The Twilight Diaries
I get asked quite frequently, why I chose to write a novel about vampires… I am advised often that the vampire market has been over saturated throughout the years, and I’d be wise to write about something else. I am warned that it is nearly impossible at this point to create an original story line, as it’s all been done before.
Call it my shining optimism or perhaps I am just really eager for a harsh reality…but I truly believe that my book, Argent Myst is special and unique. However, one of the biggest reasons I refuse to let this story go, is because I began writing it when I was barely a teenager, and I must see it through.
In 1991 I discovered the series The Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith at my scholastic book fair. I poured through those books repeatedly until the pages were ragged, and the bindings torn and faded. I was officially obsessed with the allure and sophistication of vampires. Not only that, but I was fully invested in Smith’s characters. I felt their pain, their fear, and their joy. I literally SOBBED at the end of the last book ,The Fury. I searched high and low trying to find another story with a similar feel of excitement, young romance, and danger. I remember complaining to my dad one day, that the series was finished, and I hadn’t found another one like it. In typical dad fashion, he told me to quit complaining and go write my own.
Challenge accepted.
Being so young, the only thing I knew about creating anything was that it must be original. But I was hooked on the vampire premise and didn’t want to let it go. During my teens, vampires were EVERYWHERE! In 1992 Bram Stokers Dracula was released in theaters, but it was rated R and my thirteen-year-old self was not old enough to get in. So, my friend and I did what any teenage girls, desperate to see Keanu Reeves slay vampires for love, would do…we bought tickets for an age-appropriate movie and snuck into see Dracula. After that It was Interview with a Vampire in 1994 (another one we had to sneak into, I was not about to miss Brad Pitt with fangs!) Once I discovered Anne Rice, I bought every book she had in the vampire genre.
Throughout my high school career, I finished my book, tentatively titled Eternal Vengeance. It was about a female vampire that had started going to high school to beat the loneliness she felt after being abandoned and alone for centuries. I threw every ounce of teen angst, boy drama, parental and sibling strife, and girl emotions I had at that book. It turned out to be an excellent coping tool when things got tough. I submitted my story to my creative writing teacher my senior year in high school. I still have his edited copy and I cherish it dearly, as he passed away some years ago.
After graduation, life got crazy, and writing fell by the wayside in leu of bartending and partying. Until I became a single mother in 2006 and obtained a job that allowed me nights and weekends with my child and time to write while at work. I completely revised my manuscript, gearing it towards adults and writing about things I knew. (One of my main characters is a bartender.)
Shortly after that I met the man I would later marry, and the book got another revision. My love scenes were not great, they weren’t authentic. I had never experienced true, all-consuming love until I met my soulmate, my husband.
Finally, the book was complete, however I didn’t have the knowledge or funds to get it edited and published. It sat on a zip drive for years.
Then Twilight happened. I honestly had no idea that Twilight was a thing. (Please take no offence Steph, I truly was living under a rock.) I had been working, and mothering, and doing all the things, other than reading and paying attention to life outside my little family. Until my husband saw the movie trailer for Twilight. He remembered the story of how I came to write my book and thought it was the same story that had inspired me.
He took me to the theatre and all I knew was that I was going to see a movie about a vampire going to high school that falls in love with a human girl. I immediately thought it was Vampire Diaries and that perhaps they had just changed the name for the screen adaptation. It wasn’t long into the movie before I realized that wasn’t the case. I had no idea what I was watching, I was flying blind but completely enthralled. Everything was green and squishy, the vampires sparkled…have I mention I LOVE all things sparkly??
As soon as the movie was finished, I was on the phone with my bestie that had no children and could still read as much and as often as she pleased. I had to know what that movie was all about? She didn’t disappoint and the very next day I had the book in my hands and was obsessed. I’ve read them all countless times. I own the movies, my mom even bought me the trivia card game as a stocking stuffer one year for Christmas, it was a big deal!
The fact that Stephanie Meyers is also in the same city as me was encouraging. I had to finish; I couldn’t give up! She was now my idol.
In 2015 I finally got my copyrights and prepared to release it as an E-Book on the kindle app. I ran it through content editors and proofreading, made my own cover art using my own face (for lack of a better model) and self-published in August of 2015. That was so RISKY, but it paid off and gave me the feedback I needed to make my book better. I received so many glowing reviews about the original story line, the beautifully detailed descriptions, and beloved characters, but the proofreading was still an issue.
At last, in 2021 I had it professionally edited, reformatted, and created new cover art. In June of 2022 it was finally ready for print.
So, while I might have missed the bus on the vampire trend of the early 2000’s and some readers are OVER the vampire craze, I had to finish what I had started, and I am so very glad that I am doing just that.
I truly love both the Vampire Diaries and The Twilight Saga and while I’m just a newbie, overly optimistic, self-published author, I really would love to follow in my talented predecessor’s shoes and make them proud.
L.