Interview on WROTE Podcast (YouTube Channel)

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week I’m excited to share the interview I did on WROTE Podcast (learn more here), we talked about my newest novel Mu; Legend of a Lost City (get your copy here), how I came up with the idea, the legends that support the story, and the characters that inhabit this world.

We have a great conversation and a lot of fun talking about what I read as a kid, who inspires my writing and what are some of my favorite things. I hope you’ll give the 30 minute interview a watch and show some love to WROTE Podcast, because they are amazing.

Check out the interview here:

I hope you enjoy the interview. Until next time have a great week.

The Vampire’s War – Damian Serbu

Happy Wednesday Scribblers. I hope you are all having a great week. Today I’m thrilled to have author Damian Serbu here to chat about his newest novel The Vampire’s War, which is the fifth book in his The Realm of the Vampire Council. If you haven’t checked out his amazing series and you enjoy vampire books, then you are missing out on some excellent books.

Instead of having Damian come over and chat about his book, I asked him to provide something different. He wrote up what inspired him to craft this story and how he learned but the novels underlying tone actually meant to him. Let’s jump into what Damian has to say.

Quite often, when asked why I wrote a novel, I explain how the story called to me. The characters, episodes, and plot line emerge within my head over time, until I have to put them to paper. In other words, the muse dictates a lot of what I write! I was excited, however, to be asked about what inspired The Vampire’s War, because more played into its development than the muse alone.

I had hinted in other vampire novels about a rogue vampire who defies the Vampire Council. And in The Vampire’s Protégé, which introduces a completely new vampire, the defiant vampire plays a key role. By the end of Protégé, in fact, we learn a war is brewing, but there are no other details. If I wanted to return to my vampires, I was going to have to dive into this war. In other words, the war at the heart of The Vampire’s War was a slow burn coming at us over several stories.

I delayed a little while, however, because I was concerned about the scope of a vampire war and how to put that to paper. I was nervous because the concept went farther outside my typical comfort zone than most of my other tales. I was sitting on a situation where I had ideas but too much uncertainty to start putting the grand scheme to paper. However, along came the second push toward writing The Vampire’s War.

This is where the muse comes into play. Vampires have always called to me. I write other genres, but even when I take a break, I return to vampires. When I complete a novel, I think – okay, done with the vampires! Time for them to go away for a bit! They comply for a little while, until I begin to see flashes of a scene pop into my head. Then they demand more and more attention, until I jot some notes about a possible story. However, I wanted to let them rest. I had other novels in the queue within my brain that were supposed to be written first. But one after another, the vampires poked and prodded. They said shit like, “Yeah, you think you like the YA sci fi thing you’re plugging away on. But we’re cuter. And funnier. Oh! Hey! Guess what I did that you need to tell people about!” You see, vampires nag at you.

The sexual allure, power, and concept of immortality within vampire worlds has always fascinated me. I love vampires of all stripes; from the dark vampire of Bram Stoker and other evil vampires, to the universe of Anne Rice. I find the uniqueness of each author’s creation so absorbing. Plus, with my vampires and I think with other vampire writers, stripping away mortality, and in many ways fear itself, offers a platform for deep dives into other human emotions and motivations. This factor pulls me back into the vampire world time and time again. Combined with their incessant voices in my head, it was time to bring them back to life.

Fascinatingly, the third factor in what produced The Vampire’s War was dormant as I wrote this novel. I was going with these first two motivations as driving me to write The Vampire’s War, unaware that a third, and possibly more powerful force, pushed me along. Before I reveal the issue, let me share how I figured out its influence.

I was talking to a close friend about my writing. She asked what I was currently working on, so I explained how I was wrapping up The Vampire’s War. The Vampire’s War is written from Jaret’s point of view. He’s a character who first appeared in The Bachmann Family Secret, a young adult ghost story, and then blended into the vampire world in The Vampire’s Witch, where he becomes a vampire. He’s also in The Vampire’s Protégé, but never by name because he refuses to reveal his identity to the main character. However, Jaret tells about the impending war and is attempting to find help in combating it. These factors make him an ideal vehicle for watching the war. He’s young and not part of the vampire leadership, so he and the reader together discover facts about the war as they develop. And he is extremely powerful because in addition to his vampire ability, he’s a witch.

