Who's Who in the Annabelle Universe? Dominic Pratchet

DOMINIC PRATCHET

This is the closest I have to a pic of Dominic
 "Vampire: The Masquerade" developer: Nihilistic Software publisher Activision
artist:(if you know the artist, please let me know so I can credit him or her).


Other names:

Domi (original name), Vlad Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, Domhnall (Gaelic), Dominicus (Latin), Dominick (Old English), Dominik (Czech and Polish), Dominique (French), Domonkos (Hungarian)

Name origin:

DOMINIC: "Belongs to the lord." English name derived from Latin Dominicus. This is a name traditionally given to a child born on Sunday. His mother Lilith named him this as an insult.

DOMHNALL "World ruler." Gaelic name composed of the elements dubno "world" and val "rule."

Physical characteristics:

Tall, commanding presence, night-black hair, red eyes, and sharp white fangs, pale and radiant. Usually wears black suits, sometimes with a cape.

Abilities:

Dominic possesses the abilities of all vampires, only perfected with thousands of years of experience. This means he’s faster and stronger than humans, his senses are extremely acute as are his reflexes. He can fly, turn into a bat, wolf, rat and mist at the very least and has complete control of others through mesmerization, perfecting it at a lever beyond any other vampire.



Known History:

The vampire known as Domi seems to be as old as history itself. He has been behind all the terrible events of history and an advisor to various rulers through the ages. Throughout many cultures and eras there has been rumors of a powerful lord of the night who commands dark armies. His grim goal has always been to rule the world, turning a portion the population into food stock for those creatures he has deemed fit to survive. He has had many names, some lost through history.

Much of his personal history is shrouded in mystery. The vampire Annabelle has told me that she knows more and at the proper time she’ll reveal it to me. As the chronicler of her stories I’m extremely intrigued.

I have so many questions; if he’s so old, how come he hasn’t taken over yet? What is this Exodus War he was tied up in? How can he be the famous Romanian ruler Vlad the Impaler if we know Vlad wasn’t as old as Domi is supposed to be? What is his relationship with the Falabranwyn because every time he shows up, they do as well. Why does he have so many wives and who are the Three Queens? Who are the Seven Tyrant Lords? Why did he speak of future events as if he knew them?

I suspect we’ll find out together as Annabelle’s story continues.

This Is Halloween

Originally posted on 11/1/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.




I sit here typing my article, my legs numb and my flesh sore. The only reason my stomach doesn’t ache is because I’m too tired to walk to the freezer to get any candy. If I allowed gravity to win and dropped to the bed, it would be the morning of November 1st before I could open my eyes.

Am I complaining? No. Actually, I’m smiling. I’m going to stay up, watch something spooky and fun, eat some sweets and totally love the fact that this night falls on a Saturday this year.

I love Halloween. Absolutely adore it. This year we walked a couple blocks to the main street Trick or Treat thing. All the businesses along main hand out candy and give off a neighborly feel at a time when small town friendliness is a thing of the past.

We then went to a “Trunk or Treat”. Here in Utah various members of my church park their cars at the church parking lot, open their trunks and hand out candy. They do this, seeing it as a controlled environment so that kids are off the streets. Its fun and a chance to visit your neighbors.

After that we went to dinner, and then knocked on a block of houses, gathering more sweets. For the last month, whenever I’ve passed two houses decorated to the max during the nightly dog walking, I'd swear to visit them.

One had blinking lights set to music. A vampire glowed to the tune while smiling from its coffin. A tombstone reads “Here lies the last dog that pooped on my lawn” as a werewolf glares from behind. Pumpkins flash, a ghost wails as it travels down a wire and various ghouls grin at any visitors who dare hunt for candy. The yard resembled a fun house set to a Haunted theme. More kiddie than scary, I found it very fun.



The other one had a different, yet equally enjoyable effect. Skeletons stood around an eerie graveyard. Some played cards on an over turned barrel while another bent on one knee and purposed to his ghoulfriend. A giant spider crawled down from the roof while a demon lurked in front of the red-lit basement window. All was lit with a strange, soul eating green light as if the other side ripped open, setting free it’s dark citizens into our world for the night.



My mind raced with ideas for that one. How will the skeleton army look when Roland or Annabelle command them in later books? Will there be any giant spiders when Ann visit’s the Arachnid’s kingdom in the 11th book? What strange colors and creepy feelings will accompany the unusual events in these later stories?

Now we’re home, relaxing and resting. Halloween was a success once again. My creative brain is buzzing with even more worlds and situations to make life a unloving Hell for Ann and her brother.

