Time For A Gothic Revival MFRWAuthor 2018 Week 17

This week’s writing prompt is, Favorite Romance Genre to Read or Write.

I hope the answer to this prompt is fairly obvious from my tagline (Darkly Beautiful Romance) and from my book covers. I love Gothic romances! I discovered Gothic romance when I was in graduate school. I’m talking Anne Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, even Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. While Gothic romance dates back to the 1760s, it was wildly popular in the 1800s thanks to authors like Mary Shelly and Edgar Allan Poe.

Gothic romance usually has a horror setting and elements – large castles or family curses –  with elements of the fantastic – ghosts, vampires, or spirits. The stories typically focus on a heroine and her need to escape something. There is a sense of foreboding or terror, usually some mystery to be solved. To me, Gothic romances sort of have it all.

The popularity of Gothic romances eventually waned, but there was a revival in the 60s and 70s. Authors such as Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney wrote dozens of Gothic romances with those gorgeous covers of women with long flowing hair fleeing imposing castles in the dead of night. Fabulous!

As before, the genre dropped in popularity. But it seems to be experiencing a revival again! Authors such as Eve Silver and…well, me have been working on bringing this incredible genre back.

What about you? What is your favorite romance genre to read or write? Let me know in the comments.

This post is part of the 2018 MFRW Weekly Blog Post Challenge. You can read all my posts in the challenge for 2018 here.