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Blogs by Silvia Hartmann
Vampire Solstice 1/14/2006 7:40:11 PM
So am I finally writing a new novel? Can it be happening? I think it is ... I've been wanting to write a cool vampire novel with its own universe for at least 30 years now.
I came close a couple of times but then didn't; I wrote a 500,000 word epic a couple of years back and that wasn't a joke, nor was it a hobby.
Before I did that, I really didn't know what a trilogy would entail in all its ins and outs. Now I do and I guess the idea of starting something else has scared me.
I've just finished a book of classic fairy tales, I want to call it Elory's Joy and the publisher favours The Golden Horse, but that's a different story and a complete side track.
Anyway, I was thinking of writing a short story about a festival at Solstice where the Vampire community throws a ball in an ancient underground theatre and picks the new young ones who will join them.
Short stories are ok, aren't they?
You can start them and they don't ...
Ooops.
One chapter into it, and I could already see that I had become involved in this thing again, and here was a fully fledged fantasy novel with a most specific universe and some truly mindboggling challenges.
I write first person by preference; so what is it *like* to become an Essem, a vampire of the 7th level who has lived ten thousand years?
How do they think, and more importantly, how do they communicate?
I can answer that question now.
They communicate in some extremely complicated language. And it isn't the words, not at all; it is the rhythm and the the composition of the sentences and paragraphs.
The rhythm is so very complex, I sometimes need to write entire paragraphs to end a wave that has begun at the start of a chapter.
It's exhausting, because the concentration has to be so high to keep that state, keep it together in those various states and drift out when there are disruptions.
But not to fear, dear readers.
It's only exhausting to *write* like that, it *reads* actually very well, very trancey, very ... hypnotic.
Here's another thing.
I must have had the insanity of the trilogy in mind when I started this one, because it is confined to just 21 days in December - from the first meeting of a potential with a vampire who invites him to attend the Festival of Blessings, to the Festival itself which is the highlight, resolution and THE END of the book.
Should I get distraught with the challenges of this story (and I do, don't for a moment think I don't!), I get the notes out and calm myself down with the fact that it's already Sunday, the 18th of December, and there are only three days left to go before the Festival of Blessings.
Phew!
You can make it, Silvia ...
"Writing a vampire novel can be very draining ..."
