Nathaniel Brehmer's Blog: A Traveller's Guide to Nightmaria

Let me start off by officially saying that Kane has been completely finalized and is ready for publication. After years of talking this book has finally, officially arrived. It's a little weird to finally see it in front of me, and to be honest it kind of changes things,but I think it's important to go with these feelings as a writer... I would never want to force myself into something simply because I thought others wanted it, if my heart was not in it.

But first, let's talk about Kane. It's been five years since I wrote the ending of Sunrise, the third book in the American Vampires trilogy. Ever since then, I have been developing Kane in my head. I knew that one day I would revisit that character and examine where he fit into this world remade (or unmade). Initially, I thought a short story might suffice. I'd catch up with Kane for a night and see what he had been up to, and it would serve as a nice little epilogue.

Well, it was a nice thought, but like so many things, it grew. I decided a novella would really be the way to go with this story, after I thought about it. As time went by after completing the trilogy, I had no idea what to do without those characters. I embarked on other journeys, but it always felt like there was still a hole. Yes, I thought Kane's journey warranted some space and time, but the truth was that I also, personally, needed to go back into that world and write something again. So a novella was planned.

And a novella was written. When I completed the first draft of Kane in February 2011, that's what it was. It was a nice, quick-paced niblet of a book that would stand somewhere between 100-150 pages. Around the length of the second American Vampires book. It seemed fair, especially having been conceived as a short story, and I stepped back from the first draft and moved onto other things (I was also drafting all of the Nightmaria books at the time.)

With the first draft of Kane written, I still felt unfulfilled, I came up with many ambitious plans to write in the American Vampires mythology, even managed drafts of a few of them (Better Off Red and Over the Red Rainbow) and have not altogether abandoned the other ideas. So I kept talking about Kane, kept promising, and time still went by and the promises were more and more empty. So as soon as I put out Bully for publication, my first book in two years, I had a sudden, determined thought: Kane will be published, and it will be published soon.

And as it was thought, so has it been. Frankly, I'm amazed it happened in this amount of time without being delayed again because something happened to that little novella as soon as I began to work on the second draft: it became a novel. The final, completed version of Kane, the book you will soon hold in your hands will average out to around 300 pages. That is 200 pages longer than the first draft and something that has never happened to me while writing before.

It is not a massive book, it is in fact probably just the length it was meant to be all along, I was simply too lazy to get it there. It is a deeper, more complex (and much, much tighter) narrative than it had been initially. The characters have more to do and the plot, as it were, has expanded exponentially while keeping consistent throughout. There are some definite, absolute surprises in this book. It has grown much bigger, established a larger universe around Kane himself than even the American Vampires books went into. It is altogether a more adult book than the books of the American Vampires. As much as it is about catching up with old friends, it is also about telling a very different story with genuine surprises (I know they'll surprise you, because they surprised me.) It's not only a book I'm proud of, but honestly a book I'm much prouder of than I expected to be.

The true success of Kane, having now well and truly finished it, is a personal one: it filled the hole. For five years there has been the nagging, burning desire to return to the stories and characters and world of American Vampires. A very deep need. I don't have it anymore. Yes, there will be American Vampires: The Series, don't worry, but that's an entirely different thing. That's an old story in a new format and completely different than approaching a new story and furthering that universe altogether. Yes, I'm sure you'll be seeing the world of American Vampires again, with all good hope you'll be seeing it on the screen very soon. But I'm already backtracking on an entire earlier blog post by saying, "don't expect a return on the page anytime too soon."

Kane was an exciting return to some old characters, and some very new ones. It might be the most fun I've ever had writing a book. But, simply put, it filled the hole. It was a revisit to that world and, in some ways, the only one I'll ever need. I'm not sure what else there is to say about the world these characters inhabit. Yes, some things were built up, and some things left unanswered, and very intentionally. No story like this is ever abandoned, but it is left to gestate for awhile. I promised a new vampire book series, a collection, you might still see these things... but I think, in the end, if you read this book, you'll feel as satisfied as I do.

