Jillian Venters was a fairly spooky and morbid child. When she discovered the existence of the whole Gothic subculture, she clapped her hands with glee and fell upon it like a babybat upon a box of Count Chocula cereal. Since then, the Lady of the Manners has spent a not inconsiderable amount of time trying to gently persuade others in her chosen subculture that being a polite Goth is much, much more subversive than just wearing t-shirts with "edgy" sayings on them. She lives in Seattle.

(Added because it doesn't automatically display with the photo: the current author photo is courtesy of Ian Crowfeather, originally posted on Flickr under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.)