Laura Enright's Blog, page 5

Bertena Varney's Lure of the Vampire

I'd like to introduce you to another friend of mine. Her name is Bertena Varney and she's quite the expert on things vampire. I met her a few years ago after Vampires' Most Wanted was published when I drove down to Kentucky to be in the Southern Kentucky Book Fest (I detailed it in my blog posts The Road to Kentucky Pt. I and Pt. II). She was my neighbor during the fest and it was great to meet her and exchange ideas with her. We've kept in touch ever since.


Bertena is a sociology professor at Southcentral KY Community College (SKYCTC)  in Bowling Green, KY. She holds masters’ degrees in sociology, criminology, social science and education. She is from Winchester, KY and attended Morehead State University in KY. 
She was named to the Top Women in Horror in 2012 by Venom and Honey and Blaze McRob’s Tales of Terrors in 2014 and has been nicknamed the Vampire Professor.


She is an Amazon and Kindle Bestselling author of Lure of the Vampire and Lure of the Vampire: Revamped. She is also contributor and co-editor for Vampire News: Tasty Bits to Sink Your Fangs Into, Vampire News: The Not So End Times, Vampire News: Really...Vampires Suck!, and contributor to Vampires Romance to Rippers an Anthology of Risque Stories; Vampires Romance to Rippers an Anthology of Tasty Stories; and The Witching Hour and Sirens Compendiums.


She's also the Examiner.com expert on "True Blood," vampires, television, movies, and more.

She does lectures at libraries, conventions and conferences, including the Harry Potter Convention in Salem, Mass., The Sirens Convention in Vail, Colorado, ScareFest Horror Convention in Lexington. She's also conducted talks at smaller events and discussions in New Orleans, Chicago, London, Paris and other fun places.


Recently, she released the third edition of her book Lure of the Vampire . I bought a copy of the first edition at the fest and was really impressed with the work she did on the subject. I asked her to send me something about her latest edition that I could post on the blog. So let me let her explain to you about her new book:


"The Lure of the Vampire is a pop culture reference book for writers, vampire fans, students and teachers who love to study the mysterious creature of the night. This book is for the fanatics who sit up at night and watch reruns of Buffy for the hundredth time, the Twi-hards that line up for hours before the show just to glimpse the newest "Twilight" movie, the Truebies who all knows that “waiting sucks” between each season of "True Blood" and for those diehard traditionalist that balk at all of this “new” vampire craze.



The Lure of the Vampire is also for the new writers who love creating their own worlds where the vampires may be aristocratic and romantic or dark and dangerous; the world where there are castles, heaving bosoms, chivalry and danger of loving a vampire, the dreams of so many women in today’s world.


And finally, The Lure of the Vampire is a book for those who love to study all aspects of the vampire in both pop culture and the world. Whether they are the historian who loves tracing the evolution of the vampire or the sociologist who wants to explore the world of those that live the lifestyle, the reader will find resources here to help them in their quest for knowledge of this lifestyle.

The Lure of the Vampire is divided into ten sections beginning with mythology and ending with modern vampires. Within each section there are lists that will help the reader learn basic and fun facts about that section’s topic. Links to websites are provided to ensure that the reader may find more information about that section without having to search for it on the Internet or in other books. To help supplement a particular subject within that topic, there are personal essays or interviews that give the reader a personal look from the author’s perspective. For example, Lure of the Dead Boyfriend provides the reader with a look at why women love vampire romance while exploring the vampire as a soul mate, an erotic lover, and an escape from the real world.


Lure of the Vampire provides unique interviews with vampire authors, role players, and those that live the lifestyle. The reader can delve into the world of a creator of an alternate reality or learn more about those whose lives lead them to embrace vampirism as a way of life.

Lure of the Vampire is a complete pop culture reference book for those who enjoy vampires and their impact on society. It provides an extensive bibliography that will allow the reader the opportunity for additional independent study."

Her book originally began as a master’s thesis and then was edited and formatted differently so that vampire fans would enjoy the information as well. Over the last three years she has been asked by fans to create a course online, like the one she teaches in person, and that class has finally been created and will be ready to begin when the book becomes available for sale hopefully on Aug. 1.

