Robin Layne's Blog: From the Red, Read Robin - Posts Tagged "luke"

In 2013, a friend on this site, Francis Franklin, started The Vampire Lover Blog Award--a chance for people to write the questions they were dying to ask vampires. Bloggers like me let their vampires out to respond to 11 questions of their (or the blogger's) choice. Because we were expected to include the nice graphic for the "award" with the blog posts, and Goodreads doesn't have an option for a separate pictures on blog posts, I started a second blog on Wordpress, Robin Layne, Author: Welcome to the AVS. I had five vampire characters answer the most appropriate 11 of the questions asked, including the one I submitted, in separate interviews that August. But some of my vamps could provide interesting answers to more than 11 of the questions, and, inspired by an interview Francis wrote, I decided to let two of these characters answer the rest of the questions in a descriptive scene instead of just quoting the questions and having the vamp simply answer each in written form. The setting for the dual interview is a Starbucks. I'm the uneasy interviewer, and the vampires, Luke and Carletta, don't like each other. In the interview posted on October 3, 2013, Luke helped interview the 16-year-old beauty Carletta--using psychic manipulation and bribery to get her to answer honestly questions she wanted to avoid. We left the post with the promise that Carletta would help interview Luke next. Now, after 2 years and over 5 months, the I have at last finished and posted Luke's second interview! And in the interim, guess what? Several MORE questions were posted to the Vampire Lover's Blog Award site. So Carletta had to answer those along with Luke.
Please consider all the time this literary meal has been on the loving backburner and go enjoy At Last--Luke Answers the Rest of the Questions!
I had a lot of fun writing it, and every project I do with my characters helps me know them better, adding to the depth of the books I've been working on since about 2000. It will be a whole series (AVS:The Anti-Vampirism Society). I'm thinking of 6 books at this point. Later, I'll post notes on what it's like to envision and put together a series of novels. I'm learning as I go along. It's harder than I thought it would be, and I'm taking longer than most writers seem to. But why boast about how LITTLE time it takes to write books, when life increases the meaning and skill that go into them?
I think you'll enjoy the whole blog, if you haven't read the other parts yet.

I have joined a contest on Tapas.io (which is both a website and an app), serializing a novel you can read as it takes shape! Please don't wait to check it out, because the contest ends on the 19thof this month (April). Here is the direct link to the story: Against Heaven and Hell

If you think the story has merit, please join the site and subscribe to it before April 19. A subscription does two things: It allows you to read the whole story easily after I post it every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, and it is a vote toward making it the readers' choice winner.

"Against Heaven and Hell is a horror story that takes place in 18th Century America--a story of the younger years of the character I like the best among those I have created so far, Lucas Fleeland (Luke). (You can also read about Luke in the vampire interviews on my other blog, Robin Layne Author .)

After exploring the experiences and processes that make Luke a complex and secretly rebellious young man (and something more than that), the novel intricately weaves in an often misunderstood historical figure, General Benedict Arnold, in ways I hope you will find both informative and entertaining. According to my fiction, Luke meets Arnold when working as a surgeon's mate (medic assistant) in the Revolutionary War, and attempts to mold the heroic general into someone he can better relate to.

I originally wrote "Against Heaven and Hell" as a novella I submitted to a collection called "War is Hell." It was not accepted for the anthology but the editors liked it enough to say they might want to use it in another publication. I was wasn't satisfied with the story as it was; I wanted to expand and deepen the plot, possibly making it a stand-alone novel that is a prequel offshoot to my AVS series. And here I am doing so at last!

I started rewriting the story after I heard about the contest, which started March 19 and goes on for just a month. Just last night, the artwork was completed, and this morning I posted the new banner. I have just less than two weeks to attract a following large enough to win the readers' choice award or to interest the judges enough to win by the second option.

I don't expect to finish the whole novel by the deadline, which is okay. I'm working hard at the new parts and even the old parts require editing for improvement and consistency with the new version. On top of that, I must return to the historical research needed to recreate the time period and historical figures accurately. I WILL finish it, though! I just may not post as often because I don't want the quality to suffer (the quality either of the novel OR of my life).

So far, 4 installments are available for your reading pleasure. More to come tonight! At least 10, probably more, will be completed by the April 19 deadline.