10 Weeks of Vampires: Week 1 -- Girl's Guide to Vampires

Spoiler warning: there will be many discussions of plot points and characters below, so if you haven't read this particular book yet, you may wish to give it a pass. You have been warned.


ORIGINAL COVER (2003)

THE BOOK!
A contemporary romantic comedy, A Girl’s Guide to Vampires is my debut in the world of the paranormal. On a visit to the Czech Republic, Joy Randall (a skeptic of all things paranormal), is suddenly thrown into the dark, dangerous world where vampires known as Dark Ones stalk the night. Armed with nothing more than a wicked sense of humor and a bag of rune stones, Joy does her best to untangle the threads involving a serial killer, vampires (both real and pretend), and the handsome, mysterious man who may or may not be what he appears.

Joy Randall’s Top 5 Tips for Vampire Hunters:
    Location, location, location. Remember, if you wouldn’t be there, neither would a bloodsucker.    Trust your eyes. You know the handsome, annoyingly arrogant, self-assured man in the shadows with long hair and a cleft in his chin? He’s your vampire.    No matter how tempting it might be, do not “accidentally” acquire a paper cut and suggest YOUR VAMPIRE kiss your finger to make it better.    From here on out, play it cool. Don’t offer to accompany your prince of the night on the talk show circuit and whatever you do, don’t offer him your heart.    And most of all, remembering a vampire is nothing to laugh about.
Details, including excerpt and podcast can be found here.


REPRINT COVER (2011)
BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF: HOW THE BOOK CAME ABOUT
Way back in 2002, when I was a wee little new author, I was befriended on the Dorchester author's loop by a very kind woman who took me under her wing, and gave me some much needed advice, help, and many giggles. Since I had never read paranormal romance, I decided I was going to read the couple of vampire books by my new friend--Christine Feehan. Remember, this is back in 2002, when your choice of vampire authors were basically Christine and Laurell K. Hamilton.

After reading a couple of Christine's books--and nagging her endlessly until she agreed that I could "claim" one of her heroes (Jacques--he's all mine, folks, I have it in writing)--I suddenly decided that I wanted to write my own version of vampires...with some twists that everyone warned me were going to be big issues.

First, I wanted to write it in first person, which just wasn't done in the romance world. Second, I was going to make my vamp books funny. Again, just not done--vamps were always dark and brooding. See Laurell K. and Christine. Third, I was going to start the first book of the series off with a non-vamp. Serious red flags about that, as well.

I warned my editor (who at the time was Kate Seaver at Dorchester; now she's with Berkley, the sister house of my publisher, so they kindly let me work with her again) that I was going to be trying something a little different, and settled down to write the book.

BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF: THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT
Want to see the original synopsis? This is what I sent in to Kate when I started writing the book:
------------------------------------------ORIGINAL SYNOPSIS----------------------------------------------------------Joy Randall, aging virgin at twenty-five, is completely and utterly enamored with the dark, brooding, dangerous heroes portrayed in a series of books concerning an ancient vampire race. And why shouldn't she? Her job as a secretary to library director offers her no thrills or excitement; her sheltered upbringing in a very rural area, the only child of two elderly parents, leaves her longing for the exotic taste of danger. Night after night she devours the dark, titillating passion described in "The Book of Secrets" series of vampire romances. Night after night she envisions herself in the role of the heroines, soulmates to the needy, hungry men who populate the stories. And night after night she retires to her solitary, lonely bed, knowing deep in her heart that she was created to save a tortured vampire's soul, to rescue him from the ominous darkness that threatens to consume him, to give him her light and heart and life.

But finding a vampire isn't as easy as it sounds, especially not in the tiny northern Oregon town that Joy inhabits, so she makes plans to go to the source, the one place on earth where she's sure to find vast herds of needy vampires just waiting for their soulmates: a small town near the foot of the Caucasus Mountains where C.J. Dante, reclusive author of "The Book of Secrets" novels, resides in mysterious surroundings. Her intention is to find a vampire--or as they preferred to be called, Caucasians--and save him from the horror of spending his immortal life alone. Joy is quite positive that if she doesn't find a needy Caucasian right off the bat, famed author C.J. Dante will be sure to point her in the right direction.

Mistakenly believing the Caucasus Mountains lie in southern Germany, Joy arrives late one evening in the small town of [something near Heidelburg], and is delighted to find the whole town has turned out for a midsummer celebration. Lurking in the shadows, away from crowd, a dark, forbidding, solitary man watches as the townspeople dance, sing, and drink too much beer. Joy's eyes are drawn to him from the moment she spots him, and as his midnight gaze captures hers, she begins to suspect she's found her vampire. Who else but one of the ancient Caucasian race would only appear at night, have an interest in the local goth society, be learned in secretive Caucasian folklore, and never been seen to eat or drink in public?

