the gothic novel part tres

Continuing with my quest to find deliciously decadent gothic novels, I came across an author who began writing contemporary romances in the early 80s and transitioned into gothic romances in the late 80s and 90s.

Beverly C. Warren wrote around the same time as Anne Knoll - my last gothic author reviewed. Both of them shared success in a rather obscure genre. Of Beverly's eight gothics, I've read one and own three. My review will be on Lost Ladies of the Windswept Moor, the cover of which is not to your left considering I couldn't find an image.

LLWM is a novel about a very young restorer of old paintings, Janet Clarke. Desperate for employment after the death of her famous painting restorer father, she secures a position at Cheviot Chase (insert Funny Farm reference here), home of Lord John Rathbone. Of course Janet neglected to inform Lord Rathbone of the fact that she was a woman until she arrives, a popular plot device I've seen in gothics before. I guess you had to do what you had to do as a woman back then.

Cheviot Chase (insert Caddy Shack reference here) is dark and dreary with depressed and bitter servants. But wait there's more!... Rathbone's first wife committed suicide and the second, a raving madwoman, went missing after burning down the East Si-eede of the manor. Then we have the usual mouchers living off Rathbone; a gout-ridden peer and his greed-driven ditz of a daughter, who, what do ya know, has her sights set on Rathbone, and a charming, yet devious gentleman with a fancy for Janet.

The drama and action are ripe, while the sex scale reads about a 7, with passionate kisses and long, drawn out tension that makes yours truly scream with frustration. But I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. Janet is smart, strong, and has a knack for disobeying Lord Rathbone's rules - qualities I find endearing at this time in history. The mystery thread had me stumped, always a good thing. I hate guessing the culprit too early on. The plot had a nice flow, with enough twists to keep it exciting.

My only qualms would be the extent of Janet's intelligence at a meager 19 years of age. She could rival women in their 3os today! Also, the dialogue and romantic scenes tended toward cheesy, for lack of a better word, but sometimes the build-up for those scenes overpowers those moments of mush.

As far as Beverly's other novels. I could only find one site - http://www.thepaperbackstash.com/search?q=beverly+c+warren -
that reviewed more than one of her novels in depth. Feel free to check them out at your leisure.
According to the review, LLWM is tame compared to those two. More death, debauchery and darkness, complete with rape and other cruelties fills the remainder. As long as they end happily, I'm game.

I'm eager to read Beverly's seven other novels based on LLWM. She knows what lies at the heart of gothic romance and exploits it with expertise.

The next gothic review will focus on Karen White's, Whispers of Goodbye. Until then...keep those roots dyed black ;-)

grand total: 48021

Quote of the Day: Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

goodbye, my lover

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!! Can you hear the chorus sing?!

:::warning, spoilers within:::

It took me a while, ok, one year to be exact, and honestly, I don't know how I avoided hearing what happens throughout the book since my best friend finished wayyyy before me and heck, everyone finished it wayyyyy before me...But I did it! I completed the entire Harry Potter series - ending with the final chapter, this afternoon, 12:25 pm.

And guess what? I'm a wreck.

I have a theory (do I say that often?) that I languished over the final book, spreading it out as long as possible, because I knew it would be painful to see HP come to an end. I sensed this empty feeling would come, filling my soul with a resounding heap of rigid, cold, nothingness.

J.K. Rowling published the first novel in 1997 and I believe I was hooked about a year or two later, making HP part of my life for roughly ten years, like a behind the scenes lover - always there when you need him, ready to provide you with the escape and satisfaction you so desire.

We've been through a lot, HP and I; from envying Hermione for her brains and magical abilities, to the excitement of Harry's first kiss with Cho, to the crush I developed for Severus Snape and his dark and mysterious relationship with Dumbledore, Harry and Draco (most of that crush probably came about from Alan Rickman's portrayal of Snape in the movies, but still...). I cried when Dumbledore died. I cried when Harry came to the realization that he had to die to defeat Voldemort and I cried when Dumbledore cried reliving his misguided youth and the death of his sister. But I cried most of all when Harry won and we knew he would live, because that meant the story had come to a close.

HP took me everywhere I wanted to go, through every emotion and every action and reaction. Toward the end I began looking for holes, or discrepancies in the writing, only to find nothing. Rowling is a master and I applaud her for it. She is an absolutely amazing writer.