Back to the matter at hand, I explained to my friend how I realized that The Vampire’s War has two main storylines, not one. Of course, one is the war itself. But as the words hit paper, I came to realize we were also watching Jaret grow into himself as a new, confidant, and liberated vampire. There was a self-discovery component for Jaret that evolved naturally, without my intending to tell it even as it dominated much of the plot.

She then asked me, “do you think what happened to you had anything to do with how you tell Jaret’s story?” Boom! Out of nowhere I saw a major factor in why this story came into being. I had been laid off, in a very unethical hatchet job against a lot of friends, colleagues, and myself. But Paul and I had been planning for me to retire in about five years or so, and after deliberation and analysis, concluded we could take that step now, and thus I became a full-time writer! Jaret’s story had become part of how I processed what happened to me and then embraced my new life. For the first time, I don’t answer to anyone, not a parent, teacher, professor, boss – nobody but the dogs (who are still in charge). The way my friend led me to this revelation was so much fun. And I am happy to have the opportunity to share with you the fun way The Vampire’s War came to fruition!

I don’t know about you, but I love hearing about how authors come up with their story ideas and how our actual lives can seep into the stories we write, even without us knowing until someone points the fact out to us. Let me know in the comments below what you think about how our muses work. Until next time, have a great week.

Book Blurb:

War brews among vampires. Facing extinction at the hands of an ancient one, the Vampire Council plods along with a secret strategy. Jaret Bachmann, both vampire and witch, fears the Council elders move too slowly. He has the power to assist them in defeating their enemy, but the longer they keep him at arm’s length the more defiant he becomes. He’s already pushing the boundaries to assert his will when tragedy strikes, devastating him and compelling him to become even more rebellious. A young vampire alone in the world, Jaret struggles to find his true self and discover how he wants to spend the remainder of his eternal life, even as the vampire war intensifies and the rogue vampire strikes again. To compound his problems, he’s faced with the allure of a hot renegade vampire, not sure if he is friend or foe. Who will win the war, and where will Jaret’s soul-searching lead him? Find out in The Vampire’s War.

About Damian Serbu:

Damian Serbu is an author of gay horror/speculative fiction.  After over twenty years of teaching history at the collegiate level, he now writes full time.  He lives in the Chicagoland area with his husband and two dogs.  You can find him a on his website here, or keep up with his latest ramblings on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Buy Link his novel The Vampire’s War here.

Five Tips on Character Creation

Happy Wednesday Scribblers. I hope you are all having a wonderful week despite all the bad news. It seems things keep getting darker and darker. I have to believe the light will come soon. I hope we can all hang in there until then. This week I wanted to share a new writing tip with you. I realized I haven’t shared any writing tips in a while and I figured today would be a good day to do so. This week I want to share my five tips on character creation. Keep in mind this is going to vary for everyone, but these are my tips that I use for all my characters, when I’m starting a new story. Or, sometimes, I discover I need an additional character in the story I’m working on.

Let’s jump into it:

  1. Create a bio for your character. Think about all the general things that are important for your character. Name. Date of birth. Age. Astrological sign. Where they work. What their education was like. How old they are? What do they do in their free time? What scares them? What is their religion? Are they religious? Did they have a terrible experience with their faith? Do they have any goals? Giving your characters some goals is always a good thing. It makes the character more three dimensional and gives you an opportunity to either help them with their goals throughout the story, or makes them reevaluate the importants of their goals. Is your character likeable? Are they kind?

