Vampire Books Fans, Fangs and Writers discussion

Oh, I still have his whit stone, that he used to keep his sward & knife sarpened. Things that mean something to me, I never get rid of. I have my Grandmother's, rocking chair. It's been around a long time.She rocked her babies, & me. I suppose, she may have rocked my cousins but not sure. Well,I'm tired & need to get out of my cloths,& go to bed. Sleep well.

Oh, I cant get set up on amazon for some stupid reason, that I dont know about. Maybe tomorrow?

I'm in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England.

I find it a lot easier and nicer to have a real book in my hands, and I hate giving away books that I enjoyed reading. However, e-Readers are nice, as Heather said, because you can have many books at your fingertips, which is especially useful if you are travelling.

Robin wrote: "Sandrine, the panel will have actual VAMPIRES on it? You mean, people who really drink blood and God knows what else? That would make me nervous. I once roleplayed with someone who finally said she..."

No. The panel consists of published authors. The vampires will come later, at a different venue. Either way, there are opportunities to network.

Francis wrote: "(Humans drinking blood is a stupid concept, and not remotely erotic.)

I was asking Sandrine, since she was talking about marketing, but it's nice to hear how you're doing.

Would it make sense to ..."

Slaps face: You KNOW it's a serious breach of etiquette to ask how a work is progressing...LOL. It is going extremely well. I have 11 more chapters to write to reach what I feel will be completion of this work. Of course, some of those chapters may expand and have to be separated into other chapters. And it appears that there may be enough material for another book. But honestly I am starting to become annoyed with people who map out a series. I really don't want that. I like the standalone book concept. With any series I think there is the risk of becoming redundant, formulaic and just plain boring. (found others who express the same view here on goodreads). As it is I'm seeing way too many books that are formulaic. At the risk of alienating virtually everyone in this group, I could express one of my characters criticisms of the vampire genre, as she/I see it.
You have your whole work on your iPad? I don't have one. Definitely back it up, in 3 other places minimum. I wish there was a way to zero in and isolate a particular characters comments; the cross checking to eliminate redundancy, inaccuracy, etc. is so time consuming.
Has anyone used a NEO or other small inexpensive word processor? It has been recommended, but it's impossible to find one to check out before making the investment. I'm thinking I might try a used one...

Francis wrote: "Hi Heather.

I'm also surprised that there's such a market for short fiction. I keep wondering why people would spend money on stories that are sometimes less than 5000 words long. Especially eroti..."

Tasty dialog there Francis! Well done.

I think people want short fiction because no one has an attention span anymore.
I picked up what looked like a scholarly vampire read, involving a Shakespeare mash up, and the chapters are two-three pages long. Seriously? My young neice prided herself on finally getting to read "chapter books" of 4-5 page chapters. She's a child; when she gets to be an adult, she can now go backwards, and read less!
Some of my chapters are 35 pages long. Oh dear. And I sometimes use "big" words. People aren't going to be able to stay with it, not if they have to stop and look up words too!! But that's what I did when I was a child; I looked up the words I didn't know. And if the story was good enough, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, much less stop to count them.

Well, I am blessed/cursed with working using computers for work, so I have a laptop that I use a lot. My writing is stored on iCloud so I can access it from multiple devices, so I can open the laptop and work in comfort or I can use the iPad if the laptop isn't convenient.

As the novel progressed, I made several draft eBook versions which were easier to read and check for errors than in the editor.

I've never used the AlphaSmart Neo. I know the iPad is about three times as expensive, but I can't imagine trying to do serious writing on the Neo. The iPad makes a nice e-Reader also.

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My biggest problem with PNR series is when I'm in the book shop and whole shelves get taken up with Kelly Armstrong & co. Sometimes I wonder round bookshops in a desperate need to find something interesting and original.

Having said that... in my favourite 2nd-hand book shop last week I stumbled across The Seventh Book of Lost Swords: Wayfinder's Story which is the 13th book in a 14-book series (trilogy + trilogy + octet; I'm ignoring Ardneh's Sword). I've got all the others, and I've even read the 14th book although I hate it.

Kelley Armstrong, that is, and I know she isn't PNR, but still.

The longest chapter in S&tM is 25 pages (A4). The shortest is less than half a page.

A few years ago I was watching the DVD commentary to Pirates of the Caribbean and the director was saying how quickly Johnny Depp spotted that his dialog was exposition, and that has stuck in my mind ever since.

We get bored very quickly of exposition. We like to read about people, we don't want a history lesson, especially not a fictional history lesson.

