My Monday weekly feature will be about what inspired me to write the types of stories I do.
Although I primarily write historicals set during the American Civil War, I also have two vampire romances, also set–at least in part–during the Civil War period.
In fact, my first contract from The Wild Rose Press was a very short vampire story, titled Eternity Waits. I’d always wanted to write a vampire story and wrote this to submit to a vampire magazine titled ‘Dreams of Decadence’. After waiting for a reply, I got the story back unread. Seems the magazine was overstocked. I tried a few other magazines, but they weren’t interested in that type of story, so I shoved it into a drawer.
Years later, I discovered The Wild Rose Press, a fairly new electronic publisher. Not only did they publish short stories as e-books, but they had a dark paranormal line.
I submitted, but was rejected with a revision request. Revised and submitted again and received a contract. My first official TWRP release.
But what drew me to write romance stories about vampires in the first place?
I was still in grade school when the daytime soap Dark Shadows first appeared on TV in 1966. I can’t remember when I first caught on to it, but other girls in school talked about it, so I tuned in. A handsome and sympathic vampire named Barnabus Collins captured my young imagination. I rushed home from school every day to catch the next episode and even started writing my own Dark Shadows stories.
Years later, when I started writing toward submission, it was always deep in the back of my mind to write and submit a vampire story. By that time, I’d read Interview with the Vampire and was totally hooked on the genre.
I just had to write my own vampire romance and Eternity Waits, followed by Sweet Redemption were my two forays into the dark world of the creature of the night that had captured my imagination all those years ago. I also believe the desire to emulate what I watched and read deepened the desire to write romance in the first place.
I’d love to hear stories of what inspires fellow writers and if you’re not a writer, has something from your past drawn you to read a particular genre?
Click here for links to my vampire stories.
I remember watching Dark Shadows with my grandmother. I never forgot Barnabas and who knows that he didn’t help inspire me (or how many other young girls) to write? It was my first SOAP and there haven’t been any like it since. But my inspiration to really set pen to paper was the age of rock and roll in the seventies. Not those hard rock type my friends liked, I fell in love with the likes of Rex Smith, Bay City Rollers and my one bad-boy band…KISS. lol I still want to write a rocker into one of my books one day.
Thanks for sharing, Calisa! Besides ‘Dark Shadows’ I was also inspired by ‘Nancy Drew’, ‘Star Trek’ and a host of other influences on my childhood in the sixties. But for all those years I couldn’t get vampires out of my mind. Now, I can move on to other things. Still haven’t written a mystery, although my upcoming American Victorian romance, Cassidy’s War, features a Pinkerton agent as hero. And someday, I’ll pen a science ficition romance too.
It’s amazing how much can be spinning around in a writer’s head. Takes years and years to get it all out.