That's Why the Lady is a Vamp

So the first of the 'vampire' stories is sitting at v1.25 - revised from the initial rough manuscript, but still in process. I'll give it a day or so and then when it is in v1.5 I'll put it out to trusted friends for initial comments although I have a feeling they will be surprised by it.

I mentioned previously that I had tapped into something, and some of that comes from my experience as a decision maker in the child-care system some years ago. We saw some bleak situations and the memory of them still sits in my memory and three of them have found their way into this story, albeit in stylised form.

Still, subject to revisions, I'm quite pleased with what I've done here and want to try and stay in this zone as I build the world with other stories. We shall see.

Fangs Can Only Get Better

So, I mentioned that I appear to have started a vampire story. This has surprised me on several fronts. The first is that I am writing such a thing at all, it is not what I expected to be doing. The second is that the current story itself is coming out quite easily - now I have the basic plot and key elements planned I am managing a thousand words a day once I've finished work.

The third surprise for me is how dark this story is. I've tapped into something which I didn't know was inside me but now I've got there I know there is more to come. The first inklings of this were the ghost story I thought up in Sutherland. That ended up as something else altogether, more of a horror story with a dark erotic twist. This vampire story doesn't have the erotic element but it is somewhat bleak.

But the biggest surprise for me is how much I am enjoying tapping into this dark aquifer and telling these tales. I am starting to think in one of the recesses of my mind about how I can leaven the bleakness with some light and shade. I currently have basic ideas for six stories (probably in the 6500-7000 word arena) and reckon I should easily come up with another four decent ideas as I write. If I manage this over the coming months then I end up with something respectably book length.

Which would be nice.

Recent reading

I've read three newly published books over the last couple of weeks. They were:

• Half A King, Joe Abercrombie.
• The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross.
• The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness

I enjoyed all three of them, though not uncritically.

Of the three, Joe Abercrombie is the best writer and Half A King probably the best written. Unlike his previous novels, however, this is a Young Adult novel and isn't as rich a reading experience as, for example, The Heroes, which is a tour-de-force in its own terms and also technically, with its shifting POVs during the battle sequences. It will be interesting to see what consequences the economy of the prose Abercrombie deploys in Half A King has on his writing once he returns to the world of the adult novel. This one has a nice -and very dark- ending, though.

Charlie Stross is usually entertaining and the Laundry series particularly so. I was worried beforehand because his last published novel, Neptune's Brood, was the first book by him that I have put down unfinished. I know from his blog and Twitter feed that he is prolific and bursting with ideas. My worry has been that in his productivity he is losing some quality control. Although I enjoyed The Rhesus Chart, that worry has not entirely left me and I sometimes thought that it could have done with a further revision to focus it a little more. A decent read but beginners to the Laundry should start with The Atrocity Archives and work forwards.

Deborah Harkness is a relative newcomer to writing fiction, but had the fortune to make her debut with an international best-seller, A Discovery of Witches. In a formal sense I think she is probably the weakest of the three as a writer insofar she is still learning her craft. She could learn a lot about the economy of effective prose from Abercrombie. And yet, of the three, The Book of Life was the book which I most enjoyed reading: a page-turner that kept me engaged to the end. It is also the one that I am most likely to read again.

Fangs for the Memory

I was jotting down ideas, letting myself free-associate around a theme. I wrote them down during a train journey to London. On the return trip I opened up the laptop and tried just writing to see what came out.

I appear to have started a vampire story.

Good grief.

Sex and Death

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.

While on holiday up in Sutherland I had a moment on a remote beach where I suddenly thought of MR James and his classic ghost stories, particularly "Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad". By the time we got back to the cottage I had the rough outline of a ghost/horror story and I finished it last week, at least in first draft. I'll let it ferment for a wee while before polishing it.

I'm not pleased out of any pretensions about its quality or because it comes anywhere close to the standards set by MRJ, but because I wrote it, start to finish, and it does pretty much what I want it to do.

What I'm not sure of is what to do with it once I finally call it completed.