I think a mistake a lot of new authors make is in trying to explain what is happening. Readers can survive a degree of confusion (a.k.a. mystery), so long as they can trust that they will understand eventually.

Dialog is critical. Making it believable and interesting is not easy.

Good morning everyone, whats going on today? Its a bit nippy here in West Texas, how is it where ya'll live? Can't you tell, by the way I talk, I'm a Texas girl?

Good morning... nearly 6 p.m. here in sunny-but-cool Newcastle.

Its almost 12 pm. here, in Tesas. I think the temp. has gone up, to 44 degrees here. It was cooler, when I got up, about, 8: am. Back in 1976 or 77, we had a huge snow,on Friday night football. My kids,were still young back then. Where do you live, again? I can't remember? Is anything going on, today? I can't stay on here all day, like I did yesterday.

Newcastle is in the north of England, near the Scottish border.
Have a good day!
(My wife and daughter are back in the country after a week away.)

Thats what I thought.Somewhere over there. Is it nice? You have a good night. Talk another time. Its always nice, when your family comes home. Have a good week.

Francis wrote: "The longest chapter in S&tM is 25 pages (A4). The shortest is less than half a page.

A few years ago I was watching the DVD commentary to Pirates of the Caribbean and the director was saying how q..."

What are your thoughts on this; I value your opinion: The chapter I am working on now is totally a conversation between two people in which one person shares what he knows about situations and people that the other person wishes to know about. Of course, the reader then sort of "listens in" and learns the same information. So it is totally dialog, and imparts important imformation that hopefully will not be seen as simply an information dump. Hopefully the reader will be as shocked to learn all of this as the character is.

I think that's a good way to do it.

Well, This is Rita, not Francic, but I will give this a try. Ok.Is this secret info or rumor? Rumor,I think. Character 2 really needs to know, W.O. charster 1 realizing it.Talk back & forth as just general info, with C2 & me, hidden & listenning intently,learning everything I need, to follow the road to solve mystery at hand. As I pointed out,I'm no author, but I thi you won't nk the reader would need to put 2&2 together if written as 2 people just talking in the right. If this makes no sence,wont hurt my feelings,as I'm not the author.

Oh, go on, you know you want to...

Well I messed that up, by not catching a typo, darn. Its late, & i'm getting tired. Stay up late all the time though.

I think writing a good crime novel takes incredible talent for putting together a plot and then making sure the reader doesn't guess the ending.

I really hate when I figure out something and the detective seems oblivious to it for a hundred pages.

Some of my favourite authors:
- Sara Paretsky (VI Warshawski)
- Martin Cruz Smith (Arkady Renko)
- Michael Dibdin (Aurelio Zen)

Sorry I messed up so bad. Found more typos than I though. Maybe try again tomorrow.

Francis wrote: "I think writing a good crime novel takes incredible talent for putting together a plot and then making sure the reader doesn't guess the ending.

I really hate when I figure out something and the d..."

LOL! Waiting for the detective to "catch up"

Rita wrote: "Well, This is Rita, not Francic, but I will give this a try. Ok.Is this secret info or rumor? Rumor,I think. Character 2 really needs to know, W.O. charster 1 realizing it.Talk back & forth as just..."

They are secrets. CH 1 was the assistant to the vampire for 25 years. CH 2 is now the new assistant. These two have never met, and are not supposed to be in communication with each other. CH 1 knows how important it is to have certain information about the vampire (ie how dangerous he is/can be) because he learned it the hard way, and wants to help CH 2. to stay safe. CH 2 is hungry for information/explanations/and any and all useful and interesting info about the vampire that he can't find out anywhere else. This is an oversimplified explanation of what is going on between these characters.

Francis wrote: "Newcastle is in the north of England, near the Scottish border.
Have a good day!
(My wife and daughter are back in the country after a week away.)"

Been to England a few times, never that part of the country. I really enjoy London, but I just LOVE Whitby. Perfect for a vampire fan.

I can't actually recall whether or not I've been to Whitby, but it's not far from Newcastle. I really should go some day.

In writing Suzie and the Monsters, I've managed to create a list of places in London that I really want to visit. I'm trying to persuade my wife to have a romantic weekend there.

That reminds me, Francis, I was on a dating website recently, and some guy who had read my profile and had barely talked with me yet said, "You're not looking for a man, you're looking for a story idea." I assured him I already had a story idea. I thought his accusation was funny. Good luck convincing your wife that your writing work will be romantic for her!

