Welcome to Valentine’s Day, the blog for Andrew Valentine, author of Bitter Things. There are many topics I’d like to discuss with you, especially those that appear in Bitter Things. These include desire, addiction, folklore, arousal, vampires, bloodlust, etc.
But what’s on my mind mostly these days, especially as the book begins to find a place in readers’ hearts and minds (or not), is... fear.
Fear is a major factor in any book that calls itself horror. But more than the garden-variety blood & guts horror, I wanted my characters to face personal horrors in Bitter Things – to confront their greatest fears. What were the worst things that could happen to them as individuals?
I personally have a scroll-length list of individual fears these days. In the last six months alone, death has taken a number of family members and loved ones, friends and colleagues. In fact, at this writing, the most recent funeral I attended was this afternoon. It’s fair to say mortality weighs heavily on my mind.
I’m also afraid of the mortality of our country’s economy. Is Barack Obama’s stimulus plan the vampire’s kiss that can bring this economy back from the dead? Or, will it be a stake through its dying heart?
But what terrifies me most is Bitter Things itself. Not the story, but my skills as a storyteller. How will readers respond?
I’m afraid of my friends and family reading this book and possibly getting the right idea about me. I’m afraid of what my mom is going to think (ok, I know how that sounds, and yes, I too sometimes wonder if I really am a grown-up); but there are a lot of dark and nasty things in this book. While I‘m afraid all of you might hate Bitter Things, what frightens me most is… what if my mom loves it? That just might be worse.
So those are my fears. Feel free to comment on them or post your own. I’d love to read what you’ve got to say!