Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The Vampires Formerly Known As...

The (R)Evolution By Night started life all the way back in 1997 as the Hollywood Vampires, building a small, but fiercely loyal following around the world. The mixture of adventure, humor, and 80's-era rock 'n roll caught on with readers looking for something different in the realm of urban fantasy, and as I wrote story after story, more elements of horror, sci-fi, and the fantastic began creeping in, as well.

I self-published five books in the series between 2001 and 2011, and then the Vampires were signed by Dark Continents Publishing in 2013, thanks to the efforts of my tireless publicist Sylvia Shults. Then, unfortunately, DCP had to close its doors in 2014...but because my intrepid editor, one Nerine Dorman, believed in me and the Hollywood Vampires, she got me signed to Crossroad Press immediately afterwards.

Fast-forward to spring of 2015, and I discovered Alice Cooper and some of his friends were forming a supergroup called the Hollywood Vampires. Oh really? And they'd trademarked the name. Oh crap. But Alice was a part of the original Hollywood Vampires, a drinking club dating back to the 1970's, and since I got the name from L.A. Guns -- who'd gotten it from Alice in the first place -- I figured if the name truly belonged to anybody, it was Alice.

Besides, my vision for the Hollywood Vampires had been growing and expanding far beyond the confines of modern-day Hollywood, and the name -- while beloved -- seemed almost limiting considering what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. With the series, I wanted to reach back to ancient Rome (and even farther back) and look to the stars above. The world I was creating was very much like ours, but different. Jimi Hendrix was still alive. The Space Age didn't come to an unsatisfying end. Humanity was, as a whole, a little less stupid thanks to vampires preying on the idiots for centuries on end.

With the series, I wanted to take a look at what kind of fantastic adventures vampires would have, and how they'd change the world...and how the world would change them. Because these vampires are as human as you and me, and at the end of the day (night), they just want to live, laugh, and love. But as the ancient werewolf proverb says, that which doesn't grow...dies. It's about moving forward, learning, fighting, winning, losing, and forever evolving. It's a vampire revolution, treading places immortals have never gone before.

(Well, in between tales about rock 'n roll, monsters, and off-the-wall shit. Not every story has to have much of a point...sometimes you just wanna see a vampire slug it out with a foul-mouthed chupacabra and call it good. And as my longtime readers know, I've got a fondness for telling vampire vs. horrible monster stories.)

So before any cease-and-desist letters had any chance to fly, I stepped away from the name...it's in good hands with Alice. Thus, the Revolution By Night was born. Or, if you will, the (R)Evolution By Night. It's about revolution and evolution, beneath the eternal star-shot vault of the night skies.

The Hollywood Vampires are no more...that era has come to an end. Long Live The (R)Evolution!

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