The shift from gorgeous to grotesque is dizzying and thrilling.Ī core problem with the traditional Gothic is that women are, for the most part, mere victims and plot devices with no agency or minds of their own. The Gothic posits the horrific and the beautiful as just a hair’s breadth away, entirely coined and mirrored.

While I don’t go so far as spear and magic helmet, I’ve got some capital-D-Dramatic stuff in my work. “You mean I can DO all this CRAZY shit in a book? Enormous helmet of prophecy falling from the heavens to flatten a dude?! Who gets away with this?!” Gothic fiction has all the wild, sweeping abandon that remains the perfect fit for me as a writer, actress, Goth, and Edgar Allan Poe fangirl. When I first read Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, it was liberatory. Wikipedia’s definition of Gothic Fiction is fair, if not limited as a historic account. But none so begets the snark as the great GOTHIC NOVEL. Every genre has a tendency to snark at other genres. I’ve been shelved on different bookstore shelves despite writing consistently Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy since my 2009 debut, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. I know this because I’ve written nearly all of them. And so, without further shenanigans:Įvery genre of fiction seems to think it is the red-headed step-child of fiction.

Further, she kicks an infinite cabinet of asses when it comes to writing, and so today - on the release date of her newest, The Eterna Files - it makes sense to have her here to guide you poor little penmonkeys toward the light of writing whatever the sweet hot hell you want. She is one of the most wonderful people and without further invitation will join you in a game of making up harsh-sounding German words to delight and amaze. I met Leanna this past year at Phoenix ComicCon (which you should go to because holy tacos, awesome).

Darker still by leanna renee hieber