******Author’s Afterthoughts (Part 3)******

12/15/24 - Chapter 13

Well, another chapter with a comedic scene with breasts that leads to probably the most serious exchange of dialogue in the whole story. Gothia finding out Maggy is pregnant is a moment that destroys her adolescence while also forcing her to be more mature.

And Maggy getting pregnant from one night of passion with Deacon Gloombright is enough to really push Gothia to think about the nature of love and sex. Yes, love and sex are intertwined together and you really cannot separate them. But all that love and sexual drive is nature’s way of getting humans to breed.

Breed and have children! Dun-dun-duuuun!

And Gothia’s own immaturity about sex completely forgets that pregnancy and childbirth is all a part of sex too. And Maggy has learned the hard way of the consequences of unprotected sex. Now, Maggy is fortunate enough to have fallen for a guy who likes her back and has money to burn. She and her child will be financially okay and the father’s support is almost guaranteed.

Most of the time, sadly, it doesn’t work out like that.

Gothia, on the other hand, clearly is far too immature to be a mother. And while not stated in the text, I will say it in this paratext that Gothia is not mother material. Getting pregnant and having a child would destroy her tiny bubble of a Goth-Victorian world.

And despite Maggy’s attempts to tell Gothia that she needs to let her romance for Lurkson grow and be more mature about things, Gothia ignores her sister’s hints and almost gets pregnant by Lurkson. And Lurkson himself, no offense to him, is not father material. Maybe with time and more maturity, Gothia and Lurkson could grow up to be proper parents.

But as they are, no, they are not parental material. Which is why Maggy went to the extremes she did to stop them. And with one boob squirting milk into her eye, Gothia learns and understands why Maggy “stole” her from Lurkson. Sometimes, when I write, I want to be serious about a topic while also adding in my brand of wacky and off-kilter humor to lighten the mood. Not sure if chapter 13 is a proper mix of comedy and seriousness or if it's jarring as all heck, but that will be up to the readers to decide.

And I have to add that I did consider Gothia becoming super jealous and killing Maggy in a fit of rage. I even hit to it with Gothia pondering that very action for a moment. This is a Gothic Romance after all and most of the time, someone dies because of drama and emotional turmoil. But I would like to set up for future stories and having Gothia on the run or in prison would not be fun. Also, not giving into her dark desire to kill Maggy out of envy or jealousy shows that Gothia is maturing and growing as a person.

She is becoming a better version of herself and I’m a sucker for that kind of character development. Though, while I’m developing Gothia and giving her growth, I feel like I did Maggy dirty here. No, not like that, you cheeky little reader. I mean Maggy’s motivations for some of her actions really do not match her own maturity level as a character.

Now, Maggy’s reasoning to not tell Gothia about her pregnancy sooner is somewhat justified. She has known about Gothia’s crush on her for some time. Keeping the pregnancy from Gothia is understandable. But eventually, Gothia would see that Maggy has gained weigh and her belly is looking a bit rounder. Pregnancy lasts a while, for months, but Maggy was really dragging her heels on telling Gothia, the one person she’s closest with.

Strike against Maggy’s intelligence there and here comes strike two.

Now, when I picture Deacon Gloombright, he is the polar opposite of Earl Longroper. They have nothing in common, especially in their physical appearance. So Maggy’s idea of getting the Earl to bed then claiming he was the father of her already conceived child is way too desperate and out of whack. When that kid pops out and looks nothing like the Earl, that would cause its own issues. It would be like a ticking time bomb ready to blow up in Maggy’s face.

Seriously, even as the one who wrote her flimsy justification, Maggy comes off as a solid airhead with that braindead plan though even she admits to Gothia that it was a plan out of desperation. But I’m fairly certain nobility back in the Victorian era would pull that kind of scheme. At least the Earl had his thing for Lydia and he was so committed that not even a hot blonde in a corset and stockings could seduce him from Lydia. More on the Earl and Lydia in the next chapter.

