Horace Walpole is credited/blamed for kicking off the 'Gothic' literature genre in 1765 with his novel The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Tale, which was intended as a subtle joke. Walpole meant 'Gothic' in the sense of 'barbarous' or 'derived from the Middle Ages', but his supernatural tale of perverse obsession and melodramatic tragedy sparked something… Continue reading Goth is [not] Dead: (Sub)Genre-Chat
I've finished the rewrites for my gothic weird fiction novel, The Crows, which started life as a light-hearted paranormal mystery with strong weird romance B-plot. Since I had a fair few romance readers/writers reading that version, I cheesed up the romantic side a bit and had a go at cozy mystery in a paranormal/urban fantasy… Continue reading Goth is [not] Dead: Genre-Chat
Happy Halloween! Halloween isn't big in the UK in the same way as it is in the USA - quite a few of us are not that fussed. Last year I had a grand total of 0 (zero) trick-or-treaters. I bought a pack of sweets from the shop across the road just in case and… Continue reading Hellequin’s Army, or the Army of the Dead
This post is a follow-on from the world-building posts that I've shared last month. If you're interested in the Welsh Triads, there are some really good translations out there - particularly Rachel Bromwich's editions: The Legal Triads of Medieval Wales and The Triads of the Island of Britain. [Note that the Medieval Welsh referred to… Continue reading World Building with the Welsh Triads
Introduction Welcome to my new series, WORLD BUILDING 101, with me, C. M. Rosens, and Guillaume Velde. Velde and I are building a world together and thought we would open up about the process since we do this kind of thing for fun. Premises: Building From a Seed Sometimes stories come in characters, in scraps… Continue reading World Building 101: Starting with a Premise
