Journals of the Undead

Tag: writing

  • My Creative Challenges of 2023: Not Writing Enough and What Can Be Done About It

    My Creative Challenges of 2023: Not Writing Enough and What Can Be Done About It

    It’s only a few weeks and 2024 will be over. By comparison to 2023, it feels like I’ve done very little. Last year I was busy with editing and getting the Latvian version of my novel, “Šķautnes”, published and then doing the promo work (in addition to my day job and everything else, of course). This year I did some creative writing but nowhere near as much as I intended. It made me remember the old times some 15 years ago when nothing could prevent me from writing: if an inspiration struck during a lecture I’d simply stop taking notes and start writing my latest story instead. A busy day at work? I’d still write in the evening. My ability to focus and write for hours non-stop was incredible, a sharp contrast with the present day when a million thoughts are rushing through my mind every day and I get distracted easily.

    My plans for publishing a revised English version of my vampire stories, Journals of the Undead, had to be shelved. Hopefully the updated version, this time with illustrations, will see daylight in Autumn 2025. We’ll see…

    This year I made some progress with the English translation of Parallel World, my other vampire stories. It’s an old project of mine that I can’t seem to finish (ongoing since late 2019 so it’s been a while!). I think it’s taken me so long because the stories are quite old now. They were written in 2010 and published online on several Latvian sites. It was only some years later that I thought of an English translation for Wattpad but it wasn’t until 2021 when I actually sat down and translated 20 out of the 35 chapters. I had set myself a target of one story per week to motivate myself. The thing is, even though it was my creation and I do love my characters and the story lines, it was an old text for me and therefore I found working with it again boring. I like to create, to turn the page and do something new. That’s what excites me. Returning to something I wrote years ago doesn’t. Therefore, it was inevitable that at some point I lost interest. At the same time, I don’t like to abandon projects and I had readers who enquired when new chapters would be available. During an extended holiday earlier this year, I talked myself into going back to Parallel World and that resulted in a few new English chapters. Now I only have 5 left. Would be great to get them all done by New Year’s Eve but the realist (or pessimist) in me thinks that’s not gonna happen. I’ll be lucky to translate two chapters max before it’s time to sing the Auld Lang Syne again.

    My plans to launch a YouTube account for book reviews with a twist remain just plans. The same goes for comedy sketches for Instagram of which many have been written but none have been recorded.

    I’ve tried to understand what led to this… I don’t even know what to call it. Tiredness? Procrastination? Laziness? Apathy? Or is it just an inability to focus for long enough? I’d like to blame life getting in the way but it’s not as simple. When I’m passionate enough about something, everything gets moved out of the way so I can pursue that passion. The trouble is, I can’t quite reach that state of mind these days.

  • What’s Next?

    What’s Next?

    This has been one of the most frequently asked questions recently. Yes, I am working on my next novel. I don’t like to talk much about ongoing projects but there are a few things I can share…

    The new novel will be a spin-off of Journals of the Undead and will focus on Beatrice. As I’ve mentioned before, she was supposed to be the female lead in my debut novel, however, life (and Lucretia) had other plans. I always felt bad about that so now I shall use the opportunity to rectify things.

    Unlike JotU, the spin-off will be set entirely in the 19th century, apart from the occasional flashback. Readers of my debut novel said that they loved the stories but thought that covering four centuries in 12 short stories was too much and I agree with them.

    The novel will show Beatrice’s life as a vampire at a particular point of her life, reveal how she became a vampire and tell what her human life was like. It will feature a few vampires from JotU, as well as introduce some new characters.

    I love mixing real life with fiction, so expect historical facts woven into the story. Some of the plot is inspired by real events.

    When will the novel be available to buy? Best case scenario, Autumn 2025 for the Latvian version and Autumn/Winter 2026 for the English edition. This time I want to write in both languages simultaneously as opposed to translating the Latvian manuscript like I did with Journals of the Undead.

  • Vampires & Religion

    Vampires & Religion

    I recently finished reading The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice. Whilst I really enjoyed 2/3 of the book which focused on Armand’s different lives through the centuries, I started losing interest when his story returned to the 1990s. I simply couldn’t understand his obsession with Christian relics and Christianity in general. To me, vampires and religion do not mix. My own vampires turn their back to any religion after their transformation. They do believe in a higher power but they understand that their existence goes against the eternal cycle of life and death: everything that is born passes away some time later. They’ve cheated death and therefore there is no God available to them, they’re completely on their own.

    To each their own, obviously. Vampire literature would be boring if all writers had the same beliefs and there would be a strict canon.

    And yet I struggled. The thing is, I was born in an atheist country where religion was banned and grew up in a secular state. We did have some Bible lessons at school but I quickly realised Christianity was not for me. Therefore, to this day, I know very little about it. When Armand was in ruptures about Veronica’s Veil I had to Google it because I had no idea what it is and why it’s significant.

    So, when Pandora (who was born in Ancient Rome) didn’t share his excitement and Armand asked why, I shouted out loud when she said that Christ was never her Lord. Same thing, Pandora, same thing!

    But, as I wrote earlier, everyone’s different. And I did enjoy most of the book…

  • Music & Editing

    Music & Editing

    I usually listen to music whilst editing as it helps me: a) get in the mood; b) stay focused. When I find a song I really like I can listen to it for hours on repeat – I’m not exaggerating! One of such songs is Burn by The Cure. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve listened to it, one of my all time favourites! The Crow (1994), one of my favourite movies by the way, had a great soundtrack but I like Burn the most.

    And then there is the opposite… I realised early on that Type O Negative and editing don’t go together. I love the band but find Peter Steele’s voice to be too distracting. Instead of doing what I was supposed to be doing I ended up watching the band’s music videos instead.

    The trouble with editing is that I need to be super focused and, because I have a day job and other commitments, the time I can set aside for this task is limited and needs to be used as efficiently as possible. Writing is different: I let my mind wander and I write down everything without thinking about it much plus writing can be done anytime as I nearly always carry pen and paper with me and, if I don’t, then I record a voice message on my phone.

    Editing is when I assemble, filter and arrange text so my mind needs to be completely present. Also, as much as I like to burn the midnight oil, I cannot edit at night. Write yes, edit no – I’ve tried it and lost hours the next day dealing with typos and silly mistakes from the previous night’s editing session. So no editing past 9 pm for me.