#queer gothic fiction

[cmrosens]

The Dangers of Blue Beards (in Books)

Bluebeard Retellings and Reimaginings As I’m sure you all know I’m not a folklorist or anything like that, but I LOVE folktales and stories, and I think in worldbuilding one of the best and most fun ways to get to grips with a culture is by imagining what stories people tell about themselves and their world. In The Crows I made up local legends and sayings, and put out a little eBook collection…

[porcelain-pines]

Divine Flesh

[prints]

[theholmwoodfoundation]

THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PROLOGUE/TRAILER

It's finally here! Please enjoy the trailer/prologue for Season One of the Holmwood Foundation. Starring Rebecca Root, Seán Carlsen and Attila Puskas.

FILE TAKEN FROM THE WORK RECORDER OF MADELINE TOWNSEND, JUNIOR ARCHIVIST AT THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION, LUCY WESTENRA BUILDING, WHITBY.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY, OR AT THE ACAST LINK BELOW:

CW: Brief Sirens. Loud Static

The Holmwood Foundation is a Found Footage Horror-Fiction Podcast.

We follow Maddie Townsend (Rebecca Root) and Jeremy Larkin (Seán Carlsen), two co-workers at the Holmwood Foundation: a secret organisation that has been maintaining and studying the remains of Count Dracula for the last 130 years, as they are possessed by the ghosts of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and embark on a nightmare road trip, carrying Dracula's severed head across the UK in an effort to stop him once and for all.

Find the Trailer transcript on our website, if required.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.theholmwoodfoundation.com/

Please like and share if you enjoy, and keep an eye on our socials (you can find us on Tumblr, Insta, Twitter, Tiktok and Facebook) in the coming weeks for both our Pilot Episode and our official Season One Kickstarter!

[mayasynth]

My beautiful unhinged daughter, Mary Elizabeth Frankenstein <3 I know this was not at all how the scene actually went, but humour me

(Pssssst everyone please read Our Hideous Progeny, pleaseee 🙏)

[borninwinter81]

Queer horror from my teens

I periodically wonder whether these books are still known and read by young goths and horror fans as they were all extremely important to me in my teenage years, so I thought I'd share them.

Though I'm cishet, during the mid 90s two of my favourite authors wrote primarily queer fiction: they were Anne Rice and another author from New Orleans who is now known as Billy Martin.

He came out as a trans man in 2011, however these books were published prior to that so unfortunately you have to search for them under his deadname. This is why I've used that name in the tags on this post. I don't believe the books were ever reprinted with his current name.

Though I loved Rice, I always felt a more immediate connection with Martin due to his vivid portrayal of subcultures like goth and punk, and how it felt to be a teenager who was part of them. I could see myself in many of his characters as I had the same interests, listened to the same music, and shared the same sense of social alienation. Remember in the 90s the Internet was still a reasonably new thing, and many of us didn't have a home Internet connection at all. There was certainly no social media, no YouTube, and no real way to meet and interact with like-minded teens unless you were lucky enough to have another "weird kid" at your school. If you were a weird kid, you likely had very few friends and were bullied.

That as much as anything else led me to seek solace in books written by an author who I felt understood me, and characters who became my friends.

Lost Souls is about vampires in a kind of Lost Boys/Near Dark way. Fans of the YouTuber OfHerbsAndAltars might be interested to know that this book is where the name of his channel comes from - it's a description of the taste of Chartreuse liqueur.

Drawing Blood is about ghosts, a "murder house", computer hacking, comic art and a very beautiful (if rather messed up) romance. This one is probably my favourite of the three.

Exquisite Corpse is about serial killers, set against the AIDS crisis of the 90s. If you like the Hannibal TV series you'll probably enjoy this one - imagine if Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer had somehow met.

Martin doesn't pull any punches when it comes to descriptions of blood and gore, violence, abusive parents or his portrayal of toxic romantic relationships (of which there are many in his books), but if you can deal with those things there is also a great deal of beauty, phenomenally good writing, and a somewhat unique perspective on the supernatural.

Maybe I'm biased, looking at these through the lens of my teenage self. Maybe they'd seem horribly dated to today's young audience. But I still wanted to make this post in case there's someone out there who will end up loving them as much as I did.

[thenightpost]

Messages from the Skelter

made with the safety sign generator

[velvettapeworm]

Some of you are familiar with my work already through itch.io or this blog, but I want to say that my book, So Sang the Riverman—a story which tells of the primordial world's destruction after the spirit of life, Fervor, makes off with the heart in Decay's grave—is now available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon. If you have a soft spot for mythological tales, lyrical prose and/or obsessive lovesick martyrdom, have yourself a look. And if you do decide to buy a copy, thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting my work!

