It appears that my blog is behaving, although there are some images in some posts that are wonky. I should have listened to my intuition and just left well enough alone.

I got into an interesting conversation today with someone who never read some of the books I read when I was younger. I was trying to explain to him what gothic romance was. His definition seems to point toward “slasher films with sex”. Bleh.

I stumbled in my explanation because my swiss cheese mind took that moment to take a break and I couldn’t think of one single gothic romance book that I’d read. As I was searching for more books to add to my list of books to read, I came across an author who practically set the guidelines for gothic romance (for me), Marilyn Ross. Not a familiar name? Well, you might recall one of her most famous characters: Barnabas Collins.

Marilyn Ross was in actuality Dan Ross, a noted romance novelist (of the Fabio type romance) in the 60s who penned the first series of book novelisations. Dark Shadows and those books were what I’d been taught were gothic romance.

I have since learned that it was Ann Radcliffe the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) that is attributed with being the mother of gothic romance. She created the first mysterious, handsome, brooding villian that is a staple to a gothic styled romance story.

There is still gothic romance out there, but like most gothic themed stories, it’s collected under the heading of gothic fiction. I’ve read some books, recently that nod toward gothic romance, but then they either dive into action against supernatural baddies, or drift into erotica.

Every once in awhile I’m tempted to plunk down some dollars to buy some of those old Marilyn Ross Dark Shadows novels. They tend to be hard to find and some are extremely expensive. Someday, though, maybe I might.

A little trivia you might find interesting about Dark Shadows:

Dark Shadows was distinguished by its vividly melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable story lines and an unusually adventurous music score. Now regarded as somewhat of a camp classic, it continues to enjoy intense cult status among its followers. Director Tim Burton and pop icon Madonna have both gone on record as fans of the series. As a child Johnny Depp was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him.

Does anyone else think that Tim Burton ought to do a revival of Dark Shadows and Johnny Depp should play the famous, brooding vampire? I say, hell ya!