Only the dead have seen the end of war. -- George Santayana, "Tipperary,"
Soliloquies in England
And only the Un-Dead survive it. -- Anonymous
This book owes inspiration to a variety of events and books. My muse likes to let the good ideas age and while I might see an idea in one event, another will refine it. Of course, there are exceptions, but for the most part it's similar to sculpting: you pick your medium, you select your tools. The writing is akin to actual sculpting. As characters take form, the bits and pieces I use for verisimilitude add layers that resonate with the theme and inform events.
I'm shooting for a mixture of Tim Powers and the gothic sensibilities of Stoker's original work. A debt of gratitude is owed to Jeanne Cavelos for developing the anthology The Many Faces of Van Helsing. Even though she didn't purchase the short story I wrote, I used it as the starting point to get into the novel setting and figure out that I needed to set the story after the events of Bram Stoker's novel and involve some characters from that work -- but in distinctly different ways.
Stephen King and the musical group Evanescence provide influences as well. King for the inspiration provided by 'Salem's Lot and Evanescence for their CD "Fallen" -- that latter of which serves as a soundtrack.
Note, November 2005: I recently sold "Ye Shall Eat In Haste" -- the short story from which the novel grew and which serves as the prologue -- to
Black Static (formerly known as
The Third Alternative) and it will appear in a forthcoming issue.
Note, September 2007: The book is done! Only substantive change is the removal of an epilogue. Last line works very nicely and fits with the epigraphs. Official start was October 13, 2004. Official end is September 14, 2007. A month shy of three years from start to finish.
