Writing & Updates

〰️

Writing & Updates 〰️

the blur of a character

It all started with some funny tumblr post, a billboard, and a book. I don’t remember exactly why, but I remember reading some posts on tumblr about vampires and people analysing how certain things would work realistically. I also saw this billboard of Dracula which I found pretty cool, and before I knew it I was buying Dracula at the only local English bookstore—I lived in France back then— and delving a bit deeper in vampire lore.

After finishing it, I knew I wanted to write a book about vampires. However, I like funny things, so I wanted mine to be a comedy. I had a rough concept, a classic vampire in a manor, and a human that she has to keep alive for a year (this later evolved into three vampire sisters, and one uncle in a crypt).

BUT.

Carnita was the OG. When the idea of the book was just a few sentences, I made a concept cover (yes, I know I do everything backward). While the cover has its flaws—obviously, it was a first concept— it still established a clear baseline for me.

I wanted her to have the classic red/white/black colour palette associated with vampires. I wanted her hair to be plastered at the top of her head considering many adaptations of dracula seem fond of that hairstyle, and I wanted her to be menacing. Also she would be italian, because vampires and garlic.

I wanted her to be a textbook vampire. Not a sexy one. Not a harmless one. I didn’t want her to have any regards for human life because why would she? How many people feel bad about the steak they eat? Either way, I had the blur of a character.

an aesthetic through words

I knew I wanted my book to have illustrations, but I also didn’t want the character’s appearance to reflect only through the pictures. They needed to be felt through their personality without me having to repeat 100 times what they looked like. In the end, the construction of the character’s appearance and personality ended up fusing and one would influence the other.

Carnita is very spiky/triangular. She is dangerous so I wanted her to look sharp—literally. Pointy chin, loosely triangle-shaped eyes, pointy lips, roman nose. Her leather jacket needed to have spikes on the shoulders. The impossible redness of her hair is there to accentuate how uncanny she is, but also to link to blood/violence. She is a character you should fear.

Yes she is funny haha too. But the only reason the reader feels that the human is safe around her is because if he comes in harms way, her loved one will be impacted. Now an average joe she meets in the street? Is he safe? Depends if she’s hungry or if his death would be convenient. She does not have morals per se. Her code of conduct is not necessarily aligned with current-time values. After all, she has been alive for more than 500 years.

The way she dressed needed to reflect her age, but not to make her look like a sweet old lady. She was turned at 16, her brain never fully developped. Carnita has been stuck in the emotional turmoil of puberty for more than 500 years.

She does have an attachment to the first centuries of life she experienced, and has a hard time letting go of gowns, no matter how impractical they are. This could seem out of character considering how much she likes to move around, you would think she jumped on trousers as soon as they were available to women. But that’s not the case. She would never admit it out loud but the dresses she has owned for centuries provide her with reassurance and comfort. It is one of the rare things in her life that stays the same, and provide her with a semblance of stability.

She was however not immune to the punk movement that took over in the most recent years. Girlie had to get her hands on some big chunky shoes and leather jackets.

not a disco ball type of vampire

As I mentioned, out of the three sisters, Carnita is meant to be the scary one. She has experienced actual battles, can fight with any blade you hand her—not necessarily because she is an expert in every type of blade that has existed, she is only well-versed in the most common one used in European countries— because she can adapt very easily. She has this feral survival instinct that means she will use teeth and claws if need be. She is a fighter, not in a girlboss type of way, but in an animal-caught-in-a-trap type of way. This absolutely unhinged agressivity you will only find when someone is certain they will die if they don’t get out of that situation.

She has good reasons to fight in such a manner, because she has been in a fight-or-perish situation more times than she can count. As I said, she has experienced proper war battles. Her and Uncle Joe’s residency have been found by hunters numerous times. Also, she is stuck in the body of a 16 y/o girl, is quite short, and mostly comes out at night to hunt, I don’t need to paint a picture of the type of encounters she faces frequently.

Given her situation, and the fact I wanted her to be as close to the original myth of vampires as possible, it felt fitting to give her a dragon bat transfiguration. In this universe, each clan of vampires has a specific power, hers is transfiguration. Each member of her family can transfom into a varying degree of monstrous version of an animal. Hers is bats.

She very rarely transforms in just a regular bat. The form she feels most comfortable with is the dragon bat. A huge beast for a small girl. It was perfect. It is what she aspires to be. The dragon bat is monstrous, but it has the potential to protect her family. She absolutely adores this form despite how ugly one might find it. Carnita relishes in terrifying people off of her property to ensure they don’t get too close to the manor. That is the thing, she loves being a vampire because it gives her agency.

amusing to read

Carnita has a very funny haha aspect to her. As I mentioned, she is italian and so I wanted her to be very expressive (before anyone says that I am generalising, this trait is based off of me. A big side of my family is Italian and I promise the body language and facial expressions are contagious, I love them). The book needed to remain a comedy, and the fact is she has spent so long on her own with Uncle Joe that social masking is not something she would bother to do anymore. She is the equivalent of a goblin.

I wanted her to have that cartoony aspect to her so that she would still be a character people could like. Besides, only someone with weird rules of immortality would allow themselves to be that unhinged without fear of consequences. Above you can find a few early concept of what she would look like, as well as a reference sheet for her final appearance.

Carnita is a terrible liar for the simple fact that she wears her emotions on her face. At least the big, loud, confident ones, like anger.

Fear is probably the only emotion she still knows how to mask, because it is the only one she never feels comfortable sharing with her loved ones. She is the goblin who carries swords around, throws knives at the wall, shoots darts on cushion and would tear off a man’s arm with her teeth. She is the protector of the house. She cannot be afraid.

Which is ironic considering the entire baseline of her character is actually, led by fear. The weapons, the dragon bat, the feral behaviour, the spikes and pointy aspect of her design, the loudness of her anger… One does not fight this hard for survival, unless they are utterly terrified.

In summary, despite where the idea originated, there was a lot of fleshing out and distancing done when going from Dracula to Carnita.

want these landing in your inbox before anyone else sees them?

subscribing to the newsletter on substack gets you every article 3 days early,

and you can choose to only hear about book updates if that's more your thing.

there's also a paid tier if you ever feel like supporting the work directly — but it doesn't unlock anything extra, the free version gets you everything. purely a "buy me a coffee" option, no pressure

newsletter