The biggest update on this book/series that you’ll ever read.
My development email finally came (from my development editor @ Inkshares), and they like the character of the vampire, and they like the world-building. Most of all, they like the idea of a ‘Men In Black for the supernatural instead of aliens’ concept. Or, at the very least, want that concept expanded.
I’ve been anticipating this day for close to a year now. I knew it was going to bring changes, require me to kill darlings, etc etc etc. Within 30 minutes of reading the email, I already knew which direction I needed to head with this story. Within 18 hours, the development editor @ Inkshares was in agreement that my planned changes were the direction they’d hoped for.
SO. Here are the changes:
1.) The Vampire and the Dragon will be going by a different name. Originally, this is one of the things I was willing to fight about until the end, but with the changes that are being made, it no longer makes any sense. PrOOF, the agency (Preservation of Occult Figures), is moving front and center. The title will likely be PrOOF: something something. Possibly just PrOOF. Possibly the whole thing spelled out. Unsure.
2.) It’s possible that this will still be a series rather than a standalone book. Nothing is promised, but it’s in everyone’s best interest if the story and characters and concept are strong enough to warrant a series. Again, see MiB…they made…what, 4 of those films?
3.) Everything good about The Vampire and the Dragon and none of the bad is staying. Trust me when I say that doing this the way I plan to do it removes every single thing I hated about my original plot (but had painted myself into a corner and forced myself to live with) and retains almost exactly everything I liked about my plot; if not exactly, then in spirit. But more likely, exactly.
4.) Many of you did not follow the sequels I had planned – The Vampire and the Wendigo and The Vampire and the Djinn. That’s fine now, as those two books (and their plots/concepts) are going to be folded into The Vampire and the Dragon’s plot. They all dovetail rather nicely.
Soon you’ll see changes to my marketing materials – the FB page, the Inkshares pages, etc…to reflect the direction that the book/series is heading. Everything will have the name ‘PrOOF’ front and center.
I have to say that my initial dismay only lasting about 20 minutes before I was defending the very changes the dev editor was suggesting is about as good as it gets. I feel badly for my fellow authors who were not able to twist their own stories, characters and plots to meet the suggested changes that their own dev editors gave to them, and I sympathize for the positions they were in. I feel very grateful that what’s been suggested to me does not violate the spirit of the story I wanted to tell, but instead raises it from a small tale to a very, very large tale, with much higher stakes.
Thank you all for sticking with me through this – I know it’s been a minute or two since you plunked down your hard-earned money to help support my dream. I don’t take any of that for granted for even a moment. I’m still hoping for a late 2019 publishing date, but there’s a LOT of things that have to be done between now and then – including a complete re-write of the entire book. Stick with me, folks, and I promise you I’ll write the best story I’m capable of writing. And you’ll be holding the PrOOF in your own hands when I’m through.
Thanks!
Michael James Welch
