Political Monsters: Vampires, Aristocracy, and Big Business!

Click to download two chapter sample

It has sometimes been said that the classic vampire story (by which I mean in literature rather than mythology) reflects something of the traditional class divides. It boils down to the aristocratic vampire feeding off the working class man and woman, a parasite upon society, contributing nothing to it – and certainly not doing anything to earn their money or station. I don't know how much truth there is to this but, like many literary theories, it is at least a fun idea worth playing with.

But where does that leave the modern vampire? What, by this token, does he (or she) have to say about the society we live in? Well, in most of the modern literature vampires are romantic heroes/anti-heroes with a tragic history and/or nature, and only occasionally are they purely villains. When they are baddies, they seem to be simple agents of evil or the now anachronistic parasite. Today of course, it is not so much the aristocracy that is perceived to be the chief parasite on society but big business and the criminal cartel – which is what lead me to adopt my own themes. I'm not really trying to present any political case, I am, after all, just writing ePulp and wouldn't want anyone to read too much into that. However, this presents me with a fun variation to play with. The vampire can still be a monster but it is reduced somewhat to a consumer, while others, not simply exploited, are reduced to commodities. The Blood Cartel is a business and it's goals are primarily about profit and if you are not part of it, then you are either a source of profit, an obstacle, or irrelevant.

Of course, the thing about the modern vampire is that it is seldom really a monster anymore. Look back at the old myths and early films and and stories and in most of them, they are soulless human shaped things that feed on us. Now, in so far as they are monsters, they are very human ones. In so far as they are alien in their evil, it is in the manner of the sociopath – sociopathy being a very human condition. So, I figured, why not go all the way and make the bad vampires sociopaths? Then I can focus much of the actual evil with the ordinary humans acting from sociopathic tendencies or plain immorality. (I think it worth drawing a distinction, as the sociopath seems incapable of valuing people in a moral way)

Blood Traffic Issue #1: The Bow Street Vampire is now live for Amazon's Kindle!

The Bow Street Vampire is set in an alternative world, in the British capitol of Londinium. Here, old gods have begun to be worshipped once more and the supernatural has become a familiar experience - except for vampires, creatures of myth that have remained unreported...until now.

In a police service rather different from our own, based not in Scotland Yard but in Bow Street and where its members are still known as Runners, Detective Inspector Jim Varney has the job of investigating the murders of illegal immigrants. Were they killed to support the underground trade in transplant organs? Was their blood farmed to supply such operations - or for something else?

He and his small team soon uncover a deadly trade and a terrible new addiction, all controlled by the vicious Blood Cartel.

Tomorrow...blood is the new cocaine!

You can download the first two chapters (about a quarter) of the book here.

And you can find it on Kindle here:

Amazon UK and Amazon US

Finally having this published is a weight of my mind and I can again return to work on the the next book and planning the future ones. Neill will have some time towards the end of this month, so he will be able to work with me again to develop covers and promotional images for Issue #2: Peel's Bloody Gang. My goal is to have that title published in late July or early August. Issue #3: The Food Chain has been drafted but needs some re-writes here and there before I begin the first round of corrections and preparations for publication. Working with Neill's time table again, I should be able to get this published for Kindle in November this year.

With the first three issues published in Kindle format we'll prepare an omnibus edition of all three for paperback only in time for Christmas. It will still be cheaper to buy the individual volumes as eBooks, so I don't think it will be worth making an omnibus edition available for that format at the moment. However, it would just not be economical to make print on demand books available for such small books, hence this strategy. I won't make so much money on them in this format either but it will expand availability, which has to be a good thing. (and for readers who don't own Kindles or an equivalent, they are also sales that I wouldn't have made otherwise!)

And beyond that? Well, the world that I've been creating for the Blood Traffic series has many more stories in it, some of them will tie in to Blood Traffic, building a larger narrative with some catastrophic events later on. The question is, when should I start writing them? I suspect that, time permitting, the most I can write in a year will be three books of this modest size and with eight or nine planned for Blood Traffic, it will take another two to two and a half years to complete it. I have to ask myself, would the series benefit from other stories running along side it? Though that would mean a longer wait for those wanting a resolution to the series they started with, it would afford me some variety in what I'm writing. Perhaps that will help keep what I'm writing fresh. Alternatively, by taking too much time away from a series, I may take a bit longer to get back into it.

For now however, I hope that you will give The Bow Street Vampire a try – and hope all the more that you will enjoy it!

Milton