Guest Post: Thy Vampires Shall Not Sparkle by Rhi Etzweiler

Today I'm pleased to introduce Rhi Etzweiler to my blog. She's here as part of the Riptide Publishing blog tour where there are lots of prizes to be won - click here for the prizes. Today Rhi is talking about her upcoming Riptide release, Blacker Than Black. Over to you, Rhi!

Back about four or five years ago, I had a very good writer-friend challenge me to “do something completely different.” At the time, I was in one of those uninspired slumps, trying to work on editing/revising a story, and spinning my wheels in Mississippi Mud.

We both were, actually. Trying to revise, I mean. And doing little more than flinging mud about, too, I imagine. The idea of writing short stories to sub to e-zines and anthologies, to get our names out there in the industry and build our writer resume’s, was a daunting necessity if breaking into print were to ever happen.

The biggest obstacle in revisions at that time was getting into the head of my MC, a young and inexperienced female character that I quickly discovered an inability to relate to. It was easier for me, I found, to write her story from the POV’s of the sundry male characters in the story around her. Their stories would unfold smoothly, the prose flowing without effort.

There was a “Red Light District” anthology call out around that time. NanoWrimo was coming up. I remember thinking, okay something completely different from a fantasy epic written in third person past tense—dark speculative fiction written in first person, present tense?!

I needed to get away from the female character POV. Did it have to be male, though? I remember reading through the anthology call, and that’s what they were focusing on—streetwalkers, in the more conventionally accepted sense. Solution? Use the asset of first person, and don’t make any gender references at all. Let the reader assume. Forget “red light” cliché, I went with blue. No selling sex, my streetwalkers were chi-whores. Their johns—energy vampires.

It was a struggle, that total shift in writing technique. I think I typed every sentence two or three times, constantly catching myself slipping back into third person, or past tense. But slowly, very slowly, the character sank in and clicked, and the story began to gain momentum.

And so Black the Nightwalker was born from a frenzy of fifty-thousand words. It started out with the intention of being a short story, but it never stopped unfolding. There's more to this, Black kept saying. Keep going. Which is precisely what the muse-slave did, of course. It was a really long first chapter, so I polished it up to work as a standalone, and subbed it. The anthology editors declined to acquire it. Over the course of the following year and NanoWrimo I churned out the rest of Black’s story. It was a full-length novel.

And I’d discovered a story wherein I challenged the mold of the dual gender limitation. You’re one or the other. Not in “Blacker Than Black.” Over the ensuing years, attempts to garner feedback and beta input—through the normal channels of fellow writers—had seriously mixed results. Why are you obscuring the narrator’s gender? Is Black male or female?!?! First person present tense is for amateurs. I can tell it’s a romance but I don’t know the gender of the narrator; that’s keeping me from liking it.

Over, and over again. Black would flat-out refuse to cooperate or even entertain such notions. And I found myself wondering, why’s it matter so much?

Even now, years later, Black’s story is a tad bit “ahead of its time” still, but I don’t love it any less. If anything, I love it more now for those aspects that make it stand out and set it apart. A difficult challenge for any publisher to think of marketing, understandably, but a story that demanded to be written nonetheless. And I thank Riptide’s staff for believing in Black.

Thank you for that interesting insight into Blacker Than Black, Rhi!


Riptide Publishing has very kindly offered up a First Wave Winner’s Choice: Pick any one backlist book from Rachel Haimowitz, Aleksandr Voinov, L.A. Witt, Brita Addams, or Cat Grant (“Frontlist” books, i.e. Riptide releases and newest non-Riptide release, are excluded, as are the Courtland Chronicles) as a prize for those who leave a comment on this post. You have until 11pm on Friday 23rd December and I shall announce the winners on Christmas Eve. Good luck!