Clay Zuba writes stories, books, and essays that reconceive and reevaluate the worlds of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The recently-completed manuscript, “Love in the House of the Seven Gables” (L7G), is a prequel to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s iconic novel House of the Seven Gables. M7G re-examines the mysterious death of Colonel Pyncheon, which Hawthorne places 150 years before the main plot of House of the Seven Gables, yet leaves unexplained at his novel’s conclusion.
In L7G, Colonel Pyncheon’s well-educated but sheltered niece, Theodosia, travels to colonial Massachusetts to marry his son, Randolph, after her father’s death. Unfortunately, upon arriving Theodosia finds Colonel Pyncheon dead by unknown causes, Randolph mad with grief, and the Salem Witch trials rising to a fever pitch.
With the aid of the dashing Helios, and the African and Native American servants Phoebe and Penelope, Theodosia must find her uncle’s killer and restore Randolph to sanity, while negotiating the arcane mores of Puritan society. Theodosia soon falls in love with Helios as she unearths dark secrets that link her uncle’s death to that of her own father. In the process, she begins to suspect that there is more to Randolph’s madness than meets the eye. As the story approaches its climax, Theodosia must depend on Phoebe and Penelope, whom she once regarded as her inferiors, to help uncover the rot at the roots of her family tree.
“Murder in the House of Seven Gables is a 98,000-word, first-person POV gothic mystery about race, gender, and the networks women must build to survive in a fundamentalist, patriarchal society. The book has the potential to launch a series centered on unexplored aspects of Hawthorne’s fiction. Clay is actively seeking representation for this manuscript.
Anticipated works include the short stories “Garage Full of Flowers,” which reimagines Hawthorne’s “Rappucini’s Daughter” in a suburban, AI-equipped smart home, and “Mr. Mirror’s TikTok,” which retells “Monsieur Du Muroir” through the prism of social media.