The vampires will return someday, but until then, walk through Kane's adventure with him, and then leave the man in peace. Believe me, he's earned it.

The teaser for "American Vampires: The Series" is out today and I hope everyone gives it a look. You can find it on my author page and here's the link to view it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6E7So...

For those of you who don't yet know, American Vampires, my first book and the first in the American Vampires trilogy, is the basis for a web-series that I will be directing very soon.

The story follows a heroin addict named Delilah who, in an attempted suicide, is made into a vampire and must adapt to the idea of living forever after planning to die. At the same time, a vampire believing himself to be a messiah makes plans to usher in a new world order, push humans off the food chain and let vampires have their day in the (metaphorical) sun. The characters are some of the closest to my heart that I have ever written and I have been writing them for years.

A web-series is the perfect format, I feel, for me to tell this story on next to no budget whatsoever. It is small, yes, but it is still character driven and episodic. Each chapter of the book felt, to me, like a self-contained story, and so this new series seems a perfect fit. There will be changes between the two, I assure you. The book and the web series are different things, but they do compliment each other. Pretty well, too, I think.

I don't want to retread old ideas with this series. I want to examine vampires in new ways that I hope are relatively complex. When I initially wrote American Vampires, I was a much younger person, but I still believe in the core idea. There's so much in fiction exploring whether or not it is in human nature to kill. With vampires there is no question. It is in their nature to kill, and there are even more interesting questions if you just start there. If you must commit murder to survive, does it make you a bad person?

The psychotic tendencies of every character give me ample opportunity to explore gray areas I've always found interesting. There are two opposing forces at work in the book, and now the web-series. One preaches oppression, one preaches repression, and both of them are wrong. Sure, you'll find influences from Buffy in American Vampires, but you'll find just as many influences from Natural Born Killers and A Clockwork Orange. The things I'm trying to explore within American Vampires are stories you don't need a Michael Bay (or at times even Roger Corman) budget to tell. It's about exploring people and what this one thing (being a vampire) is like for different individuals. How do they sleep after a night of blood-drinking? Some can't. And some sleep very well.

All of this is what American Vampires means to me and it's what I can't wait to reveal to and unleash upon the viewers of this new series. To the loyal readers, a million thanks for carrying my little myth this far, because a new era begins right now.

It's been a long time coming, but my eighth novel, titled Bully, is available as of today.

It's not the book I expected to be published just after Nightmaria. I'd talked a lot about Kane, and I assumed that would be it, if not Wake Up Charlie. Both of those books are just around the corner, but somehow the timing felt right for Bully, even though it was written years after the other two.

When looking at the chronology of books (American Vampires, Requiem, The New World, Sunrise, In the Dark, The Pumpkin Patch, Nightmaria) Bully felt like the next step.

It's a departure in a couple ways. While there are a few lengthy bits of third-person narration, the whole of Bully is technically written in the first-person, which I've never kept up outside of a short story before. But as soon as I had written the first page or two with the character of Aaron, I knew that this book had to be his story, in his own words.

Bully is also not a horror novel. Nor is fantasy, nor science fiction. It is a very realistic book that I hope will feel as real as possible to the reader. It is not meant to give you shivers and keep you awake on cold autumn nights, but at times it is, I think, the most uncomfortable, disquieting thing I've ever written. For anyone who has ever experienced abuse themselves, I will be up front about the trigger warnings. This book does not shy away from the topic it covers and makes no attempt to glorify anything. It is about young adults and perhaps about a coming of age, but it is not a young adult novel. Yet I believe it is a story that needs to be heard. The idea had sat in the back of my head, and news story after news story about the state of bullying today, the rise in anxiety, apathy, and even sociopathy in American youth wasn't something I could ignore anymore.

And so I had to write a book to tell people who had suffered through this, who had suffered abuse at the hands of a bully (whoever their bullies may be, children or adults, family or friends, lovers or ex-lovers) that recovery is always possible, and that they are not alone.

Because they don't seem to be hearing it much of anywhere else.

I've been away longer than I realized and it's important to me to keep this updated, so I make amends with a gift to the reader.