What about you? What seasonal events inspire you?


*Update: In Halloween '10 it rained and we ran a bit late. Regardless it was a good evening. Halloween '11 just finished. We did all the things mentioned above and had a good time. I hope all of you had great Halloweens as well.

Movie Review: Let Me In

OK, I finally saw this flick. I managed to TiVo it and watched it late at night when all the impressionable people were fast asleep and far from nightmares.

First off I'm NOT a gore guy. I do not watch films like Freddy or Jason. I get turned off my gore and of course this film had gore in spades. Yes, the gore turned me off. But that didn't hurt my over all rating of the film.

I liked it. The writing was strong.  I really felt bad for the human child Owen and of course I felt bad for vampire child Abby.

As you know, I am obsessed with vampire children. I suppose that's because I needed to tell Annabelle's story. That obsession, while controlled, is still strong. I worry that with each new interpretation, we'll see Ann exactly rendered in another story before she's made it into the world on her own. I know the fear is silly, but it drives me to search out these stories.

In Let Me In we find a vampire child with a conscience. Abby doesn't want to hurt others, feels terrible for what she puts her adult guardian through (he has to kill innocent people to bring her blood) and fiercely defends her human friend Owen.

This is a world where vampires can't substitute human blood for animal blood like they do in Twilight and in my Night Children series. Abby has no choice. She looses control of the blood lust and kills. To get this through to the viewers, it has gore. But I feel bad for Abby. She wishes she didn't hurt people and longs for a normal life.

She has the current vampire powers; speed, acute senses, strength, speed and agility. It's cool watching her scale a palm tree and a 6 story building. When she fights it's done in shadow. She kinda looks like a blood thirsty Gollum. She crawls/zooms around the victim, biting everywhere. Her eyes go funky and her face slightly distorts. She also goes pale.

As with the title of the movie, it's foreign predecessor movie and the original book, the tile "Let Me In", which is the scaled down original title "Let The Right One In" refers to the age-old vampire tradition that vampires have to be invited in. Other classic vampire concepts are in this film as well. Sunlight burns and kills them. Also as she let go of the high hospital window the closed caption (I watch everything with captions) revealed she "fluttered" away which suggests flight. She herself said she flew during the film. So as with Night Children, vampires in this universe have the Anne Rice current abilities AND the Bram Stoker abilities and problems as well. That earns a high score in my book.

Claudia in Interview With a Vampire was irredeemable due to her selfishness and lack of guilt. The children in The Little Vampire were never shown dealing with real issues like addition and murder. Nessie from the Twilight series is sweet and a personal favorite. Abby joins the list of vampire children and has made my list as well. She does feel guilt and is very relateable.

Chloë Grace Moretz pulls off an amazing and believable performance as someone Annabelle could have become if eating animals wasn't an option and she had to live with the guilt. It's a very adult, strong performance. The same is true for Kodi Smit-McPhee who pulls off the frightened, teased loner outcast child in many of us. Abby's loss of control and blood feast didn't scare me. The bullies teasing Owen scared me much more. Kodi showed the absolute fear we all felt when confronted with a bully at school.

So over all I give it a 9 out of 10. Yes, the gore took it down a peg as did the brief flash of upper nudity from a neighbor. The story and acting is powerful so if my warning about gore, violence and 1 second upper nudity doesn't scare you off on principle (which is why I warn my friends), watch it.

And the winner (for October Blog Hop '11) is...

Mary-Ellen! Congrads Mary! After placing all the contestants into a hat and drawing randomly, your name was pulled out. I'll be contacting you shortly.

I really enjoyed participating in the blog hop. I plan to do many more in the future.

Thanks again to everyone who added me to their followed blogs. It means a lot. I may not be the most frequent poster, but I have plans to change that.

To anyone who wants to read Dark Threats can find it on Amazon electronically as well as paperback. It's also found on Barns and Noble.com and iBooks for the Apple.

Thanks everyone!

Coming Soon:

Hey guys, sorry it's taken be a bit to choose the winner of the Blog Hop. I've had a crazy few days. At this moment I'm putting names in a hat and preparing it for a child to randomly pic. The winner should be announced tonight!

Successful Writer Day!

Friday the 14th: Successful Writer Day!
I think from now on I'll post entrees called "Successful Writer Days". Once in awhile things happen in a writer's life that make all those rejections or brain-stalling less productive days seem worth it. I call those "Successful Writer Days".

