Inspired by Anne Rice & my binging of The Summer I Turned Pretty, I wrote a 22,000 word story called:

THE AUTUMN I TURNED VAMPY

Just call me Dark Jenny Han

Image by Adele Mildred

I really enjoyed taking a stab at “Romantasy”.

It was a lot of fun to write and the whole time, I kept thinking of songs that would be right for each scene/vignette, so I made a killer soundtrack for this piece (move over, Taylor Swift).

My story is not so much Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, though there’s some thematic crossover with these. It does also have some similarities with True Blood, Underworld, The Lost Boys & the Swedish version of Let The Right One In.

My story is about a 17-year old girl, named Violet, who moves to the Texas Hill Country her last year of high school. (My parents got a house right outside of Austin, so I get to spend extensive amounts of time, boots on the ground, in the area and learn its lore and observe its people).

The mortal human girl’s love triangle is not with brothers, but with two boys from vastly different vampire clans, one who’s dwelled in the Texas small town and one who is also new to it.

The Autumn I Turned Vampy also draws from some dark history in the State of Texas and especially in the Austin area. In the fall of 2025, Houston, Texas has the news that it’s fished over a dozen dead bodies out of Buffalo Bayou in the city. Since 2022, Austin, Texas has found 38 dead bodies in Lady Bird Lake aka Town Lake that flows under the Congress Street Bridge aka “Bat Bridge” where over a million bats roost until dusk when it’s time to fly out and hunt. The Yogurt Shop Murders case is back in the public consciousness thanks to a HBO show about them and new DNA evidence that’s surfaced. My story also gives an “alternative” explanation for the “Midnight Assassin” who killed 7 women and one man in Downtown Austin in 1884 until Christmas Eve 1885 when they disappeared forever…

I imagine Violet to be Asian American and her love interests: Mateo to be Mexican American and Jarvis to be British with other characters in the story to be of various races, genders—

Violet is very keen on learning about all of the death around her, from those of the July 4th flash-flood in the Hill Country to the assassination of a political “pundit” named “Marley Burke”. Lurking under the veneer of the idyllic quaint Victorian small town are various dark forces interested in Violet and also in her family and lineage.

I could see this story being a short form audio piece and then a television series and have ideas for its “Season 2” and “Season 3” as well.

Thanks to Traces of Texas, I just found out that Anne Rice had started high school in New Orleans, moved away and transferred during her latter teens / then finished it in Central Texas (Richardson)— and that’s where she met her husband Stan Rice. She apparently used to be Ann without an “e”. Her given name is Howard Allen O’Brien, born in New Orleans. She and Stan married in Texas when she was 20 and he was 19 years old, so I dedicate this story to them and their young love.

I had only previously known Anne as a NOLA / California person, so discovering the facts of her connection to Texas during her formative adolescent years is a revelation, as I completed THE AUTUMN I TURNED VAMPY on Anne’s birthday.

Logline:

A 17-year old girl, named Violet, moves to a small Texas Hill Country town where she’s caught in a love triangle with two boys from warring vampire clans and learns more about her mysterious family than she could’ve ever imagined.

ALL I NEEDED WAS THE RAIN

A 20K word novella/long short story wit speculative elements

August 2027 is the 50th anniversary of the passing of Elvis Presley from this mortal coil. It’s also the time frame of my story here— that’s reminiscent of Palm Royale (Mrs. American Pie), Last Night in Soho and Bubba Ho Tep.

ALL I NEEDED WAS THE RAIN was inspired by a series of trips I took with my dearly departed dog, Bea, to the small Gulf Coast town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Each chapter is named after a song performed by the King of Rock n’ Roll.

It’s still a little known fact that Elvis spent the happy sun-soaked summers of 1951-1957 (touring the American South before he was nationally and internationally famous) at the Gulf Hills Hotel in Ocean Springs, where mobster Al Capone is also said to have had an outpost. Gulf Hills turns 100 years old in 2027.

Logline:

A 40-something year old travel writer goes to a coastal Mississippi town to do a media stay for the new “Elvis Week”. When a dead body is discovered in the resort pool on Presley’s death anniversary, it leaves her no choice but to get caught up in a small town murder mystery with the colorful locals & some fellow tourists.

VERTERE

“Turn” in Latin

Over a decade ago, I wrote a 215-page gender-bending fantasy novel that takes place in Los Angeles- also about teenage characters. I never submitted it anywhere or let anyone read it. I might take another look at it.

I did have a logo made for the story – to serve as a “book cover” and this is it

ARE YOU KIRST?

*I’ve dabbled in other short fiction years ago. I wrote a middle grade book about two kids whose parents get a divorce. They move to a new town which also has magical elements, people and animals, which may or may not be cursed…

I need to get around to re-reading and submitting these

Fun super short form— A 100-word spooky story was splendid fun to write: