In case I haven't mentioned it before, my story in SLAY is call Message in a Vessel. Being who I am, I went all sci-fi on this one. But you're probably wondering why a vampire story.
The first thing that hit me with this anthology was the cover. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words. I needed to come up with 5,000 and I wasn't sure if I could do it. I'll be honest, vampires are not my favorite preternatural creatures. I like the ones that a less known (i.e. Project Solstice series). This cover screams of bad ass, so I couldn't resist.
The second thing that hit me about this was the timing. I had nothing better to do during the Covid-19 era other than revise, revise, and revise. I needed something new. Something that was more of a challenge. Tackling vampires was it for me.
The third thing that hit me was the types of stories they were looking for. Not only did they want stories from the African diaspora, all genres were accepted. All? REALLY? Okay then, sci-fi it is. But do I really want to do vampires in space or the whole vampires as aliens? Of course not. That's the easy way out. I wanted something different. I wanted my vampires as "natural" to our planet as possible. With that being said, there was only one way to make sure it wasn't a feeding frenzy and that was to make everyone on the planet vampires. A disease from space, perhaps? No. I wanted it specific to our planet. Low and behold, we have been surrounded by Covid-19, so why not make it evolutionary?
Ah, a story is forming! Yes!!
But with all things, we always have to be number one or we overdo it. We always seem to look down on other people whether it's intentional or not. I wanted to weave these themes into Message in a Vessel, keep it as escapist fun while still making you think about which side of "right" you want to be on. when doomsday comes. And trust me...it's coming.
Overall, I had fun writing Message in a Vessel, and I hope you have just as much fund reading it, too.
Coming October 13th. Get your pre-order copy today!
