DRACULAS (A Novel of Terror)

by J. A. Konrath

  To recap, here are the characters/draculas we’re following:

  Blake: Mort dracula/my pregnant couple in the maternity ward Adam and Stacie Murray

  Joe: Oasis dracula/Nurse Jenny (Randall’s ex-wife)

  Jeff: Benny the Clown dracula/Randall the Lumberjack

  Paul: Dr. Lanz dracula/Clayton “Deputy Dawg”, Shanna’s boyfriend

  As we get close to launching into this, I’m finding it a challenge to coordinate everyone’s movement and the timing of the outbreak. As Paul pointed out, this is going to take a little more forethought if we don’t want to do major rewrites at the end (I don’t - :).

  I think it’s a smart thing to divide this book out by hour increments. It’ll make it easier on us keeping things straight and also be a cool thing for readers since this is essentially written in real time.

  Here’s a basic outline through the start of Hour 3, totally up for debate and changing and input, but just to get us going. Please let me know what you think…if everyone is good on this outline through 9 chapters, let’s start writing…

  HOUR 1

  Ch.1 — (WRITTEN) Mortimer’s POV receives skull, bites himself, convulses.

  Ch.2 — (WRITTEN)Shanna’s POV riding with Mort to the hospital.

  HOUR 2

  Ch.3 — (WRITTEN) Jenny’s POV: ER massacre, ending with Benny the Clown, Oasis’ mother, and other ER patients killed by Mort (5 dead), and Oasis, Lanz, and the ambulance paramedic bitten/infected. Mort has run off into the hospital.

  Ch.4 (LANZ-PAUL) — Massacre aftermath (brief downtime). I think this should be written in Lanz’ infected POV. At first, he’s okay, he’s barking orders. For all he knows, this is some kind of outbreak. Get the dead into the morgue. Get CDC on the horn. Quarantine those who were bitten (paramedic/Oasis). He’ll talk with them. Call the sheriff’s department. He ingested some blood foam, but wasn’t bitten. By end of this chapter, perhaps while he’s examining Oasis, he’s becoming a dracula, and that should be a blast to write.

  Ch.5(RANDALL-JEFF) what I’m thinking is, he limps outside to his truck and gets one of his huge chainsaws or axes or whatever (go nuts on this), and then returns while the ER is dealing with the aftermath/cleanup and goes off to find Mortimer dracula who fled the ER into the rest of the hospital chasing the softball players — Randall gets himself into another wing. This is a short chapter…Jeff think about where you want Randall when outbreak reaches critical mass. This is our first intro to him in his POV, too, so we should probably get a sense of how he feels about Jenny.

  Ch.6(JENNY-JOE) she’s assisting with helping the ER wounded, and maybe by the end of this she sees the changes that are happening in the infected and runs off into some distant part of the hospital to hide. Short chapter

  Ch.7(MORGUE/OUTBREAK-BLAKE) Just before all hell breaks loose, nurse Winslow in the morgue, and the doors start rattling. Oh shit. The dead are back as draculas, the injureds’ metamorphoses is complete, and it’s a free for all. I could see us combining POV’s in this chapter, showing Lanz, Oasis, Mort and others going berserk, taking out entire wings, drinking from blood bags, etc., maybe cutting the power). I can write most of this, but would love to have short bits from Oasis, Lanz, and Benny the Clown to incorporate.

  Note — the trick is realizing there are several stages building up to full scale draculas running amok: 1st, just Mort, and his ER rampage; then the rampage of about 10 draculas who Mort infected; then, when their victims come alive, it’s like 40 or 50 and we’re off.

  HOUR 3

  Ch.8(PREGNANT COUPLE — BLAKE) This just introduces them. They hear chaos all around them. She’s in early stages of labor.

  Ch.9 Arrival of Clayton fuck’n Theel. He’s come to pick up Shanna (who’s somewhere hiding in the hospital by this point and hasn’t been answering her cell), but something’s wrong…the hospital’s dark, he hears screaming going on inside. Earlier he heard a call about an ER disturbance but this is clearly serious. In he goes. Probably with some ridiculous gun.

  Honestly, I think after chapter 9 we’re truly set up to play around with our characters. And keep in mind that the 40+ dracula outbreak hasn’t arrived yet.

  So, to take it to the next stage, Joe writes chapter 6

  I’ll write 7 and 8

  Jeff writes 5

  Paul writes 4 and 9

  Everyone also write a scene with your draculas becoming draculas. Joe, I can’t remember, are you writing Oasis or another child? I remember something about a blind girl and her seeing eye dog becoming a dracula and turning on her, but that just sounded mean, even for you ;), which means I hope you write it.

  Two more things…re: outside help coming to the hospital. We establish it’s in the middle of nowhere (as it truly is in Durango where I live) and I think it’d be cool if the sherrifs deputies (like 6 or 7) showed up during hour 3 or 4, and got themselves wiped out in the parking lot while the draculas were slashing tires, so then no one comes for awhile, and when they do, a respectable perimeter is set up. I just don’t think there is any way we can make it that no word gets out that something terrible is going down. BUT…cell phones stay jammed, even after power is lost.

