us ask what we would do, facing such challenges. An immersive historical tale allows us to understand how we are connected to the long threads of history. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  The Edge of Belonging 2–What is it about? The Edge of Belonging is a dual timeline story about a homeless man who finds an abandoned newborn. His greatest desire is to protect her from the experiences he had in foster care.  Twenty-four years later, Ivy goes back to her hometown to manage her grandmother’s estate sale and finds out that her grandmother left behind a way for her to learn about Ivy’s adoption. But, a key piece to the mystery is missing. 3–What word best describes your main character(s)? Harvey: Extreme Independence. Life has taught him that people aren’t to be trusted. But when he finds an abandoned newborn, it completely overturns his hermit’s way of life, and he starts to reevaluate if he really is incapable of being loved. Ivy: Searching. She suddenly becomes aware of just how fragile the life she was building for herself was. She finds herself going back to her roots to rediscover her sense of identity, but in the process discovers there’s a lot she doesn’t know about the people who raised her. 4–What makes your story relatable?  I think most of us can relate to craving…

Here’s a chat between award-winning author Rachel Hauck and Fresh Fiction Editorial Manager Danielle Dresser! A dual timeline novel is always so interesting – how the two time periods both juxtapose and complement the other. How did you come up with the connection between these two different women? The connection is always the most difficult and most important part of a dual time novel. Since I can’t always have the connection be a grandmother or an aunt, or some other family member, I imagined two women being connected by a family friendship. The heroines also share a common experience of tragically losing people they love. New York City cop Beck Holiday is having a rough go of it – after a mistake at work she’s suspended and she’s not sure what to do next. Then she finds out she’s inherited a mysterious Victorian house in Florida. Why was it important for Beck to have the experience at this point in her life? Beck is lost and bitter. She can’t remember large portions of her childhood. She’s trying to make a career for herself, trying to be tough, but when her own actions return to her with a demand, she’s forced…