But of course, first we needed a plot.

I'll admit it was a very interesting experience for me to develop the three possible plotlines to set before the Partners. I knew going in that two of those plots would never see the light of day. And yet, I wanted all three of them to have plenty of potential to become a good book, since I would have no choice in which one I ended up having to write! So I had to come up with three plots I really did want to expand into real books, even though two of them would end up on the cutting room floor, so to speak.

The first plot was "The Oracle and the Warrior," and was set in an ancient-Greek type culture. It concerned a female oracle who is kidnapped by a warrior from her enemy's army, a man with psychic powers of his own. The second storyline, "The Milkmaid and the Magician," had a Dark Ages type atmosphere, and was about an ordinary serf who has visions of a powerful wizard. She seeks him out only to find she is part of his mystical plan. The third plot, "The Innkeeper and the Strange Travelers," had a Renaissance feel and was about a woman who operates an inn that is visited by a trio of strangers. She eventually comes to suspect them of some sort of vampirism.

So I posted my three synopses and let the Partners cast their votes, with my fate in their hands. My own favorite of the three? I gave a slight edge to "The Milkmaid and the Magician," just because I thought it would be lovely fun writing the wizard's character. But in the end, the clear winner of the competition was "The Innkeeper and the Strange Travelers."

Did I mind having to write a vampire-type story? Heck no--I already had a blast writing three vampire tales: the contemporary short stories "Pints" (Soulful Sex Volume I) and "Playacting" (from the Living Beyond Reality Press READ FREE Project), and the Regency novella, "The Verity of the Vampyre" (Soulful Sex Volume III), one of my favorites of all my works. Nevertheless, there was a certain challenge to writing about blood-drinkers that I always found daunting.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is not a romance, it's a horror story. The erotic aspect of vampires was a sort of unintended consequence, which over the years (and with the particular help of Anne Rice) has taken on greater significance. Nowadays hundreds of authors specialize in romantic vampire fiction, but to me it's not easy taking a theme from the horror genre and working out a happily-ever-after ending. To make that work with soul-less creatures you have to have the brilliance of a Joss Whedon, and even his "Buffy" had an awful lot of unhappy content.

I decided my best approach was to create my own special race of beings who incorporated the fun, erotic, and romantic elements of vampirism without the grisly, hellish ones. I needed my blood-drinkers--whom I dubbed "Roicans"--to have the potential for good or evil, to be immortal but not soulless, to have magical powers like mind-control but not necessarily employ them harmfully. Although some of them most certainly would! As I developed in my mind the legend of the Roicans, and the attitude of mortal society towards them, the whole world of this fledgling book became fascinating to me.

The Soulful Sex Partners had chosen the right plot, bless their little hearts! I couldn't wait to get underway. But before anything further could happen, I needed to flesh out my main characters.

Tune in tomorrow to Part 4 of "About Bloodchained" to meet the stars of our show and hear how they came to be!

Link to part 4
Link to part 2