  When this round of chapters is in, Joe and I can go through and smooth everything out, and we’ll see where we are. In the meantime, I’ll also try to put together a good hospital map, and float around a timeline for the rest of the book with major beats…sound good?

  As I worked on this today, I realized we aren’t going to reach a point where we all just go off and write in isolation for 15K words. I think we’re all going to have to sort of address the same period of time concurrently and stay in constant contact, making sure everything jives before moving on. Should be challenging and fun.

  Could I get a best guess of when you guys could get Joe and I these 1st round of chapters? Sorry for the delay in getting this going, but I think we’re ready to roll now. Should be a blast.

  Peace!

  Blake

  • • •

  Okay, I just did a fer-real LOL. Mortimer crouched, then leapt after them, soaring five meters into the breezeway. As the doors slid closed, Jenny heard the most God-awful screaming and Benny the Clown shouting, “No! I’m getting bitten! Again!”

  Paul

  • • •

  I just turned the gist of this into a Word file (“Timeline”) for the drop box so it will be easier to access.

  Haven’t read it yet.

  This comes at a pretty good time for me. Looking forward to digging in.

  Paul

  * * *

  August 16, 2010

  Thanks, Blake! Looks like you’ve been working your ass off on this!

  I’m having dinner with Mr. Konrath on Wednesday, and we’re going to work out the relationship between our dating characters. So I’ll probably have my chapter done shortly after that, probably on Friday.

  Jeff

  * * *

  August 17, 2010

  This is a really great opening.

  By my count, here’s who’s contaminated by the end of what’s written:

  Mortimer

  EMT (bitten)

  Oasis (bitten)

  Oasis’s mom (dead)

  Benny (dead)

  Dr. Lanz (tasted bloody foam)

  Softball #1 (assumed wounded?)

  Softball #2 (assumed wounded?)

  (I added a line to the bottom of pg 16 to cover Lanz tasting some of Mort’s bloody foam.)

  I’ll have Winslow do triage and Lanz start treating who he can. The softballers will die which will mean 4 in the morgue. I can bring a few more victims in from the floors to raise the total contaminated to 10. Since Lanz’s inoculum will be the smallest, I’ll make him the last to turn at the end of the chapter.

  Any additions, suggestions, corrections?

  Paul

  • • •

  Paul this sounds great…

  Re: dead v. wounded…what about having the softballers massively wounded. For some re
ason, overweight vampires in softball uniforms strike me as pretty terrifying. But if Mortimer could have killed four others elsewhere and they’re brought to the ER, that would raise the dead count to 6 and make for an appropriately loud number of dead in the morgue lockers.

  Additionally, I would hit these points in your chapter for setup purposes…Mortimer is missing now in the hospital. You might mention Lanz seeing Randall limping off into the hospital carrying a chainsaw (love this image). Joe’s Jenny chapter and Jeff’s Randall chapter, which directly follow this one, can deal with Jenny trying to stop Randall but by God he’s gonna take care of this. An important moment b/c they’ll be separated and trying to get back together I would think. I would end this chapter with Lanz turning and maybe noticing others turning. One character we should keep track of is Shanna. Perhaps Lanz, still fighting the change in himself, scares her and she takes off. And if you could have Lanz send Winslow off to the morgue to make sure the dead were properly stowed away, that will set up my next chapter. Can’t wait to read this!

  I’ll start outlining the outbreak chapter to send around.

  Blake

  * * *

  August 18, 2010

  Spitballing here:

  Is Mort going to be the alpha dracula, with some influence over the others? If so, Lanz, with his ego, might want to challenge that after things get rolling. (After all, it’s my hospital.) Might be a good plot complication - everything’s going the draculas’ way when there’s an attempted coup.

  Paul

  • • •

  I like Lanz trying to become alpha dracula, but let’s remember these things are feral with only rudimentary thought processes—think Matheson’s Born of Man and Woman, but not as smart.

  I just did a minor polish on what we have so far, tweaking and fixing some repetitive words. I’m meeting with Jeff tonight to talk about our characters’ interactions.

  I don’t think this will take as much coordination as Blake does. As long as the major beats are down (when the cops come, when the electricity goes out, etc.) we should be able to write four relatively self-contained stories.

  Mine will be Jenny the nurse searching for her ex-husband, Randy, and trying to save as many survivors as possible. She’ll start with the pediatric wing. Her nemesis is Oasis, the girl.

  Paul is writing for Clayton, Shanna, and Lanz. Clayton’s goals will be to find Shanna, and kill as many draculas as possible. This is the end-of-the-world scenario he’s been preparing for since his dad built a bomb shelter and taught him about survival.

  Blake is doing the pregnant couple, in the maternity ward. It would make sense that Moorecook wants to make a dracula army, but babies wouldn’t really play a part in that. So he and his brood would use infants for food. I’d guess that Blake’s heroes would try to prevent that.

