I’ve been seeing a lot of grimdark remakes (ie, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, etc.) and frankly, I don’t care for that. I want the reverse. I want a joypunk re-write of Twilight that’s so homey and charming it makes me weep. I want Edward’s love for the Bella character to be so pure and sweet you’ll get a toothache. I want non-creepy, totally consensual, respectful tropes y’all!
After posting it, I checked Submittable (as I tend to do every once in a while) to see if there are any trends in YA that I should be reading about. To my absolute DELIGHT, one of my favorite boutique publishers had put up their November wish list. And on that wish list, they are requesting dark comedy one one hand and spooky paranormal on the other. So I thought… why not do both? I’ve finished my draft of The Vampire Mixtape, but honestly it feels like that was just getting me warmed up.
Last night, I outlined my next book, an LGBTQ+ paranormal YA romance about two lovely ladies whose hobbies include bird watching, embroidery, letter writing, thrift stores, vegan baked goods, and… dark magic. Dia is a lesbian vampire with a love of punk music and vintage leather jackets. Edith is a bisexual witch whose magical powers were “borrowed” by a powerful ex-boyfriend. When they meet one dark and stormy Halloween night, it’s nothing less than fate.
Here’s the opening line:
It was Halloween and the football team was having a blast bashing my best friend’s pumpkins on his front porch. He watched with a sort of practiced nonchalance that he reserved for only the most chiseled jaws, every once in a while rolling his green glittered eyes. He was dressed up as Sexy Shrek, which at once amused and horrified me. I mean, he’d done it right in the sense that he wore the leggings and the crop top with panache – and he was the Matler High GOAT of drag makeup so he definitely pulled off that aspect – but he hadn’t even tried to resemble Shrek other than a vague… greenness.
Please feel free to ask me questions and get excited! I’ll be posting updates about my process writing this book in the months to come.
Just a quick reminder – you can support me on Patreon here!
Kira DeSomma 