Tangent time, because I have to rant about this:

The whole thing with “the wine was bad” seems a little too casual for me. The Duke offered no recompense or formal apology for having bad wine on hand. That just comes off as being a careless host. We learned the wine was drugged by Lurkson and I honestly wonder if the Duke knew or not. Now I’m curious about something . . .

Bad wine tastes like, according to Google AI:

“Wine that has gone bad often tastes flat, sour, acidic, bitter, metallic, overly sweet, or syrupy. It may also have a horseradish-like taste, or flavors that are sherried or caramelized.”

Yeah, no, Gothia was chugging that crap like there was no tomorrow. And the pregnant Maggy had some of that wine too. Which, BTW, I’ve heard pregnancy changes a woman’s senses and sensitivity to certain things. They both love wine and would have known it had gone bad.

“The wine was bad” is a backhanded way of skirting responsibility. Or the Duke is well aware that Lurkson did it and made up an excuse to cover for him. Probably because Lurkson felt guilty that the girl he liked got high off of his prank wine and the Duke probably thought the guilt was enough punishment? I’m reading way too much into this bad wine thing.

But what else could be said about this chapter? Chapter 13, to me, has the most serious character development scene in the whole story. Gothia truly starts to mature. Heck, the word “Dreadful” does not come up very often in this chapter, at least not as often as it had in previous chapters. That dropping of irony, to me, is a sign that Gothia is taking things seriously and is maturing.

I look forward to reading the final two chapters and giving my thoughts but the battery in my laptop is about to go out and it is getting late. Two more chapters to go . . .

12/16/2024 - Chapters 14 and 15

I did it! I had finished the proofread of “Your Dreadfulness Lines With Mine” and wow, what a wild ride it was to go back to this story.

Chapter 14 is slow and more comedic with the Earl revealing his affair with Lydia. And the Duke being so casual about it is a bit unrealistic but this is the same world with Gothia and Lurkson’s romance. Which I absolutely love their riffing during the Earl’s confession. It really highlights how close these two Goth kids had become.

And as for Miss Easter and Kathryn, I originally left it vague what they did all night but I decided that since they were both the shy type and talking all night was appropriate. I know Kathryn had not been established enough but there is enough of her to get the gist that things between her and Miss Easter will work out. Sadly, in this world, they will still have to keep their love a secret, which is sad but was a thing back in Victorian times.

Speaking of forbidden love, I never did touch base with the whole thing that happened between Hercules the bull and the three drunken maids. And I left it vague for a reason. And forgot about it for the same reason. Human beings have their own set of emotions, our own rules and baggage that we seemed compelled to apply to anything else with a brain. And animals have their own thing going on and do not need the BS of humankind weighing them down.

I say all of this because Gothia suddenly thinks about Hercules as the poor bull's remains are presented for yet another meal. And of course, Gothia being curious and still hanging on to some immaturity, thinks of Hercules’ phallus and what became of it after he was slaughtered.

And truth be told I do not want to know.

I looked up a lot of Greek mythology for Gothia to reference and the minotaur came up. I looked further into the minotaur’s conception and wow, that story gets wild and made me laugh hard. And I decided to add the whole backstory with Hercules and the maids as a sort of joke. And it still makes me laugh. Then Gothia wondering about Hercules’ phallus in chapter 14 just made me laugh and shake my head.

Seriously, I forgot that callback was even in chapter 14.

And the phallic imagery does not end because . . .

In Chapter 15, Lurkson gifts Gothia the Giant’s Lighthouse painting. And every time I think of that painting, it makes me chuckle. I kind of imagine it to be painted with a serious hand, looking like something painted in the 1800s and looking all classic and artistic. But the imagery is just way too weird and has a touch of dark humor to it that a Goth girl like Gothia would fixate on.

Of all the paintings too, it was the Giant’s Lighthouse. Honestly, I chose that one at random. And I did consider inventing another painting but why do that when the Lighthouse one is such a gem. I keep thinking of that Lighthouse movie from 2019 that I saw with friends for my birthday. That movie is such a trip, I kind of want to watch it again but with a different set of people that have no idea what its about.

