The Twists - introduction

Inspired by an illustration of a vampire family by Paul McCaffrey, I set out to create a scenario that would involve all the characters in what was originally conceived as a graphic novel. It was to be a vampire tale with a twist - the head of the household, Ellery Twist, is a lapsed vampire who is tempted back to his old ways.

The story would introduce a community of ex-vampires, who have all 'kicked the habit' (to say nothing of the cloak and fangs) and feed their craving with substitute blood products.

The Twist family - all lapsed vampires (with one notable exception), inherit the rambling mansion home of Ellery's 'deceased' father, where they make some remarkable discoveries. Meantime, one of Ellery's old flames has reappeared and is trying to lure him back to his old ways.

After starting on a script for a graphic novel, I changed tack and began again on a novel version, aimed at an audience of older teens and adults. As a bizarre subtext, I began to weave in references to a number of Bob Dylan songs, principally 'Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again'. These were intended to run throughout the story.

I worked on the text for about a week, simply to set up something that I could return to later. As a setting, I chose the Gulf Coast of America, researching the area online. Bizarrely, during the first weekend of working on the story, in Augist 2005, the precise area of coastline that I'd chosen as the backdrop was devastated by Hurricane Katrina...