Thursday was fun. I spent the day with my sweetheart (October 13th is her birthday, just like Annabelle). It was a very relaxing day.

Yesterday, Friday the 14th, was successful.

1st off Janeen and I visited a Tooele High Creative Writing class. I spoke of my writer's journey and briefly about the books, showing slides of my various influences and research pictures. I'm grateful to say that the students were curious and began to ask questions. Lots of hands went up and lots of smart questions came my way. 
I love creating interest in my stories. I simply want to entertain and inspire, so when people show interest, I just get more excited.
I never spoke to High School students before. I found them very curious and their questions involved a lot of the mechanics of my world. Excellent! It gets me thinking and simply drives my creative juices further.
Janeen got my back, keeping track of those who asked questions so we could give one of them a free copy of Dark Threats. She was (and always is) a perfect help meet. She helps me keep track of who has their arms up the longest and provides added perspective on my books. Also, she loves to throw candy at the students. :)
Congratulations to Shantelle for winning Dark Threats!

We had a nice lunch. Afterwards I spoke with John at the Purple Cow (a local bookstore). He's going to pass out my book marks at his store and at the Children's Book Festival. Also, he's reviewing Dark Threats to see if it's appropriate for the store. More on that as news develops!

Finally, we attended the last speaking engagement of the day. We visited the West Elementary 6th Grade! Janeen had a brilliant idea to set up our projector and her lap top so that we could show my pics again. We let it slip that kids who ask questions might qualify for books. Of course I was assaulted with wonderful questions about the books and characters. We decided to have the kids place their names in a hat and the two 6th grade teachers pic the winners. Congratulations to Andrew and Dawson for winning copies of Dark Threats! My sweetie helped run the slides and answered questions for children to shy to ask me. Janeen got a chance to throw candy to all the kids, resulting in some fun chaos for a minute. :)

Of course everyone got a book mark as well.

So all in all a fine successful writer day. Next speaking engagements will be October 28th. I'll be visiting a High School English class and the Jr. High History classes. Can't wait!

October Blog Hop!

Welcome to the October Blog Hop, where you can visit new blogs, enter to win prizes, and have a great time!



At the bottom of this post, you'll see a list of participating blogs. Just click on each link, check out the prize, and follow the easy instructions to enter. You can enter on each blog, so it's possible to win multiple times. It's frighteningly easy.



On this blog, you can win a paperback copy of NIGHT CHILDREN DARK THREATS!

To enter, all you need to do is:



1. Become a follower of my blog.



2. Leave a comment on this post and tell me why you'd like to win this prize. If your e-mail address isn't visible through your Blogger profile, please also leave it with the comment so I can notify you if you win. You can enter until midnight MST on Saturday night, October 15th.



That's it! You are now entered. Now please go visit all my friends on the list below. It's almost like trick or treating!

October Blog Hop Participants

1. Tristi Pinkston 2. I Am a Reader, Not a Writer 3. Bonnie Harris 4. Michael D. Young 5. Misty Moncur 6. Debbie Davis 7. Mandi Tucker Slack 8. Mary Ann Dennis 9. Deanna Henderson 10. Laura Bastian 11. Kristy Tate

12. Kristy Wilson 13. Jennifer Debenham 14. Jenny Moore 15. Elizabeth Hughes 16. J. Lloyd Morgan 17. Close Encounters with the Night Kind 18. Billy Boulden 19. Scott Bryan 20. Maria Hoagland 21. Shirley Bahlmann 22. Shelly Brown

23. Marcy Howes 24. Lynnea Mortensen 25. Jaclyn M. Hawkes 26. Diane Stringam Tolley 27. Gail Zuniga 28. Betsy Love 29. iWriteNetwork 30. Canda's InkBlast 31. Stacy Coles

Learn more about October Blog Hop here.
View More October Blog Hop Participants
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The 1st ever BOOK MARK CONTEST!

Welcome to the first ever BOOK MARK CONTEST. Well, it's more of a free giveaway than a contest but still, check it out:

Front

Back

The first 10 people who send me self addressed stamped envelopes will receive a free book mark and the FIRST TEN PAGES of DARK BIRTH!

Envelopes must be sent to...

Scott Bryan
128 West 200 South
Tooele, Utah, 84074

Looking forward to receiving your envelopes!



Book marks are here!

Hey guys, my book marks arrived! Here is an image of the front and back...

I'll be giving theses away at the four school visits this month.

Tomorrow I'll announce the first ever BOOK MARK CONTEST!
Keep your eyes pealed to this site!

Zach's Game Room now has puzzles!

