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05-02-2009, 04:53 PM
Hi everyone!
It's been a while since I've visited the forum and that's because I've been busy with the publishing company that I run with my husband.
What I would really like is to resurrect the gothic romance genre. I'm a huge fan of Phyllis A. Whitney, but it's been years since I've read her books. I've been scrounging on eBay and Alibris to find copies of the editions with the covers that I want--I'm talking the pulp fiction covers from the 50s, 60s and 70s, not the flowery, 1980s-Dynasty-big hair style covers that came out in the late 80s/early 90s.
I'm also having to re-educate myself about the genre so any input from this forum would be great.
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Are you planning to republish any of the old ones? I had thought about trying to contact some publishers to do so, but the expense might not be justified in their eyes. I wondered how much the Gothic fans are willing to pay for a good mass market paperback reprint of the old Gothics, complete with the classic covers. I would love to see the Gothics resurrected. Considering the number of books that were published, I don't think I've even read the "tip of the iceberg".
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Are you looking to publish new authors? I believe we have several members who are writers. And most of them do like the old traditional gothic romances, like the ones you used to read. Though many of us realise that the new romantic thrillers are sort of like the gothics, it is not quite what we mean. So, there's really no need to re-educate yourself. But you can read some of the other threads about different people's views of the meaning of gothic romance and their opinions on what is good and what is not.
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great ideas Bastet and it sounds like you definitely have the resources and know-how to pull this off. A similar thing is happening with pulp/noir hard boiled type fiction, new works being published in the old 30s-50s tradition of that genre with artwork imitating the early styles (think: Jim Thompson et al).
I'm 94% complete with a manuscript that started out as a traditional gothic romance (set in 1969) but well into act three there seems to be a lot of "reality bending" (alas, our poor heroine is MAD) and there won't be a cheery romantic conclusion.
I had posted excerpts on a writer's forum and all my critiquers did their very best to talk me out of it, targeting the "antiquated style") and urging me to read contemporary romantic suspense (referring to them as "gothic" - it seems only readers of our forum here really understand the difference) In fact my whole reason for writing this story was as a sustained exercise in style.
ANyway, just checking in with my two cents worth. While you're here, don't forget to peruse our cover art library (sub forum of gothic book reviews) there are several hundred scans of covers from the golden era of 20th century gothics. A feast for the eyes!
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I just joined the forum about ten minutes ago. So I haven't read all the threads, etc. I haven't read any gothics in years but I did read them when I was younger and I really enjoyed them. Presently -- I'm a librarian, although in my former life I was a writer, and, no I have never written a gothic romance.
If anyone is looking for a specific author or a specific title, cover, whatever, please post it here. I'm in charge of library book sales and it is not uncommon for us to get an estate's entire book collection, of course when this happens I'm literally up to my eyeballs in books! So if you can't find what your looking for, maybe it's in my "slush" pile.
