Tales From Circadia by Deady Tom

Author:Deady, Tom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greymore Publishing
Published: 2023-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

Story Notes

If “The Lake” was my trial run for Haven, then Grando was my warm-up to write Eternal Darkness. I knew I wanted to write a vampire story, but I wanted it to be different. I needed to come up with a way for a modern-day (1970s) vampire to hide in plain sight. Where could a vampire exist with easy access to victims, but also where the victims wouldn’t be missed? The idea of a traveling carnival - which is a great setting for any horror story - sounded right. Small-town kids are always running away, right?

As a horror junkie, I knew all about the origins of Dracula, and Vlad the Impaler, but felt like that had been done to death (pun alert) in the vampire genre. Doing research for this story was a lot of fun. When I found the history of Jure Grando, I knew he had to be the basis for my story. What’s creepier than a knock on the door in the middle of the night?

The other element of the story that was important to me was the suspension of disbelief. I wanted to make the possibility of vampires more real. That meant eliminating some of the traditional lore, such as turning into bats or sleeping in coffins, and using science (granted, farfetched) to explain some other characteristics of the vampire. Dan Simmons used the concept of a blood disorder to explain vampires in his 1992 novel, Children of the Night, and it always stuck with me.

I wrote Grando just before Haven was published. I had The Lake, Haven, and Grando, all set in the seventies. Naturally, I was asked about that a lot. There are a couple reasons why I set my early stories in that particular decade. First, it was the old “write what you know” cliche. I grew up in the seventies and wanted my writing to feel real to the reader. Second, it’s easier to write horror when the characters don’t have access to technology. Isolation is a major component of fear, and how can a character be isolated with a smart phone in their hand? Need help? Make a call. Lost? Fire up the GPS. It’s dark? Turn on the flashlight app. So, as a new writer, it was easier to just go back to when there were less tools available to help a character in trouble.

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