Some background to The River Maid

I’ve been meaning to talk a bit about The River Maid and the background behind it. Although The River Maid is fiction, there are some historical elements to the story which are true. Some people who are not familiar with the Rhineland may be surprised to know that there is actually a castle called Katz Castle in the hills above St Goarshausen.

It was seized by the French Revolutionary army in 1805 and the castle was destroyed in 1806 by Napoleon - just like in the book. However, it was probably due to its position on the Rhine, rather than because of a mermaid.

The Counts of Katzenelnbogen built Katz Castle in the 1300’s, but the family line died out, and the castle then passed through various hands. After being destroyed in 1806, the castle was rebuilt in the late 1800’s and it’s still there today, although as far as I’m aware it’s privately owned and unfortunately not open to visitors.

Near St Goarshausen is a rock called the Lorelei. There’s a German legend of a siren associated with the rock who lures sailors to their deaths and it was this story along with Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid that The River Maid is based on.

Although some things might actually have happened, I have taken huge liberties with history. I wanted to tell a story, not write a historically accurate novel, but I think all good stories need to have some truth to them at their heart.

I like to think that had there been a mermaid called Lorelei, then the events of the story could have happened just as they did in the book.

The River Maid

The River Maid has been up now for a few days. I’ve enrolled it in amazon’s kdp select and it's currently free to download on amazon until Friday. I’m really happy with how the cover looks. I did it myself and it really wasn’t easy to do. I don’t think it’s too obvious that it wasn’t professionally done. Maybe other people will disagree though.

I’ve deleted a lot of the old posts on my blog. It had been ages since I had updated it and I thought I would start afresh with The River Maid.

I'm back on nights at the moment, but as soon as I get a day off I will find time to talk a bit about the background of The River Maid. I meant to add an author's note at the back of the book, but I never got round to it. Some people might find it interesting to know why I chose that particular period of history to set a retelling of The Little Mermaid.

If you have read The River Maid, I would be incredibly grateful if you would consider reviewing it - good or bad. I'm always hesitant to buy a book that doesn't have any reviews for it.

Finally......

I've uploaded The River Maid to amazon. It should be available in the kindle store within 12 hours. I'm now worrying that there's something wrong with the formatting or the cover is going to upload funny. Until it's available though, I won't be able to see if there's anything seriously wrong with it. I just have to wait and see.

It's strange that it's finally up. It's taken me a lot longer than I intended to finish it. Working nights full time hasn't left a lot of room for anything else. Now, I guess I need to get back to working on the sequel to Bones and Ashes.

Almost done.....