So, with my laptop on the fritz at the moment, I thought I would touch base and, instead of doing a character sketch, talk about the ideas that I have for this series of novels.
I initially started the first novel back in the summer of 2009, before my old Acer laptop crashed and took my entire story with it. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to back it up before it went out, and I lost 46 pages of work. Thankfully, through longhand writing and a decent memory, I managed to rewrite everything and more thus far.
The residents live in the fictional Okanagan town of Sommerfield, a place that I've made about two hours away from the hustling-bustling city of Kelowna, where the main character was born.
Initially, it was told in the third person point of view, where I could focus on the Slayers, the vampires and the supporting characters. It felt clunky, though, and I didn't particularly like the way it flowed. So, after talking with my friend Nikki Locking, I opted instead to make it in the first person point of view. Initially, it was just going to be in the point of view of Mirella, my lead character; however, as time went on, I decided to test out different voices and added the points of views of Jenna McCoy, Shane Carpenter and Kristen Kennedy. Their character backgrounds and photographs will be up when I finally have my laptop back.
I've always loved vampires. When I was in the fifth grade, I finally got a chance to read Bram Stoker's Dracula. I grew up watching stuff like Salem's Lot and John Carpenter's Vampires. I consider Anne Rice to be arguably the greatest vampire novelist alive. With the new resurgence in popularity of vampires, thanks in large part to The Vampire Diaries, Twilight and True Blood, I was very reluctant to really pursue anything with these novels. My friends seem to find something special in what I'm writing here, though I'm still iffy. In all fairness, though, while this is a vampire novel, it's more about the relationships of the humans. About grief, about the feeling of loss, of being lost. It's about finding your own path when the people around you don't make you feel like you belong. It's about finding strength and exploiting strength.
As a female, I find myself attracted to strong females in literature. Unfortunately, I've never really and truly come across one that I find likable. I understand that in life, things are never truly black and white, but I find characters to be wishy-washy, irritating, grating, manipulative. My hopes is that I could create enough strong characters that could stand out of a crowd. Women who aren't afraid to be leaders, be zeroes, be bitches. Women who embrace their curves, embrace their skinniness, embrace the things that people always nitpick at. Some things will go easy, some roads will be bumpy, just as is life. With the exception of vampires, I would like to try and make this as realistic as possible.
I wanted the idea of a girl who has in essence lost her path. Estranged from her parents, grieving the death of her older sister in a nasty car accident, Mirella had left town, returning after her boyfriend at the time had found a place in Sommerfield. Unfortunately for Mirella, she would soon learn that the lines she thought divided fantasy and reality were more blurred than she could ever comprehend. Thrust into a world she's unsure of, and doesn't really want any part of, and spurned and scorned by the others who see her as an outsider and an ice queen, Mirella has to try and find her place while doing everything she can to survive.
Mirella's biggest nemesis is a vampire master named Caleb. I envisioned a vampire, trapped inside his favorite era of time, with a beautiful wife on his arm. The fabled eternal love story that every vampire looks up to and admires. Mirella turns it into a tragedy, opening up a nasty feud between Caleb and the team of slayers. Massacres ensue, lives are lost, and Mirella finds herself practically drowning in grief.
I'd initially thought of making it just a trilogy, but it doesn't appear that it's going to work that way. Mirella's story is a rich, dangerous, often light, often dark journey that takes her to the very edge of her sanity and of her faith.
I initially started the first novel back in the summer of 2009, before my old Acer laptop crashed and took my entire story with it. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to back it up before it went out, and I lost 46 pages of work. Thankfully, through longhand writing and a decent memory, I managed to rewrite everything and more thus far.
The residents live in the fictional Okanagan town of Sommerfield, a place that I've made about two hours away from the hustling-bustling city of Kelowna, where the main character was born.
Initially, it was told in the third person point of view, where I could focus on the Slayers, the vampires and the supporting characters. It felt clunky, though, and I didn't particularly like the way it flowed. So, after talking with my friend Nikki Locking, I opted instead to make it in the first person point of view. Initially, it was just going to be in the point of view of Mirella, my lead character; however, as time went on, I decided to test out different voices and added the points of views of Jenna McCoy, Shane Carpenter and Kristen Kennedy. Their character backgrounds and photographs will be up when I finally have my laptop back.
I've always loved vampires. When I was in the fifth grade, I finally got a chance to read Bram Stoker's Dracula. I grew up watching stuff like Salem's Lot and John Carpenter's Vampires. I consider Anne Rice to be arguably the greatest vampire novelist alive. With the new resurgence in popularity of vampires, thanks in large part to The Vampire Diaries, Twilight and True Blood, I was very reluctant to really pursue anything with these novels. My friends seem to find something special in what I'm writing here, though I'm still iffy. In all fairness, though, while this is a vampire novel, it's more about the relationships of the humans. About grief, about the feeling of loss, of being lost. It's about finding your own path when the people around you don't make you feel like you belong. It's about finding strength and exploiting strength.
As a female, I find myself attracted to strong females in literature. Unfortunately, I've never really and truly come across one that I find likable. I understand that in life, things are never truly black and white, but I find characters to be wishy-washy, irritating, grating, manipulative. My hopes is that I could create enough strong characters that could stand out of a crowd. Women who aren't afraid to be leaders, be zeroes, be bitches. Women who embrace their curves, embrace their skinniness, embrace the things that people always nitpick at. Some things will go easy, some roads will be bumpy, just as is life. With the exception of vampires, I would like to try and make this as realistic as possible.
I wanted the idea of a girl who has in essence lost her path. Estranged from her parents, grieving the death of her older sister in a nasty car accident, Mirella had left town, returning after her boyfriend at the time had found a place in Sommerfield. Unfortunately for Mirella, she would soon learn that the lines she thought divided fantasy and reality were more blurred than she could ever comprehend. Thrust into a world she's unsure of, and doesn't really want any part of, and spurned and scorned by the others who see her as an outsider and an ice queen, Mirella has to try and find her place while doing everything she can to survive.
Mirella's biggest nemesis is a vampire master named Caleb. I envisioned a vampire, trapped inside his favorite era of time, with a beautiful wife on his arm. The fabled eternal love story that every vampire looks up to and admires. Mirella turns it into a tragedy, opening up a nasty feud between Caleb and the team of slayers. Massacres ensue, lives are lost, and Mirella finds herself practically drowning in grief.
I'd initially thought of making it just a trilogy, but it doesn't appear that it's going to work that way. Mirella's story is a rich, dangerous, often light, often dark journey that takes her to the very edge of her sanity and of her faith.
