Idea to story.

Chances are, you have ideas. Chances are even better than your friends will have ideas, too. I have a wide circle of friends who love to brainstorm ideas for stories with me.

Dr. S and his really awesome husband, the Flaming Chef.

Dr. Snickerdoodle is one of my favorite brainstorm partners. He told me the story of one of his first crushes, back when the poor doctor lived in the desolate hinterlands of Oklahoma.

Showing that he always was a lot smarter than I was, he avoided telling his crush, since the man in question wasn't the nicest guy in the world.

While Dr. S talked, I took many mental notes on this person's character. He was the sort to play his friends against each other, and had a cruel streak the size of the Marianas Trench. I wanted show his self-congratulatory streak and his enjoyment of frightening and controlling people.

I don't like writing anything too on the nose, so of course, it had to have a vampire in it. And I started writing.

Over the next few days, I'll reveal the story. And we can all talk about getting your ideas out of your head and onto paper. :)

Vampires in Literature

My favorite vampire in literature (other than my very own Valerie Tate, if I may be so immodest), is Joseph Le Fanu's Carmilla.

In the story, Carmilla befriends the lonely, isolated Laura.  In true romance fashion, Carmilla recognizes Laura as a friend from a dream they had shared at six years old.

 In the older style Harlequin stories, the shy heroine is drawn to a handsome, brooding, moody hero. In this story, Laura is drawn to Carmilla's beauty.  Carmilla herself is moody and passionate. There is much foreplay, snuggling,  and Laura braiding and playing with Carmilla's hair. Carmilla herself goes from an engaging young woman to a determined lover pressing her suit with kisses on Laura's cheeks and claiming that Laura is *hers*.

"Darling, darling," [Carmilla] murmured. "I live in you and you would die for me. I love you so."

The pursuer overcome with possessiveness and extreme displays of desire is still a common motif in modern romance novels.

In true Victorian fashion, Laura, virginal, pure, and close to her protective father, begins to exhibit unusual behavior, such as exhaustion and restlessness and meloncholy. Common behaviors for someone in the throes of first love.

The father and the other male researcher refuse to share their suspicions with Laura, leaving her helpless in the face of Carmilla's desire for both blood and love.


And, as is usual in literature, the passionate and sexual Carmilla is revealed to be a perversion and executed.

Laura, 'safe' after her exposure to independence, is restored to her virginal state and returns to her remote home under her father's protection. But a hero can never truly return to who she was before her experiences. She still remembers the sound of Carmilla's steps on the drawing room floor.