Here is the opening chapter of my most recent journey, "Foreverotica." It is the second book in a trilogy that began with "Calliope" which is yet unpublished, but this book will be a voluminous dark fantasy that while in no way unconnected will surely stand on it's own. So here you go:

Richard Ambry couldn't say why, exactly, but he was terrified for his life the moment he heard the knock at his door.

He was disoriented, woken from sleep, and stared across his flat with blurry eyes. He did not want to wipe the sleep from them. He did not want to stand. And more than anything he did not want to open that door. None of this made the knocking stop. It was cold knuckle on hard wood, there were few more unsympathetic sounds. Finally, he swallowed. Dry. Richard was cold and shaking and he began to feel sick. But there would be no running. Not from this. He spoke slowly and softly, as if remembering how, "who... who's there?"

Whatever it was on the other side of the door, if it was in fact someone, did not give a vocal reply. They simply continued to knock.

Richard looked down, said a silent prayer, and went to the door. He closed his eyes, grabbed the cold steel of the knob. Even though a booming voice inside his skull bellowed for him not to, he looked out and opened the door.

Nobody there. An empty hallway, its emptiness so much more amplified by the expectance of a someone or even a something. And yet, nothing. So he closed the door.

It took no more than a second and a cold chill to realize there was someone inside his flat with him the moment he closed the door.

He turned. In the chair by the bed, there sat a young man. In his twenties, Richard would guess, although gauging age had never been his strong suit and had gotten him into trouble on more than one occassion in the (increasingly distant) past. The man was young, he could guess that much, or at least he looked it. Dressed in a fine, white Italian suit. He was tall and thin, and his eyes, cold and gray.

Richard was surprised not only to find the intruder but, doubly so, not to know him. "Who are you?" he said, confusion washing away the fear in his voice. "I know all of my assassins by name."

"You live here by yourself."

"What?"

"Do you live here by yourself?" the man said again, with a directness only the young possess.

Richard nodded. "Yes..."

The young man simply made a clicking sound in the back of his throat. "Do you like it?"

"I don't... understand."

"I suppose it suits your needs," the young man said, glancing around, studying the furniture, the books, running a finger along the armrest of the chair, as if each of these things held a vital clue to the man possessing them. "It suits your needs, all right," he said again. "Unmarried. No children. No friends. Be hell for me, but for you it's... I don't know. Quaint."

"Who. Are. You."

"Sorry. Manners have a tendency to escape me. The name's Englehart. Caluwyn Englehart."

"Englehart," Richard echoed, struck by the familiarity of the name. "Good God. You're Benedict's boy."

"How right you are."

"Then you are an assassin, after all."

"Please," Englehart said with a hint of distaste. "I am so very much more than that."

"Such as?"

"You know that old saying, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same?'"

"Of course."

"Well," Englehart said, the temperature--it seemed to Richard--dropping five degrees every time he spoke, "I am here to do everything in my power to prevent that, and I'm afraid it starts with you. I'm here to take charge of change, to grab what has happened to the world before it has time to think about even trying to return to anything that has come before, and keep it rolling. Until what is left no longer resembles anything that used to stand as truth and reason."

Richard took a deep breath. Somehow, the closer he came to the moment of death, the more the terror seemed to subside. "And this has to start with me?"

"As it happens, yes."

"Why?"

"Maybe if more people had asked themselves why we would never have found ourselves in this mess to begin with. But here we are, so what does it matter? You're cursed with knowledge, Richard. Don't burden yourself with anymore."

"The other members, the other men and women of the Kalla Sho'El, they'll hear about this. They'll know what you've done."

"Don't worry," Englehart said, pale eyes shining through the darkness. "I'm coming for them too."

Terror bled back into Richard's face. His life was one thing, the world's another. "And you know what that would cause? Have you even stopped to think about the repercussions of what you plan to do?"

"Oh yes. It will only further something that has already been set in motion. A ticking bomb, reignited. But it has to be done." He smiled at Richard, wide and gleaming, like an excited child before he said, "I have to start with a blank canvas, before I can begin to paint."

