I’ve been in love with gothic romance since my mom handed me Jane Eyre at the age of eight, as I was on my way to a week-long summer camp. My memories of that camp itself are pretty blurry by this point, but I still vividly remember lying on the beach by the lake, unconscious of everything else happening around me as I devoured that amazing book (in an incredible,
hardcover library edition with gold-gilded pages – just luscious all round).

As it happens, I’ve also loved historical rom-coms and fantasy ever since my dad read me both Pride and Prejudice and The Lord of the Rings. So it’s no surprise to anyone that I grew up to absolutely love writing gothic fantasy rom-coms of my own! It’s just such a deliciously fun combination. Take a spooky, looming castle (or isolated manor house) with a sinister owner for
gothic atmosphere… Add all the snappy banter, frothy fun, and heartfelt emotions of a rom-com… Finish off by tossing magic into the mix and I’m a happy writer!

In my latest stand-alone novella, A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience, my heroine Margaret finds herself unwillingly married off to a stranger she’s never met and transported to his isolated manor house, just like any good gothic heroine (all the way back to Beauty and the Beast). Making him even more potentially dangerous, her new husband is a vampire – but Margaret is no swooning ingénue, ready to flee in a white nightgown from the Dark Mysteries! Instead, she’s a brilliant scholar who’s every bit as grumpy and fierce as her new husband (despite her lack of fangs). She’s furious at her unreasonable new situation, and she’s ready to do whatever it takes to free herself and get back to the familiar comfort of her university’s research library. As soon as she realizes that she’s not the only one in her new marriage who was trapped in it through blackmail, she’s ready to drag her snarky (but irritatingly attractive), centuries-old husband out of his dreary isolation and send them racing together across the country in search of a supernatural gemstone that can fix both of their problems…

…But only if they don’t fall in love along the way!

The great thing about playing with our favorite ingredients from lots of different genres is that we can mix them all up into unique new recipes. I had so much fun writing my grumpy-grumpy couple for this novella, subverting some of my favorite tropes and fairy tales and chortling along the way. I hope you’ll have fun reading about them if you give A Marriage of Undead
Inconvenience a try! (You can purchase a copy by following this link!)

And I’d really love to hear about any of your own favorite literary combinations.

Stephanie Burgis grew up in Michigan (USA), but now lives in Wales
with her husband and two kids, surrounded by mountains, castles and
coffee shops. She writes sparkling fantasy rom-coms, including the
Regency Dragons series, the Harwood Spellbook series, and the upcoming
Queens of Villainy trilogy. You can find excerpts from all of her
novels and novellas (and links to many of her short stories) at her
website: www.stephanieburgis.com