At the top of this page is a link to Zach's game room. Go try your hand at some puzzles. At the moment there are four to choose from but more will be added in the future.

Author Reflections

It's so hard for me to realise that Book One is on Amazon. I simply can't get over the fact that this book, the self same one I've tiled over for seven years, is now available for others to enjoy.

All those many years ago I couldn't get her out of my head. I had to write about Annabelle. At first I thought she belonged in the Parodyverse (a beloved fan-fiction site I belong too). As I posted tiny stories with her there I realised she needed to reach further. She had to be in school libraries and book stores and regular libraries. She needed to inspire and entertain children everywhere.

Is she doing that now? Of course not. These things grow very slowly.

But I feel inside that she will. One day.

For now, Smashwords, Kindle and the Nook will be the beginning...

My review of Dark Birth on Goodreads

Night Children: Dark Birth by Scott Bryan


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What more can I say about this book? It was fun to write it. Obviously I’m biased as the author, but there is something about Annabelle and Roland. Once I step into their world, I just can’t let go. I thirst for more. I hope you feel the same way.




View all my reviews

I won the Liebster Blog award again!

Another big THANK YOU, this time to my fellow Tooele Writer and a great friend, Roseanne, for giving me this award...

This is my 2nd time winning the Liebster Blog award and I'm very grateful to have another chance to pass it onto others who need some attention.
As I mentioned before, Liebster means "friend" in German.  This award is aimed at those who have fewer than 200 followers.
Here are the rules...

- Link back to the person who gave you the award.

- Pick five other people to give the award to and notify them on their blog.

- Post the award on your blog.

- Bask in the camaraderie of the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.

- And best of all—have bloggity fun and spread the love.


The winners are...

Terron

Clare

Emily

J. A. Bennett

And my fellow writers at Tooele Writers

Night Children: Dark Birth News!

All sorts of news about THE book.

Night Children: Dark Birth is my first novel. "Wait Scott, wasn't Dark Threats your first one?"

Actually no. Seven years this month I watched Interview With a Vampire and found myself searching for something. Days later I found it as I tried to write my own vampire child story and Annabelle walked out of my imagination and onto paper.

Years of beta readers, critique groups, 6th and 8th grade classes, a professional editor and several drafts brought me to the current version of this novel. 

Dark Threats is one chapter removed from that original novel plus a lot of new stuff written just for the my debut  into the world of eBooks. Threats is a collection of short stories to introduce people to the world of Annabelle and Roland.

Months ago I decided to break the first novel into two books; Dark Birth and Dark Trials. Last Friday I changed my mind. This story stands better as one.

I've gone through and formatted it for online publishing. I had some troubles but I finally mastered it last night. I uploaded it to Smashwords and it's available there.

Dark Birth on Smashwords!

I wont reveal it to Facebook and Twitter yet because I'm waiting for it to be reviewed by the Smashwords team for any format errors.  Once it's good, I'll load it on Amazon and Barns & Noble.com.

Also, thanks to my Highland-loving coworker and pal, Don Phillips, I have a pic that has been used for the cover.

So much going on! I can't wait for you to read my real first book, Annabelle and Roland's origin story! Hope you like it!

10 years ago - 9/11/01

I was reading a book about life in America after the world collapsed. It was by Orson Scott Card and seemed to be pretty good. The UTA bus dropped me off at the International Center, on the outskirts of Salk Lake City. Just another day. I don't remember September 6th or 5th or the 1st but I remember that morning.

I get to my desk, turn on my computer and got ready for the day. Chuck (a coworker and fellow drafter) had his radio on. Normally the morning DJ's would be goofing or music would be playing. Pop? Country? I don't remember. I think country but it doesn't matter. It was 7:50 AM so NYC time it was at that fateful hour.

Those morning DJ's weren't joking. They were talking about a plane that crashed into the 1st tower. At the same time they were trying to figure why a plane would crash (they thought it was a small one) I opened my Internet explorer.  The same event was plastered on MSN.com but they were stating it was big. I remember those DJ's reporting the second plane and the Pentagon crash. One guy on the radio said their were dog fights in the air of New York. It's amazing how panic and fear can affect how we report things.

The office was a buzz. It was a small staff of 10 to 15 people but on that morning we were less than ten. Soon everyone was in the conference room watching Good Morning America. We were in shock.

The personnel manager called a meeting and told us we could go home and be with our families or since we were contractors to the government, we could keep working to show the terrorists life will go on here. We elected to stay.

