Konrath, J.A. - DRACULAS (A Novel of Terror)

It begins with Joe emailing Jeff after confirming the project with Blake over the phone…

March 27, 2010

Jeff—

Our novella SUCKERS has made $$$ this month, and the month isn’t over yet.

In June, Amazon is doubling the royalty rate. Which means we’ll be making about $$$ per month, EACH, on Suckers.

We should do some other collaboration. Maybe a McGlade/Mayhem piece. Or perhaps an original Kindle novel.

I’ve got an idea that could be used for either.

Some scientists find Dracula’s bones in Transylvania (they know it’s Dracula because he’s got a stake in the heart and fangs.) Pulling out the stake does nothing. So they take the bones back home, and accidentally clone him.

Title: DRACULAS.

The word “vampire” has been used to death. But “Dracula” has not. And with PREDATORS coming this summer, adding an “S” to a known monster name makes perfect sense.

We could go the serious route, as an action horror book. Could go comedy. Could go McGlade and Mayhem.

Interested?

Joe

• • •

Holy crap. That’s a lot of frickin’ money for a book with spaghetti sauce as the primary plot driver.

Let me get back to you on the collaboration. You’re right—an original, “major” novel for the Kindle would make us a fortune, and if you had e-mailed me yesterday around noon I would’ve said “Absolutely!” And then I would have e-mailed you back rather sheepishly and said that I might not be able to commit, because my agent got an e-mail about a work-for-hire project that will be potentially huge and will very likely leave me with no free time until 2011.

Jeff

• • •

What if DRACULAS were split three ways? Blake Crouch is involved (he and I just sold movie rights to SERIAL, believe it or not.)

If each of us write 20k, we could do it fast, get it up in a month. That way there’s no big time commitment, and you can still meet your deadlines.

I’m thinking this can be somewhat tongue and cheek, but not satire. Sort of like the first Evil Dead movie. Think 28 Days Later with vampires. And none of that supernatural BS. Crosses, garlic, daylight; none of that stops them. Only way to kill them is to cut off the head. And these aren’t debonair, hypnotizing movie idols. No turning into bats or sleeping in coffins. These draculas are running, screeching, blood sucking dynamos.

We’re talking a balls-to-the-wall screaming vampire invasion novel. Rabid, feral, crazy bloodsuckers, draining everything that moves; people, dogs, cattle, each other. Once gets cut, spills its own blood, the others pounce on him.

Maybe we confine the action to a hospital out in a rural area. One of the doctors there somehow gets Dracula’s bones, does some experiments, suddenly there’s a dracula outbreak. Heroes are a soon-to-be mom and dad in labor in the maternity ward, a lumberjack recovering from a work injury, a nurse at her first week on the job, and a paranoid redneck cop.

Think about it…

Joe

• • •

Ah…so it would have been something like BLOOD DEVIL by Eli Roth & JA Konrath .

I’ve got an April 30 deadline for WOLF HUNT, so I won’t be able to work on anything else until that one’s finished. I know that they’d want me to get started on another project fairly soon after that, and right now I don’t know if it’s going to be a brutal deadline or a generous, leisurely one. So I’ll keep you posted. If you and Blake want to rush forward with DRACULAS, we’ll come up with another idea when my schedule is clear!

Jeff

• • •

Blake and I just spoke. He’s gung ho for going forward. We talked about some of the plotting and divvying up the workload. Basically, we’d each take a character in the hospital and follow them through the vampire outbreak. Maybe 20k words each separately, then bring the characters together for the finale. Structure it like AFRAID: character scene ending in a cliffhanger, go to the next character ending in a cliffhanger, go to the next…

This needs to be three people. I’m crazy busy as well, but I’m lucky to not have a day job.

I’d really prefer working with you before looking for another third partner…

Joe

• • •

I don’t know the timeframe on the new gig. It could very well be a case of “Can you deliver the manuscript in the next 12 months?” Or it could be “We need this by August and here’s a 350-page bible of rules that you need to follow to the letter, while still delivering a creative story with emotional depth and engaging characters, which must not contradict anything in the upcoming unfinished game.” But I can say for certain that until May 1st, there’ll be no DRACULAS work for me.

Jeff

• • •

Oh, poop.

Okay, now I gotta ask others. I’ll start with F. Paul Wilson. But when this gets made into a Wes Craven movie, remember I asked you first.

Joe

• • •

Heh heh. This is the only time in my life that somebody will come to me before F. Paul Wilson. Rest assured that this is a genuine recognition of the impossibility of cramming another 20,000 words into April and not a “Sorry, too busy!” style brush-off of the type I saw (Big Name Horror Author) give an editor at WHC, leading to the editor being red-faced, quiet, and mildly ashamed for the rest of the party.

Jeff

• • •

Has (Big Name Horror Author) published anything since (Well Known Book)?

Joe

• • •

Lots, you illiterate!

Jeff

• • •

I thought he was dead.

Joe

• • •

Well, that’s what happens when you turn 40—the memory and awareness of the world around you starts to fade, big-time.

(This will be only be funny for the next 7 1/2 months.)

Jeff

• • •

Who are you, again?

Joe

• • •

That guy you owe $50,000 for ghost-writing WHISKEY SOUR.

Jeff

• • •

I didn’t like that book. Mixing humor and horror is stupid.

Joe

• • •

Hi Paul—

Taking a complete shot in the dark here, but how’s your writing schedule? Got any free time?

Blake Crouch and I have this insane idea for a vampire novel that would be a cinch to write, and we’re looking for a third collaborator. Everyone does 20k words, split the rights 3 ways.

I know you’ve done vamps before, but this is really a different take on it, and the workload would be light for all involved, and also a lot of fun. Sort of like what you did with ARTIFACT, except more linear, and more commercial. And more violent.

The title: DRACULAS.

It’s a lot like 28 Days Later with fangs. Capitalizes on both the vampire and the zombie popularity currently fueling genre fiction, but with some big twists. Think Night of the Living Dead in a hospital setting.

As I said, this is a shot in the dark. I know you’re busy and in demand. I’ve got four book contracts right now (!), and I’m buried in work, but this idea won’t let me be. Problem is, I just don’t have time to write it alone.

Joe

March 29, 2010

Getting my head sorted out after WHC.

This sounds like fun as long as you don’t have too tight a deadline.

Paul

• • •

Jeff said he really can’t do it, so I asked F. Paul Wilson if he wants to join with us.

Here’s some preliminary thoughts:

Prologue, three newspaper clippings from a cheesy tabloid. Headlines:

“DRACULA’S SKULL UNEARTHED IN TRANSYLVANIA! A Romanian farmer uncovered a skull with unique properties while plowing his field near the town of Brasov. The relic, which appears to be ancient and human, has thirty two razor-sharp teeth where normal flat teeth would be.”