Category Archives: vampires

September 13, 2010   DG&B   Jim, opinion, romance, trends, vampires  
10

Incoming Amish

by Jim

This blog post from Entertainment Weekly is just the latest in a series of articles about Amish romance novels that are breaking out all over the place.
I can see why the chaste world of the Amish could be a fascinating place to set a romance novel. All that restrained passion. All those longing looks. And sure enough, there are enough “bonnet books” creeping into bestseller status to indicate the beginning of a trend. But could it actually happen?

Call me crazy, but I can’t see this becoming a full-blown trend. And EW’s comparison to vampire books is off base. Part of what made that so sustainable is that the genre naturally allows for people to bend mythology and create entirely different sorts of worlds. But with the Amish…I mean, there are only so many ways to not use electricity.

My prediction: one as yet unpublished bestseller followed by a slew of copycats flooding the marketplace and never becoming as successful again.

But what about if the Amish WERE vampires….

July 01, 2010   DG&B   fun, Michael, vampires  
6

Vampires in Washington?

by Michael

There are those who contend that there are many blood-sucking creatures within the Beltway, but I don’t think they’re referring to vampires. But you know who was referring to vampires, and to Twilight in particular? Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, that’s who. In this very contentious clip, you’ll see that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan refuses to answer one of the most important questions of our time. Will it affect her appointment? Do the people have the right to know her stance on the issue? How will she rule in any vampire-related cases? Looks like we won’t know until after she’s confirmed.

(I have to make fun of this, because the whole exchange embarrassed me, and seemed to embarrass Ms. Kagan, as well. What a world we live in!)

June 24, 2010   DG&B   advice, comics, fun, Michael, vampires, writing  
11

Meta-vampires

by Michael

I’m not sure what it is with all the great publishing-related comics lately, but there have been some really great ones. Today, Dinosaur Comics had me cracking up.

If you work in publishing, or even just follow it, you’ve got to laugh at vampires. I mean, they’re EVERYWHERE. You can’t get away from them. This comic does a brilliant job of skewering that, but also teaches a great writing lesson at the same time.

There’s an issue I’ve been seeing more and more often: the novel that reads like an outline. I’m not sure it’s an epidemic, but it seems to be a growing problem, at least in the submissions I’m seeing. The novels, instead of being active, engrossing and exciting, are instead passive, overly descriptive and not engaging. It comes back a bit to the old saw, “show, don’t tell,” but it bears repeating. Make sure the action of your novel happens on the page, not in the protagonist’s memories. If it’s important enough for the reader to know, let us experience it.

So when you’re editing your work, think back to this comic. Are you writing an engaging narrative, or are you just describing the experience of reading it?

June 09, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, fun, Miriam, opinion, our clients, trends, vampires  
10

From Vlad to RPatts

by Miriam

Around these parts, everyone knows that my love of vampires long precedes the Twilight phenomenon. Robert Pattinson was probably still in diapers when I was falling in love with Anne Rice’s Lestat and I remember then-starting-out agents at DGLM rolling their eyes at me when I suggested that they fill their lists with vampire books. One who took me seriously was Jim McCarthy and he’s got the delightful and talented Richelle Mead and her Vampire Academy series, among others, to show for it.

Thing is, it made sense for people to be skeptical. Before Stephenie Meyer re-energized the vampire tale with her sparkly bloodsuckers, this was a tired literary standby. As Meg Cabot reminds us vampires have been around longer even than Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, and, throughout the ages, they have preyed on our imaginations precisely because they traffic in the two most powerful human preoccupations: sex and death.

I’ve been hearing a lot about The Passage, Justin Cronin’s contribution to vampire lit (the description of which makes me think of a cross between 28 Days Later and The Road), including Stephen King’s over-the-top praise of the novel. It’s expected to be one of the summer’s blockbusters. We publishing people are forever trying to predict trends (a fool’s game in the best of times), and we at DGLM often ask ourselves whether the vampire mania is subsiding or getting ready for yet another resurgence. Is it too late to be signing up yet another vampire novel? Or am I right in thinking that this genre will, ahem, never die?
What do you all think?