Silence for a long time. Richard wondered how much magic was left in his old body. If anything he started now would even have time to look like a fight, or would just be an old man fooling himself. And far too late.

That smile came again and told him, no, there would be no fight. It appeared only as a warning, and quickly faded again. "I have one more thing," Englehart said. "Just a curiosity before I reach the end of my visit."

"Yes?" Richard's voice was weaker now.

"Did you ever meet her?"

"Who?" A half-second before dumb realization as he caught Englehart's look. "Oh. You mean her. Calliope." He finally forced himself to sit down, to give in, and let his ending be conversational. "No. Nobody did. Nobody had seen her for centuries, not since she'd put together the Kalla Sho'El in the first place."

"Well," Englehart said, "given recent events, I'd wager somebody must have seen her. We must not be the among the select few who got a glimpse before she'd gone off again." He paused here, looking out the window, off into the night. "I would have loved to see her, just once. Before the end. She's the reason, after all. For poetry and songs and smiles. For everything. And nobody ever gets to know."

"That's why we exist," Richard said. "That's what the Kalla Sho'El is. Not a secret society, the secret society. Built to protect the only secret that's ever mattered. Because that's how it has to be. It's the only secret that needs to be kept."

"Is it? Sometimes I wonder."

Richard's brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

"I should really get on with killing you," Englehart said. "I've wasted much too much of your time."

"How?" Richard asked, weak. "How are... are you going to do it?"

Englehart simply shook his head. "You've been a generous host. I'll spare you the pain of knowing."

And with that, the end began.

Okay. There's a lot going on and I realized a desperate need to create a post in which I could talk about all of these amazing things under one roof. So let's just get started. The first thing, and the primary focus of the upcoming year, is getting my independent feature film "Julie" off the ground. The official synopsis is this: "Julie follows the story of a teenage girl who has begun to realize she is different from her classmates. As she learns to accept these differences, students start disappearing left and right. But when a boy notices her for the first time, Julie must choose between the normal life she never thought she could have and becoming the monster she knows in her heart she was born to be."

The official facebook page has gotten nearly 60 likes in less than a week, hit a reach of 700, although I would like to get at least 100 likes soon. The article about the film and what I intend to do with it, published on HorrorBid.com, has already amassed 7,000 readers. This feels incredible and makes me hopeful. I believe this thing is something special and I want to make it something special. I want Julie to be a fun, funny, scary coming-of-age feminist slasher movie and I'm aware that's hard to sell, but even more aware that it shouldn't be. The kickstarter will start very soon and there will be all sorts of goodies. I'm so excited to finally be able to see the individual pieces of this puzzle so I can begin putting them together, because I truly believe the end result can be beautiful.

Now for some bad news. Wordclay.com has closed its doors and that means my first five books (American Vampires, The New World, Sunrise, Requiem and In the Dark) will be going out of print for the time being. In some ways, this is honestly a little merciful. I was young when I wrote the books, in particular American Vampires, and they feel young. But texts have already been polished and revised, and I plan to find them a new home as soon as I can.

Speaking of American Vampires, I posted via the facebook page the banner of a new surprise project called "American Vampires: The Series" which is a web-series I will begin production of in the coming months that will for the most part adapt the first book. With a few new twists and turns. It will be small, but it will also be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see this project and this world finally come to life.

Another project that has sat for too long is my comic book series, which I hold very dear to my heart, titled Bitchfight. This series follows a group of girls at a Catholic High School that is in actuality a training facility for girls with demonic powers. Each one has their own special trait, each power rooted in darkness and something they have to learn to live with, control, and ultimately use to empower themselves. Yes, there's Whedonistic inspiration. How dare I also wish to write a story about empowered young women. Anyway, I have written 50 issues of this comic book, so it's about time to make it a thing. There have been a couple near-misses in terms of artists, but I have a feeling a hit is right around the corner.

And then there's the Nightmaria radio drama I plan to produce in the next couple months. Or movie for blind people, whichever you prefer. This is exciting for me in a couple ways. One, response to Nightmaria has been very positive. Two, that's good because there are four more books to come. Because of this, I want to build the audience as much as I possibly can. Three, I have never written a radio drama before, and I want to try my hand at as many different types of writing as I possibly can. I'll be looking out for voice talents very shortly.

