The Vampyre’s Household is born
If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll have heard me mention The Vampyre’s Household. It’s a new series I’ve been dabbling with for a while now.
The Vampyre’s Household as a series title came to me in 2019 while I was driving to a writing workshop. The central idea was that vampires live openly among humans, and keep human households to meet their blood needs. Johanna, the protagonist, would lead the action from within a vampyre household. (I changed the spelling to ‘vampyre’ so as to give it an old-fashioned feel).
The Vampyre’s Household: First Book Written Won’t Be the First Book in the Series
I actually wrote my first Vampyre’s Household book early in 2020, back when we were all at home during the Covid lockdowns. The working title — which is truly awful — was New Blood. The image at the top is of one of the characters, vampyre Strallen, famous for his pale-haired good looks.
I delayed publishing the book for two reasons. Firstly, because I wanted to get my Modified Humans brand established. And secondly, because New Blood was such an easy book to write, I wondered how good it could really be. So I set it aside to gain some perspective.
The Vampyre’s Household: the Series
When I came back to it early this year, I decided it’s actually pretty good, but would benefit from a back story explaining how Johanna came to be part of the vampyre’s household. This new book would require additional world-building and character-building. So I when the vampyres started demanding that I take time away from my Modified Humans series to get on with their story, I began work on my current project, which has the uninspired working title of… Vampyre Prequel.
I’m not sure why it’s been a hard book to get started. I laboured fruitlessly for three months on what I thought the story should be about. Finally Johanna put her foot down, and gave me the opening line that uncorked my creativity.
“What if she’d never seen the vampyre that day?”
Fun Fact About My Writing Process
Before I start writing a new book, I usually draw up a list of elements I want to include in the story. These are random things that strike my fancy, and they invariably affect the world building. This is the list for The Vampyre’s Household: canals, angel statues, men in musketeer hats, and horses.
How have these elements affected the world-building for The Vampyre’s Household?
If the setting includes canals, then I need a city like Venice or Amsterdam or Copenhagen. The vampyres’ city is Brugenzee, loosely modelled after Amsterdam in Holland and Bruges in Belgium.
It boasts a castle on a pyramidal hill which is the highest point in the region. The girl in the image has the look I envision for Johanna, my protagonist. Johanna is human, though, so forget the elf ears.
If I want statues of angels everywhere in the city, including the many bridges, then references to angels would pervade the citizens’ everyday language. So I drew up a list of swear words and exclamations, such as, “what in darkangels’ hell”, and, “for angels’ sake”.
If men parade around in musketeer hats and ride horses, then it brings to mind a historical setting. Since history isn’t my area of expertise and I don’t want to spend years boning up on it, I decided to create an alternate 17th to 18th century setting for the series.
When Will The Vampyre’s Household Be Available?
I was hoping to get Vampyre Prequel finished and published by the end of the year, but I know better than to make promises. I don’t work well under pressure. I’ll hopefully get Prequel written and published by early next year. New Blood, with a new title, will come out shortly after Prequel. I may need help with the final titles, so when the time comes, I’ll be asking for your input. Keep an eye on my social media and my newsletter!
(Aside: Author Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter books have vampire households as part of her world’s background, but my execution bears no resemblance to hers. And C.J. Cherryh’s book, Angel with the Sword — much beloved by me — gave rise to my idea of a whole city watched over by angel statues on bridges and in courtyards.)