Bloodleggers

Where To Find Us

2011-06-15T05:57:00.000-06:00

Until further notice, we are blogging over at

W. J. Howard's blog at http://wjhoward.com

Bloodleggers #3 on Blood Reads

2010-08-31T12:00:00.000-06:00

I owe everyone an apology for causing the delay of the next part of Bloodleggers. A couple hours after I woke up on my birthday back on the 17th of the month I realized I've been dealing with writer's block for quite some time. I wrote about it in my blog in Okay, I'm Blocked...Now What? back on the 19th if you'd like to know more.

Anyways, R.J. had a part ready for editing while I was throwing my 10th draft into the trash can a few days before the part three release date on the 25th. Hooray for responsible writers! So we got to work last week on editing his part. It was supposed to post yesterday, but I set the date to 2011 instead of the current year. OOPS!

My family decided to spend another day in the mountains yesterday, so I didn't realize until this morning I'd made a boo-boo. Luckily, I took another look at the post because I'd also left in a three paragraph discussion between R.J. and I that copied in from the comments on the manuscript.

Okay...all is well now. To read it, just click here. Or use the link in the left column. ENJOY!!

A New Chapter – A New Laptop

2010-08-10T22:04:00.001-06:00

For those of you who have been following along, you know that back when I was working on first chapter (on the very first version of it), I had my laptop of 11 years… die.

It was a sad day. Let’s be serious though, it was an old IBM Thinkpad T21, an underpowered, old machine. It was good enough for Word, though, and that was, at the time, all I needed.

But then, last Friday, my wife spoke the magic words, “Go get yourself a new laptop.”

So now, I have a brand new (not really, it’s a refurb) Samsung R530 notebook. It’s weird to have a screen this big, and this sharp, and be able to run Windows 7 on it, without it dragging like a snail.

The nice part is, over the weekend, I was able to get in time writing while we were on a little vacation in the woods. Now, I’m typing this using Windows Live “Writer” which lets me write Blog posts from my laptop with full editing, and importing of images, and other editing features I’d normally have to do by hand.

Ah, the miracles of modern technology.

On the Bloodleggers front, you may be wondering what I wrote over the weekend… Well, I’ve had an idea for a while for a chapter late in the book, so, over the weekend, I thought, what the heck, and started that chapter. So, without giving too much away, it’s a scene between Knox and someone very important among the bloodlegging hierarchy.

So, new laptop, new chapter, and vice versa. It’s been a fun weekend. Now if I could just get work down to less than 60 hours a week…

R.J.

While I Attempt To Pick Myself Back Up

2010-08-03T15:45:00.000-06:00

Okay, who said this? I'm feeling too lazy to look it up.

"Success is measured not in how many times you fall down, but by how many times you get back up."

It's in Literary Agent, Rachelle Gardner's blog post Good to Great today. I really needed to read about her recent trip to the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Used to live not to far from there. Anyways, loved that Rachelle says,

"What impresses me the most is this: These athletes are talented and gifted beyond the ordinary. They’re already elite before they get to the training center. They’ve won hundreds of competitions in their sport. They know they’re “good.” So what do they do? Do they sit back and expect coaches to come knocking and invite them to join the Olympic team?

"No, they do the opposite. They give up everything and work harder than ever to take themselves from good to great. They spend at least 40 hours a week focused on improving their game. And they were already one of the best."

I'm having a bit of a "I want to quit" crisis this week. I don't really want to quit writing. This is the first time I've really been faced with this overwhelming feeling that quitting is the best option. Maybe go work at Target or Wal Mart instead. Bow out and do something easy and brainless. Really crappy feeling by the way. I'm guessing this is just another one of those hurdles we writers have to get over.

I have to argue with Rachelle though. Star athletes spend their entire life with the support of their families and coaches. Fiction writer is one of those occupations like starving artist that's considered a hobby. Mom and Dad tell you you're nuts from the get go if you tell 'em you want to write novels. "Make sure you have something to fall back on." And who can afford a coach?!? Personally, I'd love it if the drill sergeant therapist from on the Geico commercial would beat down my door right now.

It's a good thing we now have the Internet, where we can support each other. Lots of great writers' groups out there, like Vamplit Writers. We're all very supportive of other writers for the most part. Great blogs like Rachelle Gardner's to supply the motivational posts. Still...no one to hold me back from filling out an online application to Target. Sign!

A Book That Makes Us Laugh

2010-07-30T08:00:00.061-06:00

This week R. J. and I are sharing a book that makes us laugh. Over the past year I've found that writing comedy is not an easy task, so I respect any author who can do it well.

