An idea.

My good friend Teresa Geering, (of Shasta's Summer fame) had a suggestion a couple of years ago that has sort of grown on me recently.
Her brainwave was for me to put all my short stories in one book and publish it.

To be honest, I hadn't given them much thought. They were written in a mad rush when I realised that it helps to have a history of published works when trying to sell your book to a publisher or agent. Disposable pieces that would fill a specific role and then politely shrivel away into history once their job was done.

I was happy with all of them but two of them stood out from the crowd. The Ides of March about Caesar being a vampire and The Hot Gates which is the story of the 300 Spartans with a vampire twist to it.
Make no mistake, I researched them thoroughly and used real characters and timelines to fill in the background, but when they were published they stopped being essential and were promptly banished to the darker regions of my hard drive.


I wrote a third, "good one" set in a German penal battalion in the Second World War, very much along the same lines as "Division". Vampires changing Wehrmacht convicts into vampires as one of Himmler's ghastly plans to win the war. The novelette is with my mate Andi Renson, who's contemplating knocking up a set of drawings to make it into an illustrated story... when he has time, (Why oh why is time in such great demand nowadays? It's all very unfair.)

Anyway, I digress, The Idea:
Teresa's concept has now been given an injection of vigour since Johannah Frappier mentioned how easy it is to publish on Amazon Kindle. Apparently one can publish on Kindle from home, all you need is a computer and Amazon account. The money goes to you and you alone, (and Amazon and the taxman of course) and it's free!!

Well, that's how I read it the first time around anyway.

So how about this then, I write maybe two more stories about vampires, perhaps one with Alexandra the Great, (nah, too gay) or Hannibal? Now I like that idea!! Maybe have vampire elephants?? No, even better, carnivorous elephants; now that rules!!

And how about one about Troy?? Another good one there, maybe Hector is a vampire and Achilles knows his secret?? Well, something along those lines anyway. Or maybe Carthage?!?! Yes, I like that idea, Carthage is the home of another vampire plague?  Whatever, scribble them down, edit them, (or ask George to for me) and then whap 'em up on Amazon for fifty pence a download?

An anthology of vampires through the Classics!!

Any thoughts on this peeps?
Reg :-D