a little help from my friends

[cornerofmadness]

In excavating the old files I found a series I was writing of short stories, vampire. I've sold three in this series back in the early to mid 1990's (all those magazines are long defunct by now, sigh)

That said, there are several stories that I'll slowly revamp and try again. But they need a few MAJOR changes. The character was named for a cousin who got killed. However this was PRE-Vittorio the Vampire by Rice so I'll have to change that (not as if anyone will remember the previously sold stories in which he was just a minor character). Renaming him won't be too hard.

THe next part is tricker. It was set in New Orleans but at the time there was only Rice's work there then came Poppy Brite and a few others. Needless to say, putting the words vampire and New Orleans into a cover letter means round filing. I need a change of venue. Things I've considered

bringing them to pittsburgh, taking them to Vegas (which seems a natural for vamps, has anyone done that?), taking them to Cassadaga FL but it seemed a tad quiet for one of the stories (though I could set the one in Disney), NYC is rather overdone too and I have another series set in Madison. Thoughts?

Luc, Vito's love interest and very reluctant vampire, WAS Cajun (which could be maintained if I just shifted them to FL, that's not too fish out of water). Moving the venue probably means finding a new heritage for Luc (and probably a name change)

I welcome thoughts on this.








All the dragons in one place

Comments

[marlex.livejournal.com]

Vegas could be interesting, but it's been done so much lately in other mediums (thanks mostly to CSI). I had to look up Cassadaga, having not heard of it before. That could be intriguing, as would Orlando proper, since I can't think of any show/book that uses that as its setting. Diverse population, lots of tourists, pretty steady night life if my nephew is to be believed. Plus the idea of vampires at the magic kingdom just cracks me up.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hadn't thought about CSI mostly because I try never to do so. Not sure there would be a lot of cross over appeal but maybe

Yeah not sure where you are in FL but it's between Orlando and Daytona. I think Deltona is probably the closest town. (well Lake Helen is but that's awfully small too) The only thing is with either setting wow plenty of sun

[lyrangalia]

Damn Anne Rice (for a multitude of reasons, but mostly for what she did to popular vampire mythos).

I agree, Cassadaga/Orlando would be a really interesting vampire setting. I also like the idea of Vegas, just because getting vamps to Star Trek the Experience amuses me to no end.

Maybe it's just me, but (especially if the story takes place within the last 3 or so years) I don't think it'd be too odd to have a Cajun character anywhere in the US. Who is to say that massive hurricane relocation didn't affect the vamps as much as it did the humans?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

you know what I never even THOUGHT about Katerina (bad me, really bad me)

the nice thing about Vegas is, it's easily researched

Cassadaga is nice in that I lived there and know it

obviously it was originally set in the 1990's but there is no reason i can't age it up a decade

[lyrangalia]

If you're already rewriting it for location change, an added time shift should be just a little more work. :)

Yeah, I'm aware of the Katrina thing because quite a few New Orleans transplants ended up over here and brought some GREAT restaurants with them.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I probably would have aged up the time period automatically. Heaven forbid I offend anyone by setting it in 1995 (yes a tad bitter, that's me)

Too bad Luc's dad is worthless. Maybe Dad's friend is a restauranteer....

[hierath.livejournal.com]

I think a relocated post-Katerina vampire is a great idea :) Wish i'd thought of it!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

me too but I'm gonna steal that idea since it was offered up

[sp23.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever heard of a vampire story set in Pittsburgh, and it's a town you're intimately familiar with so the setting would be one I'd think you have an easy time writing.

Vegas, to me, means the Night Stalker, since that's where the first movie was set and it concerned a vampire, and I'd be looking for Carl Kolchak to turn up. That's probably just me, though. *g*

If you do choose a Florida venue, how about St. Augustine? Amazing, old history, and I'd think an interesting place to put a vampire story.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

how could i forget St Augustine. I loved that. evil_little_dog and silvrethorn went to college there so they could help me.

Wow, Night Stalker was in Vegas? I though it was Chicago... (where there IS another vampire series), granted I was a very little girl when I was watching that though I do see it on Sci-Fi often

[sp23.livejournal.com]

The series was set in Chicago, but there were two movies first: The Night Stalker (1972) set in Las Vegas, and The Night Strangler (1973) set in Seattle. And yes I own all the DVDs. *g*

How lucky your friends were to go to college in St. Augustine. I love that town.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I see. cool. Heck it's cool just to find someone who actually KNOWS the series

Flagler is a gorgeous college and as much as I disliked FL i did like St Augustine and I jumped at a chance to apply for a job at the college until i found out they paid SEVEN grand less in an area that I would need to be making seven gradn MORE to survive

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Boston. Have some Boston vampires. Or Vermont! Yeah, some Burlington, VT vampires! :D

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i had thought about Boston