I'll also be directing a short film in January and will hopefully do one or two more scattered throughout the year. As 2013 marks the 35th anniversary of Halloween, I plan to do a celebratory book on the making of the franchise and already have some key interviews lined up. So hopefully that one stays on track, I think it would be an awesome thing to deliver next October.

As for books, I plan on delivering some of those over the course of the year too (I am posting this on goodreads, after all.) First I plan to publish a zombie novel I wrote about a girl who has the worst 17th birthday possible, titled Wake Up Charlie. Then, I plan to deliver the long-promised American Vampires spinoff novel Kane, which follows the titular character on a very dark and unpleasant journey that forces him to realize things about both himself and the world around him that he has needed to realize for a very long time. American Vampires fans, if you exist, I hope you enjoy it because I think it turned out pretty good. Finally, around next Christmas I plan to publish Cities of Ash: Nightmaria Book Two. It will be over twice the size of the first book, so get reading that now if you haven't already. As always, I appreciate the support to a degree that, if I tried to vocalize, would only come out in a stupid mumble.

And that is why I am very glad the world didn't end. I have way too many things to do. I hope everyone is willing to join me on this quest, because I'll get lost if I try and go it alone.

Silly title, yes, but sort of true. This post is for your Christmas season benefit, and a shameless plug for myself. Below I'll be posting everything I've published to date and where you can find it.

I encourage people to check out more info on the books themselves on my author profile, as I give more in-depth descriptions, and there's a lot I cover in the other blog posts too.

First off, American Vampires (first book in the American Vampires trilogy) follows a young woman who becomes a vampire during a suicide attempt. She has attracted the attention of a morose vampire who hates his kind and himself. He shows her his world and is horrified at how well she adapts to her new condition. It becomes a journey for both of them to determine how much humanity they have left, if any at all, as they hide in the shadows, a race long forgotten by mankind. But all that may change when a vampire claiming to be a messiah takes it upon himself to usher in a new world order and reclaim the title of earth's dominant species. available in print at wordclay.com for $15.95.
(http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/Boo...)

And at as an ebook at smashwords.com for $3.99 (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...)

The New World: American Vampires II is available in print at wordclay.com for $11.92. This one expands on the themes I began to explore in the first and starts to build a much larger story, focusing on the imminent outing of vampires into public consciousness and a virus created to wipe them out before the country breaks into panic.
(http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/Boo...)

Sunrise: American Vampires III is the conclusion to the trilogy and follows the rise of two warring camps of vampires in the middle of a war already raging between vampires and humans. Two sides led by re-awakened beings predetermined long ago to determine the fate of the vampire race. Available in print at wordclay.com for $14.50
(http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/Boo...)

And there's always the option of buying the trilogy omnibus, all three books under one roof, in revised texts with additional vampire short stories.$21.92.
(http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/Boo...)

Requiem is a romantic fantasy focusing on an immortal named Gregory who has been alive so long he can't entirely remember who he is or where he came from. He knows he cannot die, but he can't remember why. At the same time, a rising singer named Amy begins having dreams of a life that isn't hers. A boy and girl of another time. She encounters a passion that could only exist in dreams, but that feels to her--somehow--entirely real. Available in print at wordclay.com for $11.92.
(http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/Boo...)

In the Dark is a collection of short stories, mostly horror. From vampires to werewolves to porcelain dolls, to the most hidden desires and needs of the human heart. Available in print at wordclay.com for $17.67.
(http://www.wordclay.com/BookStore/Boo...)

The Pumpkin Patch follows the events that unfold over the course of Halloween when something awakens in the sleepy Maine town of Kingston Falls. Something that has been anxiously waiting for a long time. It makes itself known to ensure once and for all that Halloween will never be scorned, never be laughed at, and above all never be ignored ever again. Available in hardcover at lulu.com for $21.95.(http://www.lulu.com/shop/nathaniel-br...)
As well as in e-book for $2.99 (http://www.lulu.com/shop/nathaniel-br...)
Also available for Nook at Barnesandnoble.com (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-p...)
And in the iBookstore, both for $9.99.

