More On Writing

Someone wrote on Facebook that they never read vampire stories, but had read my Surreal Sunrise in Twisted Tales From A Skewed Mind and had loved it. The person wondered how I had ever arrived at such a plot.
I didn’t tell the person that I had started it years ago when I was in San Francisco with my older brother. I thought the gloomy, dark clouded skies and wet weather would be perfect for vampires since they needed to avoid the sun. The story simply wouldn’t work. It didn’t matter whether I ended the vampire’s life on a gritty street or in a more normal apartment dwelling area of the city. The story was shelved for later.
Years later my husband insisted on moving to the Pacific Northwest away from my beloved Phoenix and Valley of the Sun. We lived on a road called Moon Valley Road in the Valley of the Moon. Glimpses of the sun could be fleeting as Mt. Si hid the rising sun in the East and wouldn't appear until after twelve noon. I just thought San Francisco could be gloomy. This area could be socked over with clouds from November to July 5th. The clouds hid the sky and the stars.
I pulled out the vampire story and started all over. The setting became the less inhabited areas of the Northwest. The vampire wouldn’t even need to worry about daylight if there wasn’t any. Of course, that did not work. I then put the vampire in the city of Seattle. That didn’t work either and the story went to the back of the pack.
When we retired it was my turn to pick where we lived and it was back to the desert. This time we went to the high desert of California to be near our daughter. I did resume writing and joined a writer’s group. They published an anthology each year and short stories had to be set in the desert. There certainly were stories of ghost towns, rocks, the forgotten, and other tales, but it was not the climate of a vampire that needed the dark of night and would die in the bright sunshine of a desert day.
Our writing group would have an occasional speaker. One time we invited an artist who was working with someone doing a study of the five acre homestead plots; those that had been abandoned and those still occupied. Her speech and photos of the abandoned cabins and homesteads were absolutely intriguing. The starkness of one taken during a brilliant moon lit night haunted me. I went home inspired and pulled out the rather rumpled pages of the vampire story and transferred the bones to the computer, but this time I set the story in the bright, sunny desert of Southern California.
How could the vampire survive during the hours of sunlight that can intrude into a home unless blocked by the strongest of black out curtains or shades? An RV and a pickup truck made that possible. My vampire wouldn’t need to be out in the sun and if it were late fall until early spring, the hours of sunshine aren’t even that long. Best of all, who expects to meet a vampire here? Aren’t they long, lived creatures from the more civilized literary and drama cultures?
Then all the answers were there and the story flowed. His RV would be equipped with the proper shades and air conditioning unit. The space is small enough he does not need a helper. Best of all, if he pulls into an RV park at night, someone is there to take his money. Even the small towns in a warm climate have their wandering homeless for his dining pleasure. How could the sun present a danger for one so well prepared?
Ah, but do not forget, the desert can be a dangerous place that has lured many an unsuspecting novice into the very situation they wish to avoid. That is why the story now has the name of Surreal Sunrise and it is waiting for you in Twisted Tales From A Skewed Mind. You’ll find it here and on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Tales-...