Gail
Gail asked Linda Gillard:

Linda, you are my new role model :-) I, too, have re-invented my career self a few times. I just finished Cauldstane and was wondering if you would be doing more gothic novels? I am always on the look out for good books in this genre--so many are so bad! Yours have the complexity and intelligent and spirited heroines that I loved in the works of Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. Happy New Year!

Linda Gillard Hi Gail. How nice to hear from you. Yours is my first Goodreads Q. :-)

Have you read my other books? A couple of them could be described as gothic. THE GLASS GUARDIAN is a ghost story, but very different from CAULDSTANE. The ghost is the hero in TGG and he's not at all scary.

My 4th novel, HOUSE OF SILENCE has been described as gothic because it's a bit like Mary Stewart & Victoria Holt. An independent young woman goes to spend Christmas in a dilapidated Jacobean mansion with her boyfriend's eccentric family. It's a gothic rom-com, if you can imagine such a thing. I describe it as "REBECCA meets COLD COMFORT FARM" (two of my favourite books.)

You might also like to consider UNTYING THE KNOT which is set in a Scottish tower house. It's not really gothic, but there is a bit of a supernatural element. That one is very much a love story.

I'm halfway through writing a new novel, but this one has no paranormal/gothic element. I think the one after that might be another ghost story. I do feel drawn to them and CAULDSTANE has proved very popular.

Thinking of other authors... Do you know Mary Stewart's novels? You have to read them as period pieces now as they were written in the 60s & 70s, but they are classics of the romantic suspense & gothic romance genres. If you don't know them, start with my favourite, NINE COACHES WAITING which bears a resemblance to JANE EYRE. A governess is looking after a litle boy in a French chateau and she gradually realises that the "accidents" that keep happening are an attempt to kill him.

You might also like Susanna Kearsley's books, though they are more time-slip. Try THE SHADOWY HORSES.

FYI - I have a Facebook author page - https://www.facebook.com/LindaGillard... and I expect you've already found my website - http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/

Happy New Year!

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