Actually, if “Your Dreadfulness Lines With Mine” were to be made into a movie or series, I totally am down for it to be in black and white. But every now and then add in some color like with the purple fireplace. Don’t ask me who could direct it or the actor to play which roles. Honestly, I’m so out of touch with current hollywood trends that I just found out the same director of The Lighthouse made a Nosferatu Remake. And that movie is being released . . . on Christmas.

A vampire movie, on Christmas. Has hollywood gone Goth or something? Are we just fixated on that ironic blend of Halloween and Christmas that “A Nightmare Before Christmas” spawned? Should I just have season 2 of this story take place during Christmas?

Speaking of which, I did set up with a sequel series with the introduction of Patricia Wex Tamerin Hallowvale. Establishing a rival for Gothia at the end of the story is kind of odd, I will not deny that choice being subversive. Usually, a rival appears half way through or is there from the start. But, there was already so much going on and I did want to set up for a possible continuation, so a rival was introduced.

And Patricia is the rival Gothia needs. Lurkson can’t just become her man and everything be roses and sunshine. Actually, the real reason I introduced Patricia was because I wanted to establish that Gothia and Lurkson would form a quartet with Deacon Gloombright in a future story. But, there was no fourth wheel to make it a quartet. And so Patricia was conceived and adding her as a rival to Gothia just made her creation all the more serendipitous.

Will there be a sequel series to “Your Dreadfulness Lines With Mine”? I would not mind writing another continuation of Lurkson and Gothia’s romance. There is a lot of potential for drama or even more gross and bizarre hijinks with Patricia and Deacon tagging along.

“We Are A Dreadful Quartet!”

That is a title right there! But there are so many other stories to tell and more characters and drama I would like to share. So, for now, this story will have a season one and it will be up to the readership if they would like to see it continue.

So in conclusion . . .

I set out to write a romance story and I ended up writing this bizarre piece of drama and comedy. I think it holds as a romance but it also has a lot more going for it. There is never a dull moment with this cast of characters, that is for certain. I laughed and was not bored proofreading this strange brew I have boiled up.

And this whole thing was way outside my usual comfort zone. I rarely write about sex or sexual acts because my brand of story telling usually focuses on drama and action, and my humor usually is focused on banter and slapstick. But all those things and sex could be incorporated, the 90s certainly had plenty of movies like that. If I were to write another romance, I’d want to write something more “slice of life” and sex being something that is way, way out of the reach for the leads because they are too shy and bashful to even hold hands.

Slice of Life is a genre of anime and overall storytelling I have come to fixate on. And for future stories for the blog, I think I might try my hand in Slice of Life. I set out to do a romance and did one with a result I was not expecting. For example, in chapter one, having the lead slap her romantic interest in the face for no real good reason was just the tip of this mad iceberg.

And I kept boring deeper and deeper into this wild glacier.

All and all, I’m glad I wrote this because I challenged myself and made something so very weird but it's definitely unique with memorable characters. I guess time will tell if I look back on this story with a straight face. Or laugh my ass off with my face completely red. All I know is that I somehow used the word “Dreadful” about 113 times in this story, which is a lot less than I expected.

So if you are one of those readers who have read all of “Your Dreadfulness Lines With Mine” and have somehow powered through all of my Author’s Afterthoughts, congrats and thank you! I will do the obligatory ask that you share the blog with friends and on social media and give me your thoughts in the comment section.

(Looks over the blog one more time before ending)

This is a lot. This blog is going to be a long one but I think it's under the character limit . . . at least I hope it is, otherwise this is going to be split into two or three parts. It's so long. So very long, like Hercules. Hercules and the Lighthouse . . . now that’s a movie title right there. William Dafoe can play the bull.

Good Luck and this blog is so very Dreadful,

—Buck (2024/12/16)