Vampire stories seem to come with their own mythology, so why add other mythos ideas to them. Why not just fall back to the cultural view that has followed the great story tellers of the genre? I do it because there is so much more to the vampire and to our culture.

Over time the story of the vampire has been romanticized. In many ways, this has improved the story and in others has taken away the terror of the state of being undead. The story of Dark Medicine is intended to be a myth within itself, pulling upon the original and ancient tales of the vampire—back before Bran Stoker and his masterpiece of Dracula. When I pull back the layers of time to find the heart of the being that haunts the night, I find that it is entangled in the ancient myths of cultures around the world. There are similarities and there are differences, but the vampire cannot exist without the understanding of the mythos from which it has sprung.

Dark Medicine is intended to look at the curse and the allure of the vampire. Through the myth of the undead and through the myth our culture has been built up (Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Norse) and upon the religions of the world, the story is to examine the light, the darkness, the desires to be more, and the addictions people face in their everyday lives. To draw the vampire out into the world I must draw the tapestry in which it has been wrapped within.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for blogs and updates to my articles, short stories, novels, and novellas that I am writing.

I am posting this on all my blogs. Due to an extra project at my “bill paying job” I have been finding it hard to find time to write, nevertheless blog. I hope to have that schedule under control soon. Please keep checking for updates. I hope to have one up by the end of the weekend on all of these.

Thank you
David Alan Lucas

As you may have read in my “Coffee with David” blogs, thing have been changing with my writing schedule and my life. As such, I am taking Dark Medicine out of the “tomb” and begin to rework it as I work on The Guardians. Unlike The Guardians, Dark Medicine will not need to be re-imagined. However, I have realized I made the plot far too complicated with far too many characters. So, it will need to be re-plotted.

I don’t know if I will use some of the “scraps” in future stories, but looking at the novel as I had written it I had the makings for at least three or four novels. Instead I am going to re-plot the novel and focus on the core plot and subplots. I realize that progress will be slow as I am working on The Guardians, working on short fiction and my involvement in various events while balancing the “bill paying” job and the changes occurring there.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for continued updates on the novels, novella and short stories I am working on.

While fighting temptation to return to St. Croix, Missouri (my fictional town) and begin rewriting the story of the Levreau family, I have found myself wondering about temptation and our mortal struggles against it. The modern vampire tale, as it has evolved from the masterpiece of Bram Stoker to the works of Anne Rice is a story of resistance of, submission to, and damnation of temptation. The vampire is often seen as the source of the temptation, but in reality he (or she) is the outlet of the “mortal’s” temptations with things they have suppressed.

We see the vampire tale coming to life in the Victorian age, a time known for sexual repression. It is also a time when opium and other drugs were emerging as an addictive blight on society. Blind eyes were turned to sex and narcotics and people slinked into the shadows to find escape from their repressed lives. Others found release through acts of brutal violence. This was the birth of the popularization of tales of ancient spirits or undead feeding on the living, but what about modern day?

We do not live in a culture of sexual repression—or do we? The viewing of sexual temptations is almost blasé in this world of cable television and the internet. Actually, in many ways it can be argued that sex is beginning its first steps into the fictional world of “The Brave New World,” a novel written about a society were sex was recreationally and promiscuity was promoted. In the modern world, we see in the lore of the vampire transform into a symbol of the vampire trying to return to his humanity and obtain those connections that his undead state has denied him.

As for drug usage, the temptation seems to be as great as the blood lust of the vampire. The need for the taste that is forbidden has not changed. The world seems to have thrown that temptation from the smoke filled opium dens into the streets of the inner city, and with it we see the vampire leaving his keep or secluded mansion for the company of night clubs and humans. Even the light of day itself no longer bothers them in some series of stories. Is there any part of the ancient lore still around?

The hunter still exists. He moves as a shade in the shadows of the natural world and the darkness of the human society. Vampires still represent temptation—sometimes the lure into their world representative of the darker side of man—sometimes the embodiment of the attempt to escape back into to the light of humanity. The vampire tale is still a story that stirs and weaves itself around us. The old masterpieces and the new inventions still hold their place and beacon us to step into their world of temptation asking if we recognize our own world in the process.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on the blogs, short stories and novels I write.