Journals of the Undead

Tag: fantasy story

  • What Would I Do Differently…

    What Would I Do Differently…

    …if I were writing Journals of the Undead today? I’ve thought about it every now and then, especially as I was preparing the Latvian edition for publishing. In short, quite a few things but here are the main ones…

    Firstly, I would not cover four centuries and the stories would be in a chronological order. With JotU, I left them in the order in which they were written. I came to know my characters, their background and the events that shaped them gradually and this is reflected in the pace of the novel.

    Secondly, since I’d cover a much shorter period of time, there would be less characters. Four protagonists is fine but there’s a considerable amount of supporting characters in JotU who only appeared briefly and that’s a shame as some of them deserved more time in the spotlight.

    Thirdly, there would be at least one Latvian character.

    And, in general, the stories would be more light-hearted. My characters would still deal with the worldly winds and the pros and cons of eternal life but there would be more humour.

    I could have added all this to the manuscript but I chose not to. I have edited JotU several times over the years but those have been minor edits. The biggest change I made was re-writing a dialogue between two characters in the 5th story, The Encounter, where they discuss whether vampires have a soul. My thoughts on the subject have changed so I replaced the original dialogue with a new one. Apart from that, I’ve left the stories as they were, concerned that any cardinal changes would weaken and worsen the novel instead of improving it.

  • 2023 Summary

    2023 Summary

    Christmas and the end of the year are fast approaching so I decided to do a summary of my 2023 post.

    In short, it’s been a roller coaster year. I was been thinking about publishing the Latvian version of Journals of the Undead, “Šķautnes”, for quite a while. I had found a company that could take care of printing and distribution and had an illustrator, too. My plan was to edit the stories first and then set the thing in motion.

    However, back in January, I realised I could spend another few years without getting anything done. Instead of “someday” I needed a deadline, that’s how I work. Given that my novel is about vampires, October/November seemed the best time to launch the book. I emailed the Latvian publishing house Sava grāmata, we discussed deadlines and got the ball rolling.

    Or so I thought. I made a grave error (pun intended) of underestimating how much time editing would take. I only did minor edits as I feared that any major editing, no matter how well intended, could potentially weaken or dilute the original story. I wrote the novel when I was in my 20s, I’m in my 30s now, I’m a stronger and better storyteller now but… Journals of the Undead were written and belong to a particular time in my life and should remain there. By removing some of its weaknesses I would risk damaging its strengths. There will be sequels and an alternative version of the same events where I’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate my current skills.

    In short, I couldn’t stick to my own deadlines. This was due to various reasons, including my day job and other commitments. I reached a really low point in August and even considered postponing the project for a year. Feeling lost, I emailed Sava grāmata, who – bless them! – displayed angelic levels of understanding. They assured me we can still manage to launch the book this autumn. “Who knows what’s going to happen in a year’s time? It’s now or never,” I thought. And so the manuscript, written mostly in Riga but also in Hamburg and Copenhagen, was finally finished at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. “Šķautnes” was officially released on September 19 and hit the shelves in selected Latvian bookstores shortly afterwards.

  • Behind the Scenes: Arifay

    Out of all my characters, Arifay is the one I know the least about. How could this be if I created him and wrote the stories? Well, it’s more a case of writing them down. The characters all came to me and revealed as much or as little as they wanted.

    Arifay’s date of birth, surname and home town are never revealed in Journals of the Undead. He’s in his mid 20s and, like Yuri, was born in the 18th century. Romantic yet cynical, more of a thinker than a man of action, calm yet determined, often smiling but with a dry sense of humour, Arifay avoids the spotlight but leaves a big and lasting impression on the humans and vampires he meets. A natural born teacher, he loves sharing knowledge and has remarkable levels of patience. Arifay normally keeps himself to himself but, once he becomes close to someone, he is a loyal friend.

    People have asked me about the origins of his unusual name. The answer is: I don’t know. It just came to me.

  • Behind the Scenes: Yuri

    Described as a charming devil, Yuri is the only main character in Journals of the Undead who became a better person after turning into a vampire. Cold, cruel and manipulative during his human life, he achieved remarkable personal development as a vampire. Part of this is due to the fact that he encountered vampires of various social backgrounds and that made him get out of his bubble and see the world as it is. Also, Yuri discovered that he’s a good mentor and helped vampires, who felt lost in their new life, as much as he could to accept it or find a purpose.

    Although he was born and grew up in the 18th century, Yuri preferred the 19th century though not the Victorian era. The sudden strict morals and bizarre new customs were too much for him and he eventually left Britain.

    Although Yuri never truly lets go of his arrogance and narcissism, he is fiercely loyal, protective and caring and will always help his friends without asking many questions. His character is in contrast to Arifay, Vincent and Lucretia who were never evil during their human life and also the circumstances in which they became vampires are completely different – Yuri is the only one who wanted to become immortal and therefore the only one who had weighed the pros and cons of eternal life.

    I like creating complex characters and it means that all four protagonists have flaws, bad habits and can get on your nerves from time to time. They are neither good nor bad, living in the shadows and having all the time in the world to decide what they want to do next.

  • Books That Inspired Journals of the Undead

    Books That Inspired Journals of the Undead

    I’ve been an avid reader for most of my life and the amount of books I’ve read far exceeds the amount of stuff I’ve put on paper myself. When I do write, as it often happens, inspiration comes from an unexpected source.