Again, for me (W. J.), there are a few, but this week I'm highlighting only one. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore is the most recent book I've read that made me laugh my ass off. In fact, I read this book and then got the audio CDs and listened to it a month later. There are certain authors that I prefer to listen to their books, and Christopher Moore's one of 'em.

Poor Charlie Asher is a Beta Male who loses his wife after she gives birth to their daughter. He witnesses a man collecting his wife's soul vessel and soon finds he's become a soul vessel collector himself, whether he likes it or not. The most hilarious parts of this book are not related to Charlie collecting soul vessels though. His interaction with the supporting characters like his relationship with his young daughter are some of the most hilarious parts of the book.

In my life, I've (R. J.) found very few books that make me laugh out loud, and it seems that the ones that do all have come from British authors. Maybe it was the fault of my parents making me listen to too much NPR as a child, but I find the dry, sarcastic humor (or should I say "humour") of the Brits as the height of written comedy. So, for my book that makes me laugh, I'd have to choose Douglas Adams' masterpiece, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as my favorite. The way that he weaves absolutely insane situations into the life of poor straight-man Arthur Dent always brings a smile to my face. Not to mention, the analogies he uses to set up scenes are also outstanding. I will never forget the phrase, "The great yellow ships hung in the air in exactly the way bricks don't."

Bloodleggers #2 on Blood Reads

2010-07-28T08:38:00.000-06:00

“The humans are ignorant and undisciplined. Transformation to our kind without the proper trials and necessary years of indentured servitude is an error in judgment.”

–Elder Ysabell of Clan de Bohun, Scotland,
The Congress of Glenluce, 1183 A.D.

November 5th, 2008, Mile High Mortuary, 6th Avenue, Denver Colorado

Regina Todd paced the shiny concrete floor of the crematorium holding a cell phone against her ear with one hand and nervously flicking the black polish off her thumbnail with the other. “C’mon, Piers,” she grumbled, “answer.” READ MORE...

Hell Week

2010-07-25T18:17:00.000-06:00

It's hell week again, or should I say hell half week. Wednesday is the next release of Bloodleggers and I'm pulling my hair out, still. So I've opened up a bottle of wine and toasted to the hair I have left. A new wine I haven't tasted, Raia 2007 Shiraz. Not bad.

My greatest challenge has been changing from a terse 1st person present tense, as The Courier is written, to 3rd person. If you don't read my personal blog, you won't know that I've got a goal to finish releasing The Courier on Twitter by July 31st, which I will do. Only problem is it takes my brain about an hour to switch completely between the tenses. So when I go back to edit I'm constantly catching a bizarre mix of tenses.

So what was my other challenge? Giggle giggle. A few sips of wine down and I'm already feeling loopy. I'm a serious lightweight.

Oh yeah! It really sucks to try to match another author's voice. Grrrrr... My thought is it will be easy to tell what I've written vs. what R.J.'s written for awhile. Then the parts we write together once Regina and Knox meet will also stand out. I just have to get over it.

More sips of wine. From this point on I take no responsibility for improper grammar or incoherence. Oh, also watching the last hour of Lord of the Rings in TNT (Sam's saving Frodo from the orcs), so I've got that distraction going too.

Anyways, I might sound like I'm complaining, but taking on the writing of a novel with another writer has been one of the smartest decisions I've ever made. I really felt like I'd gotten into a rut with The Courier. This has forced me to intricately analyze both our writing styles, and I feel I'm becoming a better writer as a result of it.

So come Wednesday, I'm hoping you love and hate Miss Regina Todd. She's a little difficult. And I'm really hoping you'll like Magnus MacKay, her uncle, who you'll also meet. He's becoming a main character as we continue our planning of Bloodleggers.

A Book We Have To Read More Than Once

2010-07-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

This week R.J. and I are sharing a book we have to read more than once.

I can't decide on one though. Most of the books I've read more than once are about writing. When it comes to fiction, the Dune series qualifies. I've read Dune twice and am making my way through the series. The more I read, the more I love it and could read it over and over again. Besides that, I'd really like to read the Harry Potter series through for the second time. Or maybe listen to it on CD. Why these series? I get so wrapped up in the intricate plot of the Dune series, and with Harry Potter, I fell in love with the characters. This is kinda funny, considering I'm a horror writer and my selections are not in the horror genre. For that genre I'd have to answer with The Books of Blood by Clive Barker.

For R.J., "reading books twice is nothing new. I always feel it's like spending time with an old friend I haven't seen in a while. Anyone who knows me knows I never give away a book, and I have about 60 feet of bookcases in my basement to prove it.

