Occult Detective Book Concepts (Patreon)

Hello folks!

I have a three book contract with Union Square where the first two books are meant to be Go-Man titles and the third is to be "something new". Whenever I've polled people on all my ideas, the Victorian paranormal detectives idea always seems to be the most popular. I'd love to do all my ideas eventually, but this was does really fit in with what people like about my work - historical (Pantheon), ghostly (DeadEndia) and of course it'll be hella queer. To be honest, writing about the true history of gay people in the 1800s is something I really wanna write about in this, and the paranormal stuff is basically the vehicle to do that.

BUT WHAT TO CALL IT? The main character John Wellington Wells is based on a song from the Gilbert and Sullivan show The Sorcerer. He is the owner of The Phantasmagorium, a magic shop and he works as a private occultist to solve all your hauntings, curses and possessions. However - he is also a huge skeptic. As a magician, he is aware of how illusions and trickery are the most common explanations for the paranormal. He teams up with Edith Clarke, a nurse at the London Hospital who has devoted her life to medical science and yet has the ability to see ghosts and talk to the dead and is a true believer in the afterlife. While together they may have different beliefs, they both share a common goal - to write the complete and total scientific explanation of the supernatural.

Long time followers of mine will recognise all of this from my very old webcomic The New Adventures in the Old World. This would be a reboot of that. But I really can't settle on a title. Options are:

NEW ADVENTURES IN THE OLD WORLD

WELLS & CLARKE: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

THE PHANTASMAGORIAN

THE PHANTASMAGORIUM

Or just name the books with individual titles based on the mystery of the week. For the first book that'd likely be THE MIDNIGHT CHILD but that seems too general.

It's tough. Any suggestions?