She is enrolling students now at a 50 percent discount of the normal class tuition. Once the student pays for the class via PayPal or credit card and purchases the book, they should email the her to get the invite to the class. The class covers each chapter in the book and provides the student with the questions that they must answer, videos for them to watch, an essay for them to write and final: there are also discussion boards that are open for class discussions. Upon completion the student will receive a certificate of completion via email to show that they have completed a course in Vampirology (the study of vampires).

Anyone interested can  check the course out at this address: http://mysticalparanormalacademy.ning.com/classesoffered/introduction-to-vampires-class

Then  email her at vampireprofessor@yahoo.com or message on her Facebook profile - https://www.facebook.com/bertena.varney to get payment and registration information for the class.

You can also check out her website at www.bertena.com

An Interview with Erik Robert Nolan

I thought I'd change up a bit here and introduce you to one of my fellow Dagda authors, Erik Robert Nolan, who has a new novel out (available on Amazon) titled The Dogs Don't Bark in Brooklyn Anymore .


The cover of Erik's novelIn a post-apocalyptic future, mankind is at war with a mutated race of super-intelligent wolves. Rebecca "Red" O'Conner is a Captain in America's elite Special Animal Warfare Service, striving every day to protect the desperate East Coast cities from the cunning animal armies that have overrun most of North America. But for Rebecca, there are battles to wage both within and without, as she struggles to cope with memories of a childhood brutalized by violence, loss, victimization,and estrangement from those she loves.

Erik was nice enough to agree to do a Q&A with me so here he is to talk a little about his writing and himself.

What inspired the plot of The Dogs Don't Bark in Brooklyn Any More?

I've been a fan of survival horror since I was boy. I grew up on the George A. Romero zombie classics and the "Planet of the Apes" films. Among the the first horror movies I ever saw were "The Last Man on Earth" and Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." My two favorite novels are the seminal Stephen King works The Stand (preferably the 1990 unabridged edition) and The Gunslinger, both of which depict post-apocalyptic or devastated worlds.

End-of-the-world scenarios make for great horror. They give us omnipresent threats that affect everybody, and not only those few unfortunates targeted by slashers or boogeymen. They also give us great opportunities for world-building -- exploring how people and institutions react to their impending end.

Did the story evolve over time or did you have a clear vision from start to finish?

It did evolve over time. I originally crafted the first draft of the first chapter as a standalone short story, entitled "Warning: Do Not Speak To The Animals." The characters acquired voices in my mind -- that is how characters grow with me -- and then they grew in depth. The sense of antagonism between Rebecca O'Conner and Francis Lestrade became something I wanted to follow and then share, and the world-ending war is really just a particularly big canvas for that.

At the same time, some things are clear for me. I know the fates of nearly all the characters, and those will be brought to page as the book series progresses.

How would you describe your main character?

She is a soldier doing her best. She didn't ask for the world she was born into. She did ask to joined the armed services, but she didn't ask for the trauma and consequent obsession that made that seem like the only choice for her.

She's no saint, but there is good in her. She's no genius, but she's a sharp girl and a quick study, and she has a few unique talents that will prove useful to herself and her colleagues, despite her very human shortcomings. She's driven, and committed, with a sense of service derived from Freudian sublimation. She'll be trouble for her adversaries.

Any significance to the title?

"The dogs don't bark in Brooklyn any more!" is a taunt spoken by one character to another at a key point in the novel. Revealing its context or speaker would be a major spoiler.

What authors influence or inspire you and why?

My love for language is nourished by the poetry of W. H. Auden. To be honest, I cannot always understand what he is saying. He was a sublimely cerebral man, and I am not. But an average man can recognize beauty when it is captured by language, and I am fortunate for that.

Stephen King is my most obvious influence. I believe he is under-appreciated even despite his fame, because people often don't realize how creative he really is. It's got nothing to do with the ghosts, the demons or the UFO's. It's the fully realized characters he creates, and his ability to render their thought processes and point of view. He creates what seem like real people, then renders their thoughts and voices perfectly. To me, that's amazing.