"For sheer re-readability, nothing compares to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I've re-read "Eye of the World" at least ten times over the last 21 years, and amazingly I keep finding more things that he put in to foreshadow future events that didn't have a payoff until books that didn't come out until 15 or more years later. In fact the first book still has a scene that has all of WoT fans out there chomping at the bit for answers.

"A book like that is a gift that keeps on giving. I know that Harry Potter contains a few references that can be carried forward from the first book, but Jordan intertwined his foreshadowing with an amazingly complex world (over 3500 named characters) that means every read through lets you find new and surprising details you had missed the first, second, and even tenth time you've read it."

Now it's your turn. What book(s) do you have to read more than once?

A Book That Changed Our Lives

2010-07-16T15:00:00.000-06:00

On Fridays, for the next few weeks, R.J and I will answer a short question about books. This week's question is about a book that changed our lives.

R.J. chose Lord of the Rings, primarily because it influenced his decision to write fantasy. It's a hard decision because neither of us can say that any one book changed our lives. Reading horror taught me I wanted to write in that genre, especially after reading Pet Cemetery. Lonesome Dove taught me that I could actually cry hysterically while reading. Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austin taught me to love classic literature. But one book that changed our lives? How could one book change our lives when each book provides a little something that affects us in both positive and negative ways. And so this quote somehow seems appropriate for today's question.

"It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the “parlour families” today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it’s not books at all you’re looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."
-Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

2010-07-13T09:03:00.000-06:00

R.J. found this film and it looked interesting, so I put it in the Netflix queue. Actually watched it a couple weeks ago and am now getting to finish up a quick review.

First of all, her's what it's about per Amazon:

A notorious bank robber kills his wife and flees the police, only to be captured by a mysterious group of figures in an abandoned town. His beautiful daughter, Lila Lee (played by the late Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), receives a letter stating that Lila’s father is near death and that he needs to see her. Sneaking away at night from her minister guardian (EATING RAOUL co-writer Richard Blackburn, who also writes and directs), Lila embarks on a terrifying journey to find her father that leads her to a mansion run by Lemora, a seemingly loving woman who cares for a group of gypsy children and a witch-like servant. Once the terrifying secret of Lemora is revealed, Lila must uncover what happened to her father and fight for dear life as she tries to escape the clutches of the undead!

I think we were initially interested in this film because of Lila's gangster father, not to mention it was banned by the Catholic Film Board for over twenty years. Afterall, as soon as any media is banned it only makes the public more interested.

Anyways, on to my thoughts about the film...I enjoyed it, quite a bit. Probably helps that the movie was made in the 1970s and that's my all time favorite era for vampire movies. What I enjoyed most about the movie was it's 'weird' ambiguity. Lemora representing Dracula with lesbian undertones also made for an interesting coming of age story, possibly influenced by Alice in Wonderland or Little Red Riding. Visually there was a steady pace of the strange and creepy that I found captivating. And I liked that it left you wondering what happens in the end. Only thing I'd complain about is that the minor characters got a little too bizarre at times. All-in-all, his movie is unique and definitely worth viewing.

Since I really should be writing Bloodleggers and editing The Courier, I suggest you read more over at Film Threat about this movie. They've got a pretty good summary and review of it.

My Fangtastic Rating: 4 out of 5

Bloodleggers #1 on Blood Reads

2010-06-30T11:01:00.000-06:00

The first part of Bloodleggers has been published on Blood Reads. READ IT...

WIN A FREE EBOOK

In honor of our first release, we're holding a drawing to win a free eBook published by eBookUndead. Leave a comment on Blood Reads before the release of part 2 on July 28th and you're entered to win. Hope you'll drop by Blood Reads to read.

Colorado Bloodlegger Sighting

2010-06-29T18:19:00.000-06:00

We're pretty sure the Colorado vampires are coming out to read the first part of Bloodleggers tomorrow. Here's the proof: Western Slope woman blames vampire for car crash

Zero Day

2010-06-29T10:29:00.001-06:00

Spent the last few days editing, and working with Wendy on the prologue which posts...

Tomorrow!

Yes, that's right. Today is zero day. If you look to the left (at least before tomorrow morning), you'll see the counter has inexorably worked it's way down to the point where the day counter has expired. Time has run out. Tomorrow morning, 6AM (GMT), the first pages of Bloodleggers will appear on the web.

No, I'm not hyperventilating. Well, maybe just a little.

Crunch Time

2010-06-21T23:16:00.001-06:00

Okay, no one who knows me thinks I'm a perfectionist, not even close. Look at the picture for crying out loud.

But here we are rolling up on our first deadline (Eight days away!) and I've been working with Wendy to try to put the finishing touches on the prologue.

