So, I have a blog now, on top of Google+, Facebook, Twitter and a seldom-used Livejournal account. Bear with me as I get used to the formatting and other technical elements of all this, I implore you.
Many, if not most, of you already know who I am, but for any strangers who come by - welcome, btw! - I suppose an introduction is in order. Who am I? What am I all about?
The first part is easy. Me llamo Paul Leone, graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park (class of 2000), resident of Western New York, and self-employed proto-writer trying to break into the world of published writers. This blog will focus on those efforts, which really began last November when I entered into the annual NaNoWriMo competition. Unlike my previous effort, back in 2009, I managed to finish my project last year. My prospective novel, Vatican Vampire Hunters, came in just shy of 48K words. That's not a very high word count, but it was the first original novel I'd actually completed, beginning to end.
And now it's time to get off my butt and get to work on the second draft, which I began earlier this week after putting aside another project for the time being.
What is Vatican Vampire Hunters about? Just what it says on the tin, as they say over in the UK - a small, secret group of vampire hunters who work for the Catholic Church. It's inspired a little by Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I hope there's at least a trace of Whedonesque style in the dialogue, but much more by the late John Steakley's Vampire$, which covered similar ground. As it stands in the first draft, VVH is set in Rome and focuses on Lucy Manning, a young American woman who survives a close encounter with a vampire and subsequently joins the titular hunters.
For the second draft, I've decided to adjust the setting and (to a lesser degree) the plot and characters. I'm moving the action from Italy to the UK. Why? Mostly because, while I've been to Rome a few times, I'm really not that familiar with it, to say nothing of the rest of Italy. As I went back through the first draft of VVH, I realized that, among other flaws, it was pretty thin when it came to actual Italians. I'm hardly an expert on Britain, but I have been there many, many times - London, especially, but several other cities and towns from Scotland to the South of England. (You can, in large part, blame my musical muse Hayley Westenra for this). "Thou shalt write what thou knoweth" is the First Commandment of writing, and I know Britain a lot better than I do pretty much any part of the world outside the USA. Hopefully I can at least present a reasonable facsimile of the UK in VVH version 2.0, one that doesn't induce winces among people who actually live in or are intimately familiar with Britain.
And now back to work... chime in if you like. Comments make an angel get his wings.
Of course, a move to the UK takes Catholicism from the main religion to sidelined (and at times persecuted) by the Church of England. Will this affect things?
ReplyDeleteIt's set in contemporary Britain, and focuses on punching vampires in the face more than theology and politics, so it won't be too much of an issue.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, I do need to work a little on Lucy's place in the group. The VVHers work fine if they're actually based in the Vatican, and Lucy would have no problems joining the American branch of their international group, but her enlisting with the British squad requires some explanation. Everyone else is British by birth or emigration.
Now I know where to find you and your hench-cat when you missing in action. :) As for Lucy, can she be in the country on an 'educational Visa' or such? As long as she stays out of trouble, it'd be good for a few years, and then she could change that up to a work Visa, possibly. I'll think more on it and we can bat around ideas later. Congrats on the new blog. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, pesky legalities! ::makes a note::
Delete(Also - hench-cat? I'M the henchman, he's the boss. You should know how it works with cats!)