AUTHOR'S NOTE: Why another book of THIS genre?

I have asked myself the same question.  And as it turns out the answer is quite simple.

Now that I've finally gotten to the first big reveal of the book - that much of what the story revolves around is the idea that vampires walk among us - I can talk about the inevitable sentiment; "Why write another damned vampire book when there's clearly a glut of them out there?"

When I initially began imagining this story I wrestled with the same thought. But that was quite a few years ago. Back then Anne Rice was still selling like cheese in Wisconsin, I knew fringy people who played Vampire the Masquerade, and people were just beginning to notice the voice of Joss Whedon.

Somewhere in there a friend who I mentioned the book to quipped "A vampire story? Yeah - like there aren't already enough of those around!" I'm a little ashamed to admit that that comment alone delayed any serious work I might have put into this series by years.

But as time wore on the story wouldn't go away and kept growing in my imagination. It was clearly something my subconscious wasn't going to let go of. So I started thinking about it more actively. In the process of doing so I had to address that bugbear - Why another vampire novel - in terms that extended past "it's the story I seem hellbent upon writing." I needed to address the glut.

By now the ongoing tale of Buffy and her myriad compadres only exists in comic book form, I no longer know anyone who plays The Masquerade (though apparently it persists), and Anne Rice can't make up her mind as to what brand of crazy she is. Yet the vampire genre is not only alive, but bigger than ever. Without even opening a search engine I can name Blood Ties (extinct), True Blood (boring after season one), Vampire Diaries (which sounds completely unlike anything I'd be interested in) and of course the mighty (and mightily appalling) Twilight movies. All of which are based on predecessing books.

The vampire genre is alive and well. It comes in waves - and I think we are currently peaking and will soon be in the trough, but it never goes away entirely.

I could try to justify my past evasion from writing this story by declaring that there was a demonstrable wave of popularity in effect back then and that I was putting it off so as to hit the swell of the next wave. (That would be more than just a little bit of retrodicting the circumstances, but bear with me.) If you accept that premise, it is clear that I failed. I got back on board far too late to truly capitalize. The essential lesson being that trying to predict when the next wave will hit, or how big it will be or how long it will last is simply foolish.

It keeps coming back to the same thing. This is the book I am compelled to write, and I am ready to write it now, so I shall. I'm not going to bother myself with the literary trends of the day. I will write better if I am simply following my creative drive than if I try to cynically pursue any trend. If it was really about following a trend I should have started writing this much sooner - by a year and a half or more.

I'll be following this author's note up shortly with another wherein I'll make a few promises to you, the reader, as to what I intend this tale to be and how that distinguishes it from all else that is out there.