Marie Marshall

I have finished the first rough draft of my teen vampire novella. It’s a trashy blast of steam-goth that ricochets from action-episode to action-episode. it’s unashamedly derivative, paying intertextual teeth-service to the whole vampire genre. Basically, there are only two plots in teen-vamp fiction: plot one is the vampire-as-misunderstood-teenager going steady with the girl from school (think Stephenie Meyer); plot two is the fearless, teenage vampire-killer (think Joss Whedon’s Buffy). Mine is plot two, with a little of the misunderstood teenager thrown in for good luck. I don’t pretend it’s going to be great literature (OMG, I’m channeling JKR!), but I do hope it’s going to be fun. I think its greatest asset is its total implausibility. I wrote it more quickly than I have ever written anything of comparable size.

The next stage is some preliminary proof-reading, and for that I will be roping in a friend or two. After that, it’s going to be sent to the publisher who asked me if I could write a teen vamp story.

I wonder if I will want to get back to serious fiction. I still have notes for at least one novel, along with some trial chapters. It had been giving me a great deal of trouble, and so I was really glad of the light relief of charging head on at this trashy novella. Let’s see if I’m back in the proverbial groove. If not, never mind – faithful readers will be glad to know that my second novel, The Everywhen Angels, is due for publication before Christmas, and hopefully will be available for your stocking via Amazon. Stay tuned.