Creating a Mythology for your world

Hi all :) A little over a week I know but ideas take time to form in my head. So this week I'd like to talk about vampire myths, powers and the fun/struggle of creating creatures for story but first these messages.

Shameless plug: My book The Newfoundland Vampire will be on in April 2012 (Pat is hard at working editing now :) and Tasha’s books (I've read book and highly recommend them) are out now.

I think one of the things authors who write in the fantasy/paranormal/science-fiction/horror/YA genre (among others) enjoy the most is creating powers for their creatures/heroes. Most geeky people imagine what it would be like to have super-powers and write you write characters you get a chance to live out that thrill vicariously :)

For me I wanted to develop the powers of my characters (who are vampires of course :) with detail, consistency and still have some fun along the way. For me the challenge was that vampires have such a long history in book/films/history (myths rather..or are they? ;) that it was tricky at time to not muddle the powers I thought of with those already done.

For example as my esteemed editor Pat and Penumbra Publishing pointed out, if vampires are unholy why would they only be affected by Catholic symbols such as crosses and holy water? If vampires existed thousands of years ago (as mine do) they would have to be affected by other holy symbols that the Romans would have used. As usual she was right and I decided that my vampires (since they don't "die" to be made a vampire) were not strictly unholy at all and therefore symbols and devices of faith did nothing to them.

Then you get into other details like how does sunlight affect them, how exactly does their telepathy work, can they sense others of their kind and so on. The fun part was taking a very well know creature like a vampire and adding some twists to it (some of which I've already discussed in a previous post). One of my ideas was to have vampires be able to control any animal (not just rats or wolves as in Bram Stoker's Dracula) to a much stronger degree than they could a human.

The other challenge was to establish a set of guidelines that the reader can learn and then stick with them throughout the novel. That doesn't mean there can't be some freak/super-vampire that defies a few of the rules but he/she/it certainly still needs to abide by most of them.

Finally it's funny how little details matter so much, initially I wrote that my vampires front teeth became fangs. This would have made them very comical bunny-rabbit type monsters =) What I meant of course was the traditional cuspid or canine teeth.

What challenges/fun aspects do other people face when they create a world? I'll admit I took it a little easy with just one supernatural creature. How do authors handle create many different types of powers/creatures? I'll leave you with these questions, I've got some packing to do. My next post will be from sunny Florida. Now that I've made some of jealous ;) until next time dear readers I am..

Book Review: The Romance of Dracula: a personal journey of the Count on celluloid

I was contacted by the blog tour coordinator and asked to review this title, which was pretty cool because I intended to buy it after reading a review at Vampire Review.


The Romance of Dracula is a book I want to describe as a survival guide. It includes quotes, reviews, details synopses of not only the original novel  Dracula, but a number of movies based on the vampire classic. When I read his references to PLAYS as well, I was simply smitten.  According to Charles E. Butler, he wrote this title in order to explore why he loves the Dracula genre. I personally fell for him when he confessed that vampire literature comprises one-third of his bookshelf.

As usual, I will get straight to why I loved reading this book. First, it reminded me how sad it is that  there are still so many vampire genre fans that have not read Dracula. If you read this book, be careful, because at some point in the detailed review of Bram Stoker's classic, you will want to read the book if for no other reason than to compare it to the movies.  I'll talk about a moment I had with this book that made me feel the need to re-read Dracula. For some reason, the following author quote did it:

"...Dracula will never be as one remembers from his literary beginnings or what the reader can recall whilst growing up. Film and book are two very different mediums, but Dracula is one of the few characters on the screen to always be matched with the name of Bram Stoker." 

This quote had me trying to accurately describe Dracula from the first reading- all those years ago. One of the images that flooded my mind was "The Count" and his "Bah-ha ha." The sesame street Count. Yes, the bat...in the cape...and the scary castle... that teaches kids to count.

Okay, now that that's over with... The writer has done something very special here. His opening was my favorite part of the book, and his review of the original novel is breathtaking. It sweeps you up with a fervor.  With a series of Dracula quotes and subsequent musings that are at times jaw dropping and at others, down right entertaining. If you are a fan of the Count, you probably won't always agree with Butler's point of view, but his insights are worth reading.This is a rare gem for any fan of Dracula horror flicks, all things vampires, and lovers of the original Dracula that started it all. 

I'll end with my personal favorite except from this book:


You think to baffle me, you - with your pale faces all in a row like sheep in a butcher's? You shall be
sorry yet, each one of you! You think you have left me without a place to rest; but I have more. My revenge is just begun! I spread it across centuries, and time is on my side. Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine - my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed. Bah!" 

The only addition to that line of dialogue could be a resounding Bwah ha ha! of laughter as the Count twiddles the end of his waxen moustache with a white-gloved thumb and forefinger. As in the better translations on the screen, Dracula takes his food by the sheer force of his personality and, in the novel, he is never described as being sexy or even physically attractive to women. Jonathon Harker had already unkindly testified to his halitosis and, further in the novel, Mina Harker (Charles E. Butler)
  

Charles E. Butler is a writer, actor, artist in the Yorkshire area of the UK. He write reviews for Joseph O'Donnell's The Eerie Digest online magazine in Hollywood and general interviews when required for the Vampire Film Festivals run by Reel Energy. Butler also dabbles in illustrating indie comic books. 

Romance of Dracula Amazon Link