What's your take on indie publishing? 

It's the great equalizer. Indie publishing allows me to meet, work and interact with people like me -- just regular folks who enjoy stories and like to make up their own. The writers, readers, editors and publishers I meet are ordinary people who are excited about prose and poetry.

They're often very ambitious people, because that's what it takes in this business just to get your name out there. And they are occasionally eccentric, but I like that.

I honestly think there is a sense of connection there that you just wouldn't find with a major corporate publishing house -- a sense of commonality and community. I identify with them. And I have a hell of a lot of fun. It's why writing, for me, is more avocation than vocation.

And that's not even broaching the issue of the range of opportunities for new authors.




How do you like working with Dagda?

Dagda Publishing is a tremendous boon to poets and authors who want to find their voice and reach an audience. It has a firm commitment to new and emerging writers, and its editors and staff are not only highly professional, but also quite easy to work with. I have a blast working with them, and I can't think of a better publisher for an new independent creator. 

Do you have a project you're working on now?

I am currently working on the sequel to The Dogs Don't Bark In Brooklyn Any More. It will be the next book in "The Wolf War Saga."

Is there anything about the novel that took you by surprise once it was done? Perhaps a significance that you hadn't planned on but you caught after reading through the finished work?

I was surprised at how quickly and fully secondary characters developed. This book is largely Rebecca O'Conner's story, and it is told almost exclusively from her point of view. I tried to portray her fully, and let the reader know her and see her world through her eyes. I've gotten some very nice feedback from readers who said they enjoyed that character-driven narrative, and I've been really flattered by that.

What I didn't expect is how secondary and supporting characters became real to me: Janey Auburndale, Danny Ogilviie, Michael Donlon and Brian Keller. They are full characters and are "real" to me in much the same manner that Rebecca is. Martin Trask is one character I just need to expand on in subsequent books. And I currently have a disquieting vignette rolling around in my head told from the point of view of Marie Lestrade, Francis' mother, when he was only a small boy. Maybe that will become a short story, or maybe it will be an element in the later books.

Do you have any favorites in music? Does music inspire your writing process?

U2, Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, and She & Him are my everyday standbys. As far as inspiration for writing, I routinely turn to Sigur Ros, Brian Eno and Richard Wagner.



Which do you think is more important: Character or plot?

Character. Plots are easy to come by. But if you can't humanize your protagonist, or at least arouse the reader's interest in him or her, your story will fail to sufficiently involve the reader.

What are some of the books considered classics that you like?

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, George Orwell's 1984, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning, The Analects of Confucius, and the short stories of Arthur Conan Doyle and O'Henry. I also love Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie." Rebecca's shelf of "blue and pink glass figurines" in Chapter 6 of my book is a direct reference to this.

Would you like a movie made out of your novel? If so, would you like to write it or would you leave it to others?

I'm not sure I would want a movie made out of my novel. If I did, I would leave the screenwriting to others. I don't think that dialogue is my strong point.

Who would direct it?

David Fincher. I loved his work on the much maligned but brilliant "Alien 3" (1992), and I am one of that film's rare fans. But it would be just great if Ridley Scott was called in to handle the battle scenes, and Terry Gilliam handled the dream sequences.

What about a cast?

I've been asked this before. It is always a fun question, and I believe my answers change because I am a movie nerd and I am constantly seeing new films and remembering old ones, and remembering which actors I like.


Elijah Wood in "Sin City"Right now, I'd select Ellen Page as Rebecca -- she's an amazing actress in films such as "Hard Candy" (2005). And I think she's short, enough! Annabeth Gish could be Molly Landers, and Elizabeth Mitchell could be Janey Auburndale, 
Elijah Wood could be Francis Lestrade. Forget the innocence of Frodo; he does genderless psychopath just fine in "Sin City" (2005).


Would you ever try other genres?

