The other short story - Doesn't have a title yet..

[Kiri]

It's not family friendly - violence and sex (it is a horror story after all)

But it's the other half of the stories that I'm going to merge.

Warning: It's 11,000 words long already. So it's not for the faint-hearted.

If you would like to read it - send me a pm and I will post it to you.
Kiri

[Jessica]

I'd love to read it, Kiri. PM it to me, please!

[Kiri]

Sent Jess to your email.

[silverlining]

Well, now that I've read The Last Sunrise I defenitally want to read this thing too!

[Kiri]

Hey Emma - it's sent to you email address.

Kiri

[silverlining]

I got the story, and I must say it was a rather nice way to round off my evening after my Monday CSI. I really like your style, Kiri. It reminds me of Anne Rice (though admittedly I've only read one of hers). I've always liked classical vampires myself, but I find it impossible to write them because...well, they're either evil or miserable, generally. But I still enjoy reading about them, and very much so in this case. I liked the tie-in between the two stories too! Was rather surprised by it actually. I'm very curious to see how you'll combine these two into a longer peice! I think it'll be fun to read.

Edited to add; I forgot to say I really like your dark humor. ^^

[Kiri]

I've never read any Anne Rice - tried to keep away from it actually as I am not a reader of horror. Strange huh? I write it, but I don't read it.

I quite liked the tie-in myself - I like how they give different points-of-view to the same event and how both the people see it in very different ways. (At least, I hope that is how it comes off). Amelia seeing her death as a transcendance of her condition, while Petr sees it as a defeat. (Please tell me that's how it reads!!)

The history of these stories is that Amelia's story was written first, and a friend after reading it was very curious about the man. I explained to her what the man was and how I saw him- and she insisted that I write a story.

I'm a very big fan of 'actions have consequences'. Both in ethics and storylines. (Which is why a lot of TV doesn't thrill me most times because they work on the ring principle - The starting state and the end state are basically the same, i.e. actions are immaterial). So in a lot of ways, I'm exploring the same action having different consequences because the people are different.

The only character in any of these stories who is truly evil is Marie - and I'm hoping to illustrate her descent into madness as a consequence of her selfish choices. Personally I think she's a bit cracked from the beginning.

I don't see any of my characters as eternally miserable either - like most people they have their good days and their bad days. But a lot of their actions are the result of misguided, bad, or ignorant choices - so the consequences follow from that.

OK - I've blathered on enough about my folks. It's actually quite interesting trying to get back into their hearts and spirits, and I hope to be writing about them more this month as a prelude to 'THE NOVEL OF DOOM'

Kiri

[silverlining]

Yes, that is a tad strange. Then again I've only read one of hers. I do like her style, but I'm not a huge fan. I only read horror very occassionally.

Yes, that is how I read it anyway. I found it especially interesting how...how shall I phrase this? Well, it seems that Petr throughout his story was keen to emphasize that he was not like Marie and the other vampires. He seemed, from his way of narrating, more conciensious (is that how it's spelled? Too lazy to get dictionary atm). Amelia, in her story, seemed to focus more on the monster that she had become. And yet it was Amelia who had a greater hatred for her state and enough feelings of bad concience not to eat well and, in the end, to willingly face the sun whereas Petr in the end seemed more like Marie and her likes and would have so to say fled into the forest and left someone else to die in his stead, had he had the choice. Okay, that was a bit of a ramble but my point was that I found it intersting who the character focusing on his sophistication and hunting intellectually for a way to "cure" himself was the one who in the end was unwilling to die whereas the one who described herself more as a monster was the one who willingly died, it says something about their self-image too.

Yes, Marie does seem....cracked. lol.
Well, I didn't mean neccessarily eternally miserable but I meant...well, it's hard to write a happy, well-adjusted classic vampire because of the issue of killing. Usually the ones that are "good vampires" have a constant struggle of conscience with having to kill to live (like Amelia I suppose). I've not seen a vampire story that manages to get around that without having to change their vampires from the classic, so to say. I mean, the classic vampire isn't really supposed to have feelings at all so if you, for example, want vampire romance then you have to tweak the norm just a tad. You see what I mean? Actually I think most people who do vampire well tweak the norm a bit, it's really more about how you tweak it. Me, I tweak my vamps so much that they're more...things on which the myths about vamps might have been based, hah. Okay, babbling again, lol.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how your novel goes! =)

[Kiri]

Actually - that's interesting - because while I hadn't thought of Petr and Amelia like that - that is exactly right regarding Petr and Amelia. He is moving closer and closer to Marie and her likes, and so on - because he never acknowledged his responsibility in his actions - it was Marie's fault, not his. Amelia on the other hand never blamed anyone but herself. Her struggles include the revulsion for being a killer, and hence her behaviour is far more human-like.

I think actually, it's impossible to write a happy well-adjusted vampire - because it's the same impossibility of writing a happy, well-adjusted serial-killer (which is what classic vampires are anyway). Not only that but when you do the vampire romance (a la twilight) the first thing that has to go IS the serial-killing. They drink animal blood - which is less of an anathema - or they drink blood from their victims without killing them, or with permission or..... Well you get the drift.

