Originally, when gothic fiction first appeared in the eighteenth century and was developed through the ninteenth century, it had specific tropes (like romance novels do today), including:

• ghosts
• revenants
• supernatural decay
• the macabre
• cemeteries
• castles
• transgressions against nature
• perception versus reality
• madness
• wonder and terror mixed together
• strong emotion
• miraculous survival
• facing one’s fear

I want to weave these elements into stories alongside my hero and heroine (or heroes or heroines) while they find happiness despite having to battle external and internal forces. But I won’t let the romance get lost for the gothic. Romance is the key, gothic is merely the seasoning. Dive in with me.