Last but absolutely not least, there's Nightmaria. The first in a five-volume fantasy series, it follows a painter named Jack. A painter lacking inspiration until he begins having vivid dreams of another world. When night falls his paintings serve as a gateway into that world, and he is soon led through the doorway into Nightmaria, a strange and terrifying place in which he has a destiny not yet known to him. At the same time, a young boy from that world finds himself trapped in the equally alien land of New York. As creatures of various shapes and shadows choose their targets, Jack and others must band together to determine their own fate. Available in paperback for $24.95.

At amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Nightmaria-Nath...)
barnesandnoble.com (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/night...)
As well as booksamillion.com, publishamerica.com, towerbooks.com, alibris.com, and numerous other places. I've even spotted a couple on ebay.

That's what I've got for now. Over the Red Rainbow is coming soon and I will either update this post when it hits or create a new one. Thanks everyone for the support and I hope you enjoy the books.

So, if you've read any of my books, chances are it was American Vampires. All three of you. Of the things I've done, it's the most popular, so I figured I'd take a little time to talk about it here, and we'll have a little chat on where it's been and--most importantly--where it's going.

For those of you who don't know, you can hear me say pretty much the same thing in the introduction post, but I'll reiterate here: in 2008, I published the first novella I ever completed, American Vampires. It was very much a beginner's work, and rough upon the initial release. It's a better book now, but still certainly the work of a teenager, although I can't help but look back on it with fondness and I know it has its appreciative fans. As my writing developed and I got better at it, I couldn't stop thinking about those characters. Couldn't stop thinking about what happened after that ending.

And so The New World: American Vampires II and Sunrise: American Vampires III came to be. I'm still very proud of American Vampires as a trilogy. As one solid work in three volumes, I think it holds together pretty well. The third book was published in 2009, and I felt changed once I finished writing it. The characters had written themselves to that ending. The story had come full circle. I had spent the last couple years with them, and even though they were fictional, it felt pretty weird to think about moving on without them.

Although I did, for a time. But after a year or so of new writing, new projects, I kept thinking back on it. Couldn't stop thinking about those characters. Couldn't stop thinking about what happened after that ending.

Now, in my humble opinion a trilogy is a trilogy and it's a commitment that means something to both a writer and a reader. It would also look damn foolish to go back on. So I am not taking this time to announce American Vampires 4.

But I am saying (although many people have gathered it just from hearing me talk) that I am not done with that world. It's an obvious point that I've grown up a lot since I wrote American Vampires. It was the first thing I had ever written. I was seventeen. I have matured a great deal (as a writer and otherwise) and I'd like to think that some of those characters (immortal as some may be) have matured with me. So no American Vampires 4.

But here's what's in the cards:

Full disclosure, when I was working on Sunrise, the third book, I knew that there would be one particular character who's story would not be able to come to a close within the pages of the final chapter, and so I knew he would one day carry on his adventures in his own book. That character was a vampire hunter named Roland Kane. A hardened, cynical man and one of the few prominent human characters in the series. Kane had a lot of untold backstory, and more than that, at the end of the trilogy he still had a lot of lessons to learn. He had discovered that (maybe) not every vampire was a monster, and this went against his entire world viewpoint. This, I thought, was the perfect jumping off point for his own story.

The first draft of Kane was completed in February of 2011. After a couple more drafts, it is nearly complete and the plan is for it to be out next year. I think I owe it to the people who have read the series since its beginning and any new readers who have come in along the way. Of course, I also think the novel stands fine on its own if you've never read the trilogy, because the last thing I'd want is to put out a book that people found alienating. So I can safely say that Kane is on its way. It took some time, though, because I wanted to make sure it was exactly the book it had to be to move this mythology forward.