  2. What do they look like? Often what I will do is find an image on line of what I think the character may look like. An actor. A model. Even a cartoon character (I know weird, but true). If you don’t want to find an image, then describe the characters and write it all down; eye-color, hair-color, height, weight, do they wear glasses, are they fat, are they thin, etc. The more details you can write up about your characters appearance, the more real that character will become to you. This also has the added benefit of giving you actions you can do with your character as you write. If they wear glasses, you can have them take them off, put them on, etc. If they are thin or overweight, you might have them play with their clothes as they may not fit right. If they are tall, you might have them hit their head. If they are short, they might not reach things.

  3. Describe their family. Are their parents alive? Are their parents dead? Do they have siblings? Do they have an extended family? What about Grandparents? Is their family religious? Does the lack of faith or too much faith cause tension in the family?

  4. Where are they from? What is their race/nationality? This will help you figure out how they speak and if they have any kind of accent. This will also tell you how the world responds to them. People don’t always treat foreigners very well. So, if your character isn’t a local, then you have that to play and work with. Also, when it comes to how they speak, if they have an accent this will give you a chance for variation in your dialog.

  5. This last one may not be hugely important for everyone, but I find it helpful with my character's creation. What is your character’s sexual orientation and identity? It may never come into play, but it is another opportunity to learn about your character and figure out how the world interacts with them.

Bonus: I find it helpful to create a character sheet for each of my main characters. That way I can easily pull it up as I’m writing the story. I can also, quickly, add to it as the need arises.

Those are my five tips and one bonus tip on creating and getting to know your characters in your story. I hope this helps. Also, if you are looking for more writing tips, check out these past blogs. I chalked them full of advice and helpful tips and tricks:

Events (What you didn’t know, you need to know)

Creating Audiobooks – Why and How?

Writing Process and How Writing Works… For me Now.

What it’s like being an author in a small publishing house?

What I Look for When I’m Judging Books for Book Awards.

Book Editing; Overly Used Words, Filtering and Filler Words.

Word Police and Word Censorship.

What is the Hardest part about Writing a Book – The Marketing.

Well Scribblers that is all I have for now. I really hope you found this all helpful. Let me know if you have any character creation tips in the comments below. Until next time have a great week.

Religion in non-Religious Books

To begin, in general I love religion. Belief in God plays such a strong role in our society that to ignore it as a writer is a mistake.  You’re doing a disservice to the reader and the story.  Now, I’m not saying to go in and make fun of religion (unless that is the point of your novel, article or short), or bash people over the head with your religious view.  Writers need to treat faith like they would treat any other topic.

It’s important so why ignore it.

The reason I bring this up is that as a writer all my stories hold some link to faith and a belief system of some kind.  I try to be fair with how I present the subject, and I don’t get preachy with beliefs in a Higher Power, and I steer clear of making fun of it. That said, I will point out hypocrisy because all faiths have it.

Regardless, I truly love religion (at one point I wanted to study World Religions) and I love how it affect us, who we are as a people and what we believe as a collective human culture.  Not to mention how we consider our fellow man.  Its saddens me when we attack each other for our religious beliefs. Because when you boil all beliefs in a High Power down to the basic ideal they are all pretty much the same.  There is so much that is wrong in the world today. Do we have to bring out the religious drums and beat them and attack each other over it?

I don’t think so.

Back to my point about religion in stories and as a fact in the lives of the character’s.  For me the subject of belief adds another layer to the character and their development.  When I create a character, I make a point to know what faith they are.  Even if it never comes up, because it will affect the decisions they make, for good and for bad.  Having that character knowledge helps with the details in the story.  Example:

A Jewish or Muslim character won’t typically eat pork;
A Mormon character won’t drink alcohol, caffeine (well some do) or curse;
A Catholic character may tend to be lax about some Catholic teachings; (divorce, contraception, fish on Fridays, church on Sundays, etc.) while being anti-abortion;
A Baptist character can be extremely religious (church every Sunday, bible study, heavy church involvement, etc.).

These are some general examples. How religion affects our characters, how they choose to believe, and how they practice their faith can be different for each one.  Faith in a Higher Power is different for each person. So, as writers we need to know this about our characters.

