The New Damsel in distress

By Traci Dowe/Kenworth

For many years, gothics were known for their covers of a woman running from a dark manor, frightened by something she’d seen. A lot of readers think gothics are dead but they’ve just been reinvented.

Now, their locations can vary. So can the characters. Steeped in the deep south of yesterday, today, they can be anywhere, set at any time. I quite like these new gothics I’m seeing. They took the adventure and scares to a new level.

No longer is the damsel in distress hanging on for someone to rescue her. These days, gothic characters make a practice of rescuing not only themselves but others with them as well.

There’s usually some sort of mystery at the heart of the gothic. Something the protagonist has to discover or uncover. While they do this, supernatural or plain villainous ways may be brought to light.

So, what’s your opinion on gothics? And the new “damsel in distress Not?”

Some posts around the web you may be interested in:

1. Janice Hardy: Fiction University: Bob and Weave: How to Mix Character Actions and Internal Thoughts The smoother the flow between action and thought, the stronger the scene will be.
   
   Although some scenes (and some writers) naturally find the perfect balance between action and internal thought, other scenes take work to get that balance right. Tip it too far in either direction, and the writing can come across as too slow (too much in a character’s head) or too flat (all description, no character).
   
   There’s no rule or ratio for this, since a writer’s voice grows from how they string words together. If we all wrote the exact same way, all books would sound alike. And who wants that?

This is something I’ll have to investigate my stories to see if I did this. I haven’t been so technical in my work yet. I do try and vary my sentences and show action and internalization, but I wonder if they’re being too much of a sleeper to readers.

• Sly’s 65 blog: #FridayInspiration 🌿 Matt Redman “Your Grace Finds Me” – Syl65’s Blog

Slyvester always, always has some great quotes, poems, and songs! Check his blog out!

• Library of the Erana: Check out the Legacy of The Mask Series – Library of Erana Award-winning #historicalfantasy based on the #PhantomoftheOpera.

Echoes of a Song:
A dozen tumultuous years after the dramatic events at the Paris Opera House Raoul, Comte de Chagny is still haunted by the mysterious Opera Ghost – the creature of legend who held staff at the Opera House under his thrall, kidnapped Raoul’s lover and murdered his brother. In Raoul’s troubled imagination the ghosts of the past are everywhere, and strange and powerful music still calls in his dreams.
Madness, obsession and the legacy of the past weave their spell in this short, tragic tale based on the Phantom of the Opera.

Two tragic tales based on the Phantom of the Opera.

• Robbie’s Inspiration: Robbie’s Inspiration – Jose Pizarro “Basque” cookbook review and a recipe #cooking – Robbie’s inspiration This is not a book I would ordinarily have picked up as it uses a lot of ingredients that I would not usually buy and that are not readily available at the stores where I shop, for example duck, pork trotters, partridge, rabbit, and quail. For this same reason, I struggled to find a recipe that my family would enjoy and for which I could get the ingredients.

I’ve had the same problem with a lot of famous chef’s cookbooks. The meat or ingredients are not available here or very hard to get your hands on. Not to mention, my family wouldn’t eat most dishes anyway.

• Annette Rochelle Aben: Angel Messages Nov 16 2024 | Annette Rochelle Aben

Blessings we all need!

• Smorgasbord Magazine: Smorgasbord Book Reviews – #Contemporary #Romance – Anchored in Embo by Christine Campbell | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine An anchor should be sure and strong to keep you steady when things get rough, but you never know the strength of your anchor until you feel the blast of the storm. When your anchor is lost, and you’re left at the mercy of the elements, how do you find safety?
  That’s how Eilidh feels after the sudden death of her husband of forty years. He was her anchor, and now she is adrift, floating aimlessly through her life. When her married daughters try to comfort her by taking her back to Embo, a small village in the North of Scotland where they’d often holidayed in the past, memories of those happy times wash over her and threaten to drown her in grief. But could Embo turn out to be where she finds safe anchorage?

This sounds like my cup of tea! On my TBR list I keep.

• Chris the Story Reading Ape: Breaking Point, Back Story, Resolution: A Three-Part Structure for Memoir – by Jennifer Landau… | Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog According to writer Jessica Ciencin Henriquez, many effective personal essays follow a three-part structure: breaking point, back story, resolution.

This format works well for memoir, too.

When writing your memoir, you begin at the point when something in your life has shifted and can no longer be ignored.

You fill in the backstory—which is not your entire life story—that illuminates the breaking point.

Hmm. Interesting.

What I’m Reading: Nora Robert’s “Stars of fortune,” and the writers of the future Vol 40.

Things I’m learning about: Autocrit that does a lot of the work for writers, especially Indie. You can skip the developmental, line, and proofreading, it does it all. It even formats for you. Take a look.

Have a great week, take care, and God bless!