    I’ve mentioned before that I was studying at uni when I wrote Journals of the Undead and, as part of a research, needed to borrow The Capital by Karl Marx from the library. I had read some of the works by Charles Dickens (Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol) before so I knew that London in the 1800s was a tough place for the poor but what I read in The Capital was truly shocking. When I started to work on Tiredness, the first story, I incorporated some of that into the story so that we wouldn’t forget how bad things used to be and avoid history from repeating itself. Sadly, there is still plenty of workplace exploitation and poor living conditions in the 21st century.

    Fast forward to the 9th chapter, Revelry, which was inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray with its decadence and the main character’s questionable morals. I’ve always loved Oscar Wilde’s witty language and cracking one liners and I remembered some of them whilst coming up with my own ones. Revelry was written in late 2009, around the same time when the film Dorian Gray came out so it was influenced by that as well, in addition to Wilde’s original story.

    Dracula by Bram Stoker. This book left such a big impression on me that it was written into the novel. In the 5th chapter, Encounter, three of the characters are discussing the book, when they first read it and how it affected them.

    Poetry… Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats are among my favourite poets. All three are mentioned throughout the stories and a supporting character is named after one of them.

    Another author I want to mention in this post is Jorge Luis Borges. None of his works directly influenced Journals of the Undead but I love how timeless his stories are and was intrigued when I learned that, for Borges, his stories were never really finished, they remained live: he would rewrite or edit them throughout his life meaning that different editions of the same book could be rather different.

  • Behind the Scenes: Vincent

    Today is Vincent’s birthday so in this post I want to talk about my favourite character. It is mentioned in the novel that Vincent is certain of his year of birth, 1802, but does not know his birthday and chose the date himself. As the youngest son of a large and poor working class family in London, his parents wouldn’t have paid much attention to when their children arrived in this world. In those days, they would be more concerned about whether their offspring would make it past the age of 5. Back then five-year-olds were deemed to be old enough to work and supplement the family income.

    Vincent was the first character I created. For a while my favourite character was Lucretia and that heavily influenced the plot but now, when I read my own stories, it is Vincent that I empathise with the most. He’s the only one who never really came to terms with turning into a vampire, there’s something beautiful, sad and tragic about him. He’s one of those characters you want to hug and say that this too shall pass and everything’s going to be fine even though you know it’s not true.

    I was at uni when I wrote his story, Tiredness, and had to do research for a study course, I can’t remember which one now. What I do remember is that it involved reading some chapters of The Capital by Karl Marx. I was so horrified to learn about the terrible living and working conditions of the workers in industrial England that I incorporated some of it in Tiredness.

  • Vampires & Mirrors

    Vampires & Mirrors

    As I mentioned in my previous post, I knew next to nothing about vampires when I got the inspiration for my first story. A friend who reads nothing but sci-fi and fantasy enlightened me and I got a rough idea of what my vampires were going to be like. There were aspects of vampire life that I could figure out later and then there were things I needed to decide about before I put pen to paper. The most pressing question was: should my characters be able to see their reflection?

    I decided they should. What’s the point of being forever young and immortal if you cannot see your own face ever again? Also, I was being practical. Tiredness, the first story, starts in 1820 when there weren’t that many mirrors and shop windows about so successfully avoiding them all would have been possible. However, some of the later stories are set in the 20th and 21st century and reflective surfaces are now pretty much everywhere. A creature without a reflection would struggle to hide their secret.

    I’ve always been interested to know why there was an assumption that vampires can’t see their own reflection. Some years later I was reading stuff online about the topic and saw an engineer’s comment, he explained that mirrors used to be coated with silver, which is a holy metal, whereas these days they’re made using aluminium. And that made perfect sense. Holy metal, unholy creatures: creatures can’t see their reflection.  Aluminium has no such properties therefore vampires should be able to see themselves.

    Have you seen Being Human? I didn’t realise that Mitchell had no reflection until he got into trouble because of it. He also could not be captured on film or photographed – which also caused problems. It worked well for the plot but it wouldn’t work well in everyday life!

  • How It All Started

    How It All Started

    Back in 2008 I spotted a Radio Naba (non-commercial radio station in my native Latvia) ad at my uni. They had launched a new show dedicated to fairy tales and fantasy stories, and listeners could send them their own stories. I liked the idea of my story being recorded and aired. There was only one problem… I didn’t have anything readily available.

    After a few days of brainstorming, I saw a vision: a lonely silhouette in the woods. Who was he? Why was everything black and white? Why was he so sad? I tried to figure it out and then, the whole story just came to me. I wrote non-stop for 12 hours. There was no draft. It was Tiredness, Vincent’s story.

    I sent the story to Radio Naba and got a reply. They liked it, however, their schedule was full for spring shows so they would air my story in the autumn. Unfortunately, the year was 2008. Already in the summer there were signs that a recession was coming. I remained optimistic and chose to ignore them. Then reality hit me. A lot of budget cuts happened that year and the fairy tale show was among the casualties.

    Left with a story but no audience, I decided to publish it on draugiem.lv (Latvian version of MySpace/Facebook with some elements of WattPad). I received lots of positive feedback and readers kept asking me if there were more stories coming. No, I said. It was a one off thing. Well, that’s what I thought. A few months later another story came to me. And another… I ended up with enough stories for a book. I did share a few of them online and saved the rest for my novel.

    It’s funny to remember it now but before I wrote Tiredness, I had never been particularly interested in vampires. I had seen Interview with the Vampire and From Dusk Till Dawn and that was about it. And because I didn’t know much about these mythical immortal creatures, I had to call a good friend of mine who is an avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi and ask her a ton of questions. From what she told me I developed my own ideas and then  incorporated them into my story.

    Journals of the Undead