Flirting With Disaster?

It seems like it has been years since I wrote for this blog when in reality, I posted this past Thursday... okay, that was a week ago so it has been forever! I missed not writing in my blog but between jet lag and laundry, I didn't have much to say. I have been flirting with a potential concept for a future series but I didn't like what I had. Why? Well, because it is an overused concept as it is so if I don't approach it in a completely different way then nothing I write about it will enrich the much-used and cliched subject any more than it already has been. What am I talking about you ask? Vampires. Duh, what else?

Seriously, it has nothing to do with Amanda Hocking or Stephanie Meyer; my interest in vampire novels goes back much longer and deeper. Try Bram Stoker (yes, I did read Dracula after Francis Ford Coppola's movie came out in 1992 and thought the book was better). And Anne Rice. My sister has been a fan since the mid-80s and yes, I read Interview With A Vampire long before the film by Neil Jordan (a favorite by the way even though Tom Cruise is not one of my most beloved of actors) was released.

And if you think about the Vampire genre, how can it be revived or approached from a different way? Charlaine Harris took it down south (but it was already there with Anne Rice); Stephanie Meyer took it YA (followed by Amanda Hocking though AH has been quoted as saying her novels pre-date the Twilight series). There are so many books about vampires that it has become the "let's make some money" genre and the quickest way to mega-bucks or so it seems.

That being said, I can't resist not doing my own take. As we speak, I am doing research about the vampire legends and myths. I am reviewing previous work. I am doing my own series outline (yes, it will be a series of novels, each at least 90,000+ words and at least 7 in the series but I would like a nice even number like 8 or 10). It's difficult but I have finally come up with my own slant and I shall do teasers but that being said, I have an unfinished novel set in France, an 8-part series I completed almost ten years ago I am releasing as we speak and university begins again in late August. I don't know how I will do it all but somehow, I will manage to finish a complete outline for the series before the end of the month and start it in August.

I am really excited because this time, I am able to explore a genre I not only love but I get to drag world politics and my own favorite pet projects into the mix. This is going to be one of the most delightful series I have ever embarked on and hopefully, I'll make some new fans out of it. You can be sure it won't be YA friendly (I write for adults) and it will be extremely controversial and so very un-P.C.

What can I say? I have always loved to push the envelope and there is nothing better than flirting with something that can be praised as genius or something that is just short of a writing disaster.