My Motivation for Writing Whaling City Vampires: Love Beyond Death

When I finished my Bachelors degree in English in 2004 and after my father passed away in 2003, I wanted to write a novel that utilized some of the things I learned in college while also paying tribute to my father’s memory. I based the story in New London, Connecticut-The Whaling City-for my late father because he was born and raised there and had great affection for his hometown. He worked most of his life at the Savings Bank of New London (It’s a whale of a bank!) and was a member of the New London Lions Club where he happily and generously performed many years of community service.

In order to use some of my college education in my writing, I based a couple of the characters on some of my favorites in the novels I read and enjoyed as assignments. Amy is a composite of the heroines of many 18th and 19th century novels of the literary canon. Her father was a wealthy respected man and her mother was an obedient, devoted wife and excellent housekeeper and mother. Amy was raised to become a good wife like her mother, too fragile and weak minded for anything else. Bachelors, approved by her father, would be allowed to visit Amy in the hopes of winning her hand (and her father’s money) in marriage. The main goal of any young woman was to find a wealthy husband in good standing in society.

Ruthie was loosely based on Frado from Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson, which was a reading assignment for an African-American Literature course I took. I loved Frado and so badly wanted her to be free and have all the opportunities and happiness as the entitled white children. Ironically, Ruthie gained freedom by becoming a vampire, but because it wasn’t her choice to become a vampire, she was robbed of some human freedoms.
The remaining characters weren’t intentionally based on any precise elements from college, but I’m sure my reading of so many 19th century novels as part of my studies contributed to their situations and personalities.

 I chose to write a vampire novel because of my love for the old vampire soap opera, Dark Shadows, which ran for several years in the late 60’s to early 70’s when I was around 10 or 12 years old. Like so many kids my age, I would run home from school, in my case the bus stop, so I wouldn’t miss it. My mother would already have the TV turned on and tuned onto the channel when I got there and we would watch it together.

Barnabus Collins was a classy vampire. He had his moments of blood lust that took precedence over his respect for human life when he couldn’t resist his natural urges to feed on blood at the expense of an innocent person. But he also suffered from self-hatred and guilt over his unnatural cursed condition and longed to be human again and enjoy the sun on his face, a good meal and loving relationships. So, the vampires in Whaling City Vampires are based on the Barnabus Collins type of vampire where they must remain hidden from the daylight, find discreet ways of acquiring the blood they need for sustenance and can only be killed by decapitation or a wooden stake through the heart.

Another reason I chose to write about vampires is that I could place them pretty much anywhere in time and leave myself the option of writing a sequel years later while the characters would remain the same age. When I first started writing the story I wrote about Amy in present day New London and the story that would become the final book would be a long flashback. I was going to reunite her with Robert in present day New London, but I didn’t think vampires could remain undetected in one small city like New London for over 150 years. But I suppose in fiction, anything is possible.