My name is Meredith Allard, and I write Gothic literary fiction shaped by history and memory. Many of my novels are Gothic in tone, and I love to write stories that live in other worlds and other times. I’m best known for the Loving Husband Trilogy and the Victorian novel When It Rained at Hembry Castle, which was named a Best Historical Novel by IndieReader. My prequel, Down Salem Way, earned the B.R.A.G. Medallion and was a semi-finalist for the Chaucer Award in Early Historical Fiction.
My latest novel, The Professor of Eventide, is a Gothic literary mystery set at an elite college where three murders draw a professor into a carefully constructed design—one that forces him to confront both the past he cannot outrun and a nature he has long concealed.
My other books include Christmas at Hembry Castle; Woman of Stones, a novella of Biblical Jerusalem; The Duchess of Idaho, a time-travel tale set on the Oregon Trail; and And Shadows Will Fall, the sixth and final book in the Loving Husband Series.
I’ve also written two nonfiction books for writers. Painting the Past: A Guide for Writing Historical Fiction was a #1 New Release on Amazon in Authorship and Creativity Self-Help. The Swirl and Swing of Words: Embracing the Writing Life was also named a #1 New Release on Amazon in Authorship, Creativity Self-Help, and Authorship Reference.
My short stories and articles have appeared in journals such as Moondance, Muse Apprentice Guild, The Paumanok Review, Wild Mind, The Maxwell Digest, Writers Weekly, ViewsHound, The Honor Society, The Huffington Post, Introvert, Dear, and Anne R. Allen’s blog.
In 2000, I founded The Copperfield Review, an award-winning literary journal for readers and writers of historical fiction, and I remained the executive editor until the journal closed in 2023. I’ve been a guest speaker at The History Quill’s Conference for Writers of Historical Fiction and Rachel Thompson’s Lit Mag Love course.
I received my BA and MA degrees in English from CSU Northridge and my PhD in Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I’ve taught writing to students ages five to 75, and I’ve taught education, creative writing, and writing historical fiction courses in places such as Learning Tree University, UNLV, the UNLV Continuing Education Extension Program, the Henderson Writers Group, and the Las Vegas Writers Conference.
I read everything from historical fiction to literary fiction, and from the classics to nonfiction. I love baking, reading journaling, and art journaling, and I’m a Los Angeles Dodgers fan as well as a frequenter of coffee shops. Then I practice yoga to counteract all that coffee. When I’m not researching and unearthing the secrets of the past, I can be found in the hills of Southern Nevada with my cats and a cup of coffee.