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BEAUTIFUL CREATURES: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Books:

  • Beautiful Creatures
  • Beautiful Darkness

You can keep up with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl & The Caster Chronicles.

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Visit Little, Brown’s Beautiful Creatures website: for excerpts, downloadables, a map of Gatlin & more!"

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Book summary:

Some secrets are life-altering… others are life-ENDING.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations.

And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back.


Today I have a different sort of guest post. It's more of a "Walking Through Beautiful Creatures/Beautiful Darkness Photo Tour" rather than a conventional guest post. (I'm hoping to have more 'guest posts' like this in the future.) I knew that the world of Beautiful Creatures (you can see my review here!) was based on actual places, so I asked Kami and Margaret to share some photos of those places that were mentioned in the novels. Thus, a 'walking' tour... I realize we won't actually be doing any walking... except with our eyes, that is!

c. Kami Garcia, 2009. All rights reserved.

Photo #1: Oaks with Spanish MossIn many ways, these trees are an iconic image of the American South. They line roads, riverbanks, and many people with Gullah ancestry believe the “Angel Oak” outside of Charleston, SC has mystical properties.

c. Kami Garcia, 2009. All rights reserved.

Photo #2: Cracked Sidewalk in Gatlin If you read BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, you might recognize this cracked sidewalk from the prologue. This sidewalk is actually on Beaufort, NC. But when we saw it, flanked by houses with wraparound porches and American flags, it felt like Gatlin to us.

c. Kami Garcia, 2009. All rights reserved.

Photo #3: Wate’s Landing & Painted Blue CeilingsThis house reminds us of Ethan’s house, Wate’s Landing, with it’s painted blue porch ceilings. In many parts of the South, people paint the ceilings, inside and outside of their houses, a light sky blue to keep carpenter bees from nesting. The light blue color fools the bees into thinking that the ceilings are really the sky. Although this house is similar to Wate’s Landing, it lacks an important detail – haint blue shutters. Haint blue is a turquoise shade that is believed to ward off evil. Amma would never live in a house without them.

c. Kami Garcia, 2009. All rights reserved.

Photo #4: The Sisters’ SquirrelsIf you read BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, you will meet Ethan’s great-aunts (the Sisters), and their squirrels. The story of the Sisters’ squirrels is based on the true story of Kami’s mother rescuing a group of baby squirrels. Kami’s mom raised them, and now they live in her yard, eating out of her hand and playing in pie plates strung in the trees. These are the real baby squirrels, all grown up.

c. Kami Garcia, 2009. All rights reserved.

Photo #5: The Unitarian Church in Charleston, SCThis church is also referred to as the Round Church, for obvious reasons. In BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, the Sisters explain why some Southern churches are round: “So the Devil can’t hide in the corners.”

c. Kami Garcia, 2009. All rights reserved.

Photo #6: A Grave from His Garden of Perpetual PeaceThe cemetery in Gatlin is Called His Garden of Perpetual Peace. In BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, Ethan visits the graveyard (we can’t tell you why), and readers learn that the “better graves” are surrounded by picket or wrought iron fences. They aren’t as fancy as a mausoleum, but Mrs. Lincoln would tell you that they are better than having ‘just anyone tromping around your final resting place.’

BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS releases on October 12, 2010


© Alex Hoerner
"Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl came up with the concept for the world of Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness over lunch. Margaret had always been captivated by fantasies and wanted to write a supernatural novel, while Kami loved stories set in the South and wanted to write a book that drew upon her deep Southern roots. With nothing to write on, they scribbled their ideas for a story that combined their shared passions on a paper napkin. By the time they left, the world of Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness had been born. Both Kami and Margaret live in Los Angeles, California, with their families. They now write on computers instead of napkins and invite you to visit them online at www.kamigarciamargaretstohl.com."

You can check out the complete tour details at Novel Noise!