You may not want to have your Jewish main character eating a BLT on the Sabbath, or your Muslim main character having a huge meal at lunch during Ramadan, or your Mormon main character having a double espresso with a shot of bourbon at a party, or your Catholic main character having a fat juice steak on a Friday night during Lent, or your Baptist main character watching the big game on Sunday.

Again, these are just examples and I’m not saying it’s a rule (there are no rules in crafting your characters).

Once you know your character’s faith, you can play with it in the stories.  It can be a little flavor or spice thrown into the mix.

In ‘A New World - Contact’ I have a Catholic main character married to a Mormon secondary character, and I play with that dynamic.  I also, have a Baptist character who is good friends with a Russian Orthodox character, again you don’t know this as a reader because I don’t tell you in the story but it affects all the character motivations.

In ‘A Calling’ the main character was born Catholic, but his family wasn’t religious so he wasn’t religious. This was kind of fun to play with during the story.  It eventually becomes a major plot point in the work.

The other thing about religion in stories is faith helps with character motivations especially when those beliefs are called into question.  It allows the writer to add another layer of drama to why the character acts the way they do.  Imagine having all your beliefs suddenly called into question.  Stop and think about that for a moment.  How would you react?  How would that affect your life?  What would you have to change?  Would you be able to change, or would it be too much for you to cope with?

Interesting thought. Right? 

Faith in non-religious books, what do you think?  Yay, or Nay?  Feel free to share your thoughts below.  Remember you can always ‘like’ and ‘share’ this blog post.  It lets me know what you want to talk about. What you find interesting. What you would rather not see.  I’d love to hear from folks on this topic. 

See ya soon.

Edit Down or Break the Book into Two?

That is the question.

As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I’m to the editing point on both my stories (well more editing and trimming down) and I’m running into an authorly dilemma with one of my novels. Do I edit down my novel, or do I break the story into two books?

I’m really not a fan of breaking the book into two.  The story was written as a single novel and I want to keep it that way. Call it pride or being stubborn. I’ll admit to both. That said, if all I do is edit the story down, the book will be between 150k and165k words which is a long novel. I know this, I’ve always pictured it as an epic story. Still, it’s a size agents and publishers tend to bock at (for a variety of reason and I’m not devaluing their valuable advice). If I cut the book into two, I would need to write an ending for the first book and write a new beginning for the second book. I could do it as painful as may be for my ego, it could be done and I’m pretty sure I have a place that I can make it work. 

But, this, to me, seems like a cheat.  I’ve read books that do this, and I can tell.  It’s like the author saw 80k words as the stopping point and rushed to give the reader a half assed ending.  Then they pick up the story at a false beginning and continue on for another 80k–100k words and end the story.  When what they should’ve done, in my mind, is offer one book at 160k–180k words and given the reader something wonderful.

Now, I’m not saying cutting the book in two is wrong.  I’m saying I don’t personally like the idea.  Does this mean it hasn’t been done well? Of course it has.  I’m sure you can find a great editor, or story doctor, to help you accomplish a perfect cut that no one will ever notice. Expect for the author. Which is fine. After all a book is a product, you need to be able to market and sell.

I’m intentionally taking out the ‘art’ and ‘creative’ nature of the book/story so as not to involve emotion.

Some of you may be saying, “You’re too close to the work.  You’re not seeing all the fat to be trimmed. There is plenty to cut.”

You would be 100% correct. I am too close to the work.  But I’m still editing the beast down now.  I’m also going to put the book through another round of beta reads for feedback. Find out what people think and ask them to mark up where they believe the story can either be trimmed or cut.  With luck this will help me remove enough bits from the book to make it palatable for an agent and publisher.

If that still doesn’t work there is the idea of self-publishing. And it has appeal, because I can keep all the emotional connection to the book and treat it the way I want it treated.  Like a fine glass of wine enjoyed slowly on a quiet night in front of a warm fire.

Too much?