  Jeff’s lumberjack, Randall, will be searching for Jenny. Perhaps a side quest will have him trying to turn the electricity back on—he’s a handyman-type. He’ll eventually have a confrontation with Clayton, which should be an important scene because if either of them spill any blood during their tussle, the draculas will sniff them out.

  I’m thinking 15k words each. We could conceivably finish our sections by the end of the month, then string it together. Remember to write in your own named files, not in the DRACULAS 1.3 file.

  This is going to be fun. And let’s pile on the Gran Guignol. This is the anti-Twilight, and a chance to really let loose our inner gorehounds.

  Joe

  • • •

  Paul — I was going to say pretty much what Joe said—let’s try it but make sure we keep these draculas on a single-minded, low-functioning level. Mort is the head dracula, since he was bitten by the original skull and as a result will undergo some interesting changes the more yummy blood he gulps down. But let’s see where the power struggle takes us. I’ll keep an eye on Lanz’ progression through the hospital as you write him and we’ll have our draculas collide.

  Blake

  • • •

  As I said, just spitballing - if it don’t stick to the wall, we leave in on the floor.

  Paul

  • • •

  All - I just dropped the morgue scene in chapter 7 into the box. I was thinking that chapter could handle Winslow’s pov, along with all our draculas on the loose, so feel free to add Oasis, Lanz, and Benny the Clown pov’s into that word doc.

  Blake

  * * *

  August 19, 2010

  As I’m writing I find I need basic info — like where we are and last names. (unless I missed something.)

  Where IS Blessed Crucifixion?

  I gave Jenny “Bolton” as a placeholder surname. I’d guess Randall’s is the same.

  Kurt Lanz

  Clay Theel

  Mortimer Moorecook

  Nurse Winslow

  what about Shanna?

  Paul

  • • •

  Sorry…that went out prematurely. I spotted Durango in chapter 1 (long time since I read it). But people often refer to each other by last names, so…

  Paul

  • • •

  Paul, effin’ loved your scene. Black humor, great characters, A few quick suggestions.

  1. Can the paramedic also say, “I need a tetnus shot. And rabies. And antiserum. You see that goddamn guy? Fucking give me every shot you’ve got.”

  2. Jenny tells him “I’m waiting for my ex-husband.” Randall is coming back with a chainsaw, to escort Jenny to the pediatrics ward to protect the kids. That is going to be Randy and Jen’s story arc—barricading themselves in the children’s wing—and I think Jen should think of it almost immediately. Maybe she should insist to Lanz to evacuate the hospital, and he says something like, “Evacuate where? We’re in the middle of Bumblefuck, Hickville. I’m supposed to march 234 patients out into the woods?”

  That gives us a patient number, reinforces that they can’t get away, and tells Lanz where Jenny will be when he becomes a dracula and decided to eject her himself.

  Joe

  • • •

  And just to clarify:

  No one writes or edits or corrects anyone else’s section without specific permission from the writer. We’ll all do a final edit when we put this together. But for the first few drafts, let’s all make suggestions, but no rewriting.

  And when you do a second draft, save it numerically. Paul 1.0, Paul 1.1, Paul 1.2, etc. Get used to doing a new draft every time you make a change or an addition. We’ll all be reading each other, and may need to go back to earlier drafts and lift stuff from them. Keeping the drafts separate will make it easier.

  Joe

  • • •

  I should be able to fling my first chapter into the dropbox sometime tomorrow, with another one by Sunday. Thus far, I’ve had a lot of fun justifying the preposterous idea that Randall is actually going to limp out of the hospital to get a chainsaw from his truck. He acts impulsively, realizes quickly that he’s acting impulsively, but refuses to back down from a task once he’s started, even as he thinks “Y’know, the hospital security probably isn’t going to want to let me back inside with a chainsaw in my hands.” This is a large part of why he and Jenny are no longer married.

  Jeff

  • • •

  Nice! Looking forward.

  Blake

  • • •

  Chap 4 is pretty much done. It ends with Oasis and the EMT becoming draculas and killing the LPN while Lanz runs and hides in the supply room. Where those two go from there I don’t know.

  I don’t have a sense for what Shanna is doing in all this.

  As requested, I added some Lanz to Blake’s Chap. 7. He’s still in the supply room. Here is where he thinks he can beat it but fails miserably — he breaks out and starts chomping. I think Randall has to come through the ER while Lanz has locked himself away.

  Paul

  • • •

  Paul - can’t wait to read your new stuff. Love that Lanz runs and h
ides again.

  Re: Shanna, I would say it’s totally up to you since Clayton Theel is going to come into the hospital looking for her, which I suppose is his first motivation - find Shanna. Perhaps she needs a short chapter where she has lingered in the ambulance, trying to pull herself together, then walks into the ER when all hell has broken loose. Maybe Moorecook chases her out into another part of the hospital? I guess it really depends on what you’re going to do with Shanna and Clayton for the core of your story. Do they have a phone conversation in the ambulance while he’s on his way where she pretty much breaks up with him? Pushing him to search for her even harder?