[valentinedagger]

book 1 cover art by @staarcaake

Stardust is a queer, semi-experimental web serial that blends space opera, gothic horror, and dystopia into a color-coded mess of neuroses, hallucinations, teen angst, fucked up family relationships, Judaism, gun kinks, political assassinations, extradimensional tentacles, and bad sex. as of May 2024, we're exactly halfway through book 1, and it's a great time to get caught up!

it updates the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month, and you can read it for free here. readers have suggested you might like it if you're a fan of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Homestuck, Battlestar Galactica (2003), The Locked Tomb, Fortiche's Arcane, Starship Troopers, and/or the music of Ada Rook. readers have also referred to it as "tired middle-aged man yaoi," "yuri shonen," and said they "want to chew on July like a squeaky toy."

[meerawrites]

Happy birthday to Lestat de Lioncourt!

[l0vecrim3]

“To everyone else he was Tran. In English, the short sharp syllable suggested movement (transmission, transpose) and the crossing of boundaries (transcontinental, tranquilize, transvestite), both of which he liked.”

[podgoldenrod]

?ᗡƎꙄͶAƎ⅃Ɔ UOY ƎЯƎW Goldenrod - an upcoming horror audio drama limited series. Coming 2025. Created by Lauren Tucker, presented by Speak to It Productions. Logo design by Sarah Arnold.

[theholmwoodfoundation]

As of this morning we stand at 68% completed - that’s a whopping £15,720 funded to create more of The Holmwood Foundation! We are overwhelmed by everyone’s love and generosity but please remember at this stage that we are an all or nothing project.

If we don’t hit our goal, the money doesn’t go to us, and we can’t make the project.

We have only 6 days left to make the remaining 7,280 we need

Please like, comment and share with all your friends and family and see if we can make the last of the money we need!

Please help us pay our cast and crew and put more Jeremy/Jonathan, Mina/Maddie out into the world!

Please find the Kickstarter here!!!

[sarielsnowings]

The necromancer and the anatomist ✨🔮💀

Hello friends! I’m finally back from hiatus to show off a collab piece @/sacrxm and I made together for @queeroc-zine back at the beginning of the year!

Our two changeling OCs Oz (he/him - on the left) and Lux (they/them - on the right) were the perfect subjects for this project.

Enjoy!

P.S: the weird texture is due to the image being glazed.

[apolline-lucy]

THE SILVER BIRDS

THE ANATOMY OF DYING

if you like your books sapphic and indie, just letting you know that mine are on sale on kindle right now and for 48 hours only

✨$0.99 only or free on Kindle Unlimited✨

[duckprintspress]

Let’s Get Spoopy! 6 Queer Gothic Books for Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! We did a queer horror-themed rec list in August to celebrate Frankenstein Day, so we thought we’d try something a little different: queer gothic stories! Here are our six recommendations for queer gothic works. Five Duck Prints Press folks contributed recommendations to this list.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

In a lonely castle deep in the Styrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her elderly father for company – until a moonlit night brings an unexpected guest to the schloss. At first Laura is glad to finally have a female companion of her own age, but her new friend’s strange habits and eerie nocturnal wanderings quickly become unsettling, and soon a ghastly truth is revealed.

What Manner of Man by St. John Starling

This is What Manner of Man, a queer vampire romance novel about an innocent priest sent to a remote island to exorcise the demons that are allegedly tormenting the villagers — but what happens when the priest begins to suspect his host, the mysterious, nocturnal lord of the local manor, may have invited him another reason entirely? And what happens when the supposedly celibate priest finds he cannot resist his host’s powerful charms?

Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology

Unspeakable contains eighteen Gothic tales with uncanny twists and characters that creep under your skin. Its stories feature sapphic ghosts, terrifying creatures of the sea, and haunted houses concealing their own secrets. Whether you’re looking for your non-binary knight in shining armour or a poly family to murder with, Unspeakable showcases the best contemporary Gothic queer short fiction.

Even dark tales deserve their time in the sun.

A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.

With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.

When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past, both the green magic of the woods and the dark things that rest in its heart.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde’s most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.

TELL US MORE QUEER GOTHIC BOOKS!

These books have been added to our queer horror shelf on Goodreads and our affiliate recommendation list on Bookshop.org!

[innocentlymacabre]

EVERY STORY EVER TOLD REALLY HAPPENED.

Stories are where memories go when they’re forgotten.

If you've got eyes and ears in the right places, you're likely to come across rumours of a man who will find these memories. He’ll go off a-hunting, foraging for the stories you’ve forgotten.

I bring them home and show the world, distilling them into pretty little glass vials for you to peruse the wonders of the cosmos.

Take a look. Have your pick. Peruse the collection.

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