I think about it all the time. Lately I've wondered what it might be like to try historical fiction. But I know that would be challenging because of the need for accuracy. It's so much easier inventing fictional futures and then just making things up.

If you met them in real life what would you think about your characters?

I would admire them. They are little different than American soldiers in the real world, protecting the lives and freedoms of their family and neighbors. I would also worry about them. The fictional world envisioned in the novel is one that often visits tragedy upon those who act heroically.

Francis Lestrade would be the exception. He would make me uncomfortable.

If I met any of the wolves, I would run like hell -- and probably not fast enough.


Erik Robert NolanWhere can readers find out more about your writing?

You can visit my website here for more information about The Dogs Don't Bark In Brooklyn Any More, as well as my poetry and short stories:

http://ericrobertnolan.wordpress.com/

Thank you for this interview, Laura! Congratulations on all the success and great reviews you are receiving for To Touch The Sun. And I'm honored to be able to appear here on your blog.

Thanks for stopping in, Erik.

Printers Row

Well, this weekend is the big weekend. The birds are singing, the trees are budding and on Saturday and Sunday book lovers will converge upon Harrison and Dearborn Streets in Chicago to cure their book hangovers with a little hair of the dog.

The 30th annual Printers Row Literary Fest will be held June 7 and 8 around Dearborn and Harrison Streets in Chicago,

It's a great way to see not only big name authors but also a lot of local talent. Chicago, along with its many other talents, has a long history with the the printed word. It may be apocrophyl but it's claimed that after the great Chicago fire of 1871, the Queen of England donated 8,000 books because, "Surely the library of your poor city must have been destroyed." (or something to that affect). Only, at the time Chicago didn't have a grand library nor was it known for a storied literary tradition. It was a workhorse of a cowtown soon to bloom into so much more once it embraced the cultural potential that it had been ignoring for so long.

In fact, it was the fire that helped with that process. Chicago hassince made up for its previous lack of culture. Eventually it became home to a world class art museum, and live theater to rival Broadway. It would transform musical styles like jazz and blues while creating new ones like gospel, and would be home to the dynamic Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It produced legends of comedy and movies, has had a number of great newspapers and boasts a beautiful library in the Harold Washington Library (It was in the Winter Garden of the Harold Washington Library where Narain Khan and Cassie Lambert meet in To Touch the Sun).

It has been home to great writers such as Richard Wright, Carl Sandburg, Nelson Algren, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mike Royko, Studs Terkel and Sara Partesky to name but a few.

And me! Well...one day my genius will be recognized. In the meantime I pay my dues.

And for the first time since Chicago's Most Wanted was published in 2005, I will be participating in Printers Row as part of the Chicago Writers Association Tent (Tent F), selling and signing copies of all three of my books from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, June 8. It's a great opportunity that I might not have been able to take advantage of if I didn't belong to the CWA, a wonderful organization for area writers.

So if you are in the area stop by and say "hi".

Helpful Joe

Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) was held April 25-27 at McCormick Place in Chicago. While I couldn't make it to the convention, To Touch the Sun still managed to be represented at the con thanks to one Joe Cirignani.

Joe is a page at the Park Ridge Library. He's also studying at the Second City Training Center. And he's one of the sweetest guys out there. Sometimes I believe he'd take a bullet for you.

Okay, maybe not take a bullet...but if you ask him to help you and he can, he will without hesitation. Knowing that he was going to the convention, and hoping to get the word out about my novel where I ever I could, I asked him to put out some lobby cards for me at the tables of free stuff that can usually be found at these conventions.

I also asked him to participate in some viral marketing by wearing a T-shirt with the book cover on the front of it. And he did. That he was willing to act as a walking billboard at a convention for my novel shows how willing he is to help out (of course he did get a free T-shirt out of it).

