Michael Goldcraft, writer

Every story needs an antagonist.  Every horror novel needs a villain  who will burn his image into the minds of the reader.  Every vampire horror novel needs a handsome (or beautiful), sensual, charming, seductive, cold, calculating, egotistical, psychopathic, blood thirsty, sexually-insatiable, ruthless predator.  Did I miss anything?  Or yes.  It’s best if our bad guy is also the consummate con-artist and the quintessential liar.  Finally, this monster must having some deep, hidden motive driving him forward.  For example, Harrison Van Gilter wants to kill every living member of the Van Gilter family: mother, brothers, sisters, nephew, and in-laws!  Why?  I won’t tell you why, but this is Harrison Van Gilter.  Look at him and read behind his eyes.  What do you see?  What lurks there?

Harrison Van Gilter

This is the antagonist of The Darke Lyfe Trilogy, my little three-novel creation.  Even though myriad other characters – good and evil – move across the literary landscape, Harrison is always there.  He is the nemesis to be dealt with.  The thorn in FBI Special Agent Mark Pierce’s side.  The deadly threat to Mayor Larry Hayes and his peaceful coastal city.  He is the worst thing to ever drift into Panama City, Florida.  And through three novels (Ascent of Evil; Inherited Evil; Arcanum of Evil) he methodically moves toward his goal: to be known as the most heinous serial killer of all time…and he’s had 249 years to hone his predatory skills.  Human mortals are mere prey.  Vampyre family and vampyre enemies are a greater challenge.  And so the twisted mind of Harrison Van Gilter is center to all conflict within the Trilogy.  He’s proven to be a worthy adversary.  A diverse, if warped, personality.  A chilling unpredictable character to work with.  Put in any scene or circumstance, I’ve found that Harrison guides me.  He tells me exactly how he will respond.  And sometimes it’s shocking, even for the writer who created him.

Every good horror story needs a villain.  Mine is Harrison Van Gilter.  I invite you to read his tale, explore his mind, see though his evil eyes.

My Darke Lyfe Trilogy can be found at Amazon Or visit our webpage at BrimBooks.com

Thanks dear reader.  Without you, Harrison Van Gilter would be nothing.  Best wishes, Michael Goldcraft

FBI Special Agent Mark Pierce looked up as the boss walked in.

“Pierce, meet your new partner.  Dixie, meet Mark Pierce.”

Mark gazed into those intelligent eyes and admired the trim, toned body.

“Mark, she’s smart, strong, and loyal.  She’ll be with you 24/7.  I know the two of you will solve the Serial Swamp Murders.  This killer’s left bodies in Okefenokee, Tate’s Hell, the Everglades and now Panther Swamp.”

“Does she eat much?” Pierce asked.

“Who cares?  There’s a four-wheel drive in the car pool.  Florida Fish and Wildlife will meet you at the last crime scene.  Now go!”

Sometimes it’s best to go back to the beginning.  So, for my friends who have not begun reading the trilogy, here is the prologue.  I hope it piques your interest.  MG

Prologue

June 4, 1016   Latitude 49 N, the New World

IN THE SCINTILLATING bright light of a raging bonfire the Norsemen pushed the small replica of a Viking warship out onto the water.  Its sole occupant, their once-revered holy man, and his earthly possessions, glided off into the darkness, a fading image in the flickering light.  A gentle breeze pushed the ship-coffin eastward toward the center of the lake.  As the fire’s power to illuminate the watercraft diminished, the brilliant full moon reflected light through the clear cold air, and the warship seemed an eerie apparition.  Soon small waves found the holes near the water line and the coffin gradually began to sink.  Icy water caressed the corpse and the written record embraced by rigid arms.  The lake slowly covered the body in a wet, dark shroud and eventually flooded the sockets of the burnt-out eyes.

Halvdan, brother of Eigil the lost one, watched his priest entombed within the Viking replica as the vessel’s pale image shrank in profile.  He felt a strange loss, a confusing frustration. What form of change, what spirit of Loki, had invaded his priest and stolen his brother?  Anger grew like a fire in his breast.  Halvdan was a man accustomed to profane slaughter. A man who had raped and pillaged without thought of remorse.  But now, he could do nothing to avenge his priest or his brother.  Both were gone, their entrance into the realm of Valfather denied, for they had not died in glorious battle.  Instead, they were condemned to an unknown spirit world of endless torment.  Halvdan gripped the hilt of his sword, wanting to lash out at something, someone.  His jaw muscles tightened like cords of torture.

Finally, the floating apparition disappeared into the black water.  The surface of the lake became smooth again, except for small wind wavelets.  The little ship, and the priest within it, sank thirty feet below the surface to the soft mud bottom.  It would be days before the vessel would immerse completely in the lake’s deep sediment: organic-rich silts and clays slowly oozing in and forcing the water out.  And then a process of preservation would take place.  The temperature of the lake’s water would seldom rise above fifty degrees; most of the time it would be just above freezing.  And the biological blueprint of the man-beast would be preserved within the sediment, locked away within the nuclei of each body cell for a thousand years.  But the priest’s progeny, spawned among the wanton maidens of the North American Viking colony, would live almost forever.  This was his legacy to the world – and his curse.  A curse inadvertently cast upon his cherished brethren – and upon the entire human race.

The two novels I have written – the first two books of the Darke Lyfe Trilogy – have been labeled “vampire” books.  And it is true that the central components of the trilogy’s storyline are a vampyre and a global population of vampyres (see the “Atticus letter” posted earlier this month for vampyre/vampire clarification).  But I believe that the Trilogy is more than that.

Many good novels fall into the multi-genre category and have a healthy sampling of horror, mystery, suspense, romance, action and adventure.  The Pendergast novels written by Doug Preston and Lincoln Child are good examples.  In those books, there is plenty of story-telling using those genres.  Aloysius X. L. Pendergast is an FBI agent from the Deep South whose adventures take him down pathways of occult, horror, forensics, romance, mystery, science fiction and detection.  For sheer entertainment, I highly recommend The Cabinet of Curiosities, Brimstone, and Still Life with Crows.  But pick up any of the Preston and Child novels and you’ll see what I mean: multiple genres woven into a brilliant fabric of literature full of diversity, depth, and dynamics.

By multi-genre, I do not mean a diverse approach to story telling: first person, then third person, etc.  I mean that an MGN novel has substantial components of many genres.

My two novels, Ascent of Evil and Inherited Evil, fall into the multi-genre category.  But in most literary award competitions an author is forced to place his or her book into a “dominant” category.  My first novel won first place in a Florida competition.  The book was entered in the horror/dark fantasy category, even though it has significant components of mystery, forensics, and science fiction.

My point – if I have one – is simply that there should be more recognition of the existence of the multi-genre novel as a legitimate type of composition.  MGNs are recognized, to some extent, in articles on literature and the craft of writing, but I haven’t seen them listed as a separate genre category.  Probably no one in a bookstore or a library wants to make the decision required to call a novel an MGN.  But authors can certainly promote their books as such, if they choose to.

Is it more challenging to compose an MGN than, say, a pure romance novel?  Probably it is not.  It’s difficult and demanding to craft quality fiction – romance or any other genre – regardless of the ground rules.  But I would submit that much of our literary entertainment is, in fact, MGN in nature.  And, that the multi-genre novel is a distinctly rich and diverse form of composition.

So to my readers, or those who might consider reading my books, I would forewarn you that my work is adult fiction and that my books are not…not typical vampire books; they are much more.  Their entertainment value accrues, I believe, because they are multi-genre novels.