Originally Wolf and Man, this book has recently been released. Yay!
Entered into the http://www.writingshow.com first chapter contest, it was reviewed by Paula Berinstein below. My thanks to her and the Writing Show
/The Children of Tamal/ takes yet another shot at the vampire motif, and to a large extent, it succeeds. There is a fresh perspective here, looking at the personal lives of the vampire without the rock star glamour that has crept up around the genre since Anne Rice took the stage. The main character, Lisa, has an uncle, a loving husband, and an adored grandson, all of whom ground here in a very concrete reality. This is quite different from the lonely, brooding, all powerful misanthrope of most popular fiction. Here is a character that not only loves, but is aware of her husband’s mortality; and of the fact that at eighty he will soon die. There is a fatalistic quality in the tone of Lisa’s lines as she discusses Tony’s death with him, but nowhere is there a trace of the melodramatic; the teeny-bopper battle cry of ‘I can’t live without you’ is absent, but it is not missed. This is, after all, a story about a vampire
Therein lays the appeal of /Children/. It is a new and imaginative perspective on the vampire mythos; we have no idea which of the old stereotypes hold true. All we know for sure at the end of chapter one, is they have fangs and claws, bluish and cold skin, and are bogged down in blood lore. That’s it. Nothing is mentioned about sunlight or coffins, garlic or silver. We do know, however, that they are from another dimension, and are somehow able to travel and communicate back and forth between the two.
But, here is where our first problem arises. The vampires are from another dimension, they have their own culture, morals and most likely language as well. This is a difficult task for a writer to undertake, because the readers do not have grounding in this new culture that has arisen from the author’s imagination. As a result, everything has to be explained to them. What exactly is a Shaytonian? Well, we are told that they are alien, have two hearts, different color blood, can shapeshift and can read minds. That’s about as much as we get in the first chapter.
We have a laundry list of a few neat tricks they can do; but this does not tells us who these people - and I do use the term lightly so as to be politically correct – are. For the most part, Children falls short here, presenting us with a fight scene that lacks any sense of danger or any real psychological effect. It is not until Lisa contacts her grandson that there is something for the reader to latch onto and begin to understand. This, actually, is a terrific scene where we get a true glimpse of these characters, and they leap from the page into fully formed people. Lisa has shown Tony the crystal, and has used a drop of her own blood to communicate with her grandson Kalib. After Tony makes a comment about how everything with her people involves blood, she responds,
/ "Because we are not people. How is it that after 80 years sleeping with a vampire, you are still squeamish about a little blood?"/
/Tony shrugged, "How come you are allowed to say the ‘V’ word. I always get hit." /
Right here, the characters come to a life of their own, and we the human readers can connect to the incomprehensible world of the Shaytonian. A usual, big problem tends to be the use of language. These aliens from different dimensions – or just vampires in general – speak in a grand elegance that is more befitting a Victorian salon than a 21^st century paperback. And, true to from, /Children/ falls into the trap. The characters speak proper English, without a slang term or contraction to be found. This may be deliberate, as Tony comments to his grandson that life is better /"for hearing the only other member of this family that can actually use a contraction."/ With only the first chapter to look at, I hope /Children/ is deliberately poking fun at the genre. There are many chances to fall into the trap of the epic story. So far, /Children/ has been able to refrain from closing the trap, instead, it remains fresh and new.
The first obstacle to a novel involving any kind of alien society is the human connection. The author runs the risk of getting bogged down with lengthy exposition detailing the finer points of the world created. J.K.
Rowling solved this problem by having the protagonist as new to the invented world as the reader; as Harry Potter learned, so did the reader. There is exposition present in Children, and while it does not bore the reader, it does hamper them, slowing down the opening page. For the most part, however, the /Children of Tamal/ succeeds in creating a new vampiric twist. I very much want to see how the rest of this story turns out.
Read the first chapter here http://www.readerseden.com/product.php?productid=745
Email info @shayton.net for any questions.