The Dark Muse Sings

There are moods that come and go for me as a writer. While most of my stories tend to be romantically inspired, I write in several different subgenres. One of my favorites has always been fantasy. You can do anything in fantasy, and yet the more realistic the worlds you create are, the better the fantasy. I've also enjoyed writing dark fantasy for as long as I can remember. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, even mummies.

The very first novel length story I wrote back in high school was about a ballet instructor who fell in love with a vampire. It turned out that the vampire had a twin brother, who was seducing her behind his brother's back, in an attempt to create a new race of half-human/half-vampires that would one day take over the world... I still have that story somewhere. It turned out very badly, but I was so passionate about it at the time that I could wait to grow up and write dozens upon dozens of vampire novels.

It was Anne Rice who pushed me over the edge. Of course, I'd been dabbling in the macabre as long as I'd been reading. As a kid I'd dig out every ghost story in the library and bring it home. This was long before the Goosebumps series was ever created, so there weren't as many stories to choose from then as there are now. My mom was a big Stephen King fan, so I read all of her books after she finished them, discovering my immense fear of clowns just around the time I turned 13, as that was the year I read IT. That same summer, I also read Salem's Lot. Needless to say, it was one of the most terrifying novels I ever read, and I spent two weeks sleeping with the blankets up tight against my neck. Anne Rice made the vampires beautiful though. The fear factor was still there, but it was a tempting fear, and during those early years, while following Lestat from adventure to misadventure, I fell in love with everything vampires stood for.

After we got home from the movies yesterday, I had the strongest pull to write about vampires again, possibly with a werewolf twist. I haven't written a vampire story in so long, that I almost forgot how to do it, but an idea came to me in full form and before the end of the evening I started my introductory chapter. At this point, I'd love to find a way to keep the idea I have as a short story, but the complexity may not allow for it. We shall see. Either way, I'm pleased with how much I've already gotten done on it. The three main characters have all been introduced, two of them named even, and the protagonist has already been clearly established.

I got a lot of writing done today, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I knew all it would take was a bit of action, and then inspiration and motivation would both follow in full force. Now, it's half an hour before bed time, and I'm thinking I need to see if I can get in another 500 words before hitting the hay.

'Night all.