Bram Stoker

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The Hunger is Free on Amazon

Posted by dougdandridge on October 5, 2012
Posted in: eBooks, Fantasy, History, Magic, Plotting, self publishing, Shape Shifting, Tropes, Undead, Vampires, Websites, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

As stated in an earlier blog this week, my vampire novel The Hunger is FREE on KDP select this weekend, from October 5th to 9th. A different kind of vampire novel, in which the heroine (who of course is undead) is both a champion of the weak and an evil stone cold killer who takes life nightly so she can survive. The difference from most vampires is in the choice of victims. Lucinda Taylor was beaten by an abusive husband, thrown out on the streets where she became a prostitute in order to survive, developing a drug habit along the way. She was the ultimate victim, eventually killed by her pimp when she tried to assault him and get the Heroin she craved. But she wasn’t totally dead, and was killed by a passing vampire, to rise again in three days in the cemetery in which her grief stricken parents had her interred. At first she is a regular vampire, killing whatever came her way to deal with the craving for life. Her master teaches her what she needs to survive, then is killed himself, making her a free agent who is horrified about what she has become. Killing her vampire sisters in their sleep she embarks on a campaign of revenge against the kind of men who tormented her in life, taking down crime families in city after city.
The Hunger takes place in Tampa, not a city one would associate with vampires. A city of sun, fun and crime, where wealth exists side by side with the poverty that breeds criminals. Lucinda enters into this underworld as the hunter, finding a first victim, a pimp, on the streets, and working her way up the food chain until she comes to shipping magnate and crime boss George Padillas, who has his own plans for the vampire who is stalking his city.
I really enjoyed writing this novel, which is very different from my normal fare. I am a science fiction and high fantasy author, and writing an urban fantasy set on the streets of a modern city in my own backyard was quite a challenge. I set the world against Lucinda, from the Catholic Church, to the FBI, the local cops, and a pair of vampires after her with two very different motivations. Marcus LaMont (once Marcus of Alexandria) is an ancient vampire who is afraid Lucinda will make too big a splash on the local news and galvanize human society to hunt his kind. Vampires are powerful, but humans have been growing in technological power through his lifetime, and, as he relates in part of the book, a city full of Baptist Ministers with the National Guard on their side might be too much for vampire society to handle.
Tashawn Kent was the most enjoyable character to develop, and in my opinion is a truly frightening beast of a vampire. Once a defensive lineman for Philadelphia, standing six feet five and two hundred and ninety pounds, in life he could bench press over five hundred pounds. In undeath he is much stronger. An injury ended his NFL career, and he gravitated toward crime, becoming the boss of much of Philly. Lucinda took his life, and was about to take his head when she was interrupted. Tashawn knows that he was not made a vampire for his own benefit, that Lucinda meant to end him forever. He misses life and sex and good food, and has vowed revenge on the bitch who made him like he is.
As always I want to thank all of those who have helped me promote this book. IndieAuthorAnonymous, who graciously promoted my science fiction novel The Deep Dark Well and is promoting this very different book as well. The Awesome writers at the Independent Authors Network (#ian1) who retweeted my many tweets about this book. And
And now for an excerpt about the dangerous Mr. Kent:

Tashawn Kent didn’t have access to any sophisticated databases. But his instincts were normally good enough to get him what he wanted. Especially since he had become one of the undead.
“I don’t understand, Tashawn,” said his boy Marvin as Tashawn pulled himself out of his coffin. “We had it going up in Philly, man. With you as enforcer we had no problems with any of the other players. So tell me again why we’re here in this little burg.”
“I want her blood,” said Tashawn, flexing his twenty-one inch thick arms. He had tried to stay in shape in the years since the Eagles cut him from the squad. It had been difficult to keep his defensive tackle’s body in that kind of shape. But since crossing over it had been no problem at all.
“Her blood will make me stronger. Her blood will make me invincible.”
“My god,” said Marvin. “You can already lift a luxury car over your head. How much stronger do you need to be.”
“I am still a child, brother,” said Tashawn. “You know the thing about living forever?”
“Sure,” said Marvin, twisting the top off a bottle of beer and offering it to his lifelong homeboy. Tashawn shook his head and Marvin brought the bottle up to his own lips to take a swig. “You live forever as a vampire. But most of you actually die before the first year. Cause you’re stupid.”
Tashawn bared his fangs and laughed as his friend blanched at the display.
“I don’t mean you’re stupid, brother,” said Marvin. “I mean your kind is when you first start walking the night. So for most of you the eternal life thing is so much BS.”
“But we can gain the strength of the vampires we kill and drain,” said Tashawn. “We get stronger, and gain their experience too.”
“But she hasn’t been around all that long,” said Marvin. “You told me that yourself. Why not find someone with more time under their belt?”
“Because they might be too much for me,” said Tashawn. “And with her it’s personal.”
“She made you a vampire,” said Marvin. “I thought you liked being a vamp. I mean man, you are the shit on the street. Weren’t no one would take you on.”
“Do you want to join me?” said Tashawn, baring his fangs again. “I could bring you over easy.”
“Not me man,” said Marvin, backing up till his back hit the motel room wall. “I like being alive, man.”
“Your choice,” said Tashawn. “The bitch didn’t give me a choice. And she was trying to do me for good. If something hadn’t interrupted I wouldn’t be a vampire. I’d be rotting meat in a Philly graveyard. So it’s personal, and I want to return the favor to her.
“But enough of that,” said Tashawn. “I’m hungry. Let’s go get me something to eat.”
Marvin nodded his head as he put on his jacket. Tashawn could smell the fear in his friend. The fear that one day he would be on the menu of his old friend. Maybe that day will come, thought Tashawn. But not now. Now it was nice to have a mortal who could think for himself, unlike the thralls he had seen in other vamps.