So salute to Joey C.: Proof positive that there are some great people out there.
Joe Cirignani giving a vampire snarl at C2E2.
All he needs are the fangsNext stop: Printer's Row Lit Fest. The fest is held in Printer's row around Dearborn Street from Congress to Polk Streets in Chicago. I'll be selling and signing books from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, June 8 as part of the Chicago Writers Association's tent. I can but hope that the weather will not be too hot, but giving the way May has been turning out, I might not be so fortunate. Still, it will be exciting. This is the first time I've taken part in Printer's Row Lit Fest so it will be an experience. I'll of course have copies of To Touch the Sun on hand, but I'll also have copies of Chicago's Most Wanted and Vampires' Most Wanted. 


   If you're in the area, stop by and say "hi".

Dark Chicago

Hey all, dipping in quickly today to post a link to the Chicago Vampire website. They've posted a blurb on To Touch the Sun on their site. I've worked before with the Chad Savage, the man who runs Dark Chicago's websites and he's been great. He provided a great piece of art for the introduction to my book Vampires' Most Wanted.

If you're into horror and vampires, check out the site: Chicago Vampire.


In the meantime, it would appear that, like any good vampire, one of my friends is only too anxious to put the bite on my novel. He likes to take good literature and drain it for all it's worth. And my novel is worth pahlenty!

Andy is actually a newly minted author himself. As Andrew Martello he wrote a wonderful book titled The King of Casinos: Willie Martello and the El Rey Club . Yes, they share a surname, but the two aren't related. It was Willie's last name that helped fuel Andy's interest in his story. What Andy discovered was a fascinating story of a man with a dream at a time when, with a lot of perseverance, could make it become reality. I'm reading it now and enjoying it very much. Andy's love for the subject is apparent on every page. Check it out. 

The Adventure Continues

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being a guest on The Nick Digilio Show on WGN radio in Chicago to talk about To Touch the Sun . Nick's show is broadcast at 2 a.m. on 720 AM, a station that has a great deal of history in Chicago. Nick's producer was very attentive and cordial and passersby through the "green room" as I waited for my turn at the mic made me feel very welcome as did Nick himself when I went into the booth. I observed this the last time he interviewed me, via phone, when my book Vampires' Most Wanted came out. Any broadcaster is at the mercy of scheduled commercial and news breaks but Nick keeps the interview relaxed and conversational which I really appreciated. 

It was particularly appreciated after the trip I had downtown to the Tribune Tower. I had planned to take photos of the imposing building as well as other sights along Michigan Avenue but by the time the taxi got down there, we were lucky to be able to see Michigan Avenue through the snowstorm (though there was something cool about driving along the Kennedy expressway and seeing the shapes of tall buildings trying to emerge from the frosty visibility of a snowstorm). 

Maybe it was because I didn't mind snow (and I realize after living here all my life that in March in Chicago you never say "never" when it comes to snow). Maybe it was because I wasn't the one driving in the snow (giving me a new appreciation to how hard a cab driver's job can be). Maybe it was because I'd been up since 7 a.m. the day before and probably wouldn't be getting to bed until 4 a.m. after the radio show. Whatever it was I was able not to fixate on the fact that a snowstorm chose that morning to occur. Instead I was able to appreciate the adventure of it all. The fact that after being up for a few hours shy of 24 I was being driven downtown in a snowstorm at 1 a.m. to be on a radio show so that I could tell people about a novel I'd never expected to write but wound up being so much more that I wrote three more books in the series. A novel for which I'd been hunting for a publisher for years, finding one in an unexpected way when my hope was at its lowest. Even  better, now that the novel is published, it seems to be selling well. 

Life can be unusually sweet sometimes. Oh there are times when it can pick you up and toss you around like a rag doll. But there are those moments that can make you float.


The lobby of the Tribune TowerI was floating as I entered the vast lobby of the Tribune Tower. And it is vast. The kind of place where footsteps echo dramatically as you walk up to the sign in desk. 

