On May 29, 2025, my first book baby was born into the world. Like all first time parents, I have a very difficult time leaving my newborn out of the conversation. I will find literally any excuse to bring her up. Maybe even find a way to weave some book quotes into the conversation.

As soon as you declare “I wrote a book!” (loudly so everyone at the party can hear you), the automatic response is:

“Oh, what is your book about?”

Simple.

“It’s historical gothic fiction about a young woman, Winnie, who catches the eye of Mr. Gibson, a genteel artist whose obsession with turning her into a living work of art just might be the death of her.”

But one particularly curious friend caught me by surprise and asked:

“Oh, but why gothic fiction?”

Needless to say, she was unprepared for the thirty minute impassioned speech that I gave her. I only wish I had a soapbox to stand on.

I thought it was a fine question, because to me she was really asking: “what motivates you to write at all”?

So here is Part 1 of why I write gothic fiction:

1. The Supernatural

Supernatural elements are common in gothic fiction, and it’s also one of the reasons I love writing this genre!

In the 1700’s, at the dawn of the gothic genre, there was significant political, social, and religious change. So writers used the supernatural to represent the crumbling ways of the past (ghosts and the literal decay of the castles of Europe), while our MC’s journey was meant to be progressive, marching forward to the future.

Even when your “ghosts” turn out to be pirates trying to scare you away from their treasure (no, really, thank you Ann Radcliffe for that awesomeness), the supernatural is not there for shock value but to play a valuable role in the growth of characters. From the “haunting” of Heathcliff by Catherine in Wuthering Heights to Victor’s creature harassing him in Frankenstein, supernatural elements force our characters to confront themselves and their place in the world and use it as a springboard for change.

Even after centuries of gothic stories, I love finding a fresh take on a classic supernatural element.

A character’s reaction to the unknown is also interesting. Often the supernatural leads to hysteria and madness. And those scenes are my favorite to write.

2. Diversity

The gothic genre began as a simple spooky story called The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. It had many of the tropes we now identify as “gothic”: crumbling castles, locked doors, comic relief servants, ancestral secrets, and many more.

Two decades later, Clara Reeve refined the gothic genre and made it more palatable for the masses in The Old English Baron.

But the genre didn’t really take off until Ann Radcliff wrote her series of gothic books including The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian. She is, to this day, the highest paid gothic writer of all time (accounting for inflation obviously). Suddenly everybody was writing and reading gothic fiction!

Ann Radcliff opened the gothic genre up to any and all who want to write it. And people have taken it to some really awesome and horrific places! Female gothic. Eco-horror. Weird horror. Cosmic horror. Gothic romance. Southern gothic. Domestic gothic. Urban gothic. Speculative fiction. The list is long. And I love it! I can write something for whatever odd idea, strange passing thought, I may have.

Stay tuned for next week, when we dive into why I write gothic fiction part 2!