THE NEXT BIG THING is a chain of book and author recommendations. One author tags a few others, who then each tag others. The idea is that we all help people out there learn about all the good stuff that’s just out or coming soon. David Wood tagged me on his blog and now it’s my turn.
1. What is the working title of your next book?
Actually, the title of my next book is THE CRYPT OF DRACULA. It’s a little novella I’m putting out before my next full length book. The idea came from some discussions with friends about what was missing from the modern vampire story, and how we fondly remembered older film versions of the vampire story that included strict rules on how the creatures could act and how they could be killed. I love those old films from the 1930s and 1960s and 1970s, so I thought I’d create my own little nostalgia creature mini genre to pay homage to those great stories.
In THE CRYPT OF DRACULA, the fiend is awoken and a new hero takes up the epic struggle against the sinister Count.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
I wanted to tell a simple nostalgic Dracula tale. I’m not reinventing the wheel with this one. Just including all the good stuff: creepy villagers, crumbling spooky castle, coffins, fangs, and blood, blood, blood.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
No idea. Horror? Adventure? Nostalgia? On Amazon it’ll go under Horror > Vampires and Action & Adventure.
4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Wow. Tough one. I can easily cast the characters for RESURRECT, my first thriller, but doing Crypt will be tough. For RES, I always pictured Jason Quinn as actor Jason London (as seen on the cover of 2000’s retched Jason and the Argonauts–title completely a coincidence, because I didn’t see the film until years after I had written most of RES), Curtis Johnson is a younger Val Kilmer, and Eva is Kate Bosworth with long curly hair.
For Crypt, I might cast Matt Damon as Andreas, Georgina Moffet (from Doctor Who’s The Doctor’s Daughter episode) as Anneli, and maybe someone young like Kevin Zegers as the Count.
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A stonemason and mountaineer takes a job restoring a castle in transylvania, but ends up having to rescue his wife from the resurrected vampire, Count Dracula.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’ll be putting the book out from my Quickdraw Books imprint. It will be in e-book and print.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Still working on it, but not long. A few weeks.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
None, probably. It will be more akin to a Dracula film from the 60s or 70s than to any current horror books, and because I lean toward adventure, there will be plenty of hair-raising stunts and fights in the second half.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I miss the monster craze of my youth in the 1970s. I miss the creepy old castle and spooky fog-infested forests. Sparkly vampires are not my thing–probably because I’m not a teen or pre-teen girl. I like my vampires spooky and creepy. I started watching those old films and re-discovering what I had enjoyed about them in the first place (it mostly was not the acting). I got the idea to find some books that took a nostalgic approach to vampires and Frankenstein’s Creature and the rest of the great monsters and was surprised to not find many. I decided to get some novellas with these public domain characters out.
10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
The book starts very slowly, establishing the locale and the players, and introducing heaping mounds of foreshadowing. When it gets going, I hope it will evoke a love of the Dracula of old, while at the same time injecting some of the modern approach to action that we have come to love in modern cinema and thriller novels. If nothing else, I suspect that the hero’s ultimate weapon against the Count might be something we’ve never seen before.
I tag:
You can see their answers to the questions above next week, on Wednesday, December 12th.
Steve Manke
I’m looking forward to this. I’m growing to enjoy novellas more and more. When there is a good plot, a shorter page length doesn’t mean the story will be incomplete. It just makes the story fit into your day easier than a novel!
Cassie Horner
Hi Kane: please email me so we can set up an interview time — I am doing the spring issue of Best of Central Vermont and would like to include you.
Thanks!
Kane
Thanks, Steve.
The book should finally be out this month or next as an e-book and March in print.
-Kane
Lizzie
Hey, when I read this I was like WHERE IS THE REST! Here is the thing. NO one writes about drlauca because they realize he is the hardest Vampire to write for! am i wrong? possibly, but I am still interested in seeing a piece about this developl.
Kane
Great point, Lizzie! The other authors all answered their questions on their respective blogs. 🙂 I should have linked to them here at the time. Now the interview is so old, it’s hard to find those links, but I’d recommend checking out the blogs for all of these authors anyway.
I’m not sure why no one writes Dracula anymore. I did, and I got a lot of kind words about it, including this quote from Suspense Magazine:
“THE CRYPT OF DRACULA is how a vampire novel should be written. It’s suspenseful, frightening, dark, and realistic. It harkens back to the day when ‘monster’ movies played at Saturday matinees and at midnight showings. Somewhere, Bram Stoker is smiling. He’s beaming from ear to ear because someone finally got it right, and that someone is Kane Gilmour.”
Can’t knock that. I hope to have a Frankenstein companion book out for it this year, and I’ll probably do a sequel Dracula book too.
Best,
-Kane