You know how sometimes after you’ve finished
watching a scary movie or experienced something particularly
shiver-worthy, you’ll notice every little sound in the house, every
shadow in the hall, every creak in the floorboards? Moods or events,
especially paranormal ones, can definitely affect us and make us
hyper-aware. And since a writer’s muse is an imaginative extension our
ourselves, I’d say that hyper-awareness definitely carries over to the
muse as well.
At least it did for me. Twice. Really.
And each time, a vampire book was born.
Six years ago, after a long day of work, I was happily pounding away at
my keyboard, working on a contemporary cowboy story. Two AM rolled
around and I took a break from my manuscript to tiredly run my hands
down my face. And that’s when I noticed the perfumed smell. I glanced
around, sniffing, trying to figure out where the scent was coming from.
It didn't smell like soap on my hands, but I’d definitely detected a
perfumed scent when my hands were near my face. I smelled my hands
again and realized the scent was coming from a ring I’d bought a couple
weeks ago. The ring had obviously been through many hand washings and
had no reason to smell like perfume, but it did. Odd that. And yet, as
I stared at the ring on my finger, I thought, Hmmm,
that’s…interesting. Bet I could write a story about a ring with a
scent. It’d have to be paranormal. And sexy. Now, what kind of hero
would I put in a paranormal, sexy story? *Insert dinging
bell over my head here...oh, and a finger snap*. Vampire!
Even though I'd never written a story about vampires and never had any
intention to, I started a vampire book. That vampire story ended up
being the first book I sold to a small publisher, which was later
followed by two more books in the KENDRIAN vampire series.
Fast forward four years and eleven novels and novellas later, I had the
most amazing dream. A human female had written a fictional book about
vampires. The next thing she knows she’s kidnapped by a real vampire
and they’re being chased by gunmen. The vampire who kidnaps her shoots
at the people shooting at them, meets with a drug dealer and basically
comes across as a bad guy, who happens to have saved her life in the
process. Hmmm, he sounded dark. And I liked it!
What did I do once I woke up from a surreal dream like that? I began
scribbling like a madwoman! The next thing I knew, that book SCIONS:
RESURRECTION turned into my first NY sale, along with two other follow
up stories, SCIONS:INSURRECTION and SCIONS:REVELATION.
Yes, in both cases, unique events were the catalysts for my vampire
stories. My subconscious muse worked overtime, creating those first
stories, but I've continued to write about vampire heroes ever since,
because they’re interesting and complex characters. Full of
supernatural strength and yet harboring an Achilles weakness, these
tormented heroes ooze sex appeal. While their dark, dangerous nature
and need for blood heightens the risk, their allure makes them
invitingly irresistible in a bad-boy, "Bite me, baby" kind of way.
What I find the most interesting about my own inspiring experiences was
the fact that both stories turned out to be about vampires. Now that
you know what drew me into writing about vampires, what about you? What
draws you into "reading" about vampires? Is it the character/hero? The
mythology? The dark world?
Patrice Michelle
http://www.patricemichelle.net
SCIONS:RESURRECTION - January 2008
SCIONS:INSURRECTION - May 2008
SCIONS:REVELATION - December 2008
