The Mother of Gothic Romance Anne Radcliffe is considered the mother of gothic fiction with her work, The Mysteries of Udolpho, published in 1794. This monumental book—the first widely popular gothic novel—encompasses Romanticism ideals with gothic concepts of the sublime and the supernatural. The eighteenth-century author introduced readers to specific tastes. Her gothic prose won ...

The Romantic era was pivotal in English literature from approximately 1785 to 1830. During this time, Romantics like Emily Dickinson, William Blake, Jane Austen, Robert Burns, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ann Radcliffe created poetry and prose focused on individualism, emotion, and imagination. This was in clear contrast with the intellectual neoclassical movement that ...

…for a cleaner final product The term “self-editing” is a bit of a misnomer. You cannot effectively edit your work the way a professional editor would. However, there are certain things you can do to improve your novel before sending it off to an editor. Editors and writers often refer to this as a “cleaner” ...

Once I devoured The Great Library series, I felt bereft. I needed something to fill the void. Fortunately, Amazon Kindle was kind enough to send me an email recommending other books I might like. This is how I was introduced to The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. I’m pretty sure I clicked the “buy now” button after reading only ...

A new day dawned and I was prepared for what was to come, or so I thought. My time with this mysterious woman was over and now I needed to set out once again. It had only been a scant few days since I escaped Matthias and a part of me knew that he could ...

We may not want to admit it, but there IS a formula for writing a best-selling novel. We writers want to think our ideas are special, that the paths our own novels take are unique and one of a kind. That’s only half true, though. Every great story, since the beginning of time, follows a ...

What is NaNoWriMo? In short, NanoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, scores of dedicated writers make a commitment to writing a 50,000-word novel in one month. I’m sure that it sounds like an impossible task, which is why they don’t force you to sit down and write 50,000 words in a day. Instead, ...

“Jesus Christ, I didn’t want you to choke the kid. Just fuck him up a little bit.” Another man emerged from the couch in the living room. His blonde hair was slicked back perfectly, and with his all black everything outfit, he looked like he just stepped out of Cry Baby. “Well, ‘fuck him up ...

“Uh, yeah, I’ll be careful. See ya.” Billy looked back at old man Lupa who was peering through his blinds in his trailer, still staring at the sky the best that he could. Usually, when it rained, he sat out in his fold-out chair waiting to welcome it and when the thunder and lightning came, ...

Billy Dwyer had spent the majority of the day locked in his room playing video games, much to his mother’s chagrin. He didn’t understand why she complained, the chores were always done and his summer assignments were completed two weeks before school started. As far as he was concerned, this was his time to just ...