From the Vault.

I am diverse in my genre choices, reading and writing, and I’ve been thinking about how genres collide. Dark Fantasy and Detective thrillers?

Still, the Hound of Baskervilles is almost a horror come Urban Fantasy, albeit resolved as “swamp gas” or if it wasn’t for those pesky... consulting detectives...

Most people who say “I don’t like science fiction” actually mean “I don’t like spaceships, aliens, and laser swords.” But as soon as you broaden the lens, almost all popular storytelling is fantasy, be it magic or technology indistinguishable from magic, in one way or another. 95 % of blockbuster cinema and airport-novel thrillers are fantasy, Q might be wearing a lab coat as he gives Bond a gadget to slip into his dinner jacket, but it’s still very much a kind of science fiction.

I prefer stories that give the reader a sense of how and why things are; it’s not always necessary for that to be a nuts-and-bolts explanation. Speaking of laser swords, I think Star Wars worked better when the Force was mystical; not everything needs to be rooted in our three-dimensional world of time, and there’s fascinating science about higher dimensions, and of course, spooky action at a distance...

The inspiration for the Spectral Detective’s world borrows from the likes of Sam Spade and the Shadow, and the serials that inspired Indiana Jones, but it also draws inspiration from people who report seeing in the spirit, so near-death experiences and glimpsing ghosts, angels and demons, and some of my own personal experiences, too.

Perhaps paradoxically for the Vampire concept, The Chimera Chronicles, I have avoided magical explanations. It’s been an interesting exercise, taking traditional vampire tropes and coming up with reasonable explanations, and a massive world-building effort.

Let me know what you think of the free-to-read prequels, Into Darkness, which introduces the Spectral Detective, and My Boy Jack’s monstrous world!