Chanel Cleeton shares inspiration for 'The House on Biscayne Bay'

Author Chanel Cleeton joins us today to talk about her latest book, The House on Biscayne Bay, and how she discovered her love of the Gothic genre.

One of my all-time favorite genres is Gothic literature, which plucks me from my boring life and plops me down into a setting that’s both moody and atmospheric. Rife with dark mysteries and haunting ambiance, it’s my go-to when I want something entrancing and spooky.

Turns out, Chanel Cleeton is also a fan of this genre, and can trace her interest back to her discovery of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Her interest in the subject runs so deep, in fact, that she set out to write her own Gothic novel, titled The House on Biscayne Bay.

Read on for Chanel’s guest post, which includes both a brief history of her interest in reading as well as why she chose South Florida as the setting for her book, plus Biscayne Bay’s synopsis and release date!

Chanel Cleeton talks Gothic stories

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved reading gothic stories. Some of my earliest memories are of me as a child curling up with a beloved Nancy Drew novel. The ones that had hallmark gothic elements were some of my favorites: a stormy night, a mysterious mansion filled with hidden passageways, lost or stolen objects steeped in history, and enough suspense to keep me quickly turning the pages. There was a haunting quality to those books that often stayed with me long after I’d finished the last chapter.

My love of reading developed at an early age for the escape that it provided: the ability to transport me from the backseat of the family car, or a classroom where I was supposed to be listening to the lesson but instead had snuck a book behind my desk, or my bedroom where I would stay up far longer than I should reading under the covers. My favorite books were the atmospheric ones, the novels that would carry me to another time and place, where anything felt possible. It’s a trend that has continued throughout my life. There’s something magical about a book that can immerse you so powerfully, that can engage your senses to the degree that you can practically hear the creak coming down the passageway alongside the main character.

As I grew older, my love of gothic novels continued. In high school, I read Jane Eyre and my passion for gothic stories was cemented. I read Jane Eyre in an unlikely setting: my high school debate classroom. If we finished our work, our professor allowed us to pick a book from the shelf in the back of the room and to read during the remaining class time. For me it was the ultimate incentive to encourage productivity! From the first moment I picked up Jane Eyre, I was hooked. Jane Eyre had drama and romance, and when I read it I was no longer in a high school classroom in Florida; I was in that gothic mansion beside Jane wondering if she was going to make it out alive. Over the years my love of gothic novels only deepened the more I read the genre.

While I was brainstorming the subject of my next novel, I knew I wanted to set the story in South Florida since I love writing about Florida’s history. As I considered the genres I enjoy reading, I was drawn to one I hadn’t written yet—a gothic novel. As a Cuban-American who was born and raised in Florida, the setting came to me immediately. With the moniker the “Magic City,” Miami felt like the perfect place to “build” my atmospheric house teeming with secrets and scandals. Not only was South Florida in the early twentieth century home to many elaborate estates, but Miami has always been a place where anything is possible leaving me to wonder what secrets lingered beneath the surface of Biscayne Bay. Miami’s natural landscape and animals, as well as its capricious weather, proved to be the perfect backdrop for a gothic tale where peacocks’ calls could be mistaken for human shrieking and a storm could roll in at any minute plunging the mansion into total darkness. Not to mention, the ever-present alligators…

While writing The House on Biscayne Bay, I time travelled to Miami after the Great War and then later to the 1940s when the country was on the precipice of entering World War II. The journey of my fictional gothic mansion and its intriguing residents took me on an adventure through two compelling time-periods in South Florida’s history. I love how the past often echoes in the present in the gothic genre, and here it felt like the perfect opportunity to intertwine the stories of two fascinating heroines—Anna Barnes and Carmen Acosta—whose lives are irrevocably changed by their time at Marbrisa.

In their personal journeys, I found an emotional connection that ensnared me in my characters’ lives. After all, gothic novels aren’t just about spine-tingling suspense. What draws us to these stories time and time again is often the longing they contain, a deep emotional resonance that drives characters. I wanted The House on Biscayne Bay to capture the promise of Miami that draws so many and can drive people to take risks, the stakes often incredibly high—in this case, life or death. I also wanted to explore the romantic elements that often fill gothic novels, the heart-rending emotion of forbidden or unrequited love that makes these stories so timeless and first stole my heart when I read Jane Eyre.

Writing The House on Biscayne Bay provided the opportunity to explore so many of the themes and elements that I love about gothic novels. I embarked on an unforgettable journey with Anna and Carmen as I explored the mysterious passageways of Marbrisa alongside them. I can’t wait for you to join us in Miami!

About ‘The House on Biscayne Bay’

As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s atmospheric new novel.

With the Great War finally behind them, many Americans flock to South Florida with their sights set on making a fortune. When wealthy industrialist Robert Barnes and his wife, Anna, build Marbrisa, a glamorous estate on Biscayne Bay, they become the toast of the newly burgeoning society. Anna and Robert appear to have it all, but in a town like Miami, appearances can be deceiving, and one scandal can change everything.

Years later following the tragic death of her parents in Havana, Carmen Acosta journeys to Marbrisa, the grand home of her estranged older sister, Carolina, and her husband, Asher Wyatt. On the surface, the gilded estate looks like paradise, but Carmen quickly learns that nothing at Marbrisa is as it seems. The house has a treacherous legacy, and Carmen’s own life is soon in jeopardy . . . unless she can unravel the secrets buried beneath the mansion’s facade and stop history from repeating itself.