On the other hand - I think stories about happy, well-adjusted anythings are fairly boring. The thing that gets you interested is the journey as they learn and grow and perhaps become a whole person at the end, or not as the case may be.

I've been reading through my writing course notes and they talk about conflict and desire being the driving forces in every scene. And the struggle with opponents being the thing that catches the interest.

And in case you hadn't guessed - I like rambling, and I like reading rambling too!

Kiri

[silverlining]

Well, I'm glad my observations weren't way off. It's so odd when someone reads something into your writing that you can't at all recognize, isn't it?

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. And you're right, the blood-lust tends to be the first to go (or at least to bend a bit). And yet I find it so hard to resist mixing some sort of vampires into a story here and there. I mean, they're just such a....global myth, almost all cultures have some sort of blood-suckers, they're hard to leave alone, lol. I've never attempted to have classic vampires in any of my stories, I think I have "vamps" in....3 different universes but since I just can't get around the classic vampire traits in a way that suits my style they're vampire wannabees in one case and in the two other cases people/creatures who have traits that might inspire rumours or myths about vampires, if that makes sense. (I mean, I just can't bring myself to make a fantasy world without rumours about something like vampires and if you have rumours it's fun to have things that start them, lol).

Well, of course reading about people who are just happy and welladjudsted and nothing else isn't so much fun. But it still requires more bending to get a vamp to be a character people can feel for. A human can be human with flaws etc. and be sympathetic but a vamp usually has to, to some degree, become more human than the myth in order to do that.

All this ranting is putting me in a creative mood. I really ought to start doing some dispositions so I can pick what story to work on for NaNoWriMo.

Emma

[Kiri]

Your observations were great Emma! I think you have the heart of a storyteller, and it shows. I love getting feedback of my stories because it lets me know if what is in my head, is getting out.

I agree - it IS very hard to write a story where the vamp is the hero, and someone the reader can identify with/empathise with. And that's the kicker for me - the thing that ticks me off the most about a lot of the modern day vampire stories, is that I dislike the watering down of the serial-killer part. Of course - if it's well done (like for instance - Angel - I'll enjoy it with the best of them, and my first long writing was a mary-jane Angel fanfic. Which thank goodness will never see the light of day, because it is so much junk and so embarassing to read now!

And I do like the stories about the pre-vampire myths - there's been a fair bit of speculation that it started with people having porphyria (an allergy to sunlight) and anemia (I don't know how it's spelt at 4am in the morning!) etc. That's very different I think to the classical vamp stories, and to a greater extent I reckon it's a different place to them too - less horror, and more drama? It seems to me, that those are clearly humans, with failings and disabilities, and how people interpret them .

YAY for creative mood! Some dispositions would be great. I'm longing to read something of yours now. I've read some of your stuff on DA and think it's very good!

Kiri

[silverlining]

Hmm..well, I think in some cases the watering down is bad and sometimes not, it depends on how it's done. I've seen and read both versions of vamps that I've loved and once I've hated, hah! I think you do it well though! The things about vampires that annoy me are all just things I don't want to write about, but not things I don't want to read about!

Yes, there's that, and also of course those conditions that make people appear dead so that they're burried and then wake up etc., and the whole thing with how the skin retracts so that it looks like hair, nails and to some extent teeth have grown post-mortem. We have a popular science magazine here that, years ago, ran a series of articles on "the truth behind the myths" featuring, amongst other things, vampires. I wish I knew where those were now...

I have..well, right now two main options and a few secondary options. I think I'm going to try and sketch up what each chapter would include for at least the two main ones and then see where I go from there... I might need some second opinions as well as once I've gotten a sketch/list written down rather than just in my head, I might post with some synopsises and my pro and cons for each idea so that I can get some feedback on what might be the best choice for NaNoWriMo.

Emma

[Kiri]

Interesting point of trivia - did you know Edgar Allen Poe was afraid of being buried alive? A lot of his stories - in particular The House of Usher was him dealing with that fear. Poe is one of my favourite writers - and about as close to horror as I get.

I wish you knew where those magazines were too - the articles sound very interesting!

Well, as you might have worked it out - I'm full of opinions and rambling - so I'll be looking forward to see the synopses. I'm going to stick up my synopses for perusal as well, so we can feedback for each other

Kiri

[silverlining]

I did not know that. Cool. Poe is a favourite of mine too (especially fond of The Tell Tale Heart).

I surprised myself by actually starting on the prepwork yesterday. And I've given myself a deadline of this weekend or the beginning of next week to decide on which story to work on, so synopses should be up homefully on Friday.

[Jenni Rose]

I finally had a quiet moment to read the story, and I think it's excellent. I only wish it were longer.
Your novel is going to be great.

[Kiri]

That's the plan Jenni - for it to be longer - only 6 more sleeps until I start writing it for longer!

Kiri

[Whitnerd]

I'd love to read it as well.

[Whitnerd]

I finally found the time to read your story last night. It was a great read for a Halloween night too. I really enjoyed it!