Is gothic romance dead?

Asking the question about gothic romance makes me feel old. 

I grew up reading Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, among others. These books are written from a single point of view, usually the heroine, and the hero is something of a scoundrel. Can he be trusted? Is the heroine's life in danger?

When I attended my first (or it might have been my second) writers' conference, I met Erica Ridley, who had just released her very first novel - a gothic romance. I spent some time chatting with her, considering my appreciation for the genre. She wrote several books in that first series - Too Wicked, Too Brazen, Too something else. I think I read two of them. While I enjoyed them, and many other of her books, she lost her contract with the publisher. She went indie (not a bad thing!) and started writing more historical romance and less "gothic." When she lost me, however, was when she started writing to an outline. "And then this has to happen, and then that has to happen, and the obligatory XX scene has to be here..." While I don't mind formulaic novels, I do mind them when certain things start to feel forced. Don't get me wrong, she's an excellent author and I would recommend her. What I didn't like was certain things like "Oh, I forgot to include a sex scene, so I'll tack one on at the end." I'm sorry, but if I got all the way through the novel without it, it doesn't need to be there. 

My point is that I don't run across many gothic authors these days. I read an article that says they've rebranded the genre as something else (romantic suspense, perhaps? I don't recall). Sort of like those romance authors who don't write category romance are now said to write women's fiction. Same animal, different nameplate on the pen.

Circling back around... I used Victoria Holt as a model when I wrote my first novel. I won't bore you with how many incarnations that poor book went through as first a quest novel, then an inspirational novel, then a romance novel (sweet, not spicy). In the end, it turned into a gothic romance. As I've been giving it another look, I realized something important. It has multiple points of view: the heroine, the hero, and the bad guy. FIRST, let me point out this was my first foray into "serious" writing, so it had MANY rookie mistakes. As a gothic romance, I should have stuck with one point of view. Okay, so even if I wanted to categorize it as "regular" romance, the multiple points of view I wrote were irregular. What the heck does that mean? 

In a romance novel, you generally do alternating points of view. He says, she says, he says, she says, and so on. In my poor excuse for a novel, the hero has something like five half-page scenes in 30 chapters. Ummm..... Just no. How did it take me twenty years to notice that? Easy, I haven't read it in more than ten years, and I've learned a heck of a lot in ten--twenty--years. 

Book #1
The original title/
cover
2002

Why does this matter? I've remaindered the book, so no one has to read my goofy mistakes anymore. Except a friend asked me recently what ever happened to...? And so I had to look and see if it was worth reviving this book. Hence, Exhibit A. Poorly written. But you know what? The story is still there. It's still good. So can I salvage the story using the tools I've learned lo, these many years? And this brings me to gothic romance.

Book #1
The updated cover/title

It makes the most sense to rewrite the "he says" scenes from her point of view. She sees something. She overhears something. That removes the clumsily inserted "he says" scenes. OR I can write it as straight romance and expand on the he says scenes. Option one is the most appealing to me at the moment. There's really only one chapter where his point of view directly impacts the story. That also means giving him redeeming qualities for the heroine to notice that might not be obvious from the way he treats her (he's deep into grief and acting out rather than dealing with his emotions). Going deep into a character's motivation is one of the lessons I've learned through the years. I've had several unlikeable characters that I've had to redeem (and some that weren't redeemable!). I can handle that. 

Which brings me back to the theme of this post. Is gothic romance dead? Are today's women interested in a slightly unnerving man (who can be redeemed) or have we lived this story too many times in real life and he isn't worth the energy? "Walk away. Walk away." What say you, people of my blog?

The latest release: Dark Shadows