The walls of the lobby are etched with historical quotesYou'll have to excuse me for geeking out a bit here. I did after all write a book featuring Chicago history and here I was stepping inside Chicago history. For centuries the Tribune was Chicago's big gun when it came to journalism (oh sure, much of it early on had a bright yellow tint). It billed itself as "The World's Greatest Newspaper" hence the call letters WGN when the radio station came along. It was the radio station that offered a live broadcast of The Scopes Monkey Trial. It was WGN that was instrumental in putting radio in cop cars. In 1929 five squad cars were equipped with one-way transmitters. Prior to 1881 a beat cop calling for back up meant that that beat cop had to run back to the precinct to call for back up. In 1881 the Police Patrol and Signal Service set up booths around the city with telephones hooked up to the stations but that didn't do much for the police cruisers that came about after the proliferation of squad cars. Installed in the five squad cars were one way radios that were able to receive reports broadcast over the Tribune's WGN radio and could roll instantly on the reports. A year later, the department created its own radio broadcasting system and by 1942 two-way radios were installed in all squad cars.


WGN TV was of course home to the news but also to some of the finest children's TV programming like Garfield Goose and Friends, Bozo's Circus and Ray Raynor. Then there was also the Creature Features program which featured scary movies late on a Saturday night. One of the strongest memories I have is hiding behind my older brother Dennis as we lay on the floor in the dark watching the opening to that show.

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This is my third foray into live radioland. As I mentioned I was on Nick's show when Vampires' Most Wanted came out. At some point I had turned off the ringer to my phone. I was also up very late into the morning so I slept late into the afternoon. At some point I was awakened by the knocking of my friend who about a half hour from Palatine to tell me that the producer of the Nick D. show had been trying to get a hold of me. The producer had tried calling me and got no answer, so he tried the library and they contacted my friend. They needed someone for the show that night and wanted to interview me. Thank goodness for good friends, huh?

Years before, when Chicago's Most Wanted came out I was a guest on The Mike North Show on, I believe it was The Score radio station. It was at 7 a.m., so I drove down at 5 a.m. to the down to the NBC towers. It was a fairly easy drive at that hour. Mike was pleasant and enthusiastic about the book and I enjoyed myself. It was when I tried to get my car out of the parking garage that I ran into a problem. You needed to get some sort of voucher from some sort of machine but since the building was connected to a nearby hotel, I found myself going to the wrong machine to get the wrong voucher. The bottom line is what should have taken 10 minutes ended up taking 45 minutes just to get out of the parking garage. By that time, downtown Chicago was ripe with pedestrians and cars alike, none of which were that keen on letting me pass.

So I suppose a snowstorm on the morning I was to be on a radio show to promote my latest book was in keeping with my radio appearance and inconveniences. Still, it could have been much worse.

When I walked into the lobby and signed in the night guard teased me about the topic of my novel. You could tell he wasn't a big fan of the genre when he said the only vampire movie he liked was the one with Roddy McDowell...and Tom Cruise. Unless he was actually a fan of two movies, he was getting the one he was referring to (I believe it was Fright Night) wildly wrong.

The open door to the green roomNick's producer Dan brought me upstairs, then down marble hallway (I'm telling you...history) and into a "green room" that was admittedly kind of casual after you've walked through an ornate lobby the size of a baseball diamond in a building built in the 1920s. But it was comfy. It also had some great old radio memorabilia.

I'll admit I was never a huge WGN radio listener in the past. When I was younger, I was more a Top 40 station listener until talk radio host Steve Dahl burst onto the scene (later to be partnered with Garry Meier) and shook up local talk radio. 


Radio history in that caseEven still, I got a little goose bumpy seeing the WGN Radio painted on the door as well as seeing the glass case of old radio equipment. WGN radio grew up with radio as a whole. Other stations have come and gone but 'GN stood the test of time drawing to it personalities who could connect with local listeners unlike anyone else could. And now it seems it's drawing new personalities, like Nick Digilio, that I myself find more listenable then others who came before.

The interview went well. Nick is a very engaging host and I never felt rushed even though I know how tight these programs can be planned out sometimes. The studio itself was dark with a huge table and microphones in the middle that spanned out like spider legs. Nick was in the middle of it all, his attention divided between me and the computer screens in front of him which alerted him to the next break. It was fascinating to watch. 