Lions and Tiger and Vampires, Oh My.

Posted by dougdandridge on September 25, 2012
Posted in: eBooks, Fantasy, History, Movies, Past, self publishing, Shape Shifting, Tropes, Undead, Vampires, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Vampires have always been a fascination of mine. Hell, I think they have been a fascination for almost anyone who reads or writes in the realm of the fantastic. Vampires are the ultimate undead (and I know some of you Mummy fans are going to disagree). They retain their human intelligence for the most part, combined with the animal cunning of a predator. They are strong and fast (how fast depends on the mythology of the literature they inhabit). In some works, like Bram Stoker’s, they are able to assume the forms of animals such as wolves, bats and rats, and can turn into mist and slide through the smallest of spaces. And in some works, again Stoker is the example, they can control weather. In the old vampire lore staking might kill them, but trying to stake them at night was an exercise in futility, as the stake would just go through their incorporeal form. In more modern works a stake will take them out no matter what. The vampires of old lore were really more powerful, in most cases, than those of modern works. They really couldn’t be harmed at night, just chased off by religious symbols. It was only during the day, when they were in their coffins, that they could be destroyed. And they tried very hard to make their resting places hidden from even the most determined of hunters. Of course not all Vampires were powerful. In some Eastern European regions they were seen as very weak, weaker than humans, and sort of like zombies with more intelligence. And like zombies they were more dangerous in packs.
In modern times many vampires are treated as almost normal humans with extraordinary powers. They dance, they drink, they go to clubs, and only drink blood when they need to. Some are even goods guys, the detective in Forever Knight comes to mind. I like these stories, but am more attracted to the vampires that are really evil.
My own Vampire novel, The Hunger, is being offered for promotion on KDP Select on October 5th through 9th. I wanted this novel to be different from the modern stories I see so much of, so I decided to go to the roots. Bram Stoker. Now Stoker did not originate the vampire, but he borrowed from the various legends to create the monster we are most familiar with. Vampires who are strong and fast, but not the blurs that some moderns are. Able to shape change, control the weather, not able to enter a dwelling without an invitation, having to be in their coffins by sunrise, but also able to move around during part of the day. And most of all evil. Not good guys, who lament their being vampires, though they may be tormented by nightmares (not really in Stoker, but from some other early vampire movies, i.e. Mark Of The Vampire). And spreading their disease with each kill, not having to do some organized ritual to turn a victim into monster. Anyone they kill rises in three days as a vampire unless something is done to prevent it.
Lucinda Taylor, the protagonist, is a vampire. But she regains her free will when her master is killed and goes after her own targets. She still has to kill to survive, but she makes sure her kills don’t rise again. Other vampires in the story do the same thing essentially. The old vampire tales always bothered me in that the vampire always made too many of his kind, and nothing spoils the party like too many guests. People catch on, and as I say in the story, nothing scares the vampires more than a city’s Baptist Ministers reinforced by the National Guard on their trail. Vampires against troops and religious figures during the day is a no win situation for the undead. But make no mistake. Lucinda is still evil, and does evil to evil in the name of vengeance. And the book is raw, with street language, drugs, gangs, and sexual situations. Vampires use sexual attraction to lure in victims after all. This is not a book for those who prefer gentle language and gentle people. But then again, the subject matter is not a gentle one, when we are talking natural killers, both human and inhuman. I hope that people will take a look at this book when it hits its free promotion. I think it is as well written as The Deep Dark Well, my scifi novel. And now an excerpt.

“What the hell are you?” he screamed as the weapon clicked on the empty chamber. He reached frantically into his jacket, trying to fumble another magazine, then tried to ram it home. But as his hands shook the new magazine refused to go where the old one still resided.
Lucinda took off in a sprint toward the man, moving faster than humanly possible, faster than the swiftest sprinter. She lowered her shoulder and took Carlos in the ribs, feeling the bones crack as she lifted him into the air. The man struck his right shoulder and arm against the wall, grunting out his breath. Lucinda was past him and into the living room as he slid down the wall to the floor, the machine pistol falling from nerveless fingers as consciousness fled.
Lucinda pivoted on her right foot, turning toward the family room, as more bullets whizzed past her, the sound of cracking plaster and breaking porcelain sounding to her sensitive ears. One large man, with the mass of a football player, came straight at her from the glass doors, lowering his shoulders and reaching his arms out into a classic tackle. Lucinda leapt into the air and brushed the ceiling as she flew over his form, which was falling to the floor after not meeting the resistance it had been preparing itself for. The vampire did a turn in the air, as she thanked herself for the gymnastics lessons her mom had insisted that she take, and landed lightly on her feet.
She could sense that the door before her was locked, and she didn’t have the key. So going into a crouch and out again she sprung toward the double doors and crashed through the glass, leaving jagged hanging splinters behind her. Women screamed as she propelled her naked form across the flagstones. One man dropped his drink and made a grab for her, but a strong backhand lifted him from his feet and into the pool