So...Is Mary Shelley Black Related to THE Mary Shelley?

I haven't yet received enough frequently asked questions to create a FAQ page, but one question that keeps coming up is whether or not my In the Shadow of Blackbirds protagonist, Mary Shelley Black, is related to THE Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

No, she's not. My fictional Mary Shelley's mother gave her that name because Frankenstein was her favorite novel.

Like her mother, and like Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Mary Shelley Black is scientific minded and madly in love with modern technology and electricity. She frequently wears gadgets and contraptions that reflect her scientific curiosity (hence, the goggles around her neck on the cover).

However...even though In the Shadow of Blackbirds isn't a retelling of Frankenstein or anyway related to the famous Shelley family, I have inserted other Frankenstein references throughout the book. I'll be curious to see if readers and reviewers pick up on all my tributes to the real Mary Shelley's classic tale of horror.

What you won't be seeing in the novel, however, is a scene like this:

(Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in one of my favorite movies,
Young Frankenstein).