A Slice of Cake With... Benjamin Hope

This week I am delighted to be having a slice of cake with fellow indie author Benjamin Hope.

Ben is the debut author of Victorian-gothic-steampunk cross-over novel, The Procurement of Souls.  He blogs regularly on the writing process and offers up recommendations in 60 words for novels within speculative and gothic fiction. He also occasionally guest lectures at universities on public speaking. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter.

What kind of books do you write?

I write stories that have a darkness to them. I’m really drawn to gothic literature both in its classic style and in its content, themes and historical context. These factors have all influenced my own storytelling which, whether my full-length novel, The Procurement of Souls, or my short stories, all consider human nature, morals and boundaries within an alternate-historical world. But I’m also a sucker for thrills and spills and imagining inventions that go beyond the possible so there’s plenty of adventurous twists too and devices that defy reality, particularly so in The Procurement of Souls! Certainly, in this story, I have tried to create a dark and dangerous world inhabited by characters who all have their inner demons to battle along the way. My hope is that my work offers something for the thinking wo/man’s fantasy tastes.

Can you describe your writing why?

It’s a love for storytelling. I love it in all its forms: cinema, artwork, music, books… the list is endless really but for me, books conquer all. I think words are so powerful and that’s why I love them – I don’t think there is any other medium in which you can create a world entirely of your own invention and then have it realised in a completely unique way by everyone who comes to read it. Nothing quite invites the imagination like the reading of a book. It’s magic!

Share with us your favourite passage from the book you enjoyed writing the most.

From Part III: Fallout in The Procurement of Souls:

It was unrecognisable as a chapter house, or what Magnus imagined such a room to look. He stood at the threshold, supporting Clementine with a firm arm as the novice went about lighting candles, and was forced to put his free hand out to steady himself against the wide oak frame of the doorway as the yellow light began to illuminate the space. A huge dome sat in the middle of the room, stripped of its brass panels, curved girders, like the ribs of an elephant carcass, the only thing maintaining its form. Other machinery lay scattered and broken across the floor, harnessed chairs with glass piping fractured and fissured in every length, creating breaches which served to render them useless. Everything had been dismantled and destroyed but Magnus saw it for what it was. This is where it had all happened. The procurement of souls.

Tell us about your latest project

Well, The Procurement of Souls, came out in July and I’m currently working on its sequel, A New Religion, which picks up where the first left off and should be set for release in 2019. The books are Victorian gothic-steampunk crossover by genre, about the exploits (and in A New Religion, the consequences) of two opposing bio-alchemists, one of whom seeks the ability to stop time; the other, mass mind-control. There’s gothic settings aplenty; malevolent scheming and mad invention; danger and mystery; and characters with complex pasts, all rolled into one! You can read the first three chapters of The Procurement of Souls on my website.

What is your favourite cake?

I would probably have to go with a dense black forest gateau with proper dark-chocolate-cream ganache and kirsch-soaked cherries. Mmmmm. Too specific?!

Thanks, Ben! This is the third time black forest gateau cake has been chosen as a favourite so I might make something different this weekend lol.

You can keep in touch with Ben in various places:
Tweet him @benjamhope

Connect with him on Goodreads
Find his books on Amazon

Follow him on Instagram

Join me next week when I will be having a slice of cake with indie author EM Swift-Hook, grilling them gently about their writing life and of course sharing their favourite cake.

If you would like to take part in A Slice of Cake With... please fill in the form found here. I'd be delighted to have you.

Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find all her books on Amazon. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.