Leanna’s Thoughts: For the savvy Criminal Element reader who is familiar with my various rants and rhapsodies about what I find beautiful or lacking in modern entertainment, you know I’ve a passion for genre books, shows, and films presenting inclusive casts with strong female protagonists that don’t present an outmoded trope of sacrifice and secondary…
*Deep breaths* Okay. Because I am a Gothic Victorian novelist well versed in Penny Dreadful’s tropes and subject matter, I’ve spent the past few months railing on panels (like DragonCon), ranting on Twitter, writing requested posts about the ending of the show, and addressing the regressive aspects of the finale and the storytelling disservice to…
Due to book deadlines, I only watch television and film if it’s either recommended to me, of a particular beloved franchise, or directly relevant to my career in Gothic, historical and/or paranormal fiction. The Kettering Incident, an Australian show released this summer via the Foxtel network, is set in and shot in present day Tasmania.…
I'd been advised to watch Stranger Things from moment one; it was just a matter of getting to it. I am a child of the 80s, and I have always been—and remain—a Winona Ryder fan. I had crushing deadlines, but once Penny Dreadful wrapped up and I threw a fit about the way its finale…
My relationship to one of Manhattan's most strangely haunted houses is a complex one that goes back to my first year in New York City, eleven years ago. I was on a meandering, wandering research quest, noting the locations of some of New York's most renowned haunted places as background for one of my many…
Eterna and Omega by Leanna Renee Hieber is the 2nd book in the Eterna Files gaslamp fantasy series (Available August 9, 2016). In New York City, fearing the dangers of the Eterna Compound—supposedly the key to immortality—Clara Templeton buries information vital to its creation. The ghost of her clandestine lover is desperate to tell her…
When I began drafting my debut novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, I had recently been studying in London on scholarship. One of the most striking experiences during my time there was taking a Jack the Ripper walking tour. Walking those literal haunts created the entire sub-plot of my book, which will…
When I set out to write a post specifically about beloved characters that I believe, in my all-too-mortal opinion, should not have died, in considering that list, I became far more interested in the questions of why they died in the first place and if death was the best writerly choice. So, if you’ll please…
I’ve been speaking about the Gothic as a literary and media genre online and at conventions since the first Gothic novel of my Strangely Beautiful series was published in 2009, albeit during a bit of a lull in the oft-beleaguered genre’s cycles of waxing and waning popularity. I’ve been a diehard fan of the genre…
Warning, there will be season 10 spoilers, tears, and flailing. You have been warned. It’s been a while since I saw the very last episode of MI-5 and it’s taken me this long to come to terms with it. Who am I kidding? I haven’t come to terms! This is a rant! I began MI-5…