The comments about good and bad mystery stories reminds me of problem I anticipate for the second book in my vampire series: My protagonists are unaware that a certain friend is really a villain setting them up for a betrayal, and if I only told it from the protagonists' view, I don't have much of a plot--very little conflict. On the other hand, said villain is a very interesting character (I think). A way I am thinking of handling it is from early on including letters from the villain to the other villain he's working for--and maybe letters back. I think this would really increase the tension for the reader to know at least partly what is going on behind the scenes. It is not a "whodoneit" mystery, and neither is my first book. I know this is pretty vague, but if you have any opinions about this approach, let me know.
I do not use the antagonist's point of view in the first book; she is mysterious in a lot of ways that way. I do have a diary entry that her boyfriend finds and reads, which gives some hints of what she goes through.
And bear in mind that the books are YA, so I don't want them overly complicated or to have too many points of view, especially at first. The first book has only 2 points of view, and that works well for it. The second book may expand the points of view after the readers have had more of a chance to get to know all the main characters from the first book. I don't get into the heads of the villains directly because there is more darkness there than I want to bring the reader that close to. But we shall see...

Hmm... I wonder if he felt intimidated. "Oh, no, she wants someone interesting!" Or maybe he had some dark twisted secrets that you might uncover...

Hmm... Well, to tell you the truth, I have written one little piece of writing based on my experiences on the dating site, but I didn't mention that guy in it. My point here is that I got a story idea whether I was looking for one or not.
At first I didn't know what you were referring to because the thing I posted last were about my villain and I thought you were referring to him. You can imagine I was puzzled, since I said I find this villain is interesting. He definitely has dark, twisted secrets that he doesn't want uncovered in this setting. I haven't totally decided how much he reveals in the end of Book 2. Some of his secrets may be revealed gradually.

Francis wrote: "I can't actually recall whether or not I've been to Whitby, but it's not far from Newcastle. I really should go some day.

In writing Suzie and the Monsters, I've managed to create a list of places..."

Oh you should absolutely do it, go to London on an adventure. Last time I was there I had an agenda, and one thing I did was to see the Woman in Black on stage. Quite good. You'd remember if you had been to Whitby. It is very unique I thought. It inspired Stoker, and it inspired me.

Robin: Sorry for the confusion. I'll answer later, though. Students to look after now...

Sandrine: I have no excuse for not going to Whitby. I'll try to do so soon. I do get to London on business from time to time, but there's rarely the freedom to really explore...

Bye for now.

Sandrine: Have you seen Laci Green's rant about Twilight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gpHK...

Personally, I dislike plots based on betrayal by a friend/lover/ally, perhaps because I feel like I am also being betrayed. Not sure.

I'm also not sure about the letter idea, but I do think it's worth trying it out, see how you feel. I think it's also worth trying to write from the villain's perspective - the challenge being to make the reader relate to the villain and even root for him.

I just saw it, Fracis, & wanted to kick her, where the sun doesn't shine. Know it was in joke form.

I'm sure, between the 2 of you, you will figure it all out. Happy Wrighting.

Rita: I don't think she was joking at all. Twilight has a serious problem because it can be interpreted in this way, and that wouldn't normally matter but the books and films have become very public. 50 Shades of Grey, another major phenomenon, has inherited the problem and made it even worse. Whatever the intention was with these two series of books, the reality is that a lot of people find them very disturbing.

It's funny in a way. I was talking with wife & friends last night and we were complaining about 50 Shades, and someone said to me, 'But what about you and vampires? What's with that?' The implication being that fascination with vampires is automatically weirder than anything in 50 Shades (which is slightly ironic given the origin of 50 Shades).

I suppose the key difference is that descriptions of vampires drinking human blood is automatically fiction, and understood as such. (Unlike descriptions of humans pretending to be vampires and drinking blood, which is just - in my opinion - sick, stupid, and certainly not erotic.) Once you accept that vampires are just a fantasy element, vampire stories are just as much about people as any other fantasy.

Francis wrote: "Sandrine: Have you seen Laci Green's rant about Twilight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gpHK..."

Ihave now. Wow...wow. I totally loved that.
I have been reading comments on Goodreads under the are people too harsh on Twilight, and there are so many similar comments. Meyers keeps coming off as an "I don't give a damn what message my books are sending out" creep of an author. It is so (personally)gratifying to see young women critically analyzing this whole franchise and seeing and saying how much undercurrent of damage, to both males and females, is evidenced in these books. Talk about backlash. Well...I've always said Meyers should have left the vampires alone. Thanks for the link. I will be passing this on.