So what does that mean? Well, for me, it means I've now pretty much rewritten it top to bottom three times. It's the same scene in all three versions, and maybe, in July, we might even post the other two versions for you to see the progression. Maybe not, writing might be like sausage, where you never want to see it being made.

If I'm not a perfectionist, then why have I rewritten the scene three times? Because, if there's one thing I do want to be, it's a writer who gives you, gentle reader, what it is that you want, and that's a bit difficult for me, as writing Horror is definitely not something that comes naturally to me, which is why I wanted to do it in the first place.

The first time I wrote the scene, I was coming straight out of my background in writing, namely fantasy. I set the scene, I lovingly crafted the atmosphere, I gave our character, well, character. I set up the climax of the scene slowly, building item on item and I carried it to a cinematic closure.

If I had been writing Fantasy, it would have been great. Wendy took one look at it and said, "Well, it's nice, but it's not horror." Uh oh, strike one.

I went in search of inspiration. I read horror writers blogs and web sites, read some discussions on what makes horror, and realized I'd broken about 9 of the cardinal rules. I showed the monster mid-way, I didn't keep any sense of suspense, I didn't hide things from you, the reader. There was no shock or surprise.

Nuts. Wendy was right, it wasn't horror.

So, I went back and did it again. This time I hid the monster in the shadows, I set a tone, I built up a story that led to a dramatic reveal. In short, I went to my other genre, Mystery. Wendy spent some time with this one, marked it up and gave me comments. First comment, "why are we starting with boring set up? The first three pages is a guy smoking in an alley." Okay, she was nicer than that, but...

Strike two. On to number three.

Hopefully, this time, I have it right. There's a line out there about how to write, "Come in Late." It means, skip all the boring stuff, and come in after the action's already started. So that's what I did. Literally. It's back in Wendy's court for a collaborative "look-see." Hopefully, this time I'm not playing the role of Casey at the bat.

After three iterations, I think that all that remains is a little bit of polishing. I hope so, I'm not sure how many more times I can rewrite it. Especially with a deadline looming....

Part 1: Interview with Regina Todd

2010-06-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

Last week, after R.J. posted Searching for Billy Knox, introducing one of our main characters, I promised to do the same for Regina Todd, and here it is. Regina's interview is also included in a character interview blogfest on Echoes of a Wayward Mind. I found this fest yesterday thanks to Roland D. Yeomans. So please follow the links after you read here to support other authors interviewing their characters.

Regina's interview is written from the perspective of a stranger who meets her three days prior to the point the serial will begin on Blood Reads, June 30th. This is a different format than I originally intended to introduce Regina, and I'm a little behind on the conversion to story format. So I'm releasing in two parts. Hope you enjoy and please come back tomorrow for part 2.

I met Regina Todd during my first trip into the Breakfast King. From a distance, I noticed her hunched over the counter, nervously spinning an empty juice glass. As I approached, her short tussled black hair and soiled orange and cream-colored uniform that matched the restaurant décor told me she must have just ended a long graveyard shift.

The only empty spot was beside Regina, so I dropped my Denver Post and slipped into the seat while staring at a snake tattoo on the girl neck. Not until a forty-something waitress behind the counter, around six feet tall, with big hair and giant sized bosoms caught me off guard did I break the stare. She carried a pot of coffee, so naturally I flipped over my cup. She left no room for cream, and I sighed while she handed me a sticky menu, encrusted with some customer’s leftover breakfast.

While I looked over their selection of omelets, Regina pushed the glass towards the flashy waitress and asked for more OJ.

“You sure you should?” asked the waitress.

Regina kept her head down, lifted the glass and slammed it back down. Everyone at the counter jumped in unison. “Half a glass,” she growled.

Less than a minute later, the waitress returned with Regina's orange juice and slid it in front of her. “If Pete finds out.”

“Fuck Pete,” she snapped back, this time glaring at her co-worker. Then Regina pulled a flask from her apron pocket and filled the glass to the rim with a clear liquid I assumed was vodka.

“Rough night,” I asked.

She turned and looked at me with doleful blue and blood shot eyes, and heavy eyeliner and mascara smeared down her cheek. “My dad died last night,” she said, her lips pouting like she might cry.

I hate to admit I found her misery kinda sexy.

“Sorry,” I said and took a sip of my coffee. After that I reached for the Post.

“Don’t be. He's a worthless bastard. Correction. Was a worthless bastard.” Regina leaned over and stuck her tongue in the screwdriver, then sipped from the overfilled glass until it was safe to pick up without spilling. “Only person who cares he’s dead is his bookie.”

“Sorry to hear that too.”

