Hello world!

Dec 27, 2008

Midst Feast & Famine

Inspiration comes in many forms and wears many faces. I was never much of a vampire fan, myself, preferring less violent fare. I did read Bram Stoker’s classic because it was a classic, just as I read much of Steven King’s work. I studied them, in fact, as a student of the craft.

My only claim to fame in publishing was the relatively short series of non-fiction articles I sold in the mid-1980’s. The action/adventure novels I liked to write suffered from my inexperience with the publishing industry and an unsettled lifestyle that made it difficult to keep things together.

When age began to take its toll also and poor health crept in, I figured it was all over but the shouting and the slamming of the door, where my writing career was concerned. It didn’t take much effort to fight off urges to write, for at least a decade.

In 1999, I learned that my youngest son was in prison on drug charges. My concern and disappointment was mitigated a bit when he let me know he was now reading (!) during the boring days, and actually enjoying it. Horror was his preferred genre, specifically vampires and werewolves. Not my cup of tea, but how could I conscionably discourage a blooming reader? I was determined to mix his preference in with the classics and action/adventure/sf I preferred.

I found out that it was very hard at the turn of the century to find vampire/werewolf novels. It didn’t take long to exhaust the list of available fare, even with access to Amazon.com and Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller. Recently, a number of authors have moved into the void. But, a decade ago, the tales were either romances or homosexual/pedophile plots that really did not appeal to a young man living in proximity with 2,000 other men.

So I decided to write a novel for him. Ambitious, considering that I knew absolutely nothing about the genre…