Spotlight & Giveaway: The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Harwood

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author JJA Harwood to HJ!

Hi JJA Harwood and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Shadow in the Glass!

 
Hello and thank you for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Sure! The Shadow in the Glass is a dark retelling of Cinderella set in Victorian London. It’s about what happens when Eleanor, a young housemaid, meets a woman with all-black eyes who grants her seven wishes. Eleanor wants to use the wishes to make a better life for herself, but soon realizes that magic comes with a price she might not be willing to pay. If you like your fairy tales dark and you’ve always been a little bit suspicious of all those fairy godmothers handing out magic for free, then this is the book for you!
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

If anyone caught her, Eleanor would be dismissed on the spot.
The house clicked and creaked as it settled into sleep, the heat of the last days of August quietly slipping into the night. Eleanor was the only one awake.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

It actually took me twelve years to write this book! I had the idea when I was a teenager and I spent all that time redrafting. It’s been through three different titles, had the cast cut in half, and when I was writing it I stuck a map of Victorian London on my wall and put pins in it like I was trying to solve a murder. I used to print out the manuscripts, tie them up with string and the cardboard from the backs of cereal boxes, and scribble all over them with red pen. I’ve still got all the paper drafts, one of which has been to Paris and Rio and back!

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Eleanor was quite a frustrating protagonist to write, but I had a lot of fun once I got into the swing of it. Eleanor’s fatal flaw is that nothing is ever her fault, ever, and letting that come through into the narration could be pretty challenging when she was making some of her terrible, terrible choices. In a way it was quite freeing, because after a certain point I could stop worrying about making her likeable! She became a lot more fun when she started being mean.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

For me, the two key characters are Eleanor and her fairy godmother, the black-eyed woman. The relationship between the two of them is by far my favourite in the whole novel and I would love to see that play out on-screen. (Are you listening, Netflix??)
The scene I’ve chosen is one where Eleanor tries to find out more about the black-eyed woman:

Not for the first time, Eleanor realized how little she knew about the black-eyed woman. She had no idea how she had come to be trapped in the book – was it like the jinn in Aladdin’s lamp? Eleanor didn’t even know what she was. She’d assumed the black-eyed woman must be a demon – she had come from the pages of Faustus, after all, and Eleanor couldn’t think of anything else interested in the buying and selling of souls – but how could that be right, if Eleanor was able to set foot on holy ground?
Eleanor was teeming with questions. She cleared her throat. The sounds of the hotel had begun to fade hours ago – footsteps on stairs, broughams and carriages pulling up to the entrance, doors opening and closing – but now, they seemed a fraction quieter. As if something was listening.
‘Hello?’
Silence.
‘I’d like to talk to you. Can you…come out?’
‘If you insist, dear.’
Shadows shifted. The black-eyed woman stood perfectly still, in a spot where there had been nothing but darkness. The back of a chair became the swell of her skirt, the sharp edge of a corner became the line of her shawl.
She sat at the table, hands neatly folded. Something in the way she walked did not seem right. Every step was measured, even, and precise. It reminded Eleanor of Felicity on the morning they’d met. Felicity had seemed so scared of knocking something over she’d walked like a mannequin. The black-eyed woman had that same stilted air, born of endless observation. With a shiver, Eleanor wondered how long she had been watching for.
‘I wanted to apologize,’ Eleanor began, ignoring the prickling feeling on the back of her neck. ‘I was very rude to you when we last spoke.’
The black-eyed woman gave a gracious nod. ‘That’s quite all right, my dear.’
‘Will you tell me your name?’
She gave a smile. It was empty. ‘You may call me Alice. Or, if you prefer, Emmeline.’
Eleanor flinched. Her mother’s name. Mrs Pembroke’s name. Hearing them from the black-eyed woman’s mouth stung. The chair felt like the end of an iron bedstead, pressing into her back.
‘Those aren’t your names, are they?’ she asked, her voice quiet.
The black-eyed woman spread her hands. ‘They may as well be. I hope that, in time, you will come to think of me in the same way. I have only your best interests at heart.’
Eleanor resisted the urge to ask if the black-eyed woman had a heart. ‘I must call you something.’
‘There is no need.’
‘But how am I to find you, if I want something? I don’t even know where you live. You just appeared from that corner! How did you get here?’
‘It’s not nearly as impressive as it seems. Suffice to say that I am quite as real as you are, but that does not mean we are the same type of creature.’
‘I’m not sure what you mean.’
‘No, I imagine not.’
The woman’s eyes were flat and still. So was her smile. Perhaps that was how she managed her disappearing trick – simply staying so still that the eye glazed over her. Mesmerists and mediums did that sort of thing. It was easier to believe that the black-eyed woman was like them than to acknowledge that she was something else entirely.
‘Why did you call me?’ she asked.
Staring into the woman’s black eyes was like looking over the rim of a pit. Eleanor shifted and looked away. ‘I thought we ought to get to know each other.’

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

When I was writing the book I set out to write something that could be read a couple of different ways. There’s one way to interpret everything that happens in the novel and there’s another, and I’m always really interested to see which interpretation people end up preferring! If there’s one thing that I’d like people to take away from the book, though, it’s an appreciation of how much fun unreliable and unlikeable protagonists can be. I had a lot of fun with my anti-heroine and I hope readers do too!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently working on another project but it’s under wraps at the moment. I’m very excited about it though – watch this space!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 finished copies of The Shadow in the Glass, US only

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Thank you for having me! My question for you is, of course, what would you wish for?