For a second or two she frowned, probably unsure if I was sorry about her old man being dead or his bookie being out his due. Then she lifted her glass in a toast and I had to lean away from her hand to avoid a collision. “Here’s to a quick trip to Hell,” she slurred.

The waitress returned, filed my coffee and took my order. Then she looked down at Regina. “Call you a cab?”

“And go home to a dead rotting corpse on my couch?” She lifted her glass, nearly empty. “I need a few more of these first.”

“I told you. Pete’s taking care of it. Go home.”

“No.”

The waitress shook her head, then looked at the guy sitting at the far end of the counter. “Gus, can you take her home.”

“Ten minutes,” he replied in a foreign, probably Greek, accent.

Everyone at the counter sat in a painful silence for several minutes, sipping coffee, until I finally built up the nerve to ask, “Your Mom taking it hard?”

“My mom?” She huffed then chugged down the rest of her drink. “Killed herself when I was four thanks to the bastard.”

The guy on the other side of Regina shook his head, and at that point I thought about moving to a booth. But she kept talking and I didn’t want to be rude.

“Took colliding with three trees to do herself in from what my brother says. Last accident crushed her skull and killed my baby brother.”

The thought of it turned my stomach until she laughed out loud. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Sorry, I just had a thought that my mom killed herself to get away from Dad and now he’s about to join her in Hell.” She lifted her glass for yet another toast. “Here’s to the day I join them.” She took in a drink of air before her expression turned sour.

“Regina, don’t you dare vomit on my counter again,” said the tall waitress.

“Fuck you,” she said as she hopped down from her seat. “Fuck you all.” Then her legs wobbled and she fell into my arms.

There are Vampires in my Head

2010-06-11T02:54:00.000-06:00

Two posts from me in two days... the Pillars of Heaven must be trembling.

Today I awoke to find a new resident in my head, a character that I knew would have to arrive sooner or later, but I was surprised to find that he took up residence this morning.

He's a vampire, born almost 2000 years ago in Syria. And he's a lot of work, because just finding out what he knows is going to take a lot of time. And that's the hardest part of all of this for me. Wendy and I will be writing the words and actions and thoughts, at least part of the time, of people (and I use the term loosely) who have done a whole lot more living than we have.

I can't even imagine what it's like to be a hundred years old, much less a millennium or two. We think of the Crusades as a distant memory, to him, they're something that happened -- to him. Imagine the changes that he's seen happen to mankind. To come from the dark ages into the Industrial Age and now to the Information Age would be like walking from a dark cave into the sunlight.

I can't wait to hear more from him...

R.J.

Searching for Billy Knox...

2010-06-10T01:31:00.000-06:00

Normally Wendy starts off the posts, but today, I'm jumping in with my own little piece of the writing universe.

As Wendy mentioned a few days ago, I'm currently suffering from Multiple Character Personality Disorder. So today, I thought I'd let you in on what happened when I went looking for William Knox.

Normally characters come to me before the story does. It's like they drop, fully formed, into my head, and then they slowly tell me the story that goes with them. But with Bloodleggers, the scene and the plot outlines and conflicts came first. So for the first time in my writing life, I was left searching for a voice and a character to tell the story to me.

Wendy had her character for Regina early on, and told me as much, so I needed a character for my own. We knew, early on, that we wanted an FBI agent, because the story of Prohibition has always been wrapped around the stories of the G-Man as well. We tossed back and forth the idea of shadow operatives and secret societies, but I wanted a character based in the real world, for whom the world of Bloodlegging would be as foreign as it is for any other man on the street.

Remember, this is our world, this is reality. We're not making this up, we're just revealing the true, sordid tale of the hidden world, right?

Wendy needed a name for our pitch, so I'm a bit ashamed to admit, I grabbed the phone book. I knew I wanted a strong last name, short, and powerful, but not a cliche name like "Steele" or "Slaughter" or "Blood". I wanted a good, real name with a strong sound. I turned to the "K" section thinking I'd hit on "Klaus" or "Karl" or a hard "K" sound. But fate opened the book to "Knox", and the moment I saw it, I knew it was right. Then I just needed a first name, and glancing down the page, I saw "William", which is a great name, because you can use so many permutations as well, "Bill", "Billy", or "Will". It stuck, and I told Wendy I was going with "William Knox".

So then I was stuck -- who is William Knox? So hold on -- because most of this is going to be happening to me as I type it -- we're going to find William Knox together.

It's been plaguing me for over a week now. We know he's an FBI agent, but that's just a job description, it's not a character trait.

But it does start the ball rolling. An FBI agent has to have certain characteristics, and that gives us some clues about William Knox. For example, at some level, he must be meticulous, as he needs to carefully record his observations -- that's part of being an FBI agent. If there's one thing that the Academy is going to drum into an agent, it's the rules of evidence gathering. So we can be sure that he'll be well versed in that area.

