Dark Artistry

So this might end up kind of a broad, catch-all kind of post. I see I am a few steps behind from where I updated last?

Firstly, an updated pic of me. I’ve had some bouts of burnout here and there, to the point I quipped online that I feel like I should have the “road rash” to prove it. BUT I am also slimming down, and getting healthier. Here’s a photo from after what I called a real “rockstar day” at work. Duochrome liquid eyeshadow FTW.

Above: That’s out right now. It started out as a Wattpad Exclusive story. I still have a variation of it there, but the Amazon copy has further edits. It’s a bit more polished.

I had posted an Instagram story about Wishful Sinful, since I had just finished the short story sequel, “Hyacinth House.” A user I didn’t know messaged me asking if I had any books available, in response to the “Hyacinth House” slide in my stories.

At first, I said it hadn’t seemed right to potentially profit off pieces inspired by The Lost Boys, and directed her to links for some of my other stuff.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about that request.

I talked over my story and characters with my long-distance bestie, who reassured me there were works that were MUCH closer to the source material from which they’d taken inspiration, that still made it to the market successfully.

My daughter later said the same thing.

I decided to self-publish both, under the series heading Rock is Undead. Both are named for songs by The Doors, since The Lost Boys so prominently features a cover of “People Are Strange” (with original Doors’ organist, Ray Manzarek on keyboards– something I only recently learned). I found a live performance of The Doors’ “Rock is Dead,” and adapted that as the overarching title.

(Incidentally, I was fortunate enough to once see the surviving members of The Doors performing with the frontman from The Cult. Ian Astbury seemed a bit nervous about stepping into Jim Morrison’s proverbial leather pants, but I thought he did a nice job).

In theory this means there will be a hard limit to how far the series will go, especially since I’m trying to keep more to lesser-known songs. But we’ll see.

There’s the short story that takes place just after the end of Wishful Sinful. I’m presently working on something I hope will be beefy enough to be Book 2. It’s tentatively titled Mystery Train, also a Doors song.

Thus far, the vibe is a lot tamer romantically than the other two, but I’ve been debating turning up the heat. Right now, I’m more focused on character development and plot structure.

Tentative cover art above, because I got a little burned out on writing and wanted to do something visual, to break up the monotony.

Rock is Undead follows the adventures of a traveling vampire rock band, and their partners. The base idea came about during a conversation with said-bestie about how the vampire gang in The Lost Boys look like an 80’s hair band. We also talked at length about the erotic tension between David and Michael.

She thinks David and Star were never a thing, that Star was just a pawn to lure Michael. I even saw a meme online the other day, asking David if he could even “name a woman.” But I decided I would rather give them all a three-way love story.

Dorian Volker looks like David, if perhaps with a more muscular build. Coincidentally, I found out while writing Wishful Sinful, that Kiefer Sutherland is a musician IRL. It was also the timeframe during which The Violent released their own cover of “People Are Strange.”

Jared Winter looks like Michael Emerson, but I might have taken some liberty with his eye color. I’m not sure if Jason Patric has any flecks of green in his eyes, but my character does.

Haven Le Toille behaves more assertively (and at times more deviously) than Star. They have similar eyes, but Haven’s curls are streaked black and red.

I wasn’t very faithful to the rest of the vampire gang, apart from giving Pierce Marko’s hair, and a similarly-iconic jacket.

Lenore Grenway is based on a character I roleplayed in a session of the RPG Monster of the Week. Her original character was much younger, and the offspring of one of the Frog brothers.

Surfing Pexels for images to use on Wattpad for the short story sequel, I encountered this art, which resembles how I picture Lenore, with her mermaid-dyed hair. She’s more prone to black lipstick than red, generally, but still. Love this!

While writing various installations in this fictive world (which features different vampire lore from The Lost Boys, and original backstories), I experienced lots of synchronicity.

Beyond having come across Sutherland’s music video, and hearing The Violent on the radio, I either matched with or had suggested matches for nearly every single main character’s name, on dating apps/sites. They were all in my area, too. Maybe not the same city, but not very far away, either. Haven, Jared, Dorian, Erik, and Raul. Just missing Pierce and Lenore.

I don’t consider the series inherently profound because of this, but I did take it all as encouraging signs to keep going– that it was good for me. In fact, I recall grinning like a fool for most of a shift at work, when I even managed to work witches into the first story. Writing parts of “Hyacinth House,” I even cried.

Anyway, I’m not sure how much of Mystery Train will take place on the train, since I’m also tempted to write about their adventures in their destination city of New Orleans. Then again, that could also be the next book? We will see. If the train becomes less focal, I’ll change the title and cover.

ALSO… a Threads user who used to work for Spotify informed me Daylist is still a thing. I hadn’t seen it where I had expected to find it and thought they’d dropped it as a feature. It’s AI that builds you a playlist for that day of the week and hour of the day, based on past listening. I’ve gotten some really fun results, many of which I’ve saved to my library.

The latest, I have renamed Dark Artistry. I took out a few songs that I wasn’t vibing with, but here’s what was left. It’s been very inspirational, working on Mystery Train.

I think those are the main updates for the time being? At some point, I had run countdown sales on more of my older titles, on Amazon, but the focus shifted to these projects, instead. It’s been a lot of fun; hopefully that will continue.

Much love!

And remember, if you’re cold, they’re cold. Let the vampires in.

(Below, a cropped photo of a poster I discovered on Amazon. I grew up a Michael/Star adolescent and matured into a Michael/Star/David adult. Lovely, isn’t he?)