I’ve got a confession to make.

I’ve been seeing another cast of characters on the side.

Nes and Mathias and all the others are aware of this, but I felt like it was time to admit it to the public.

You see… When I was gearing up to start Despair’s (Book V of Tale of the Fallen) alpha draft, I realized that my readers were going to meet their very first Abaeloth vampire.

The problem?

For a girl who calls herself a fantasy author, I knew painfully little about vampires. And I was really anxious to get started on Despair so that I could jump into Deliverance, because it’s got some juice stuff that I’m having a hard time not spoiling. So, a few months ago, I chose to go the “easy” route for starting my research by buying the first season of the animated Castlevania.

Whoo, boy, did I have NO idea what I was getting myself into.

I watched those first four episodes in one sitting, then instantly started hounding my husband about season two. We still live in the Dark Ages in my house and don’t have Netflix, so he told me to talk to my awesome artist friend, Sarah (she’s AMAZING. Go check her stuff out HERE!), who happens to adore Castlevania (proof here, here, and here) and jumped at the occasion to help bring another creative into the fold.

I went to her house where we binge watched season two, and as the last 30 seconds or so of the season was playing out, I just sat there, gaping at the TV screen, then her, then the screen, then her, until I finally managed to squeak out, “Is this… is this how it ends…?” And she turned and looked at me and squeaked back, “Yeah.”

Now, I don’t believe in spoilers*, so I’m not going to name any names here, but that ending wrecked this tragedy-loving fantasy author in the absolute best way possible, and on the drive home, there was a subdued voice which whispered to me, “You’re an author… you can fix this…”

“No,” I told that voice, feeling like the scummiest person ever. “You served your purpose well. I need to return to Abaeloth now.”

But this voice wouldn’t go away over the next couple of days. It kept poking, pleading, and eventually told me a heartbreakingly beautiful way to “fix this.” And I finally gave up fighting it.

And so, I spent the following couple of months outlining what will be the first fan fiction I’ve taken on since high school because I’ve fallen so deeply in love with my head-canon for this character and the cast supporting them. I’ve been slowly progressing through this outline for the past month. And I am preparing to launch the first chapter of Castlevania: Blood of the Covenant this Friday over on Wattpad (link coming as I start getting stuff loaded up).

So, if you’re a fan of Castlevania, or vampires in general, or my story telling, get ready to hop on over to Wattpad for some free reading! I hope to see you there.

*I do make a few exceptions, such as I’m doing with this fan fiction project. I’m relying heavily on Sarah for bouncing ideas around and making sure I stay close enough to the series lore for this story to still fit nicely among the other pieces out there, so she knows most of the meaty surprises you guys have to look forward to.