Reading and Writing and Gothic Romance

Recently I read Northanger Abby by Jane Austen. Until this year, I had only read Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park. A few months ago, I discovered Austen's novella Lady Susan which she had written when she was younger. It was lively and filled with humor. I enjoyed it a great deal. I was very happy to discover that Austen had a similar style for Northanger Abby and I do believe it is now my favorite, displacing Sense & Sensibility.

One of things I enjoyed was the fact that the heroine, Catherine, enjoys reading Gothic horror novels.

I found a kinship with Austen as she rants about how a trend at the time was authors mocking the

heroines of other books. She believed authors should be band together as a community rather than attack each other. Novels, as she calls them, were deemed lesser literature. This theme still persists today in the writing world, even if the object of ridicule has changed.

Romance novels have long been though of as "lesser" even though the genre sells more books than any other. Alternately, indie books also receive disdain by being "lesser" than traditionally published books. The scholarly writing world puts their noses up at those of us who choose to forge ahead and make our own way instead of relying on the lottery that is traditional publishing. Many libraries refuse to carry indie books and it is nearly impossible to get them onto bookstore shelves.

I know all of the reasons for this, such as editing issues or feeling indie authors are "cheating the system," but I still find it ridiculous. Writers should be about supporting writers, not tearing them down for their choices. It is not easier to be an indie author. Just because my book is available doesn't mean people are buying it and reading it. Marketing is difficult and expensive. Also, it's up to me alone to take care of every detail of writing and publishing.

Each path has its own set of pros and cons, and one is not better than the other. It's like chocolate and vanilla ice cream. One is not better than the other, people just prefer one over the other. In the end, they are both the same thing.

Another addition to my life thanks to Northanger Abby is the discovery that all of the books Austen mentions are real books. Curious to read what Jane Austen might have read, I purchased all nine of the books mentioned for my Kindle. As I complete the nine books I will also review them here on my blog for the fun of it.

I have already started reading The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons and it has inspired me.

I've decided to write my own Gothic Romance, set in the fictional kingdom I'm creating for my Regency Romance. While it is another project, it's also one I've been working on at a steady rate for the past week. It has been a year since I published Promising Love but also a year since the struggles with my writing began. I hope that is turning a corner and I can finish all three projects I have started in 2018 and 2019.

That's my update for now! Expect my review of The Castle of Wolfenbach soon!