I Owe it all to My Daughter
Although I tell people I don’t read
much in the paranormal genre, years ago I read a series about the vampire
colony living underground in L.A.
I buried the author’s name and the
titles but remembered the basic plot, so the vamps made an impression that came
back when my daughter said “Write a vampire book!”
I’d just contracted for my first
book, a traditional mystery, and was planning the second when my daughter and
her husband started hammering on me about the undead. They both read,
voraciously. Between them, they have three Nooks and four Kindles, plus
iPhones, iPads and computers. They’re so wired in they just bought their
two-year-old a Kindle for games and kids’ show and she calls it her book. A
little scary!
With all these reading devices
(plus books) scattered around, I figured they were au courant on the hot
literary trends so I listened when my son-in-law said, “Go into any bookstore
and see the size of the mystery section. Then look at the paranormal section.
Then decide.”
I started reading. Charlaine
Harris, Jim Butcher, Karen Moning. And then I picked up Kelly Armstrong and was
hooked. These guys were writing involved, intricate books full of imagination
and other worlds.
But I was a mystery writer. How
could I find a hook? I batted around a few ideas (lame) with my daughter until
she said, “You’re over-thinking this. Look at celebrities. They all wear
oversized dark glasses, don’t come out much during the day, ride around in
limos with tinted windows...they could all be vampires.”
And SNAP, the world’s biggest and
best international conglomerate of celebrity gossip was born
I also dredged the underground
colony from my mind and discovered that my protagonist, a regular named Maxie
Gwenoch, had heard all the vampire rumors while at UCLA. They continue to this day.
The Federal Vampire and Zombie
Agency lists the Sunset strip area of L.A. and Hollywood as one of the five
mostly likely places in the United States to find vampires, due to the crush of
nightlife activity.
Google some combination of
vampires, L.A., night, underground and up come more than 10,000,000 hits,
including a Meetup listing of groups in the L.A. area having to do with
vampires in some way.
There are vampire nightclubs,
vampire bands, vampire games and a listing for “real vampires in L.A.” Clearly,
my daughter was on to something.
I did some research, then imagined
my vampires, the Kandesky and Huszar families, in different ways.
Over their 500-year history, the
Kandeskys have given up killing and found ways to feed themselves
non-violently. They also found a love of wealth, and amassed a fortune from
their businesses, which only grew once they went into celebrity journalism. And
when Maxie goes to work for SNAP she finds the truth about all those L.A.
vampire rumors!
Now I listen with a little tinge of
fear when my daughter suggests something. All I am now is due to her!
Michele Drier was born in Santa Cruz and is a fifth generation
Californian. She’s lived and worked all over the state, calling both Southern
and Northern California home.
During her career in journalism — as a reporter and editor at daily
newspapers – she won awards for producing investigative series.
Her mystery Edited for Death, called “Riveting and much recommended” by the
Midwest Book Review is available at Amazon. She’s working on the second book in
the Amy Hobbes Newspaper mysteries, Labeled for Death, out in spring
2013.
Her paranormal romance series, SNAP: The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, is
available in ebook, paperback and audible at Amazon. The first two books, SNAP: The World Unfolds, and
SNAP: New Talent, received 4 stars from PRG. The third, fourth and fifth books, Plague: A Love Story, Danube:
A Tale of Murder and SNAP:
Love for Blood rated 5 stars. The first four books are available in a
boxed set at Amazon, B&N and Kobo. She’s writing SNAP: Happily Ever After?
for release in summer 2013 and a seventh book in late fall 2013.
Visit her website: http://www.micheledrier.com
or facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMicheleDrier
or her Amazon author page, http://www.amazon.com/Michele-Drier/e/B005D2YC8G/
One lucky commenter will receive a copy of her set of books seen above! Good luck to everyone!
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