Author's Note

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A long time ago (well, six years ago) I finished my first novel. It was called Vampiru (now renamed Cross), and at the time I was very proud of it. Now, I can see it's full of plot holes and implausibilities. I made a plan to start editing it a few months ago. And that's when the idea for this story was born. 

This story is only vaguely set in the same universe as Cross. It's set in Northern Ireland, and this Dani is an older (and renamed) version of that Dani, but there the similarities end. This is much more of a mystery/horror-comedy story than a vampire story.

Inspirations include The Treasure Seekers, Sherlock Holmes (2009), and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It's also a sort of crossover with my Old Friends 'verse, a series of short stories about personified towns that can be found on my FictionPress account.

I'm going to start writing this story on 1st October, then I'll take a break from it in November to write book 3 of Death and the Emperor for NaNoWriMo. Hopefully I'll finish this in January or February. Hopefully. (Edit: how did I ever think I could finish this in January? It's now June and the ending is still nowhere in sight!)

Finally -- and I can't believe I have to say this, but a conversation with an opinionated idiot calling himself a teacher taught me that yes, I do -- there is no moral to this story. There's no deeper meaning, no lesson to take away from it. I just want to write a mystery story with monsters and fantasy elements, without anyone squinting and trying to see the "lesson". Is that too much to ask?

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