#Lucille Harker is a reference to Dracula

[thrythlind]

My brain works oddly...

Original idea: Werewolf vs Slasher where they each are monsters that mostly target terrible people and are manipulated into fighting each other by some evil entity.

The Responsible Catalyst: I need a third character to meet the two characters independently before they fight.

End Result: Light lesbian flirting love-triangle/polycule in the works... and all three of the leads have names beginning with "L".

[rosetyler42]

Simon's name was inspires by an early version of Johnny (and possibly Ericka), Simon Van Helsing, as a monster hunter who fell for Mavis after arriving at the hotel. It also references a monster hunter from Castlevania. I came up with the idea Ericka had an ancestor named Simon and just loved the name. (Not to mention, one of the Chipmunks, the sensible middle sib, also has that name!) It also means Harkening, something of a play on words with Johnathan Harker and...well, Drac could stand to listen to people more.

Lucy mainly comes from the Dracula book character Lucy Westenra. I wanted to continue the tradition of Johnny and Abraham and it was either that or Mina. Mina would be too many M names and...we, there's already enough shipping between Drac and Mina. Lucy is the one that becomes a vamp in the book. Plus, my Lucy's personality kinda already fits at least the cultural osmosis of Lucy aside from the "slut" idea, though she's not really inspired by Lucy Westenra as a character. In addition, her name means light, which kinda fits with Ericka's sun coding, being half human, and Mavis being called Drac's "Moonlight." She also shares her name with a well-known comedianne. I came up with the idea Lucy, or Lucille, is in part a feminization of Lucifer.

As for Van Dracula, it's inspired by a version of Ericka's married name I saw and liked as a nice way of combining Van Helsing and Dracula. It's a combo Dutch and Romanian name that means "Son/daughter/child of the Devil or Dragon."

tag the oc with a name that has so much lore behind it for why you chose it

[wizardysseus]

2, 11 & 12 :)

2. Did you reread anything? What?

less so this year than some years

pride and prejudice by jane austen

nimona by nd stevenson

piranesi by susanna clarke

the sorrow dance by denise levertov

thirst by mary oliver

blessing the boats by lucille clifton

fire and hemlock by diana wynne jones

shadow spinner by susan fletcher

the odyssey by derek walcott

a selection of poems by e.e. cummings

the son of neptune by rick riordan

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

what's "awhile" in this scenario? 10 years? 30 years? i can't pick one but i've narrowed it down to two

the last unicorn by peter s. beagle

the sandman comics by neil gaiman - especially brief lives and the kindly ones

12. Any books that disappointed you?

hench by nina zina walschots - this was fine, but i was expecting more from it i think, and also she should have made out with the leviathan.

only a monster by vanessa len - nothing about this book worked for me, but especially that the "monsters" are all Fairly Regular Guys who can time travel. and just so we're clear, it's not love at first sight; they just fell in love in another timeline that we don't get to see.

in a garden burning gold by rory power - i normally wouldn't include anything izzie and i read for the book club of misery, because we do not approach those in, like, the best of faith, but in this case i was optimistic, and then it was so boring and the politics insulted my intelligence.

the dragon's promise by elizabeth lim - i read six crimson cranes in march, really enjoyed it, and then waited till august for the sequel to come out and it was... a very sort of perfunctory sequel that existed to jump from plot point to plot point and resolve them as quickly as possible.

house of hunger by alexis henderson - this is billed as a queer gothic horror, but for gothic you really need to develop a sense of place, and this not-very-well-sketched victorianesque fantasy world did not do it for me. it's lacking in intrigue or mystery. the vampires are obviously vampires (not just to the readers but to the characters). everyone articulates exactly what they're feeling at all times. the lead relationship has no chemistry, and i did not buy at all that lisavet had ever truly loved marion, so there was no reason to feel tragic about the "discovery" of what was really going on. sorry this bullet point is so long, but i really wanted to find a good vampire book in october/november and i was bitterly disappointed by this instead.

a dowry of blood by s.t. gibson - i read this after house of hunger, so i was even more desperate for a good vampire book and less optimistic. among my many problems with this book, i think writing it as a letter (series of letters?) to dracula after his death was a mistake, because there is way too much hindsight. the narrator isn't discovering anything as she's living it; she already knows what she thinks, long after the fact, which takes any tension out at the knees. vast swaths of time are covered in a few sentences, which is fine, except she seems to skip anything interesting (such as the harkers, who are mentioned all of once; they are not the ones who kill dracula, so why not cut that reference and just have oc vampires? hello?). the combination of emotional distance and diagnostic language made it impossible for me to be drawn in. also, reviews have greatly underplayed the flowery ridiculousness of the prose. "liquid rage pooled in my stomach and lit up my face" has lived in my mind rent-free for a month.

[thrythlind]

For those interested, it's on my Patreon viewable by all members, paid or otherwise.

I definitely hope I'm doing right by these characters.

My brain works oddly...

Original idea: Werewolf vs Slasher where they each are monsters that mostly target terrible people and are manipulated into fighting each other by some evil entity.

The Responsible Catalyst: I need a third character to meet the two characters independently before they fight.

End Result: Light lesbian flirting love-triangle/polycule in the works... and all three of the leads have names beginning with "L".