So it's the end of an era. I thought it would be similar to how I felt when Friends ended, because I grew up with the show. And I know you can't compare film, TV and books, but they are all just stories, done in different media. But HP took me places Friends could never and I think that has something to do with the written word allowing you to use your own imagination, creating the characters within yourself, so much so, that they become part of you. Like Voldemort being part of Harry. It made his ultimate goal of snuffing out Voldemort akin to killing a part of himself...and who really wants to do that? I mean, would who you are change? How complex? How...brilliant? And in a young adult novel.... I'm blown away.

You would think it would depress me when it comes to my own writing, but I've found that it has made me hopeful. Hopeful that I might write something as wonderful as HP in my lifetime. It may be a different story, but even if I capture an ounce of Rowling's ability to breath such life into my characters, I'd be content.

At least there are three more movies to savor. Again, they aren't books....but anything to satisfy my HP fix.

Goodbye, my lover.....

grand total: 47001

Quote of the Day: Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction. ~Dylan Thomas, letter to Vernon Watkins, March 1938

quick note

I just wanted to post some totals today, since yes, I have been writing. No, not blogging. And I apologize. I will continue the gothic reviews tomorrow.

I didn't make my goal of 60,000 words by tomorrow's RWA Chapter meeting, but hey, it was a mighty hefty goal.

I'll live and move forward.

grand total: 44207

Quote of the Day: The wastebasket is a writer's best friend. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

crime scene break

I promise to resume the gothic reviews soon, but I felt the need to interject a post regarding my novel and some helpful tips.

I recall mentioning my lack of knowledge when it comes to police procedure and crime scene investigation in a previous post. This topic is important in my current wip as well as the next two in the series, especially the last novel, which features the Detective from this story as the hero! I bought Lee Lofland's book from Writer's Digest, Police Procedure and Investigation, and it has helped immensely, but as usual, I'm a stickler for detail and I have questions that are incredibly specific.

I peruse the Romantic Times website message boards (www.romantictimes.com) and thought I'd ask if any of the writers new of anything that might help me with specific law enforcement questions. A lovely lady gave me a nice list of websites and message boards to check out.

Here is the list:

This is the yahoo group everyone always recommends: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/crimescenewriter/

Also the ask a cop forum
http://forums.realpolice.net/forumdisplay.php?f=112

Lots of good crime/mystery links here: http://inreferencetomurder.com/index.html

Various other crime related links
http://omi.unm.edu/ExternalOrgs.htm
http://www.firearmsid.com/
http://www.theboxotruth.com/index.htm

All of you who are writers that need this kind of technical help, I suggest you use these links.

I joined the Yahoo group CrimeSceneWriter and I must say I was impressed. I asked a question there are had great responses from a retired crime scene analyst and another writer. Also Lee Lofland posts there frequently. I bookmarked and recommend his blog, The Graveyard Shift (www.leelofland.com/wordpress/). He's entertaining and knowledgeable.

I ventured into the Ask a Cop site and read some posts. They weren't very kind to the writer who asked a question about murder investigation procedure, but maybe that's just one dude. They have a ton of people asking everything from how to deal with a restraining order to the three strikes law. Fascinating stuff.

Seriously, these sites are a perfect for the nerd like me, who needs real answers , fast.

It did throw me off a little in my writing because I need to rewrite a scene that wouldn't happen. But I'm going to move forward and take note of it so I don't ruin any momentum.

Anyway, enjoy the sites. Hope they help.

grand total: 41178

Quote of the Day: The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. ~Mark Twain

the gothic novel part deux

In my last post I mentioned a few authors I’ve come across that have kept the gothic novel alive and well….

After doing an extensive search under Gothic on Amazon, I was amazed at the mass of books I found. Slowly, I narrowed it down, reading descriptions, reviews and Googling authors.

Anne Knoll caught my attention immediately with her most recent novel, The House in Thornton Wood (2002). And the clincher wasn’t the blurb or reviews, but the cover. (Yes, I have been known to take a chance on a book based on its cover. Is it so wrong?) Something about the look of the woman in the cloak, decaying stone castle behind, dark ominous clouds overhead in a deep red purple made me want to jump right in. And I’m glad I did.

HTW is the story of Olivia St. Claire, daughter of a housekeeper who passes on, and leaves her in the typical fashion of the gothic genre - desperate, alone, and penniless. Of course, this isn’t what a young woman desires in a class-driven, money-hungry, man’s world. Ahh, 19^th century England! Yet, unlike most gothic heroines, Olivia is a strong woman and she has a secret past that even she isn’t aware of. To top it off she has a hideous birthmark on the top of her hand that frightens children and the help. This should keep it interesting.