We also can be sure that he's going to have firearms training and at least some combat experience. It means it's also very likely that he'll be cool under pressure and capable in tight situations.

So we have our first glimpse -- a dim outline, if you will -- of Bill Knox.

That much was easy, but then the hard questions come, and that's where I've been working for the last few days to really light up our character, and put some solid lines around our dim outline.

Bill Knox has just been sent to Denver on a Missing Persons detail. In the world of the FBI, that's just about the bottom rung on the totem pole as far as investigations go. So we know that Bill just got put into the worst job in the agency. This means one of two things. Either he's a recruit, fresh out of the academy, full of vim and vigor, or he's an older agent who's recently really pissed off someone in authority at the FBI.

For a couple of reasons I won't go into here (spoilers, after all) I didn't want an agent who's happy and excited, but one who's being punished, through no fault of his own. And that means that Bill Knox is an older agent. But how old?

Well, we know that Regina is relatively young (early 20's), and since the youngest you can really get into the FBI is late 20's, and we know Bill's been an agent for quite a while, then that means that William Knox is older than his 30's and, that rules out any romantic relationships with Regina. Since we know that Knox and Regina are going to meet, this leaves a protective relationship with the much younger girl. Regina also has some "paternal issues", so I thought that, ideally, William could enter a father-daughter relationship with Regina. To really be a good father figure, he'd need to be quite a bit older than Regina, so the final age I settled on was 48.

Regina's own father is a shady character, involved in criminal activity. William Knox is obviously the opposite of this, being in law enforcement. Thus, Knox will bring a certain knowledge that Regina has lacked, a sort of "normal world" light filtering into her own dark existence.

This opens lots of dramatic tension possibilities, from a surrogate father relationship, all the way to guilt from so quickly, emotionally, replacing her own father. There's also a massive friction between the two, as Knox cannot condone the criminal activity in which she is involved.

But if Knox is 48, then what about the rest of his life? Once I got this far, I started having some of it come easier. Knox is an 18 year special agent in the FBI, meaning that he got into the academy when he was 29. Before that, he spent 8 years in the Military (the army) working in Signals Intelligence. Before his stint in the military, he worked on his parent's farm in the Midwest, while trying to decide what to do with his life. It's also the time of his life where he met his wife, Amy, who he married at the age of 21, in July of 1983. Seeking to escape his father's farm, but unable to afford college, he enlisted in the army, and was accepted to the COMINT program when he showed aptitude with signal interception and recognizing intelligence signaling.

His marriage, although strained by his posting to Germany for 2 years without his wife, flourished, and in 1988, his wife gave birth to their daughter, Miranda. However, a miscarriage in 1990 made his wife stop wanting more children, and their relationship struggled. He resigned from the military in 1990 with an honorable discharge, a college degree in electrical engineering, and a reference from an NSA agent that got his foot into the door at the FBI. With a background in intelligence gathering and encryption, he made it into the FBI academy in mid 1992, at the age of 29, and graduated as a special agent late in the year.

His work in intelligence gathering helped him to quickly advance, and in his second year, he was promoted to a field agent, and rebased from Virginia to Chicago. This moved his family to an area near his home, and put him back in contact with his family, which was good.

However, in 1996, his father contracted cancer, and he took a six month leave of absence to tend to his father, and, eventually to help arrange his funeral. Three days later, his mother put a gun in her mouth, and he stayed on leave to arrange her funeral as well as help to sell off the family farm.

He returned from his leave a somewhat darker man, witholding anger towards the world. Although his work didn't suffer, he began to be more physical in his arrests, and was reprimanded several times for excessive force.

In 1999, he came home to find his wife and daughter sobbing. His beloved Amy had breast cancer, and needed radical chemo and a double mastectomy to fight it. For the next 12 months, he took hardship leaves and spent late hours doing Coms intercept work from home, as his wife's health deteriorated. At the age of 38, on Christmas Day, he was left with a 12 year old daughter, and an empty bed.

He threw himself into his work, and did his best with his daughter, but they grew apart. When 9/11 happened, he didn't come home for six days, and his daughter never forgave him.

In 2005, at 17, his daughter took a GED test, passed, and dropped out of school, suing him for emancipation. He was required to help pay her expenses until she turned 18, and she went to college in California. They talk on holidays and birthdays, but rarely any other times.

