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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 58m

Usually I read the #AScareADay stories in advance but I leave a few a year that will be a surprise to me too, usually with an author I already know and like. Today was William Harrison Ainsworth's 'Spectre Bride' and it didn't disappoint. Starring a woman ignoring increasingly unhinged red flags

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Having seen the Joyce Carol Oates very bad, not good tweet about romance and AI, I can't help thinking about the way that romance has been treated as a punching bag for so long and always by people who are completely unwilling to engage with the genre and know little about it.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 10h

If you missed yesterday's talk on Reincarnation in Bollywood Gothic movies, you can catch it here! youtu.be/X_LmtPTiH7Q

youtu.be

Reincarnation in Bollywood Gothic Movies with Debaditya Mukhopadhyay

YouTube video by Romancing the Gothic

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Sarah @sarahalba.bsky.social · 10h

#AScareADay Day 4: The Spectre Bride by William Harrison Ainsworth (1821) Not quite the story I expected based on the title but I enjoyed it. If I could draw I would illustrate that final scene. (If anyone knows of any illustrations, point me to them!)

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 11h

This thread is wonderful. But 100% yes to the last half. The more representation of different forms of romance & love, the more we normalize everything that exists outside CisHet romance. That helps make those who don't fit that very narrow experience feel less alone. Stories are community!

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🦇💀 Rigg-or Mortis 💀🦇 @rigg.lgbt · 11h

This excellent thread reminded me of Pterry's initial resistance to, then love of mapping Discworld. He at first resisted because he thought it would constrain his imagination, then was delighted to discover that it FIRED it, showing him paths and relationships between places he wouldn't have got to

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Mary Wyrd (she/her) @marywyrd.bsky.social · 13h

I recently had a blast reading How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson which gleefully smashes both the slasher horror and romance genres together, making the tropes kiss/kill while also talking about the importance of said tropes. Gen-AI could never make this work so well.

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Walker Harris 🫜‬ @walkerharris.net · 12h

I don't have as deep of a history with romance as many of you, but I'm already tired of the discourse around romance as a worthy genre. However, this thread is SO MUCH more than that. Formulaicity is such an eye-opening concept for me that this thread has made me a better writer & a better reader.

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Robert W. Williams @robtwilliams.bsky.social · 21h

Ainsworth #AScareADay A beguiling stranger meets innocent Clotilda at her birthday party. His words then & later [shall I say] sweep her off her feet, consequences be damned. If only her fate were so intoxicating! For what awaits her after swearing an infernal oath to eternal love is-- [I shudder].

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A very interesting thread on romance and formulaicity by @romgothsam.bsky.social ⤵️

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Ms. Me @marsxstars.blacksky.app · 15h

A great thread on the condescension in valuing literary fiction over genre fiction, especially romance:

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 16h

Honestly, I think the way to actually engage with romance and its readers is not to go in thinking we're fools. Opening your mind about it even a crack and you'll find so much opening up to you. This thread (and its typos) brought to you by 2am frustration.

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Why is a woman still not safe @treemuseums.bsky.social · 22h

Its like complaining about a music genre being formulaic. Romance gets treated with the same disdain as pop music, the genre most associated with teen girls ofc, & often judged by its "worst" egs. Meanwhile romance & pop music are out shaping culture (& who said politics is downstream from culture?)

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 23h

If people found me through my romance thread, hello! I do Gothic stuff and romance stuff. That includes teaching online education courses on the history of romance and on the history of queer romance specifically at the University of Liverpool. So keep an eye peeled if that's of interest!

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 23h

I will say that my slightly sardonic critique of badly written sex in literary fiction is brought to you by several unfortunate reads this year. One of them literally made me wince.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 23h

*couple of hundred years 😭

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Justine Larbalestier @larbalestier.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This! Great explanation of why Romance matters & why tropes aren't a sign of bad writing. Reviews which identify tropes in fiction as proof that they're badly written only prove that they're bad criticism. All fiction has tropes in it! No matter the genre! Otherwise it'd be unreadable!

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I am so excited for this book! Got my greedy little eyes on it for the University Library for my history of romance course!

