Why Write a Vampire Novel?

I've had a miserably anemic week, so I'm reposting our Ask the Author post on Bloodleggers.

W.J. here.  Every Friday, R.J. Robyn and I will answer your questions in this Ask the Author segment.  If you have a question for us, submit it via our question form.

This week we're answering the question, why write a vampire novel when the market is so saturated with them already?

First off, we're nuts. 

For me, I had no intentions of ever writing a vampire novel until I answered a forum question on Vamplit Writers.  One of our members asked what we all might enjoy in a vampire television series.  My answer...something similar to the Underworld or Blade series.  Then the idea of gangster vampires during a modern day prohibition on blood came to me.  Doesn't it sound cool!  Well, the idea kinda stuck with me like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth.  So I told R.J. about it.

For R.J., "the idea seemed like a good concept. The time of prohibition brought out the worst in a lot of people, and showed the failure of trying to legislate morality. I thought it would be a fascinating study of the culture to look at how the same sort of authoritative pressure put onto a different group for whom freedom is an even more basic instinct, would result in a revealing of an even darker side of an already dark and bloody culture. Prohibiton only made things worse in human culture, but we already consider the culture of vampires as a pretty dark existence (survival through murder) so how bad can "worse" be?"

And so, Bloodleggers was born.  I suppose it doesn't matter if the market is saturated with a certain subject or theme.  Heck, look at the number of detective novels out there.  We hope that our story will provide something different to vampire literature.  You be the judge.

Also want to mention that our official announcement for Bloodleggers is up on Blood Reads today.