The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

So, I got tagged for this about a month ago by writer Katie S. Pendergrass but I had been too lazy to participate. Shame on me! But now I will finally participate. 

What is your working title of your book?

Draculești has been the working title for many a moon, but since my story is going to be a series, I thought it might be better suited as the over-arching title for the series, and have individual titles for each book. For the first one which I'm still working on, the idea for the title just came to me the other night: Draculești - Blood of the Dragon, Tooth of the Wolf.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Way back in the day when I was a young lass (19), I had an idea to write a book on how the son of the Impaler came to be a vampire and his vampire exploits after his "turn". It was only meant to be about a hundred page story, instead it grew into a crappily written 190,000 word novel. At the time I thought it was some pretty gosh darn good writing, until I displayed bits and pieces of it for critique on the interwebs in 2008 and was told the idea of the story was interesting, but the writing left something to be desired. So since then I've been learning to write by rewriting this story, and during the rewrites I've delved deeper into the historical aspects of the story, working to get those parts as true as I could while telling my fantasy story. Here's a post I had written about my WIP, if you want to learn more.

What genre does your book fall under?

Historical Fantasy is what I believe fits it best.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I really haven't a clue, whatsoever. I don't keep track of Hollywood, but ideally I would want foreign actors to take the roles. Hungarians for the Hungarian characters, Romanians for the Vlach characters, so on and so on. Mostly because it would be nice to hear authentic accents when they speak their dialogue, and being unfamiliar to most audiences (except, of course, to those in the countries the actor is from), people won't see them as anything more than the characters; for instance, when you see Brad Pitt, all you see is him and not the character because everyone is so familiar with him. If y'all catch my drift. For my main character, Vlad, I found that Romanian model Andrei Andrei has the looks similar as to how I see Vlad. Change his hair color from black to dirty blonde and he's essentially my MC.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Living the life of an aristocratic puppet was not how Vlad imagined his life, yet had he not returned to the man that had left him for dead as a child fourteen years ago, his Impaler Prince father would never had sent him to Buda to be trained into a soldier, only to befriend the king, nor marry into the wealthiest of Hungarian families, the Báthory's, and if he had not befriended that black wolf, the monster might never had stalked him into insanity.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I will do my best to get representation through an agency, and if that proves fruitless I may go to self-publishing.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Still working on the first draft of the complete rewrite of the original novel. I'm using the original as kind of an outline for this one. I've been working on it off and on for four years, and I'm only now coming to the halfway point or so of where the rewrite is compared to the original. It has grown more complex and longer than I imagined, so instead of one book like I had hoped to make it, it'll have to be split into two to make it salable. Unless an agent disagrees. We shall see when I get more written. The plan as of now is to split it where the eight year gap in the story begins, which I'm getting close to, and start the second book after the gap.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I don't really think there are any out there to compare it to. Perhaps, maybe, in subject matter a cross between Interview With The Vampire and Vlad: The Last Confession.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My interest in vampires and Vlad the Impaler.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The story's main focus is on Vlad's journey through life from an orphaned aristocratic toddler raised by peasants to returning to his birth father only to be thrust into the court of the Hungarian king, then married into the powerful Báthory family, all the while stalked by a vampiric hellhound bent on driving him to insanity. It is about his inner journey of coping with the drastic changes in his life from being dirt poor to having anything he could ever need, but always with a price. He prides himself as being sympathetic in a time when men are driven to be hard and the most prestigious occupation is that of a soldier. Through diaries written by his father's hand, Vlad learns the stories he had been told of his father were mostly propaganda and that he was more human than the monster he had always thought him to be. When he learns that a man has eyes for him, he discovers a side of himself he had never known yet always had to have been there, and explores the other side of his sexuality, risking imprisonment or death if they were to be caught.

Now for the peeps I'm to exploit into this hop. Er, actually, I don't have many peeps to choose from, so some have already done this thing, and some haven't and may not participate, which is cool. Anyway:

The Tex Files

Thea Landen

Charity Faye

Sharon Robards

Diane Carlisle

Rules of the Next Big Thing

1. Use this format for your post
2. Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)
3. Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:

• What is your working title of your book?
• Where did the idea come from for the book?
• What genre does your book fall under?
• Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
• What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
• Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
• How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
• What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
• Who or what inspired you to write this book?
• What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?