 
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Excerpt from The Shadow in the Glass:

It was hard to believe in fairy tales when you woke up to the smell of damp. Eleanor’s shoulders felt like a bag of rocks and her knees were already aching. Nothing felt magical in her little garret. Her chest of drawers was small, cheap and splintery; her jug and washbasin were chipped. The sloping roof came too close to her head and damp mottled the walls and ceiling. She might have been sleeping at the bottom of a well.
Eleanor pulled on her uniform – a hard-wearing brown wool dress, which still scratched no matter how many times she washed it – remembering the steady beat of wings she’d dreamed about. She’d tell Aoife about it later, and they’d list all the places they’d fly away to while they polished the silver.
As she did every day, Eleanor checked her money drawer before she left her room. She didn’t open the drawer properly, just dragged it out a few inches so that the purse lurched
forward, coins clinking. It was a silly habit, but hope rekindled in her chest at the sound. She had almost twenty-five pounds now: nearly enough to rent clean and pretty rooms for a few months, but she would need to find a way to live after that. She wouldn’t be emptying other people’s chamber pots for much longer.
She crept along the corridor and knocked on Leah’s door.
Without her stays Leah’s stomach stuck out like a hillock among the valleys of sheets. Her dark hair was spread out across the pillow, long limbs sticking out from under the blankets. She twitched in her sleep, eyelids fluttering, wincing as the baby shifted. The rest of the maids had been pretending not to notice while Eleanor helped Leah let out the waistline of her uniform. Anger flashed through Eleanor like lightning. Eleanor would’ve pretended for the full nine months and feigned surprise when the baby came, but it was not up to her. It was up to Mrs Fielding, and everyone knew that the moment Leah could no longer hide her condition, Mrs Fielding would dismiss Leah without a reference. Leah knew it too. Her carpetbag had been packed for weeks, just in case.
Eleanor cleared her throat. ‘Leah?’
Leah started awake, her eyes flying open. ‘God above, Ella! I thought you were—’
‘I don’t think he’s back yet,’ said Eleanor, closing the door behind her. ‘I wondered if you’d like some help getting dressed.’
Leah flushed. ‘I’m only showing a little.’
Eleanor kept her voice gentle. ‘More than a little, these days.’
Leah eased herself out of bed and got to her feet, and when she was standing Eleanor felt a flutter of hope. Her friend had always been full-figured, and when she drew herself upright perhaps Mrs Fielding would think that Leah had only put on weight. Of course, there were other signs too – dark circles under Leah’s eyes from all the sleepless nights, a slight thinning in her face thanks to the morning sickness – but all the maids were tired, and Leah could always say she’d eaten something that disagreed with her. Perhaps Leah wouldn’t have to leave just yet. Perhaps things would be different this time.
There was no mirror in this room, which was as small and shabby as Eleanor’s, so Leah shook out a stocking and tried to wind it around her waist, to see how much she’d grown. The ends only just met. She threw the stocking aside, hands shaking. Eleanor picked it up and smoothed it flat, folding it
up so she didn’t have to look at Leah’s face. It took longer than it should; a slow, desperate frustration made her clumsy.
‘Mrs Fielding might not have—’
Leah gave a hollow laugh. ‘If you noticed weeks ago, Little Nell, then there’s no hope for me at all.’
The old nickname had a sting to it, like a needle slid under Eleanor’s fingernail. She fought to keep her composure. ‘You never thought about…about bringing on your time a little early? There are women who can—’
Leah stared at her, her grey eyes full of disbelief. ‘I could never! Where did you hear about something like that?’
Eleanor flushed. Leah hadn’t been the first maid to fall pregnant at Granborough House. ‘Oh, of course, I couldn’t either,’ she gabbled. ‘But you don’t seem very happy and I thought I’d—’
‘Of course I’m not happy!’ Leah snapped.
Eleanor reached out a hand, but Leah batted her away.
‘You’d better get on.’
Eleanor went downstairs, leaving Leah to wrestle with her stays. The vast basement kitchen of Granborough House was still and dark; the street-level window splashed a thin slice of light across the floor. Eleanor filled the coal scuttle and lit the kitchen range after three attempts, before the rest of the servants came in. The coal smoke stung her eyes, but she stared at the flames until tears were streaming down her face.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

Book Info:

A deliciously gothic story of wishes and curses – a new dark fairy tale set against a Victorian backdrop full of lace and smoke.

Once upon a time Ella had wished for more than her life as a lowly maid.

Now forced to work hard under the unforgiving, lecherous gaze of the man she once called stepfather, Ella’s only refuge is in the books she reads by candlelight, secreted away in the library she isn’t permitted to enter.

One night, among her beloved books of far-off lands, Ella’s wishes are answered. At the stroke of midnight, a fairy godmother makes her an offer that will change her life: seven wishes, hers to make as she pleases. But each wish comes at a price and Ella must decide whether it’s one she’s willing to pay…

A smouldering, terrifying new spin on Cinderella – perfect for fans of Laura Purcell and Erin Morgenstern.

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Meet the Author:

JJA Harwood is an author, editor and blogger. She grew up in Norfolk, read History at the University of Warwick and eventually found her way to London, which is still something of a shock for somebody used to so many fields.

When not writing, she can be found learning languages, cooking with more enthusiasm than skill, wandering off into clearly haunted houses and making friends with stray cats. The Shadow in the Glass is her debut novel.
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