Vampires in Space!

Vampires of the Scarlet Order was, in effect, a fix-up novel. The first half was composed of short stories that had been previously published and the second half was new material written specifically for the novel. However, the first time I put the stories together and composed the second half, I came up with something very different than the novel that was published in 2005 and it was all because of one story.

In 2001, my wife, daughter, and I made a trip to Carlsbad Caverns followed by a short jaunt to Roswell, to check out the UFO museum there. We had a lot of fun, and I came away with a story idea. It really started at the UFO museum and thinking about accounts of alien abduction and how similar they were to the way vampire attacks are often described. The aliens come into your bedroom and there’s a good chance they’ll violate you in some way. Of course, at Carlsbad, we also had the opportunity to watch the bats leave the caverns at night and I had thoughts about a vampire who decided to hide among the caverns during the day and fly out to hunt her prey at night. What if a vampire was abducted by a UFO? This whole line of thought led me to a story called “Bat Flight South of Roswell” which was published as a standalone chapbook by Anxiety Publications in 2002.

When I assembled Vampires of the Scarlet Order, I realized I had three story arcs that all pointed to some big mystery happening. I also realized the biggest mystery of all happened in the story “Bat Flight South of Roswell.” What were the aliens doing? Were they about to do something bigger? So when I first wrote the ending of the book, I set out to resolve that issue. The vampires find they have some latent ability to move between universes and can use that as a way to travel great distances. The vampires gather and travel to the aliens’ home world and stopped the threat.

I read it and I mostly liked it and I even mostly believed what I wrote could have happened in the context of the story. The problem was “mostly.” I didn’t quite believe it all the way. I wasn’t quite pulled fully into the story. A little voice in the back of my mind kept saying “this is silly.” One of the challenges as authors is knowing when to listen to that voice and when to tell it to shut up. This time I listened.

For the novel, I rewrote the alien abduction chapter. Instead of aliens abducting the vampire, it’s the military for a secret operation. It made a much stronger novel and much of that is because the settings involved were places I’d been and worked at. Much of the action is actually the same as it would have been, but it’s set at Los Alamos National Laboratory where my graduate advisor worked. There’s still some alien tech so advanced it’s almost magic, but instead of being wielded by aliens, it’s being wielded by humans who don’t fully understand it. Not only was I able to willingly suspend my disbelief, I found a way to give the book a stronger theme, and I could write about places I knew.

I also left in a hint that perhaps vampires might one day travel to the stars. After all, if vampires with all their strength and abilities would make good mercenaries, wouldn’t they make awesome astronauts? Just gotta make sure they’re well stocked with blood for the journey!

As it turns out, I ultimately wrote a story about a member of the Scarlet Order investigating a mystery in deep space in the distant future. It was called “Dark Matter” and it was published in Hungur Magazine in 2012. Unfortunately, the story is no longer in print, but I do plan to share the story with my Patreon subscribers later this week. What’s more, subscribers can go to an earlier post and get a copy of Vampires of the Scarlet Order. If that isn’t incentive enough, I’ll mention that subscribing to my Patreon helps support this blog. So what are you waiting for? Click the button below to visit the site and learn more.

Inca Butterflies

Fantasy and steampunk are genres that have earned reputations of being steeped in European history and culture. However, there is a whole world of historical and magical lore to draw on for exciting fantasy tales. That’s why I was excited back in 2003 when Gary Every approached me about publishing two related novelettes he’d written called “Inca Butterflies” and “The Inca’s Cattle.” At the time, I was publishing the magazine Hadrosaur Tales and I really couldn’t publish stories as long as those Gary presented in the magazine. But I loved them enough that I decided to publish them in a standalone chapbook with cover art by Charles Pitts.

I’ve known Gary through his work for many years. His work appeared in almost every issue of Hadrosaur Tales and Tales of the Talisman Magazine. His career has followed many diverse paths including geology exploration, carpenter, chef, piano player, ditch digger, photographer, freelance writer, dishwasher, soccer coach, and storyteller. His works have been featured in many publications in addition to my magazines. I was honored to meet Gary at his home in Sedona just about ten years ago when he hosted me for a writing workshop at a local bookstore. After the workshop, he took me and my daughter to enjoy a local production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

In the photo above Gary and I are hanging out with my daughters in Sedona. Gary’s non-fiction writing inspired me to explore the wilds of Southern Arizona, which in turn inspired scenes in my second Clockwork Legion novel, Lightning Wolves. Because of that, I dedicated the novel to Gary.

In his stories for my magazines, Gary showed a deep interest in Native American lore. The chapbook I published opens with the story of Incan Emperor Huaina Capec who came of age as Alejo Garcia and his band of mutineers arrived in America carrying a weapon far more devastating than cannons. In the second story, Huaina Capac’s successor, Manco Inca, must lead his remaining people as bearded men from Europe swarm the countryside like butterflies sweeping the plains. Set in the last days of the Inca Empire, Inca Butterflies is a tale for all times.

When the book was released, Kane S. Latranz of the Albuquerque Alibi wrote, “Every is an inventive writer and this chapbook encapsulates the bittersweet truth: Life is a thing of dualities, where the only constant is change.”

Inca Butterflies is a short read and packs a lot of value in a small price. I encourage you to pick up a copy. They’re available at the Hadrosaur Productions website at: http://www.hadrosaur.com/bookstore.html#Inca-Butterflies

G.O. Clark’s Collection of Robot Poetry

A few days ago, I received a collection of poetry in the mail from long-time Tales of the Talisman contributor, G.O. Clark. It was a copy of his new poetry collection, Built to Serve. In this collection, Clark tackles the subject of robots from many different angles. Of course, robots are no longer just the stuff of science fiction, they’re part of our every day world. I started my astronomy career working with a robotic telescope and over the course of my career, I’ve seen automation make many aspects of astronomical observation more efficient. I’ve long thought about artificial intelligence and my daughter recently took a college course in machine learning, which led to some interesting discussions. What’s more, writers have long used robots as metaphors for low wage workers or even slaves.

Clark’s collection takes a look at robots from both the practical and metaphorical angles. He starts the collection in an almost steampunk alternate reality and imagines robots of the past moving forward into futures of obsolescence, much as humans do in life. As he notes in “The Steam-Powered Robot”:

Funny thing about the future,
it never waits for anyone. His mainspring
driven moment slipped away: old iron
bones recycled for a newer model.

Clark compares and contrasts the sensations robots might experience to those of humans. He also imagines how humans might themselves go against the spirit of Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics and use robots to hunt down other humans. In a familiar science fiction trope, Clark imagines robots transforming the world into a better place, which doesn’t always go so well for the humans who created them.

C;arl reminds us that many of our first encounters with robots are with toys and he looks at those encounters with both fondness and terror. Some of the robots he introduces us to are toys of the more adult variety, but even they can induce nightmares such as the lady robot in this poem:

Heading back towards the
closet, she deftly unzips, then
steps out of her perfect tan skin and
hangs it upon a custom hanger.

It’s true Clark covers many familiar robot tropes, but he does it well and often times he gives those tropes fresh twists. Moreover, he looks at humanity through the eyes of robots and helps us understand more about ourselves. This is a collection well worth seeking out. You can find copies at the Alban Lake Store and at Smashwords.