In the meantime, there's a smaller but just as delicious treat on the way much sooner. As I've already mentioned, I've got an anthology of vampire stories on the way in just a short amount of time. So if anyone actually has missed that universe or those characters, here's a nice sampler to get you hungry again. Some of the stories in this collection (titled Over the Red Rainbow) are explicitly set in the world of American Vampires and some are not. I wanted to put together an entirely vampire-themed collection, but I didn't want to limit myself in any way about dealing with the idea of vampirism, so that I could deliver an anthology that--while wrapped together under a single theme--contains a lot of diversity. And I believe I've done just that.

Last, but not least, there's the future that's still yet to be written. After Kane is released next year there will still be more vampire stories to come. Although I can't say when for sure, I do have a plan (however vague.) And that plan will be big. While it was not my intention when I wrote Kane, when all is said and done it's going to serve nicely as a bridge book between the trilogy and what comes after.

That will be a book titled Snowfall, which will be the first entry in a brand-new vampire series. That's right. It won't be American Vampires, but it will be vampires, and many of them will be American. The plan right now (which hereby means it will change two or three times) is for a series of seven books centered on a character named Annabelle Kane. If you'd like to learn more about her, I'd suggest picking up Kane when it comes out.

So if you haven't read American Vampires, go ahead and get started now. The whole trilogy is still available in print at wordclay.com. The ebook is available in all formats at smashwords.com and will shortly be available in the iBookstore and on kindle and Nook. It's a short book, but if you're interested, I'd get reading because there is a whole lot more on the way.

As always, thanks to anyone who actually has read any of them. Your support means everything to me. If anyone has any questions about the series, if you're excited, or if you can't wait to tell me how much vampires blow and I should be writing about zombies, go ahead and leave a comment.

And yes, I apologize for the post's title. It's bad and I should feel bad.

Thought I'd take a few minutes to talk about the book I'm currently working on, titled Calliope.

There was a time when I was working on Nightmaria and decided "this is it, this is my one fantasy epic, and it will be my enormous final statement on the genre." Most of my work has fallen into horror, which is fine with me, although one needs to stretch their legs every once in a while.

I had never expected to try my hand at fantasy (although apparently a lot of people who know me did figure such) and when I conceived Nightmaria I thought a five-book epic fantasy series would be enough.

I was wrong.

It turns out I still have a few things to say about magic, and in particular about the magic of stories. Calliope is a very different kind of fantasy than most of what I've seen before, and most certainly a very different kind of fantasy from Nightmaria. In general, it's just a very different kind of book. I'd thought it to be an intriguing idea one day, and little more, but then I wrote the idea down. And, well, you know where it goes from there.

The basic storyline is this: a long time ago, in the early days of Ancient Greece, two sisters fell to earth. It was not their original home. They came from somewhere... else. Somewhere different. And they brought something with them. On entry to earth, one sister disappears, leaving only Calliope. Her presence brings something different to people... something new. A magic called storytelling, and those who use it well can become sorcerers. Over time, Calliope has tried to guide the truly special, the people who had become magicians of the word. Stories were the basics of magic, but from there, true magic could be learned. She tried to keep this secret. Tried to keep all of it secret, and those who knew how powerful this magic could become understood and create a secret society to protect this magic forever. They called it the Kalla Sho'El.

Now, so many centuries later, a darkness has come into the light. Prometheus, one of the first stories, older and scarred by burns, has decided to seek an end to his tortured existence. Bringing the end of magic is the only true way to destroy himself, and the power that created him. He has found others, kept alive by the same energy, who seek to bring the end as well. And the only way to destroy the magic of stories, is to find the light sister, Calliope, and kill her.

Three people, a struggling horror writer, a skinwalker--the lone survivor of an ages-old war between shapeshifters and werewolves-- and a homeless witch, have been appointed by the Kalla Sho'El to find Calliope. Find the source of the world's magic, and learn to use it, because soon--very soon--the time will come to fight. Stories, the very art of creation, must be kept alive. And these three people are the only hope they have left.

As one could probably guess, this is to be an enormous book. By the standards of my previous book, and by the standards of eyes. I have just turned and written the chapter title of the four-hundred-twentieth page.

