While The Cat’s Away Countdown – Day 8…
If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m presently sitting in a cottage somewhere near Seattle with five other multi-pubbed authors, hard at work. Since we were told the lakehouse doesn’t have Internet connection, I preposted blog entries to keep you all entertained while I’m gone. And to keep you coming back, I’m offering chances to win some of the books I’ll be featuring here. So, be sure to stop and read, then don’t forget to post a comment to enter!
Tomorrow’s posting will include a chance to win All Knight Long, which originally released in March 2004. What you may not know is that I used to keep a page on my old website for every book, called “The Story Behind the Book”.
Here’s what I wrote back in November 2004 when Joe and Lily’s story first came out!
I love old B-horror movies.
Honestly, the cheesier the better! And I’m not talking about slasher movies. Give me a vampire lurking behind the curtains, or an alien pod-person chasing a woman with his stiff-legged gait. I’ll never ask why she can’t outrun him—because I know she subconsciously wants to be captured!
Growing up, I rushed home from school each day to see the latest episode of the horror-soap Dark Shadows because Barnabas Collins gave me the shivers. “The Blob” was my favorite movie—I watched it so many times I could quote the dialogue. If Peter Cushing or Vincent Price were in the cast, I was glued to the tube. Those were seriously creepy dudes!
I considered myself a vampire and werewolf expert. By the time I was eight, I could tell you every way you could kill a vamp or become one. Before I ever understood what sensuality and desire were, I thought vampires were the perfect boyfriends—attentive, snappy dressers, and they could disappear from your bedroom in a whirl of mist if your mom poked her head inside your room at night.
I also had a favorite fantasy. I knew I wanted to meet a dark, dangerous vampire, be tied between two stakes, and forced by him to become his girlfriend. My fantasy always ended with his teeth piercing my neck because my little imagination thought the excitement ended there!
Of course, my fantasies changed as I grew older—the details about what happened after the bite grew more important. I worried about rug burns on werewolves’ haunches, how a teenage vampire might shower off the blood and be in bed before his parents discovered him missing for the night.
I also watched King Kong again and again. There was something intensely thrilling about that large, hairy male ape and his one-track obsession with Fay Ray. When she was draped over his large, dark palm in her negligee, she didn’t look like terror was the only emotion she was feeling.
Now I’m an adult—perhaps a little arrested in the maturity department—and a writer. Since I never outgrew daydreaming about monsters who stalked unawakened virgins through dark, deserted forests—I’m free now to revel in my imagination. Daydreaming is now a profitable activity!
When I sit at the dinner table, I may wear a little smile because Joe Garcia’s search for his humanity led him some interesting places. I let the poor guy indulge in all his manly-monstery impulses. And the best part is, I can keep “living” in my alternate reality as long as I don’t end the series!
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OH, baby! You are on a roll here with so many yum-yum releases. And you are away in a tiny cottage, working. WHAT A DEDICATED GAL YOU ARE!
And talented tooooo…..
CONGRATS on all the new releases, DD.
CIAO!
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Cerise! Thanks!! Can’t wait to share pics. Saw you have a new release. Good luck!!!! Will have to have you guest blog here when I get back.
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That blog was like reading about myself. When I was a kid they used to have a show every Friday night at 11:30 after the news called Chiller Theatre with the host Chilly Billy. My sister and I could not wait, we would have the popcorn ready and they would do the old movies with Vincent Price (my personal fave), and all the others,but I also loved Lon Chaney Jr. as the wolfman. How I raised a daughter that hates scary movies I will never know.
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Oooh, how cool–thanks for the backstory, Delilah!
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Tim Burton is going to remake Dark Shadows and Johnny Depp will play Barnabas. I can’t wait.
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I was a huge fan of Dark Shadows and hope the Depp/Burton movie will do the show justice! And to the other poster that talked about Chiller Theater, we too had a local horror movie tv show called Creature Feature with Doctor Sanguinary and I loved it. I wish these shows were still going on.
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I loved the post. Made me realize how much I still love dorky B movies and the fantasy of becoming a vampire myself.
Hope you’re having a good time.
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Paula! Lon Chaney–Man of a Thousand Faces. We watched the same dang movies. 🙂
Fedora! Glad you enjoyed!
Jane! I heard about the DS remake. Can’t wait to see what Johnny Depp does with the role.
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Jody! I loved the little cheesy late night host, can’t remember the name of the show. You know, the guy who introduced the B horror movies and then provided commentary. 🙂 The Blob with Steve McQueen was one of my favorites. Must have seen it 20 times.
Brandy! I am. Most of the day was spent talkking about writing, writing, then drinking. Heaven.
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Great post; I’m still reading my copy of Quentin – about 1/2 finished. Awesome that you have internet…life is good.
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The only thing coming to my mind on this Delilah is Mystery Science Theater 3000. And MST3K was a hoot! I think most of the eps are on dvd so I can watch them whenever I need a B movie fix.