Coffee in Hand, Werewolf Story Brewing

Not writing counts as writing as long as the imagination is mentally sifting through ideas, cataloging some and letting others drift away.

I really like to write a good story.

By that, I don't mean to imply I' this "great writer." I mean, I love the process. I love shaping ideas into tangible, readable prose.

Today is my work writing day. It's a long intense day where I write solid drafts of all the stories I'm planning to run in The Herald-News features section over the next week. 

Except in this case, it's a shorter, more intense day because towards the end of it, I have to take someone to the doctor, so I have to be on my focused game even more than usual.

And I love it.

But on the flip side, at the end of the week, my favorite Saturday occupation is writing fiction with supernatural notes. Now that Before the Blood is written, and the last two books are in the editing phase, I'm looking forward to sinking into another novel once the story gets past the percolating stage, although I'm nowhere near that yet.

However, I did write the back cover copy in 2018. It may be tweaked as I go (or maybe not). 

I'm still working on structure, but I do know a few details: first person POV, only three chapters (June, July, August), shorter (about 50,000 words), young adult, a late 1950s or early 1960s setting, a standalone, a "BryonySeries setting (Shelby, but that's the only connection to the last series), a title: "Lycanthropic Summer," and a few characters.

I've got a few characters fleshed out (LOL), and the ending written. The more ideas that ideas surge, the more I'm eager to write it. Pretty good for an idea I had in 2012.

Here's the back cover text:

Caryn Rochelle loves werewolf stories and promised herself she would write the world's greatest werewolf love story before her eighteenth birthday. But with the date just months away, Caryn has shredded more drafts than she's kept and is feeling desperate.

But then she learns the town's most prestigious couple has a dark secret: they're keeping a savage boy about her age locked in their basement. One glimpse, and Caryn's inspiration skyrockets. Caryn knows she ought to report them, but...

Can it really hurt to wait until she finishes her story?

10 Reasons to Read (or Re-Read) the BryonySeries this Year

Talk about shameless self-promotion!

Well, not really. But with all the "top ten" stories online coupled with the many story lists I've made for The Herald-News website, I thought I'd have fun with one of my own.

If the points below DON'T interest you, then the series is definitely not for you.

But if any of them make you think, hmmm, well, then maybe...


1) You'll become immersed in another world.

Munsonville. Simons Mansion. Eircheard’s Emporium. Grover's Park. The land beyond the mirror. Jenson College of Liberal Arts.

These are just some of the examples.

2) It's not what it seems to be.

Or to quote Tom Hernandez's forward from the third book:

The ability to capture and convey the challenges and rewards of human interaction -- pain and joy, celebration and sorrow, heartache and elation. These are the difference, to paraphrase the immortal Truman Capote, between “typing” and “writing.”

Thanks, Tom!!! :)

3) The trilogy is not a page-turner.

Wait -- what??? Shouldn't good books be page-turners? Well, yes...and no. Instead of a sprint to the the end, the BryonySeries trilogy has a slow-build pace to keep you rooted to each word in each line so you read slowly and carefully. Very carefully.

4) If you're a parent, you may understand your teens better.

5) If you're a teen, you may understand yourself and your peers better.

6) There's an emphasis on personal responsibility and consequences of actions.

Translation: No victim mentality here.

7) No sparkling vampires.

Not one. Not a single one.

8) You might fall in love.

Plenty of 3-D characters here, all with their virtues and vices (more or less) and no cliches.

9) It's complicated.

If you like "light reading" or beach reads, this isn't the series for you.

10) You'll improve your vocabulary.

Some terms lightly tossed around (depending on the book): pseudogenes, hanta virus, crubeens.

How to buy it? Right HERE.

Illustrations by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt ("Bryony") and Matt Coundiff ("Visage"). Follow Matt at www.facebook.com/artbymattcoundiff or @MattCoundiff on Twitter.

Inventing a Genre

Many of today's books are often described as "crossing genres," meaning they are not neatly categorized into one topic.

Although I often say I write Gothic vampire fiction, as it sort of describes the first book in the BryonySeries and prequel in progress, it's definitely out of place for books two and three and overall misleading when trying to find its audience.

Furthermore, readers of current vampire fiction have a certain fast-paced, paranormal expectation that they won't find in my books.

So I've spent some time researching genres and their descriptions trying to create one of my own. And now I have.

The BryonySeries is supernatural/literary.

Literary because it the books are (overall) slowly paced with a "slow, but steady build) with a emotionally introspective, character-driven plot.

Supernatural because they address the mysteries of life and death. Shadowy vampires, along with some paranormal and faint Celtic themes, lurk in the background with an overriding single theme: blood.

Now for the books:

Bryony: A 70’s teen trades her blood with a Victorian vampire for a trip back into time as his wife.

Visage: After trading her blood with a Victorian vampire, a 70’s teen plunges into a misleading contract, trapping her into another bargain to save a life.

Staked!: A 90's teen boy's delving into magic and immortality exposes identities, motives, and his

salvific mission. 

The prequel, Before the Blood, is a series of five incomplete novels told from four different points of views (John Simons, Kellen Wechsler, Henry Matthews, and Bryony Marseilles) that tell a complete story.

The first four novels provide background to the shaping of their characters and the motivations that drive their decisions, with everyone coming together in novel number five for the main events, a structure that's somewhat similar to a 1970's disaster film.

This better definition of genre, I feel, will help me find the audience. And I don't believe it will be a large audience.

But that's okay.