A Magical Adventure: A Guest Post by Stephanie Garber

Hollywood glitz and glam take on a murderous sheen in Stephanie Garber’s gripping adult debut. Old mysteries resurface as Holland St. James uncovers the truth about a decades-old murder, which leads her down an unexpected and dangerous path. Read on for an exclusive essay from Stephanie on writing Alchemy of Secrets.

I’ve spent most of my adult life hoping to be swept up in a magical adventure. Ever since discovering urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels in my twenties, I have been waiting for that moment where I have that feeling of déjà vu and then I realize it’s not actually déjà vu, it’s magic. Since that hasn’t happened to me just yet, I decided that I would try to write a book that gave me that experience instead. That book became my adult debut novel, Alchemy of Secrets.

One of my favorite parts about writing Alchemy of Secrets was creating the magic. If you want readers to believe that your magic is authentic then the world has to be believable. You have to smell the perfume in the elevator, taste the cocktails at the bar, feel your heart race at the sound of the sirens or at the sight of a mysterious man in a white dinner jacket.

Alchemy of Secrets takes place in Los Angeles, and although I used to live in southern California, that experience didn’t feel like quite enough to authentically set a book there. So my writing began with research. I read books on old Hollywood murders, old Hollywood movies, old Hollywood movie stars, and I visited all the famed haunted hotels in Los Angeles. I actually visited every real place that my characters travel to in this book. I went to all the big iconic locations like the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the Hollywood Reservoir, Warner Bros Studios and the old LA Zoo.

However, although I tried to make these places feel as real as possible, I didn’t want to make these places feel too realistic. I often read books to be transported to magical locations, and with Alchemy of Secrets I really hope to transport readers to the technicolor version of Los Angeles that lives in my imagination, a version of L.A. that also contains magic.

I wanted this novel to feel like the Da Vinci Code meets A Discovery of Witches, blending magic with the real world so that readers would wonder just how much of this story was true and how much of it I made up. There’s a class in Alchemy of Secrets called Folklore 517: Local Legends and Urban Myths. I don’t want to tell you too much about this class. But I will say that this is the part that I’m hoping will make readers wonder just how much of the myths are true and how much I made up.

I think the ability to wonder is one of the most magical qualities that humans possess and my hope is that with every book I write–adult or young adult–I leave readers with a sense of wonder.