These Vampires Don't Sparkle

Reposted from my FHS Blog

I had a good laugh when I logged on to my Fair Hero Series site today and saw a comment on my guestbook that my upcoming book, Much Ado About Russian, is a just a copy of Twilight. (pause while I chuckle again). I'm still trying to figure it out, because other than the fact that there are vampires involved, there is no similarity at all in the stories and I can't for the life of me figure out how the person who posted it could have come to that conclusion.

That leaves me with the suspicion that perhaps it was the member of some Team Edward or Team Jacob contingent coming to show their loyalty to the Stephanie Myer series. I've got nothing against Twilight. I've even read the books. I'm glad for Ms Meyer that she has gotten all the success she has. But I can't see how my story is a copy of hers.

•My characters are adults - not teens.

•My heroine is an outgoing vivacious 30 year-old, not a moody, silent, reclusive teen.

•There is no love triangle.

•There are no werewolves.

•My plot involves a mystery (an ancient mystery, not the mystery of 'who will she choose')

•My vampire is an adult who lives on his own, not a teen who lives as part of a family/clan.

•And of course, my vampires don't sparkle.

Now before I go getting hate mail for the last part, that is not a shot. I applaud Ms Meyers for her originality in coming up with a new and unusual take on the vampire myth. That's not an easy thing to do. But it's quite obvious that no other author is going to pass that trait onto their vampires, now isn't it?

So, for all you Twilight fans, I am glad for you that you have a series that you are so deeply fond of and characters that you connect to so well. I truly am. But please, don't go calling every new vampire story a "copy of Twilight" especially when it's so clearly not. Vampire stories have been around for hundreds of years. Would you want to hear people call Stephanie Meyer the "Anne Rice for the adolescent set", or "Dracula for teens" or anything like that? No, of course you wouldn't. She wouldn't deserve it. Do you think she'd want you to go bashing other authors when she herself knows how hard it is to write a novel and get it published and read?

There's plenty of room in the literary world for vampire stories of all kinds. So please don't be so quick to jump to conclusions and judge.

Thank you

And if you still think my story is a copy of Twilight - well, you'll just have to buy a copy in June and read it and find out for yourself ;)