Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Perhaps there's a little Kafka in all of us.

Strigoi: The Blood Bond has been out for a month now.  It's a murder mystery. Three people have died. Someone killed them. The main suspect is a pompous vampire.  But the murder connection is really a subplot.

The main story line is about Alex Regal, a down on his luck guy, whose wife just left him and he is on the verge of suicide. Life starts to look better, when he learns he has inherited property in a small town buried deep in the mountains of North Carolina. He goes to claim his new found wealth, only to discover he is a prisoner like everyone else who lives there, and like the town's other residents he is part of the blood supply for the vampire.

Part of the plan in writing Strgoi was to create a Kafkaesque world.  At times people in the town appear to be monsters.  Alex spots wolves the size of Shetland ponies. Trying to escape only takes him in circles. A hot babe comes on to him although his wife had found him dull and repressing.  Phones don't work the way they should.  A cross section of the population reveals characters living from different centuries.  A Shapeshifter (aka the vampire) who drinks blood runs the place.

Everything in this new world makes no sense in comparison to the one Alex came from.  His sanity is tested and survival becomes a challenge. The only thing he knows is giving up means being trapped forever.

Now, did I succeed in making Kafka-like world? Probably not.  But I like to think there's a little Kafka in all of us.