When I first decided I wanted to try my hand at
writing I turned to the genre I liked best e.g. mysteries. I love reading them
and, after consuming so many during my life I thought, “I think I can write a
mystery book”. I wish I could say I had
conceived of my lead character, Mark Julian, right from the start but in truth I
had more than a few truly hideous initial ideas about the character of my crime
solver. I will spare you that horror: think government dogcatcher by day and
crime avenger by night.
I soon realized that I liked
historical mysteries best and that I was a sucker for noir in my
mysteries. So, by then I knew I wanted
my lead to be a private eye and, if I wanted history in my novels, he had to be
a vampire so I could flit through his past lives.
Thus Mark Julian, the
vampire-turned nephew of the Roman Emperor Augustus, was born. In case you are
wondering this person did exist. He died in his early twenties and in
unexplained circumstances, which helped with making him a vampire. Having him
anchored in a real history ... well it brought him focus for me. I read about
the times and imagined the person he might have been living in that era and as
a member of that infamous family. In essence the “personality” of the man
emerged. I sensed I knew him and thus could figure out how he would believable
react to various situations. It also allowed me, in my earlier books, to delve
into those turbulent Roman times. In Mark’s first case, the past events in his
life rippled into the future bringing horrors and death.
So, why create a vampire PI?
Well, it gives me have the best of both worlds. My vampire detective lives in
the present solving cases yet his “condition” allows me to bring to take my
readers into events and places in historical times that indirectly and, in a
few instances, directly connect to his solving a case. Mark is shaped by events
in his personal history and they affect how he does his job as a detective. These
“time-trips” hopefully shed light on his complex character. Writing about a
vampire PI also allows me to create an entire supernatural world for him that
exists in present day NYC. They are a population of mystical beings that live their
life alongside of humanity yet are run by governments and clans that have no
connection to that other world. But, that area is a whole other post topic. J
So that is my answer. Oh besides
I think vampire are sexy hot and fun to write about ever since I saw Frank
Langella play Dracula on Broadway
and got my first youthful.... * wink
*.
Please
feel free to write me. Yep I do reply.
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