Rita wrote: "I just saw it, Fracis, & wanted to kick her, where the sun doesn't shine. Know it was in joke form."

Francis wrote: "Rita: I don't think she was joking at all. Twilight has a serious problem because it can be interpreted in this way, and that wouldn't normally matter but the books and films have become very publi..."
As Francis said, she absolutely was not joking. Many women in particular are speaking up about how disturbing the books are in retrospect, and the fact that they have (had)been so popular seemed to make it that much worse. I am very glad to hear people speaking out about this. I have read some serious scholarly articles debating the merits/flaws in Twilight and I expect we will see more of the same in academic journals.

Francis wrote: "Rita: I don't think she was joking at all. Twilight has a serious problem because it can be interpreted in this way, and that wouldn't normally matter but the books and films have become very publi..."

Is it true that FSofG started out as Twilight fan fiction? I heard something to that effect. Save us. I haven't read the book; can't relate to the S&M etc though, being goth I'm not adverse to the fetish scene and just accept it.
I wanted to comment on the real humans posing as vampires and drinking human blood; I could never endorse this idea. For one thing, blood is dangerous; I work in healthcare directly with patients and these days--you do not want to be engaging in this behavior, for real. I had a strange experience with a patient/blood just recently that I found odd. But psychic vampires draining energy; I totally believe that is possible and does occur.

Sandrine: Cue Laci Green again...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o92hv7...

I know there's a high risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis through exposure to blood. Must get pretty scary sometimes in healthcare.

I love the Twilight Series, of books, & movies. Dont tell me, there are, real people drinking blood? That makes me sick, & its crazy. I have 3 nurses in my family, & know they have to be very carefull. My brother in law, is charge nurse in surgery, & mainly, works with orthopedic surgeons, but retiring soon. Please tell me, nobody really drinks blood.I may be crazy, but, not stupid. I may have been born at night, but not last night. Tell me if I read that wrong.

http://www.urbanette.com/vampire-obse...

I love reading, & seeing VP, But some are taking way to serious. I'm smart enough to know, it is fiction, but bring that on. Not this other junk.I have a hard time, thinking these people are that d--n stupid. If my husband had bit me, when we were going together, he would have been seeing stars. Rediculous.

In fact, he would have seen those stars, even after we were married. His cousin, saw them, before I ever met Scott. I was at the movie with some freinds, & all of a sudden, I feel a hand, tring to slide down the back of my shirt. Didn't know Don either, & when I turned around, he sure as h**l, saw stars. Have people, just gone crazy over vampires or what? Please tell me.

I'm sure I've heard about this years ago, so it's not a recent thing. It was even in CSI at one point. Hmm... see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical...

But it has tended to be practised by people at the extreme fringes of vampire-fandom, and probably they do take health issues seriously, i.e., in much the same way that certain swinger groups would allow unprotected sex within known & trusted groups of people.

Recently, vampire culture has gone mainstream and very teenage, and teenagers are natural extremists, so it's rather worrying, especially since teenagers are far more casual about health issues.

On top of that, Twilight and Vampire Diaries and other TV vampires have emphasised vampires as creatures of romance, whereas traditional vampire fiction usually explores darker and less seductive themes.

I do watch & record VPD, but haven't gotten into, that witch show or Supernatural,or what ever their called. Your right about kids, thier dumb, when it comes down to important things.I don't even know, if I would want a transfusion, anymore, if I needed it. Whats this poor world comming to, anymore? I know theres no answere to that.

All I can say about what I just read is,OMG, what the hell are people really thinking. They need to be locked up in mental hospitals. These people are really sick & need help. I had no idea this was going on. Guess I live in a more, friendly kind of world, & a little more protective,of those around me. I'm a very small lady, but don't mess with me,my kids,grandkids,or my friends. You really don't want me to come after you. I think most moms are the same.

Response to 142/145/148: Love Laci's comment. She nails it! Found the Renfield syndrome to be quite interesting. There had been attempts to clinically tag vampire behavior/tendencies; looks like they have finally done it. Actually, I had not wanted to say, but I work in psychiatry, with inpatients. I actually encountered a patient (F) who had co-diagnoses one of which was porphyria. And a young (M) patient was admitted with an improbably wild story involving vampires; I liked it well enough to put it in my book, as an offhand remark by one of my characters.

One of the very first vampire stories I read was about a woman with porphyria with a craving for blood.