Storms of Malhado

by

Maria Elena Sandovici

Genre: Historical Fiction / Ghosts

Publisher: Independently Published

Date of Publication: March 26, 2020

Number of Pages: 252

Scroll down for the giveaway!

Galveston Island, Texas, September 2008 Katie doesn’t believe in ghosts. And she certainly doesn’t believe the rumors that her family’s home is haunted, despite its tragic history: two young women who lived there in different eras died in hurricanes—one during Hurricane Carla in 1961, one during the Great Storm of 1900, the greatest natural disaster to befall the United States. But that was the past, a fact Katie reminds herself of when she returns to Galveston to await Hurricane Ike with her parents and boyfriend in her family’s Broadway mansion, hoping to rekindle her flailing relationship.

While Katie is not afraid of the ghost stories she’s heard, she is afraid of the monster storm approaching. As even die-hard Islanders evacuate, her fears grow—fear of the looming hurricane, fear that she’s talentless as a painter, fear that her relationship with her boyfriend is already over. As Katie struggles against her fears, the past whispers to her of the women who died there and the haunting similarities they share with Katie’s own life.

Through three different timelines, Storms of Malhado weaves a story of Galveston’s past, underscoring its danger and isolation, as well as its remarkable resilience, and its capacity for both nostalgia and reinvention. Full of contradictions, at once insular and open to the world, Galveston Island is as much a character of the novel as Katie, Suzanne, Betty, their lovers, and their confidantes.

Praise

“Taking place entirely on a beautifully moody Galveston Island, Ms. Sandovici weaves three simultaneous stories with ease. With a timeless tale, ethereal language, and complicated characters, readers will be entranced by this modern ghost story. How many times can the past repeat itself? How do we recognize people through generations? The author tackles this topic amid a backdrop of violent nature and intangible dreamscapes.”  —Courtney Brandt, author of The Queen of England: Coronation, Grand Tour, Ascension

“Three women, three great storms, and one house, haunted by forbidden love and frustrated ambition. Get ready to be swept away by Sandovici’s foray into Galveston Island’s tempestuous history in this tale of lives intertwined across time.” —Donna Dechen Birdwell, author of Not Knowing

The Story of My 1900 Bathing Dress

(View the Pinterest board the author created for Storms of Malhado)

Writing historical fiction came with many challenges. The part of Storms of Malhado taking place in 1900 required tons of research and two rounds of critique from Margaret Doran, who established her expertise on Galveston Island’s history through her long collaboration with the Galveston Historical Foundation and the Rosenberg Library. Luckily, she is a meticulous critic who read my manuscript twice and picked out small—and larger—blunders. “Suzanne would not be reading a paperback,” she pointed out as part of her feedback on an early draft. Easy fix, no problem. “Why is Suzanne in Galveston for the summer?” she inquired in response to the same draft. “Wealthy women would travel to milder climates.” Addressing this was harder than the paperback issue and required inventing an illness and some serious phobias for Suzanne’s mother. This ended up adding depth to that character, so it was a win. But what was I to do about a young lady of means not being able to go to the Strand unchaperoned and definitely not being able to sneak into her lover’s room? This was tricky, but finally I came up with the Ward house—a wealthy family’s mansion, boarded up for summer, which ends up being a secret refuge for the lovers. This added an extra layer of romance to the affair, so I was happy.

It was a small, easily fixed mistake that took me on the most exciting adventure. “Suzanne’s bathing dress would not have been white,” Margaret Doran wrote. I could have simply changed “white” to “dark” and moved on, but editing is hard and yours truly loves to procrastinate. I got on Pinterest and pinned tons of pictures of young women in 1900 bathing dresses to my Storms of Malhado board. Then I happened upon an advertisement from a place called Historical Emporium, offering to sell me an accurate replica of Suzanne’s bathing dress—complete with white pantaloons! How could a small business owner struggling to make ends meet resist such a useful purchase? To make the investment complete, I immediately called my photographer, the talented Bogdan Mihai at Buburuza Productions, and booked a photoshoot for as soon as the bathing dress arrived. What’s funny is that I had just completed a photoshoot with him—dressed in my favorite outfits, studio lights aimed expertly at my face, fans blowing my hair, and all that jazz—and wasn’t crazy about the results because I just couldn’t relax. In fact, I couldn’t sleep a wink before the shoot. Afterwards, seeing the circles under my eyes shine through my Chanel makeup, I experienced an instant midlife crisis. Was this it? Was my life over, all my beautiness gone? (I assure you I’m an empowered woman well aware of my worth, but such thoughts do occasionally plague me). My wonderful photographer reassured me that posing takes practice. And playfulness. But I had my doubts.

My much-needed dose of playfulness arrived promptly in a package from Historical Emporium. I was back under the studio lights, fans blowing my hair, music playing, and this time I was having too much fun to be nervous. I laughed and smiled through the entire photoshoot and feigned panic at a most unexpected overflow arriving despite the Weather Bureau’s assurances that Galveston was safe. I love the resulting pictures! Turns out I can pose after all! All I need is a 1900 bathing dress! And because my self-confidence was at its peak, I entered the historical Bathing Beauties contest, a vintage bathing suit extravaganza, which has taken place every summer in Galveston for 100 years now, on Splash Day. Reader, I got in! I’m a Bathing Beauty! Splash Day had to be postponed because of the pandemic, and you bet I cried, but it’s still taking place the weekend of August 1, and my 1900 bathing dress and I will be in it!

Maria Elena Sandovici is a full-time writer, artist, and gallery owner living in Houston, Texas. After obtaining a Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2005, her curiosity led her to Texas, where she taught at Lamar University for fourteen years. She felt attracted to Galveston Island from her first visit and lived there part-time for three years before her artistic career took her to Houston.

Sandovici is a 2008 graduate of John Ross Palmer’s Escapist Mentorship Program, a program that teaches artists business skills. She resigned from her tenured academic position in December 2018 and opened her own private gallery space. Her previous works of fiction are Dogs with Bagels, Stray Dogs and Lonely Beaches, Lost Path to Solitude, The Adventures of Miss Vulpe, and Lone Wolf. She is also the author of Stop and Smell the Garbage, a volume of poetry in the voice of her dog, Holly Golightly. You can follow her daily adventures on her blog HaveWatercolorsWillTravel.blog.

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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER receives a signed copy of Storms of Malhado

MAY 21-31, 2020

(US ONLY)

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