Raphael St. John hates the job he's been assigned: to investigate a series of murders in the European goth community, but the Interpol detective has little choice in the matter. Privately he thinks the entire goth movement is the silliest thing he's seen in a long time, filled with men who like to wear lace and pretend they are vampires, and women whose heads are filled with melodramatic, romantic notions of what seedy side of life is like. That opinion is strengthened when he meets a lovely American by the name of Joy who embraces the goth culture wholeheartedly. It's not bad enough Joy tags after him every night, following him during his investigation into the goth clubs and through the round of parties, she's obviously into kinky sex games as well. Why else would she keep urging him to bite her on the neck and claim her as his own?

Despite Raphael's warnings to steer clear of the goth community, Joy finds herself surrounded by a group of vampire devotees led by Dominic, the mysterious master vampire who seeks to add Joy to his number of "servants." But she has enough to worry about with her own reluctant vampire--just keeping up with the energetic Raphael is challenge enough--actually convincing him to admit to his dark secret is nigh on impossible. Joy, however, is made of sterner stuff, and is determined to prove once and for all that she can be trusted in her role as lover, soul mate, and life's blood to her mysterious vampire.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From this we can take away three important points, I think:

1. My books never turn out as they are originally described to my publisher
2. I had an unholy fascinating with making "Caucasian" jokes
3. It's just lucky I don't have to sell books to publishers based on synopses.

BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF: LOCATION
Periodically, I am asked why I chose the Czech Republic to base my Dark Ones. The answer to that can be given in two words: Pernštejn Castle.



While browsing around for a castle to serve as the inspiration for Christian's home, I ran across Pernštejn, and fell madly in love with it. I decided the Czech Republic was good for my vamps, historically-speaking, and set about making it my own. The castle, not the Czech Republic.
BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF: CHARACTERS
Girl's Guide was, if I'm counting correctly, the sixth novel I had written, and for some reason I don't really remember, I wanted the hero, Raphael to have both an outlandishly romance-hero name, and amber eyes. Since I had already written a book with an amber-eyed, exotically-named hero (Suffragette in the City), it seemed like a fitting homage to make the Raphael the descendant of the hero and heroine in that book. I named him after a bird in Suffragette (which still makes me giggle), and voila, Bob was born.

Joy was named after me (my middle name is Joy), and with the exception of Aisling, she is probably the heroine who is most like me. She is fairly clutzy, takes people at face value, is easily befuddled, and has a fine appreciation of dishy guys with sun tattoos on their bellies.

An aside: the sun tattoo on the belly came from a picture of a porn star by the name of Julian Rios. Do not Google him with safe-search off unless you're in a place where extremely naked pictures won't get you in trouble. And no, I'm not going to tell you how I came across pictures of Julian's belly. Mostly because I don't really remember, but also because I like to maintain an aura of mystique.

Roxy was the ditzy friend I always wanted to have--someone who would rag you endlessly until things got serious, then she was all support.

And finally, Christian. Ah, Christian. Christian was the first character that I will admit I wrote solely to satisfy myself. He still, to this day, remains my favorite vampire. I loved him so much, I knew he had to have his own book immediately, and so I set about...well, that's a story for next week's installment of Ten Weeks of Vampires.

I will add that Christian Johann Dante was named for my great-grandfather, Christian Johann Teuke. Grandpa Christian was born in what used to be Prussia, not the Czech Republic, but I've always loved his name, and wanted to give it to a character who I felt deserved it.

Which brings us to the close of this week's discussion. If you have questions or comments, feel free to post them on my message forum in the appropriate discussion, and I'll do my best to get back to them in a timely manner.

CONTEST FOR THE WEEK
This week, in honor of Raphael's amber eyes, the lovely Sara at Looming Moon has made a bracelet of gorgeous amber.



To be entered to win the Raphael bracelet, please send the following to contest@katiemacalister.com:
Your name and e-mail addressBe sure to put Girl's Guide Contest in the subject line. Entries without that subject line will be tossed out (I'm running two other contests right now, and the subject lines are vital to making sure my e-mail client sorts the entries into the right contest folder)And last, tell me whether you preferred Raphael or Christian in the book. No, your answer won't affect your chances at winning; I'm just curious if folks like one over the other, and this seems like a good opportunity to find out.
Enter before midnight Pacific Time on Sunday, August 7th. On August 8th, I'll randomly pull one winner from all the entries to receive the bracelet.