The summer might be almost half over, but Hope Nicholson and her imprint Bedside Press are just getting started on a Kickstarter for their new anthology Gothic Tales of Haunted Love, stories that will chill the blood even on the warmest night.  

Image Credits: “Gothic Tales of Haunted Love”

cover art by Leslie Doyle, logo by Dylan Todd

(click on link to see anthology credits and details)

Or in Nicholson’s words herself:  “If you like horror, you’ll like this book. If you like suspense you’ll like this book. But if you need happy endings, well….you might NOT like this book!”

Image: Cover of a 1970s gothic romance comic; typical of the comics that inspired the anthology (not part of Gothic Tales of Haunted Love anthology)

The campaign itself started July 15 and ends on September 15.  After that point, the creators involved in the anthology have two months to finalize their stories before the anthology goes to print with January 2018 as the targeted delivery date.

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love, like Nicholson herself, has many inspirations.  It all started when she “was doing research for The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen [published by Quirk Books].”  She discovered the 1970s comic genre of gothic romance, and had one reaction: “They were thrilling! After spending days reading romance comics, which were entertaining but usually pretty formulaic, it was so great to read stories just as emotional but with a lot more unpredictability.”

Hope elaborates on her love for the genre, saying it’s “interesting because though it still had many stories of pale beauties on the moors and dastardly lords, it was also very campy and supernatural. Lots of demons, witchery and ghosts!”

Despite her interest in this genre, though, she did admit that it had one drawback: “[These stories] were still mostly focused on North American creators, white girls, and straight romances.”

For anyone familiar with Bedside Press and Hope Nicholson, it’s no surprise that this lack of diversity troubled her–in her own words, that lack of diversity is “boring for an anthology”–and it’s something she’s looking to fix with Gothic Tales of Haunted Love.

Image Credits: from “Minefield” by Hien Pham (told entirely in Vietnamese)

Specifically, to create an anthology that reflects true diversity and brings this genre into the 21st Century, they “did a half-curated, half-open call for new content and the stories…in this project have a focus on global gothic romance.”

And this is reflected in the stories themselves; one story has “two young men falling in love in Vietnam”, another has “pain and loss in Jamaica,” a third has “fashion intrigue in Taiwan, and [overall there are] lots of beautiful ghosts of all genders falling in love with mortals.”

The anthology itself is the reward Nicholson hopes most people enjoy.  

However, there are some other killer rewards: “Something really fun [Bedside Press] did was reach out to the estates of classic 1970s gothic romance cover artists and license artwork for special print reprints. So while [there is] a lot of new content, [Bedside Press] still [offers a] nod to the aesthetics of the old.”  Finally, as part of the rewards they “also have brand new prints from our creators as well!”

Next week, we’ll continue Nicholson’s interview, focusing on her journey as a self-publisher and Kickstarter Thought Leader.  But until then, make sure you check out the Kickstarter for Gothic Tales of Love!

*Note* All quoted language in this article was from Hope Nicholson.

Image Credits: from “Crush” by Janet Hetherington, Ronn Sutton, Becka Kinzie, and Zakk Saam

Image Credits: from “Fazenda do Sangue Azul” by Dante L. & H. Pueyo