So Olivia takes a position as a governess for an exhaustingly evil little child at the Thornton house. Here we meet the odd, yet dashing Sir Evan Thornton and his crew. Another unexpected delight came with Sir Evan not being the main love interest! Who knew?? Olivia is more enthralled with the country doctor, Dr. Phillip McAllister, who’s a tad more down to earth and sexually charged than the imposing Sir Evan. There is a nice competition between the two men going and constant turmoil within Olivia. On the sex meter, I’d give it a 6, which is pretty high for an old school gothic. There’s nothing too graphic, but much more than chaste kisses. Way to go, Anne!

There are quite a few twists and turns that make the plot enjoyable. Pair that with complex characters and fascinating subplots featuring gypsies and home remedies and you’ve got a decent story on your hands.

Anne’s second to last novel, The Dark Secrets of the Villa Montelano (1993) seems like it could have been written by someone else. Not that it didn’t make the cut, but it is so radically different than HTW in style, character and format. It’s still a gothic, no doubt about that, but wow, what a difference nine years make.

DSVM tells the story of a poor English shop girl, Charlotte Stone, who finds out her dead father’s estranged and recently deceased mother has left her a grand villa in Maryland. She is told all of this by her so-called grandmother’s lawyer, a handsome man, by the name of Forrest. Forrest and Charlotte fall in love on the boat ride to the U.S. and get married all within the first few chapters. They even do the deed! This was slightly disappointing to me because I felt the romantic tension of the book was dead after that. And it kinda was. I mean, Charlotte and Forrest “get together” every so often when they finally settle in the new villa, but it’s ho-hum. Thus, the rest of the book centers around the mystery of the villa, the ghostly visions Charlotte sees and the cast of colorful inhabitants of the villa. Since Charlotte’s grandmother was a famous Italian opera singer she took in many aspiring singers, instructors and lovers….many of which still live there and for whatever reason Charlotte and Forrest don’t kick them all out. Most of them despise her for getting the villa and she’s convinced something more sinister is going on.

The characters are well done, even if they are minor ones, and I was impressed with how well she did with the sheer amount of them. I wasn’t all that into Forrest, who could be a jerk and rather condescending to Charlotte, who always forgave him. She does mistrust him and question him at times, but is so smitten she’d follow him to hell if it came to it. I’m not sure how I feel about that. We get to find out more about Charlotte’s past and get a lesson in Italian opera, which is nice. I enjoy lessons within fiction. It makes me feel like I’ve gotten something extra.

I have Anne’s other two novels, The Stolen Bride of Glengarra Castle (1990) and The Lost Lady of Hathaway Manor (1992) on my reading list. I’m sure she’ll surprise me again, because I honestly can’t find a similar theme besides a well written gothic. It could be worse…

Join me for my next post when I discuss the gothic works of Beverly C. Warren and Karen White.

grand total: 41178

Quote of the Day: I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener

the gothic novel part I

For those of you who notice the changes on my blog reading list, you’ll see that I read quite often. I also enjoy a variety of genres, though I do go through phases where I tend to read one particular type of story, author, or theme, fast and furiously.

Lately, I’ve been on a gothic kick. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the term “gothic” unless it refers to (as my previous post mentioned)…black hair, vampires, and morbid obsessions with death and tragic romance, I’ll enlighten you.

Actually, I’ll let Wikipedia do a little enlightening for you:

Gothic fiction is an important genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. The effect of Gothic fiction depends on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of essentially Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel.

Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.

The stock characters of Gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew and the Devil himself.

Important ideas concerning and regarding the Gothic include: Anti-Catholicism, especially criticism of Roman Catholic excesses such as the Inquisition (in southern European countries such as Italy and Spain); romanticism of an ancient Medieval past; melodrama; and parody (including self-parody).

There is just something about a good old fashioned spooky gothic that gets me all hyped up. And I’m sure it’s the sense of danger, deceit and the Byronic hero, a.k.a. the tortured, sexually magnetized, mysterious man of the manor. Now, the original gothics weren’t really true “romances” in the commercial definition at all. I mean, they weren't required to have a happy ending and usually the endings were more tragic, like a combination of a bad horror movie and Romeo and Juliet. But as most things do, the gothic romance evolved with the times.