In 2009, Bill Knox followed a money trail from a group of drug dealers, thinking to find terrorist connections, and instead, it led to election fraud run by the Democratic Machine in Chicago. Worse, it led to an FBI agent who was taking a pay off to look the other way as the Union thugs stuffed ballot boxes. With an airtight case, he turned it over to the state Attorney General, and secretly leaked a copy to the newspapers, forcing the Illinois AG to take action.

By April of 2010, the case was in court, and Bill Knox faced a fellow agent and testified to that agent's guilt. Officially, he was awarded a medal, behind the scenes, everyone at the Chicago office loathed him for turning against one of his own.

At the end of August, 2010, William Knox was walked into his superior's office, and told he was being permanently transferred to Denver to investigate a rash of missing persons. He had 30 days to sell his house and move. 21 days later, he was on the flight to Denver, on the night of Sunday, September 19th, 2010.

Knox is an honorable man. He knows what is right, and he sticks by it. He has dark moments, brought on by the loss of his parents, the loneliness of living without his wife, whom he genuinely loved, and the guilt over the loss of his daughter.

He is a lapsed Christian, and cynical about the world. He has worked hard to find the truth, but seen murderers let go by bleeding heart judges, and guilty men go free for lack of evidence. He's seen the dark side of men who sold out their own people for money, and the seedier world of Chicago politics where men's lives are bought and sold daily.

He comes to Denver a tired man, looking at those last two years before he can take retirement and find a quieter life somewhere. He is not quick to accept new things, and usually needs to be shown solid proof before believing things. He is intelligent, sharp, and a good observer of both evidence and people. He has a deep voice, not ridiculously so, but a good solid basso register. I thought it might be a bit gravelly, but then I thought, "A gravelly voiced cop, how cliche can you get?" So, no gravel.

He likes Italian food, being Italian on his Mother's side. (His grandmother and grandfather were Italian, but his grandfather died young.) He's also fond of a good steak -- and he's been known to eat junk food when needed.

He drinks coffee, black, no sugar, and probably too much. He doesn't drink often, but if he does, it's got to be good scotch, although he's not against a good Courvosier with dessert if he's eating out.

He's a farmboy, so broad-shouldered and strong, and he hasn't let himself go physically. He has a full head of dark hair graying at the temples, and large, but not bushy black eyebrows. His eyes are blue, but not extraordinarily so. He has a strong jaw, with no cleft, and thin lips beneath a typical Italian nose. If anything, think of the English singer/actor, Morrissey, but a little lower in the cheekbones, a little thinner in the chin...

He dresses in a suit and tie, he is an FBI agent after all, but likes to relax in jeans and a t-shirt (he's a farm-boy, after all, as well.)

So there's William Knox. Now he's got a voice and a look. And I'm finally, finally over my multiple character personality disorder. I hope you like him, because he's in my head now, and he's going to start talking soon... Actually, he already has.

R.J.

Featuring Blood Reads for Writer Wednesday

2010-06-09T07:17:00.000-06:00

This week for the Writer Wednesday Blog Hop we're featuring Blood Read, our home for Bloodleggers starting June 30th. This is a really great place to read free horror by up and coming writers. Most of the writers also mingle on Vamplit Writers, a group social community where the writers can learn to perfect their craft. Anyone can join, even readers, so drop by and check out the sites.

Also check out W.J. Howard's weekly
Writer Wednesday Blog Hop.
Are you highlighting writers and books in your blog for Writer Wednesday? Then add your blog to my new blog hop link group.

Will We Be Embarrassed?

2010-06-07T12:59:00.000-06:00

Just a few things to start the week...

Last week I entered our one sentence pitch in a contest over at Literary Agent, Rachelle Gardner's blog. We didn't win or even get an honorable mention, but there is still a chance we could get ours critiqued. So this morning we were joking on IM that any publicity is good publicity. Right? If we get ripped apart, we'll let you know.

R. J. and I were also talking about our characters. It's kinda fun, like when you first meet someone new, only better. I'm pretty set on Regina Todd's character as a vampire because I have to provide a clear picture of her personality within the first 5-10 pages to introduce the story. You'll have to wait until June 30th to see. But William Knox still suffers from Multiple Character Disorder. Is that a literary or writing term? For example, R.J. still has these questions on his mind and many more.

I'm debating a lot about his character. Is he young/old, idealistic or jaded, clear-minded or "not-sober", self-assured or in a crisis of identity? Ugh. I can find good reasons for all of them, but which way do I go?

He may be blogging more about his struggle, so stay tuned.

Our weekly forum question over at Vamplit Writers asks who our vampire alter ego might be. I'll just mention that I picked Violet from Ultraviolet and R. J. is Otto Criek from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. We are quite the odd pair.

Bootlegger spotting in a book over at Book Addict

HAVE A GREAT WEEK, EVERYONE!!

