Guest Post: Samantha Rendle + House of Vampires

I'm joined on the blog today by young adult author Samantha Rendle who's going to share with us some of her experience with creating the characters and story for her novel, House of Vampires. Take it away Samantha!

I grew up familiar with stories about secret worlds – Narnia, The Secret Garden and Harry Potter being a few – and they fascinated me. I was also into vampires from an early age – I’ll always remember sitting in front of the television every week as a child, eager to catch up on the latest Buffy episode. So, when I decided I wanted to write stories I had an idea in my head, of a vampire and a key that unlocked the door to a secret world.

I knew what I wanted both my vampire and my key to look like. At the time, I was around fourteen and obsessed with a rock band called Fall Out Boy, particularly their video for A Little Less Sixteen Candles, which featured vampires. The main character in the video was Fall Out Boy’s bassist, who was playing a vampire. He was dark, brooding and good-looking, and I knew I wanted to base a character on him. I gave my main character similar looks and named him after the band’s bassist: Peter. As for the key, I wanted it to stand out. I got a lot of inspiration from tattoos for the key. I could picture it in my head clearly – a long cylinder with a skull on the top, surrounded by tiny golden vines – but I did not yet know what door it would open, and what would be behind the door.

I wrote draft after draft, none of them really going anywhere, and gave up time and time again. I decided to plan more thoroughly and came up with more characters: Annabel, Frank and Stella, the main character’s allies, and Lilith, Michael and Will, the main character’s enemies. The main character had a very strong, defined look, and I wanted his enemy to have the same qualities. I pictured Lilith to look like a rebellious schoolgirl, with luring violet eyes and silver hair. I got the idea from several things – fairies, pixies and other mythical creatures, mainly. I wanted her to be enchanting.

Once I came up with more characters, I had to come up with a solid idea. What were Peter’s enemies after? What would his adventure be? That was where the key fit in. His enemies would be after a key that lead to another dimension, that would free their evil allies, and Peter’s adventure would be defending the key. I created a world that the key would unlock, and a door to sever it from their home dimension.

Finally, I wanted to give the ‘good side’ a name. There were the evil vampires, including Lilith, Michael and Will, who lived in a luxurious mansion. There were the few who stood against them, including Annabel, Frank, Stella and Peter, who traveled from place to place. Then there were the humans, who had no idea about the war that would go on around them. Those who stood against the vampires spent their time hunting and silencing their enemies, so I thought it would be fitting to call them ‘The Hunters.’

And finally I had a story to write. Peter, a young vampire of fourteen (the age I was when I made him up) wakes up in the mansion with no idea who he is, and the only thing in his possession is a key. He soon learns that the key opens a door, which leads to a world filled with demons and vampires who would tear his world apart if the door was ever opened. He escapes the house and finds the Hunters, who, although they don’t trust him at first, take him in and let him join their fight against the other vampires. Now all he has to do is keep the key from the vampires...

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by Supernatural Snark today Samantha! More information on Samantha and House of Vampires can be found here:

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HOUSE OF VAMPIRES

Pete is a 14 year-old vampire who wakes up in a mansion with no idea who he is and no memories. He soon discovers that he's the keeper of a skeleton key, which opens the door leading to another realm: the realm containing vampires, demons and other fearsome creatures. Realising that he needs to keep the key away from the door and the vampires who want the door open, he flees and joins the fight against them making three new friends in the process. When one of them is kidnapped he has no choice but to go back to the house of vampires. Back to the danger he ran away from...