When it was over, his producer Dan walked me down to the lobby where the guard teased me some more. Then Dan and I wandered around the falling snow on Michigan Ave. until a taxi stopped and picked me up. There was a bit of nostalgia as we passed by the Hotel Intercontinental where my friends and I spent many a weekend at Creation Science Fiction Cons wandering the hotel slightly drunk and flirting with sailors on leave from Great Lakes Naval Base. This was back in the 80s. I think the hotel has classed itself up a bit since then.

Driving on the Kennedy even in perfect weather can at times be an adventure. Driving on it at 3 a.m. in the midst of a blinding snowstorm as semi's sped past you, snow flying off the roofs of the trucks giving already overworked window wipers more to contend with is it's own unique experience. I had to give the cabbie credit (well I gave him credit and a generous tip). Midway through the trip he must have been regretting allowing me access to his cab but like a trooper he soldiered on and got me home safely (the poor guy would have to brave the Kennedy again for the return trip downtown). 

All in all it was a unique experience. Best of all, I got a great interview out of it. Click on the link and have a listen.

Now on to the next adventure.

Radio Radio

Things have been exciting since To Touch the Sun was published. The marketing machine is in full swing. I'll be a guest on the Nick Digilio show on WGN radio at 2 a.m. March 12. Nick was nice enough to interview me when my book Vampires' Most Wanted was published and I had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to this. And I'll be live in the studio. Should be interesting to head to downtown Chicago at 1 a.m. The Tribune Tower has a great gothic-look to it. This design was the one chosen by the Chicago Tribune after a design contest held in 1922. Completed in 1925, it's 36 floors, 462 feet high and at night, you might even see some bats flying around the top of it. Maybe even a few vampires.

To Touch the Sun

Today's the day! It's finally here. To Touch the Sun, my vampire novel set in Chicago, is finally available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format. It's been quite a ride. Years of searching for a publisher. Finding Dagda Publishing out of the blue (they've been great to work with). The back and forth on details. And finally it's here. And of course now the real work begins as I strive to get the word out about my 

My editor posted on YouTube my reading of the prologue. Hope you like it.



And if you'd like to know more about the novel or the writing process that went into it you can check out my Sentient/Feral Vampire series blog. 

The Approachng Launch for To Touch the Sun

The poster on my wall says it all!Well this is pretty exciting. The big day is coming up and Dagda Publishing will be having a Facebook book launch for To Touch the Sun Feb. 25. I'll be popping in as often as I can during the day and am looking forward to meeting people and discussing the novel. And those who attend will have the chance to win a copy of the novel. 


She's on the case!As I've stated often before, this novel is my baby. I've even taken publicity photos for press releases and I do NOT take photos.

Finding a publisher for it was like finding gold. I've been doing some interviews on it and writing a few guest blog pieces. It's given me a chance to reflect on the story and the various inspirations that went into it. I've been covering that in my blog for the series, The Sentient/Feral Vampire Series. 

I remember when I was writing Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Murders Mobsters, Midway Monsters and Other Windy City Oddities (My first book published in 2005 by Potomac Press). The day I signed the contract for that was the happiest and scariest day of my life. Happiest of course because I was finally going to be published. Scariest because I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, especially since I'd never done anything like that before. Once it was published, and I looked back on the writing of it, I have a lot of good feelings (even though I was going crazy while actually doing it). I guess it's all hindsight. 


On the left you'll see Lake Point Tower, home to Narain KhanIt's a bit like that with this book. Slightly different though because I didn't have a contract for it and it was a work of fiction, so there was nothing pressing on me in the way of deadlines. But I remember, once I had fallen in love with it, being very concerned that I'd never find a publisher for it. I really wanted that story out. And as I say, looking back on it, I can see things perhaps I didn't realize as I was writing it. For example, I didn't realize how vital the character of Sophie is to the plot even though she really only appears in a few reminisces. Sophie helped Narain live a relatively normal life (in light of his condition) for decades. When she died, his motivations were colored by trying to retain that normalcy. 