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Julia O’Connell @juliajoyce.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It’s Day 3 of #AScareADay, and it’s also Spooky Lake Month! Anne Bannerman’s poem “The Black Night of the Water” is all about a particularly spooky lake in a marsh of sedge. Nothing good ever emerges from strange whirlpools in stagnant lakes… 1/

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My favourite bit is his wibbly wobbly sword

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I am really enjoying reading the #AScareADay stories and poems with friends. Today, The Black Knight of the Water by Anne Bannerman. I love the arbitrary nature of the water knight's threat. There's no reason behind it. He is just an inevitable doom for those who pass too close unprotected.

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Sarah @sarahalba.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#AScareADay Day 3: The Black Knight of the Water by Anne Bannerman (1802) A nice poem on the importance of following instructions. Alas, poor William did not listen.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Honestly, loving working at University of Limerick where all my dreams are coming true when it comes to support for me teaching stuff I actually love! Very excited to be running the single author module next year on one of my favourite writers...

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Chill out, my guy This is worse than my attempts to make small talk #AScareADay

"You must, young man," said he, "you must inform me of the events of a world which I have abandoned but not entirely forgotten. Long have I lived in solitude, long have I heard nothing of the fate of people. Tell me, does love reign on the terrestrial sphere? Does incense burn on altars of virtue? Do the people of lands you have seen prosper.'

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Day 2 of #AScareADay and we read 'Bornholm Island' or 'The Island of Bornholm' by Nikolai Karamzin. I was able to let loose my inner drama llama for the live reading. Love the old guy's conversational gambit with his unknown guest is 'Does love reign on the terrestrial sphere?'

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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Dr Theadora Jean @tsjharling.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Enjoyed the #AScareADay offer for today from @romgothsam.bsky.social ‘The Island of Bornholm’ by Nikolai Karamzin. Predates Stoker by about a century but reminded me of Dracula. But then, everything does 🖤 #Gothtober #31daysofHalloween

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Robert W. Williams @robtwilliams.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#AScareADay On a ship voyage, Karamzin's narrator visits 2 islands that bend super- w/ natural. The setting intrigues me. Islands are to the sea, just as the castle garden's vault is to time's passage. Both are encircled by dynamic flows. Both arrest space & time, holding secrets, revealing little.

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Julia O’Connell @juliajoyce.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It begins! Day 1 of #AScareADay is the poem “Night Tales of Other Times” by Joanna Baillie (1790). It’s a Dead Lover tale! Or at least it starts that way. Poor Edward’s ghost keeps his promise to meet Margaret, who waits for him out in the cold. 1/3 romancingthegothic.com/2026/09/16/t...

romancingthegothic.com

The 2026 October #AScareADay Challenge

It’s that time of year again! I’ve spent the whole year putting together this list, trying to find a good range of new authors and some old favourites! The #AScareADay challenge is all …

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

First day of #AScareADay and I really enjoyed reading 'Night Scenes' with friends. I didn't remember how sad it is at the end. A meditation on grief and guilt as much as a fun story about murder and ghosts.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I made a tiny little video of me with the Irish countryside behind me to introduce the Scare a Day challenge! youtube.com/shorts/Y49Fd...

youtube.com

A Scare A Day Reading Challenge

YouTube video by Romancing the Gothic

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Robert W. Williams @robtwilliams.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Baillie #AScareADay In one tempestuous night 3 stories join 4 lives of loss & fate. Lovers reunite, brought together by an abiding force. A murderer of trust encounters damnation glaring by day's light. A father hears his daughter's beloved song, briefly, then gone, as she was to him; then he, too.

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Robert W. Williams @robtwilliams.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

IT IS UPON US: October and its portents: falling leaves of copper and red, cold nights, and the even chillier tales of horror, terror, and eeriethings in between. Yes, #AScareADay has emerged from its abode to join us. With stories said to be mere imaginings, fantastical and wild. (I can only hope).

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Sarah @sarahalba.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#AScareADay Day 1: Night Tales of Other Times by Joanna Baillie (1790). A nice spooky poem to kick us into October. If there is one lesson that comes up every year it is don't make a vow to meet your lover at night. You will immediately be murdered and have to meet them as a ghost. 👻

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Literature, like every other art form, expresses many of its labor practices in its patterns and material. Writing that has to be produced at breakneck speed and be printed on cheap material is an expression of those writer’s vulnerability to exploitative tendencies in the literary marketplace.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Note to self: Do not talk about The Cask of Amontillado by saying 'I love it when a guy gets bricked up' Instant regret.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A bit of a long short that people will see this but if you signed up for my Early Gothic course at Liverpool University, drop me a DM and we can sort out getting you the materials. Access to the module always goes up really late.

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