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Hello.
In 1994 (or so), I was sitting in a bar in Columbus, Ohio (nice town, by the way) and an idea occurred to me.
A guy walks up to another guy in a bar. The first guy says, “We need you to come out of retirement. We’ve got a job for you.”
(Sound familiar? It should--it’s the basis of every third movie or so.)
Boring, I thought to myself. If I was going to be trapped friendless in Columbus, Ohio for three months, I was going to have to think of something better than that to keep my pen scribbling across the notebook.
What if the first guy is a vampire?
Hmm. Might be challenging to figure out what sort of job a vampire might have trouble with. But still not interesting enough.
What if the second guy is a werewolf?
Hello. Now I’ve got my attention.
As far as I knew at the time, no one was writing stories with both vampires and werewolves (although I think Dracula might have met the Werewolf in an Abbott and Costello movie). It was against conventional wisdom. It asked enough of an audience (or reader) to accept either a vampire or a werewolf. But both? It was sort of an unwritten genre crime--like having a space alien show up in a James Bond movie.
Still ...
For purposes of this book, would regular people within the story-world believe in vampires? Would vampires appear in the tabloids and talkshows from time to time? Or would they be pure legend? How about werewolves?
Would vampires and werewolves believe in each other?
Most importantly, would this keep me busy for three months?
It did, actually. In fact, it kept me busy for eighteen months.
In 1999, I took $2,000 and printed 500 copies.
In 2000, I sold the last of my 500 copies, making back my $2,000 (barely).
In 2004, I entered a Print-on-Demand arrangement with BookSurge -- meaning they don’t make a book until it’s sold. No weekly trips to the post office. No wondering if I was going to get stuck with the twelve boxes of books in my father’s basement.
No more frickin’ ugly book cover.
It’s still a great book (a few minor revisions, corrected a few typos, added a few interesting new typos just for color, etc.). If you don’t believe me, have a look at the reviews on Amazon -- only about half of them are from friends. I swear.