My Vampire world.

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My father (Dr. Dad, PhD), often asks me, "Why Vampires?" And being the smarty pants he is, he then goes on to wise crack such things as, "Do you carry a lot of garlic to keep those vampires away?"

I have no idea how I survived growing up with that.

But seriously, I do have a fascination with the mythology of vampires.  They represent our suppressed Shadow sides, the part of ourselves that crave power at any cost. For me, vampires are also completely unafraid of confrontation. Since they are physically strong, they have to fear of walking alone in the dark or dealing with hostility.

One of the first scenes I wrote for Dracula's Secret explores what it would be like to face one of my greatest fears: being trapped by a group of people much stronger and aggressive than myself.

“You lookin’ for a good time, darlin’?” Chad propped his fist against the old brick building, blocking her in with his arm. The rest tightened their circle, like hyenas crowding a wounded zebra. Anger and lust from his skin teased her nostrils.

Their smell and movements telegraphed their intentions. As a group, they moved, boxing her in. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No one to come to her rescue.

They would throw her against the wall. She would reel, stunned. The boys would start off with a little light brutality, moving on to rape. They needed to recover face from their earlier defeat.

 Stay tuned for next week for how my character Valerie Tate handled this!

Book Locations: The Drake Hotel.

My current work-in-progress involves travel (as all my books do). The heroine starts in Chicago, Illinois, and ends up in Athens and Delphi, in Greece. As part of my preparation to write, I like to collect maps, photographs, and descriptions of my locations.

My first location is the Drake Hotel, a long-time fixture of the Chicago Gold Coast. For me, it has long been the epitome of luxury, style, and class.

So of course, I had to set a scene where my hero receives his top-secret orders and his weapons on a secret floor. Something like this:

Obviously, I need to go to the Drake and get some of my own photos!

(The following clip has nothing to do with the Drake, so just think of it as a bonus yummy for the day.:)