Maria Alexander Books In Order

Publication Order of Bloodline of Yule Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Poetry Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Maria Alexander is a British screenwriter that is primarily known for her work as an author, though she has dabbled in and has a passion for so many different things.

+Biography

Maria Alexander is an amazing woman. Some people only know her as an author of horror and fantasy. Not many realize that she is also a screenwriter and games writer. If that wasn’t enough, she has won awards as a copywriter, not to mention all the poetry she has produced and work she has done as a virtual world designer.

Readers with subscriptions to publications like Paradox and Chiaroscuro Magazine should be familiar with her work. Maria Alexander spent many years building her renown through her many short stories before finally breaking onto the scene with ‘Mr. Wicker’, her very first novel.

The novel got Maria a Bram Stoker award, more or less validating her desire to produce fiction in the horror genre. Because the author’s interests are so wide-ranging, her books tend to deliver a diverse offering of ideas and concepts, this including her Young Adult novels.

Maria Alexander began writing out of necessity. When she was eight, smallpox forced her to stay home. With nothing to occupy her, little Maria began to create stories. She kept on creating and writing and experimenting throughout her childhood.

However, she did not take her abilities in this area seriously until she reached college. Before that, Maria was preoccupied with music. But then an opportunity to create a company that designs live-action horror games (Dead Earth Production) came her way in college.

The fully immersive games Maria was helping to create in the San Francisco Bay area gave her an opportunity to put her writing talents to good use. Maria’s love for storytelling was reignited and she found that she enjoyed the process more than almost anything else.

She still wasn’t ready to commit to writing fiction, though; but then she began to correspond with Neil Gaiman some years later and that put Maria firmly on the path to becoming an author.

Maria Alexander’s literary influences include Clive Barker and Tim Powers, not to mention Neil Gaiman; though, that was only when she was strictly writing horror. Once Maria decided to write in the Young Adult genre, she found herself drawn to the likes of Philip Pullman and Joe Hill.

Because of her background as a screenwriter, Maria likes to carefully plot her books out before writing them. Certainly, like most authors, she prefers to let the story lead her. She has admitted that she began working on ‘Snowed’ with the intention of making it a sweet magical romance.

But then she ended up creating an occurrence that was so terrible near the start that she realized she would have to let the book take a darker turn. But even then, Maria refused to simply plod on, putting words on paper and seeing where things would go. She went back and adjusted her outline once more before finally engaging in the writing process.

Even when she doesn’t outline, Maria needs to know the broad strokes of her characters and her story before she can begin to write.

Because Maria keeps struggling with a hand injury, meeting her deadlines can sometimes present a challenge. On a few occasions, she has been forced to use a voice program to get her writing done.

The author likes to listen to music when she is writing; though, she avoids music with actual words. Movie soundtracks will do just fine, possibly even a little classical music to get the creative juices flowing.

As a female author, Maria Alexander admits that she hasn’t had that difficult a time getting her work published. However, she knows that most women have not enjoyed as positive an experience as the one she has had. There is an aspect of misogyny in publishing that must be banished before female authors can get the fair shake they deserve.

+Mr. Wicker

Mr. Wicker manages the Library of Lost Childhood memories. The seductive creature is there to meet Alicia Baum as Librarian once she kills herself. Alicia is missing a deadly childhood memory.

Alicia thinks that the memory is the reason she took her life. However, Mr. Wicker informs her that the memory is responsible for every terrible thing that has ever assaulted her.

The sinister creature attempts to seduce Alicia but she chooses to rush into the hereafter, uninterested in finding the book that could give her answers she needs to become whole.

Alicia wanted oblivion. Instead, she ended up in a psychiatric hospital. There she was introduced to Doctor James Farron, a psychiatrist.

James is investigating a mysterious phenomenon at the hospital, one where traumatized kids encounter a figure known as Mr. Wicker and then wake up having lost their memories of the events that traumatized them.

Because Alicia is an adult, James is surprised when he hears her talk to Mr. Wicker. James and Alicia are drawn to each other even as they endeavor to find the lost memory that could give Alicia the freedom she desires. If they fail, they could anger Mr. Wicker and destroy James’ career.

Alicia knows that Mr. Wicker wants her and there is no telling what he will do to get her.

This book, the first written by Maria Alexander, follows Alicia, a lady that chooses to commit suicide in an attempt to escape her problems. However, what comes after is even worse.

Critical to the story is Alicia’s missing childhood memory, which is responsible for unraveling her life.

+Snowed

Charity and Aidan fall in love when Charity’s social worker mother brings the teen runaway home for the holidays. Aidan’s arrival is complicated by the death of a bully at Charity’s school.

The engineering genius isn’t exactly heartbroken by the death, not when this particular bully made her life at her conservative school in Oak County hell. But now she is convinced that a killer is stalking her community.

As her skeptics club begins to investigate this death and various others, the mystery grows darker and Charity isn’t so certain that she will survive to unravel the truth.

This book is quite surprising because it is Young Adult in nature but it avoids so many of the tropes associated with the genre. The characters are intelligent and pretty fun to follow. The mystery is also quite intriguing, especially in the way it builds upon the characters and their struggles.