Enter Ann Radcliffe (late 18th century), the supposed creator of the gothic novel in its now-standard form, which I would even say has evolved from that, but I’ll hold off on that theory. She introduced the brooding villain, which turned into the tortured hero. I think one of the reasons I’m so fascinated by gothics is this fine line between the villain and hero, and eventually this line blurred within the hero alone. He must constantly struggle between the good and bad sides, the good usually (hopefully) winning in the end.

Anne Radcliffe’s books were best sellers, unlike previous gothic novels, though much of high society looked down upon the stories as “sensationalist women’s entertainment.” Sounds kinda familiar to what romance is today to some of the more ignorant types, don’t you think?

Anyway, as the Victorian period came about we had Poe, the Bronte sisters (Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre), Stoker (Dracula), Dickens, Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), and Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Gray). Yes, some of these author’s may not seem to be gothic, but the influence is there more than not.



With the arrival of the 20th century, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca kept the gothic torch alive and ushered in the “woman in peril” concept that most gothics are associated with today.



In the 1950’s the gothic made a huge comeback in popularity, Victoria Holt leading the pack. Now, Victoria Holt is one of my all time favorite authors. I’d say after the young adult horror/romance novels I began my love of reading with, Victoria Holt was the first gothic author I fell in love with. After reading her first gothic work, Mistress of Mellyn, I cried. Basically for two reasons: 1) The narrator is looking back on her life and telling the story as an old woman. This tactic gives the story a timeless, more grandiose feel, and its makes me feel small and insignificant. Don’t ask me why, it just does. But I do love it, even though I cry :-) 2) Victoria Holt is a master storyteller and I fear that I’ll never be as amazing as she was! HA! She had written over 50 gothics AND more than 100 historical fiction and non-fiction novels. Talk about productive. She’s my hero!



I have a few other authors that do the gothic proud: Anne Knoll, Beverly C. Warren, Eve Silver, Lydia Joyce and Diane Tyrrel. I plan on continuing this post with a short review of what I’ve read of their work so far. So until next time….

grand total: 40015

Quote of the Day: Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

loss of my gothic youth

Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions. This weekend I had to make a decision that reminded me just how old I really am.

I used to be borderline Goth about 10-13 years ago. I began my Goth phase nearing the end of high school and had the tendencies off and on until my junior year in college. I never wore the black lipstick or nail polish, but I had the long dark hair, the whiter shade of pale skin, the 18 hole Doc Martins and the vampire obsession. I was also heavily into the Gothic music scene, from hard-core obscurities like Nosferatu and the Virgin Prunes, to more popular stuff like The Cure and Bauhaus. And sheesh, I knew Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, like the back of my hand. I'm still in love with Gary Oldman.

I'm not sure who first introduced me to the band Type O Negative, a goth metal group with blasphemous, vampiric and romantically morbid songs, but I was instantly hooked. Their melodies and lyrics spoke to me at a time when I was "finding myself." Not to mention their lead singer, Peter Steele, is a six foot six sex god with long black hair and a deep penetrating voice that would make any woman quake in her boots. I had the privilege of seeing them twice in concert. Both times in L.A., but years apart. I noticed a few months back that they put out a new CD (mighty amazing since reports said Peter was on the verge of committing suicide a year before).

Well, to make a long story possibly shorter, they are touring and happened to be at the House of Blues here in Las Vegas last Saturday. I didn't go.

Here are the reasons why:

1) I had to work at 7am the next day and put in 10 hours.

2) They were touring with two other bands, whose music I happened to listen to and could not get into.

3) I didn't think my boy friend could handle the Goth scene.

4) Because of 1) I wouldn't have been able to drink profusely, which may have helped with 2) and 3).

5) It might have been too loud.

Reviewing these reasons, I began to feel old. I chose responsibility and reality over youthful pleasure. Because really, the one reason I wanted to go, was to hold onto something from my youth that, like so many other things, is slipping away faster than I had anticipated.

I will always love Type O and their music because it reminds me of a different time in my life. It wasn't necessarily a good or bad time, but it was a time when I could go to a loud, drunken, metal concert and then survive a 10 hour day as the sun rose. You know why? My body could take it. I was young and full of energy. Now I'm reliant on a pillow-top mattress for quality sleep so that I can wake up without an aching back or head and make it through 8 hours of sitting at a computer, so I can come home and relax on the couch before dinner, TV and doing it all over again. I'm depressing myself.

Watch a Type O Clip and you'll make me feel better. Warning, it can be a little hard to take, but this isn't the full video and he had to change a few of the lyrics for the mass video.



grand total: 35219

Quote of the Day: Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~Sharon O'Brien