I do feel pride in the American spirit. Even as a child I welled up with tears when I heard America the Beautiful.  I love this country and am fiercely loyal to it. I hope my future novels will illustrate some of my patriotism.

To this day, however, I question if remaining at a small company, trying to focus on drawings that don't matter in the grand scheme of things, and listing to the radio play patriotic songs all day, was the best place for me. That job went under. They are a foot note in time. I couldn't focus on tracing PDF files of electronic F16 harnesses into Auto cad. All I could do was force back the tears as Amazing Grace played with bagpipes and I thought of those poor people.

I wanted to be home. My wife and kids were glued to the TV and I wanted them in my arms. I was and will always be grateful that we are blessed to be alive. I just wanted to be with them.

It was hard those days. We felt defeated as a nation. Maybe the last time Americans felt that defeated was when Kennedy was shot. I don't know. That was seven years before my birth. But we also felt something else. Remember? Yes, we had hate and anger and those are wrong but understood because of the circumstances, but we felt pride.

Strong, unified, powerful pride. Like Pearl Harbor. Like the Alamo. Like those long gone days of the Revolution. The kind of pride that made Paul Revere and Sybil Ludington race at night to warn their countrymen.

We have our differences. We cant agree on money or jobs or the environment. We believe lies about each other and worse, spread them. We lose faith in one another and fear the future.

BUT WE LIVE ON. In ten years we will still be what we are now. In twenty, eighty, a hundred years. We will be Americans. We were forged by a desire for personal liberty. We will not die. We will continue to be a nation and we must forever remember who we are and how we became.

Remember.

Proof II The Sequel

I've experienced a lot during this journey as a writer. I've watched the dream die only to be reborn. A legion of helpers have carried me each step. I've gone in different directions and return to the starting point more times than I'd like to think of.

But I've never held my own story in my hands. I don't mean a print out, bound or loose, I mean a gloss covered BOOK.

My first proof arrived in the mail last Friday, right before I headed off to the critique group no less. I shared it with them, then my adoring wife who shouted with excitement! After that we took it to family and showed it off. I even carried it to Wal-Mart to show people I knew. I also compared it to other books on the shelf to see A) What Annabelle would look like next to the likes of Percy, Harry and the rest and B) To compare the text size to see if mine was indeed too small.

Thanks to the help of my wife, daughter and the crit group, I found various things that needed to change. Over the extended weekend I made those changes and resubmitted it.

Tomorrow I'll send for another proof. Once Dark Threats passes the proof stage, it'll be ready for people to order soft copies right from Amazon!

Passing friendship to others...

A big THANK YOU to Krista for giving me this award...

The Liebster Blog award! "Liebster, for those of you who are not Nightcrawler or cannot speak German, means "friend" and is aimed at those who have fewer than 200 followers. Yes, that is me. But we'll get more. I swear it!

At any rate, here are the rules...

- Link back to the person who gave you the award.


- Pick five other people to give the award to and notify them on their blog.

- Post the award on your blog.

- Bask in the camaraderie of the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.

- And best of all—have bloggity fun and spread the love.

1st I want to say something about Krista. She's always warm and supportive and I'm grateful she takes the time to post a reply. It means a lot when us struggling writers get replies to our posts. I try to do the same.

The winners are...

My wife and strong defender for those with ADHD, Janeen

Katie

Nicole

Laura

Melanie

Proof!

I ordered my proof! What does that mean? It means that I ordered the pre-printable version of my soft cover book from Create Space. Once I review it and OK it for distribution, everyone will be able to buy a soft copy of Night Children: Dark Threats!

Can't wait till it arrives!

Here is the cover before I added the price on it.

The Blog is a-changin'

I'm sure some of you have noticed but I'm slowly improving this blog. I've had it since '06. I started it right after I finished the rough draft for my first book. I didn't realise back then how much learning I had coming.
I'm still far from perfect and I look forward to much more education coming my way.

Anyway, watch this space. I've added info pages about the books, the characters and so on. The store is up (soon to have print on demand books). I'm planning out a place for some small games, maps and so on.

It was difficult choosing a color scheme for the blog. I really wanted to keep it black with white text. After all, this is a vampire adventure series. But ultimately I decided to go with a off-white with black text. After all, you need to be able to read it!

So... more changes coming. Watch this space!

I won an award for the blog!

I got a blog award!

I received a Brilliant Writer Blog Award from Author and artist Deirdra Eden-Coppel.
You can find her blog here. A great place to visit and learn so much about the crazy world of writing and publishing.

Thanks Deirdra!