There's a lot going on and a lot of characters to balance and I think any less than 600 pages would be a disservice to the story. And if I exist for anything, it's to service the story. There's a lot of backstory to cover in addition to everything going on, a lot of historical context as William Shakespeare, The Marquis de Sade, Cleopatra and John Milton are all characters.

As I said, it's a very strange book. But I think it can be a truly special book when all is said and done. I'm halfway through the writing of it, and eagerly looking forward to the other half. As it stands right now, I have sixteen books left finished (or at least drafted) so I can't say when this book will be out. If there was an interest in it, I would probably guess sooner rather than later.

Oh, but in addition to all the above weirdness, this book is technically a sequel to a novel I wrote titled The Seven Sisters.

So that should probably be published first.

Carry on, then. If you're interested in the idea, want to know anything more about it, about any other books, or about anything regarding writing in general, feel free to leave a comment.

Hello all.

This is my new blog. The intention is for this to be the place where any readers (I'm determined you exist out there) can come to be kept up-to-date on what is going on with me. What developments are being made to make the books I've got out there a little easier to buy, and what books are still on the way. There will, I suspect, be much to talk about on that front.

If you haven't noticed, this blog is named after Nightmaria, my latest book. The reasoning behind this is simple enough. Nightmaria is by far my most widely available book (amazon, barnes and noble, books-a-million, tower books, ebay--no joke) and not only that, the book is the first in a series of five. And I can promise you that the second book alone is almost triple the size. So this is a made-up fantasy land I intend to play around in for a good deal of time to come. I hope you join me. The weather can get kind of nasty and the people aren't much friendlier but, well, that's all part of its charm.

On that note, for the three of you who have read the book so far (oh, hell, the rest of you too), the second volume will be titled Cities of Ash, and the goal is for it to be completed and published by next Christmas. The first draft of this mammoth has been complete, but there's a lot of refining, a lot of reshaping and fleshing out. Transformations that I have no doubt will lead this beast to double in size, so be on the lookout for a great big book at the end of next year. If you'd like a small appetizer with the entree, I can arrange that too, as I'll be putting out a short story collection on kindle at the end of this year, titled Over the Red Rainbow. This will be a vampire-themed collection, and therefore it stands to reason that readers of the American Vampires trilogy may be able to point out some familiar things. A couple of the stories have been published before, most of them have not.

To talk about the old books for a second: The Pumpkin Patch is now available on Nook (the Barnes and Noble e-reader). It is also available in the iBookstore, and the hardcover can be purchased at lulu.com (and for some reason, amazon.co.uk...) American Vampires is about to make a similar transition. The ebook has been around for a while at smashwords, where it is selling very well, which is why it's about to make the leap to iBook, Nook and Kindle. So be on the lookout for all three. And Nightmaria is about to get a lot of press, so I remain hopeful there.

Of course, as this is my first blog post, you know nothing about the things I'm talking about and you know nothing about me. My name is Nathaniel Brehmer, and I am a writer. I'm very glad I did this part last. At the end of high school, I wrote a novella called American Vampires. I published it my second semester of college. Since then, I've published two sequels, as well as a short story collection (In the Dark) and three other novels (Requiem, The Pumpkin Patch, Nightmaria). I love to write. I want to be doing nothing else and I cannot wait to share all of it with you, the reader. If you still know nothing of these above books, we happen to be on goodreads. So please, check out the pages for these books, and if they sound remotely intriguing, why not check them out? If anyone actually has read American Vampires, Nightmaria, The Pumpkin Patch or any of the others, then my number one hope for this blog would be for it to become a discussion. It gets boring talking to yourself for extended periods of time (trust me) so please feel free to tell me what you liked, what you don't, and I'll tell you if you're going to have to deal with any of it in the future. As always, there's a lot more writing on the way, but for this particular piece... I've run out of things to say. I'm very hopeful about this blog, and I've honestly never been more hopeful about the future. So I think we could have a lot of fun together here, you and I. Nightmaria's a funny sort of place. It can get dangerous, and I can't promise you won't see things you'll wish you didn't. But take my hand regardless, and we'll travel together for a while. It's a strange world we're stepping into, but don't worry. I'll be your guide.