Ask the Authors: Why a Vampire Novel?

2010-06-04T02:00:00.000-06:00

W.J. here. Every Friday, R.J. Robyn and I will answer your questions in this Ask the Author segment. If you have a question for us, submit it via our question form.

This week we're answering the question, why write a vampire novel when the market is so saturated with them already?

First off, we're nuts.

For me, I had no intentions of ever writing a vampire novel until I answered a forum question on Vamplit Writers. One of our members asked what we all might enjoy in a vampire television series. My answer...something similar to the Underworld or Blade series. Then the idea of gangster vampires during a modern day prohibition on blood came to me. Doesn't it sound cool! Well, the idea kinda stuck with me like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth. So I told R.J. about it.

For R.J., "the idea seemed like a good concept. The time of prohibition brought out the worst in a lot of people, and showed the failure of trying to legislate morality. I thought it would be a fascinating study of the culture to look at how the same sort of authoritative pressure put onto a different group for whom freedom is an even more basic instinct, would result in a revealing of an even darker side of an already dark and bloody culture. Prohibiton only made things worse in human culture, but we already consider the culture of vampires as a pretty dark existence (survival through murder) so how bad can "worse" be?"

And so, Bloodleggers was born. I suppose it doesn't matter if the market is saturated with a certain subject or theme. Heck, look at the number of detective novels out there. We hope that our story will provide something different to vampire literature. You be the judge.

Also want to mention that our official announcement for Bloodleggers is up on Blood Reads today.

It's Writer Wednesday

2010-06-02T14:38:00.000-06:00

Drop by and follow us on Twitter @bloodlegger.
W.J. Howard also tweets on @by_wjhoward & @TheCourierNovel

Also check out W.J. Howard's weekly
Writer Wednesday Blog Hop.
Are you highlighting writers and books in your blog for Writer Wednesday? Then add your blog to my new blog hop link group.

In Honor of Memorial Day

2010-05-31T07:32:00.000-06:00

Remembering those who have fought so bravely
and lost their lives for our freedom.

TGIF!!!!

2010-05-28T13:49:00.000-06:00

I don't know about RJ, but I'm so glad it's Friday, I took an hour nap, ate lunch, and am now making turtle brownies I can't eat because they're not gluten free. Don't feel sorry for me though. I'm making gluten free cup cakes next. YUM!

Quick Update... Next Friday we're starting an 'Ask the Author' segment. You can submit questions through our form to me, R.J. or both of us. Click here to submit a question or go to the Contact page.

We are now actively tweeting on Twitter @bloodlegger. Drop by and follow us.

Have a great weekend!!

Welcome to the Bloodlegger Blog!

2010-05-27T18:36:00.000-06:00

We are just moving in, so pardon our mess.

Who are we? Two long time friends who have decided to embark on a joint effort to write a vampire novel. What is that you're saying? You're tired of vampire novels? Well we have actually found a theme that's not tired and overdone.

Don't believe us? Well you'll have to drop and read our story. Bloodlegger is a serial novel released once a month on Blood Reads, an online horror and paranormal magazine. The first installment will release on June 30th, 2010.

This blog is for the authors, R.J. Robyn and W.J. Howard, to share our thoughts while writing and releasing the story. We will also use this website to release background information about the story. How about a few fictional character interviews? Wouldn't that be fun?

You know it's going to be a bad day when...

2010-05-26T23:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I'm not normally one to complain, but here's the story...

I have a laptop. Now, admittedly, it's not new, it's not powerful, and it's not especially fast or comfortable to use -- but it has sentimental value. Together, that laptop and I logged about half a million air miles, and seven years together.

So, I've gotten used to the fact that if you tip it at the wrong angle, the screen goes all wonky, and that, even after being replaced twice, the battery no longer holds a charge. I can live with that, because, since I stopped traveling for work, I just use it as a computer I can type in the recliner with.

Of course, last month, it started having the problem that all the keys in the row under the "3" would intermittently not work. If I was resting my hand where it was comfortable on the bottom of the laptop, no "C", "D", or "E" would appear no matter how much I tried. But if I lifted my hand into the air, then they would come back.

Last night, I noticed that no matter what I did, they wouldn't work, but I figured, "no big deal, it just means I finally have to pry them up and clean them."

So, tonight I did. I went in and cleaned all the gunk from 7 years out from under the keys. Turned the machine back on and...

The screen back-light went dead. I only know it came on because you can vaguely see the screen with a light shining directly on it.

The replacement part is over $200, and the C/D/E keys still don't work.

Sadly, I believe that the time has come to put my poor friend out to pasture...

They just don't make 'em like they used to.

RJ