The trenches of World War II used World War I as a backdrop for Narain's conversion to vampirism. I was inspired when I read that Albin Grau, producer of the film "Nosferatu" served in Serbia in World War I and heard the locals tell folk tales of vampires. It's what inspired him to produce a vampire movie. Narain left that war a very changed man. But it wasn't until I was writing up a blog entry that I stopped to consider that even if the feral attack hadn't occurred to so drastically alter his life, Narain would probably have returned to his family a very changed man. As most veterans of war do. Whether they wear that change on their sleeve or keep it buried deep inside, there's no way that the violence of war wouldn't change them in some way.

On a more personal note, and this is something I realized shortly after writing it, Narain's family dynamic somewhat mirrors mine. There were four siblings (though we had two and two). There's a wonderful scene in It's A Wonderful Life where Mr. Baily tells a young George, "You were born older." That's how I feel about Narain. He was actually born 12 years before the next child Aziz comes along, 15 before their brother Zaheer and a full 20 before their beloved sister Ujaali. So in some respects, even before he goes to war, he's on his own among the siblings. 


Denny and old time radioIt was such with my siblings. My older brother Dennis was only two years older than my sister Barbara (I came along seven years after Barb, my brother Robert a year after me). Yet from an early age, he was off working on jobs with my dad, an electrical contractor, while the rest of us had more to do with each other. Often, he came home very late at night, whether he was off working late, or with his friends. When I was ten, he had moved out of the house and popped in infrequently. I'd never even been to his apartment. Consequently, I knew very little about him. So while the age between us wasn't as expansive as Narain and his siblings, Dennis was just as apart. And sadly, as Narain was "lost" to his family (though he survived the war), my brother died at the relatively young age of 42. 

It's possible that's why I wrote Narain with so many regrets (and why he feels he needs to see if his sister, who would be in her late 90s, is still alive). He regrets never taking the chance to try to reunite with his family and help them understand what he'd become. It's that stuff that was left unsaid, for whatever reason, that makes loss difficult.

So reflecting on the novel for pieces to publicize it has led me to consider what went into writing it. Some of it done without even thinking about it. Which can be some of the best kind of writing.

And as I say often, I hope people get as much enjoyment out of reading To Touch the Sun as I got out of writing it.


My reaction to finding a publisher.Visit the link above on Feb. 25 to stop in at the launch on Facebook and say hello. The novel will be available on Amazon for Kindle and paperback format. There have already been some wonderful reviews on Goodreads for it also. 

We're getting close to the book release day. To Touch the...

We're getting close to the book release day. To Touch the Sun will be released Feb. 25 and the excitement is building, as is the worry.

More so than my other books, this is my baby. It's my first fiction book to be published (not self published) and while I discovered a new found love of nonfiction (and plan to write more) with my books Chicago's and Vampires' Most Wanted, fiction has always been where my heart is. 

The other reason TTTS is such a dear project for me is that it was so unexpected. As I stated on the blog for the Feral/Sentient Vampire Series, I never had a desire to write a vampire novel. I did it hoping to catch the interest of an agent. I was also fortunate to have an idea for a character. And when I say "idea" I'm being kind. It was a two word description: Vampire chef. I had no idea what to do with the character, no focus on plot or motivation. Didn't even have a history on the poor guy.

Five years later look at me. I'm awaiting the publication of the first novel in an entire Sentient/Feral Vampire Series.

That's why I say it's so special to me, more so than any other novel I've written. I felt my way in the dark on this (I appropriate I suppose since it's a vampire novel) and created a satisfying story.

The worry comes around because, like any creator I want to make sure I do right by my creation. That I help it grow and be strong.

That's how it is with any project you've sweated over and are preparing to show the world. Literary stagefright I guess you could say I'm experiencing.

I guess like any parent watching her child take its first steps, you just have to stand back and hope for the best.

Right now there's a give-away contest on Goodreads. Visit to the TTTS page to enter.

And Dagda Publishers is working on a Facebook book launch to coincide with a Google+ hangout session where you can meet...me! This will hopefully take place next week. I should have more details in a day or two. I'd love to see everyone there and touch base. Keep an eye out for information on this blog or visit the Sentient/Feral Vampire Series blog.