Before I answer the title question, I want to take the opportunity to apologize. It’s been far too long since I’ve posted anything here. Some of that has simply been a lack of news about my vampire stories and books. Some of that was a hectic 2011 in which my wife underwent a battle with breast cancer — and by all accounts she won the war. Some of it has been working with the owners of Lachesis Publishing and Sinful Moments Press evaluating the best way to release and market my second vampire novel, Dragon’s Fall. This last point brings us right back to the title question.
If you have visited this blog at any point in the last year or so, I don’t think there’s any mystery that D.L. is short for David Lee. Over the last decade I have written a vampire novel and numerous vampire short stories under the name “David Lee Summers.” I have also written four science fiction novels and one steampunk novel under that name. Although all of the novels are written for an adult audience, one of the science fiction novels and the steampunk novel are also suitable for young adult audiences. However, Vampires of the Scarlet Order and Dragon’s Fall are not intended for younger readers at all.
Another consideration was that both Vampires of the Scarlet Order and Dragon’s Fall are written in the form of journal entries, a form I adopted as an homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Some of the journal entries are written by men, some by women — again the same as Stoker. I grew to like the idea of leaving my gender ambiguous, so readers wouldn’t hear a man’s voice reading the journal entries ostensibly written by women.
Three years ago when I negotiated my contract for Dragon’s Fall, I raised these issues with my publisher. She agreed they were both valid points and we decided to release Dragon’s Fall under the name D.L. Summers.
The problem that both my publisher and I should have realized is that anyone looking for a “David Lee Summers” vampire story or novel, is unlikely to find a “D.L. Summers” vampire story. Also, as time went on, I began to realize that I had over thought the whole issue of younger people getting the books for adults. As I mentioned earlier, all of my books are for adults. It just so happens that younger people can also read an enjoy two of the others.
Now, in the period since the contract was negotiated, the publishing company has gone through some management changes. In discussions with the management, we decided two things. First, instead of bringing Dragon’s Fall out as a five-novella series, we’d bring the whole novel out at once. Second, we’d bring the novel out under the name “David Lee Summers”.
Christopher Lee
Montague Summers
It feels good to be back as “David Lee Summers”. Not only is it my given name, I’ve always liked the way it plays homage to two of the greats in the history of vampire lore — Christopher Lee and Montague Summers. Of course, Christopher Lee played Dracula in many of the great Hammer films. Montague Summers wrote extensively about vampires around the turn of the 20th century.
So what will happen to this blog? Well D.L. Summers is still me and I figure this is as good a place as any to talk about things of interest to vampire lovers. So it’ll stick around for the time being. I plan to post more regularly — look for Sunday afternoon posts in the coming month. Remember, I also have a page for my vampire stories on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Scarlet-Order-Vampires/159599227447475.
Finally, for those who don’t want to wait to start Dragon’s Fall, the first two novellas are still out in ebook — under the name D.L. Summers. Here are links to where you can pick up the novellas:
