Vampires Today: Smartphones

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books, digital technology, eBooks, evil vampires, filming, indie authors, Indie books, inspiration, Internet, self-published authors, self-published books, smartphones, technology, traditional vampires, vampire fiction, vampire trilogy, vampires

One of the inspirations behind the trilogy that I’m working on, The End of Eternity, was this question: how would vampires exist in secret with smartphones being in nearly everyone’s hands? It is hard for anything to be secret these days since someone could easily film anything shocking, funny or controversial by whipping out their smartphones (be it an iPhone, Android…) and start filming.

Image by Waldemar Merger via Flickr via Creative Commons

So let’s say you are someone who is aware that vampires might be real. You think so because you work in a city morgue, you are a crime scene investigator, or you’ve had personal experience with someone dying under mysterious circumstances, or you’ve seen enough evidence online to convince you. So you start to look for vampires, trying to find proof that they exist so you can share it with the world, thus exposing these hidden creatures of the night.

You are suspicious of some people because other hunters have pointed them out as possible vampires on social media sites or blogs or vampire hunter forums. You’ve seen their photos and now you see them in real life. They do look unusually pale, like they are very ill. So you follow them and see where they are headed. You are very careful not to be noticed, since you’ve heard the legends that these creatures have very strong senses.

And then it happens. Your possible vampire has found its prey. It has attacked the victim on a quiet, dark street with no one around (and assuming, no surveillance video cameras…more about that later) – except you. As the vampire stabs its fangs into the victim’s neck, you creep closer and start filming. There you go – all the proof in the world that vampires do exist and are killing people to feed on for their nourishment.

Sounds logical to some degree. Hopefully you get away in time or else the vampire would get you!

I think such a scenario is possible, and it makes me wonder how would vampires maintain their secrecy during these times of great technological advances? They could try to “come out” of the coffin as they did on True Blood, but that won’t be as easy as the TV series or the Sookie Stackhouse books portrayed it, in my opinion.

That was a question I had as I started this series, and it comes to light, so to speak, more so as I write the second book “Between Light and Dark”. Technology is working against vampires, so how would they cope? Their once great powers – heightened senses, mind reading and clearing, moving at super-fast speed, etc. – are now up against human technology which just keeps evolving. For the first time, it seems, humans are no longer at vampires’ mercy. Now it seems, the vampires and the humans are on equal level.

I would think the older the vampire is – as in, centuries or even millennia old – the more they struggle to cope. They had spent so many years confident in their powers that it is hard to believe that their prey is starting to outdo them. They might even be a bit clueless about the latest technology since they live separately from humans. They might even be in denial.

So, I explore this issue in “Between Light and Dark” as Claire copes with her new existence as a vampire. The title says it all – will Claire side with the vampires trying to cope with modern technology, or will she side with the human world she so longs for?

These blog entries would be like a series. I’ll be writing up about modern technology and how it inspired me to write about vampires. What kind of world would it be for them? Would they survive? How would they cope?

You’ll see…

Choosing the Name for My Vampire Trilogy

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authors, book series, book trilogy, books, crime, crime scene, indie writers, modern technology, social media, technology, The Dark Proposal, The End of Eternity, Trilogy, vampire books, vampire trilogy, vampires, writers, writing

Happy End of Summer, everyone!

Yes, isn’t sad that summer is over? For me, it went by too fast and I barely had time to enjoy it. But unfortunately, this year’s summer was far too hot and humid, so that experience has me looking forward to the much cooler fall. Seriously, some seasons aren’t worth getting ill over.

In the meantime, I am still working on my sequel. It is a long and hard journey, mainly because of my crazy schedule that has me working hard in an expensive city. But I am making headway, and I believe by this time next year – or maybe sooner – I will be celebrating its release, five years after the first book, The Dark Proposal, was published.

I know, it’s a long time to go between releasing books in a series. In this case, I am writing a trilogy which is quite ambitious and pretty far fetched for someone who has a busy schedule. But I am determined to keep my word and keep on writing. I know I am pulling a George R R Martin here, but it is what it is. I am not a full time writer and it will be eons before I reach that point. I do what I can and I hope the results will be at least descent.

Later this month, I will be revealing the two possible names for my sequel. I’m split on the two, but I’ll reveal them anyway to mark the 4-year anniversary of The Dark Proposal’s release. But before I do that, I want to discuss the name of my books’ trilogy.

I am calling my trilogy The End of Eternity. It may seem odd that I am not calling my books The Dark Proposal trilogy. After all, many books and movies go by the first name of their series. They include The Twilight Series or the Star Wars trilogy. But I see The End of Eternity as fitting, and my apologies if it seems like I am giving away the story.

Image via Pixabay

When I started writing The Dark Proposal, I not only was exploring abusive relationships, but I was also asking the question: how could vampires survive today with so much technology and surveillance? I would imagine it would be far from easy and would be a problem unlike any other for vampires. I would imagine through the centuries, vampires would have dealt with the witch hunts, the Inquisition and other atrocities due to superstition and fear. But crime scene technology, social media, surveillance, and other modern technology would make it difficult for a vampire to get by. It’d be like the supernatural versus science. Who wins?

I originally wrote a story about all of this, but struggled with it because the characters were boring and no real backstory to them, no matter how hard I tried. Writing about Claire and Daniel’s relationship help add some color to the technology vs. vampire issue nicely.

So, The End of Eternity trilogy will answer the question of modern technology vs. vampire, along with what would happen if a young woman found herself in a relationship with a man who turned out to a murderous vampire. See, that’s the fun thing about vampires. There are so many issues and stories to explore with them. The possibilities are endless, and I think there are many good stories still waiting to be written about vampires. Maybe mine will set off a trend!

So, my trilogy is called The End of Eternity. 🙂

Print Survives While eBooks Wane

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books, digital books, eBooks, Kindle, Kobo, printed books, self publishing, self-published books, technology

A recent New York Times story talked about how print books are on the rebound, while digital books are on a sudden decline. eBook sales sharply decreased this year, while print books remain steady. Even more so, bookstores are seeing profits and sales of digital readers, like Kindle, are declining.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

It appears the terror over the end of print books – with their aroma, words on paper you can touch, and the stacked bookshelves that display them – maybe waning. Some people are relaxing or are relieved to know that eBooks did not take over old fashioned media, much like MP3s replaced CDs and cassettes, or Netflix is replacing TV and cable.

But based on the comments section for that NY Times article, and other comments on writers forums and blogs, many would say the article is misleading. Some argue that eBooks will not disappear anytime soon. After all, they are good for traveling and there are certain genres that are good for eBooks, such as erotica and romance. After all, one reason why eBooks were doing so well was because of the popularity of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

Another reason why eBooks may be declining is because of how some books are priced at the same amount as print books. Another would be because some eBooks are not archived long enough on the reading devices.

I also cannot help but wonder if the decline of the eBooks has a lot to do with the backlash over self-published books. Many of them are filled with editorial mistakes such as misspelled words, grammatical errors and formatting issues. My book has this problem when I first released it, so I am just as guilty here for hurting the self-publishing/digital book movement that is now struggling. I am still seeing many blog posts and articles complaining about the editorial troubles, with some people swearing off self-published books for good.

I believe eBooks will stick around, but will not erase printed books forever. I think eBooks will be one of the many ways to enjoy a book. For now on, there will be four formats: hardcover, softcover, audio and digital. Audiobooks certainly didn’t ruin printed books, and they are still being used for various reasons. The same will go for digital books.

But in the meantime, eBooks need to look good. The eBook craze coincided with the self-publishing craze and now both are receiving a kind of backlash. In order to keep eBooks around as one of the many preferences to read a book, those who choose to release their books via the digital route need to be more professional and have a business mindset, rather than simply a creative one.

 

 

 

More Dracula News…This Time on the Small Screen

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Dracula, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, NBC, Starz, Starz channel, technology, TV Shows

Wow, Hollywood seems swept up with Count Dracula at the moment!

It emerged today that NBC will have a 10-episode program about the infamous vampire, played by Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers. You may remember this actor from the Showtime series, The Tudors where he played a skinny and always youthful King Henry VIII, as well as Bend It Like Beckham opposite Kiera Knightley.

This show, simply called Dracula, will have the Transylvanian count traveling to London in the late 19th century, where he meets a young woman who may be the reincarnation of his lost love.

Hmmm, sounds a bit like the 1992 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola?

Anyway, this could be an interesting show. I think Rhys Meyers could do a decent job acting-wise, but I can’t seem to picture him as a powerful villain. I guess he’s too boyish looking, but we’ll see.

Also, the cable channel Starz recently announced it is producing a Dracula-themed program, and this one will be about Vlad Dracula, the 15th century prince who inspired Bram Stoker’s character. This I am more intrigued to see rather than NBC’s show, because I would like to see how Starz will showcase the historic Dracula. About 10 years ago, one of the cable stations – I think the USA network – did a movie about Vlad Dracula and it was fairly decent.

In case you don’t know, Vlad Dracula was a Prince of Wallachia, which is a region in present day Romania. While he was known for fighting the Ottoman Empire from spreading into Eastern Europe, Vlad was most notorious for his cruel, sadistic ways – particularly his execution methods. He preferred to impale his enemies and anyone he thought violated the law on spikes and let them slowly suffer and die. It is believed tens of thousands died this way, and Vlad supposedly would dine among his impaled victims, eating as they slowly died while dipping his bread into a bowl of their blood and slurping that down. That is why he was also known as Vlad the Impaler – or Vlad Tepes in Romanian.

Anyway,  I wonder if Hollywood’s new found interest in Dracula has to do with reclaiming the famous vampire from all the loving, friendly ones that are popular in books, movies and TV shows these days. I’ve heard so many times that people who either big or casual fans of vampires are tired of the nice vampire and want to see them as villains again. Perhaps by telling the story of Dracula – both historic and fictional – vampire fans will have their wish granted.

 

The End of Print Books?

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digital revolution, E-Book, eBook, eBooks, Kindle, print books, technology

I’m sure many of you heard of today’s news about how adult fiction eBooks outsold hardcover books in 2011 for the very first time. While this Reuters article claims that print books of all kinds – hardcover, mass market and trade paperback – still outnumber eBooks in sales, today’s report has made it clear that eBooks are here to stay and their popularity could more than likely continue to rise in the future.

As a result, writers and readers across the board are probably wondering if print books will become obsolete in the years to come. For example, take a look at CDs. Ever since the iPod came along and music lovers could download whatever song they wanted off the Internet, sales of CDs went down. I remember going to Best Buy ten years ago and having no problem finding the CDs. There were endless rows of them and I would spend a long while checking out the various artists that were displayed. Nowadays, when I buy CDs for my parents, I have to hunt for that section. Those endless rows of various genres have now been reduced to three or four rows altogether. Even the CD section of my local Target has been rearranged to accommodate the poor demand for them. It almost looks pathetic to even have a CD section in a major store because not too many people need them anymore. Why spend $14.99 on something that you could get online for $9.99? Better yet, why buy an entire CD because you like one song from someone when you could easily get that sole song online?

This simplistic attitude is much like readers who choose to read their stories off eBooks. It is easier to store several books on a device rather than to pack all of them for a trip. It also prevents anyone from knowing what a person is reading because no device advertizes the book cover for the public to see (hence why so many women feel at ease reading Fifty Shades of Grey). Ebooks are also a lot slimmer than a book, the spots to place them are kind of endless. For example, if a woman reads an eBook while traveling to work, she could easily slip the device into her shoulder bag once she reaches her stop. With a print book, she would have to worry about squeezing it into her bag and hope it doesn’t get damaged.

Those are good points, I admit. But there is nothing like holding a book in your hands. The aroma of the pages. The excitement of turning the pages during a suspenseful scene. It feels more intimate, I think, to use a traditional book to do your reading. I don’t think you can get that from a digital screen.

But time will tell. There are some humans who adapt to the changing times and go with the flow. I do think by the end of this decade, books will be like those CD sections in Best Buy and Target. Sad, especially since there is nothing like going to a bookstore and spending a day there. But it is highly possible.

I don’t want to start lamenting over the beginning of the end of books, really I don’t! I do think there is hope that the print book will survive this digital revolution. I may be dead wrong, though. Humans evolve, we always have. And who knows, maybe down the road the eBook will open new doors for everyone – and not just indie authors like me. This is a journey we are all on, and I have to admit, it could be both scary and exciting at the same time. So, let’s fasten our safety belts and hang on tight!