Control: Monsters of River’s Valley
I, Dalton Lewis, wrote an ambitious book — the first standalone book in a series of novels in a shared universe. The universe will be large and varied -but I started it in River’s Valley, Iowa. Why Iowa? Well, because, in Iowa I have a small city with traditional American values — and traditional American vampires and witches. I wanted to create dramatic conflict between the various people in River’s Valley — to see them disagree over what to do and who to work for. Power is the theme of this story, supernatural power and power in terms of who is in charge of the city of River’s Valley. Many people seek both types of power.
I have a lead dealing with mental terrors. Gerard Moreau talks to himself, in his head, and these conversations are takinng over his life. They distract him from class, from his friends, and from his family. They make him angry and distant. Then reality complicates things — students learn how to “turn off” the teachers, make them freeze and not speak or move or pay attention to the world. They immediately start to abuse this and ignore more and more schooling. Someone says that the students all work for the Netani cult and have to do what they say — and they threaten violence.
The high school includes vampires and vampire hunters, too, and neither is innocent or guilty. They just are. The main antagonist for the high school storyline is a wonderful, flawed person — she just wants revenge against all the terrible people in charge of everything. She wants to help her beloved fellow students and protect them. It just goes bad somehow.
Eve Lyson is a character I worked hard on. She’s a goth girl, a bit overweight, and depressed. She makes friends with a charming female vampire who doesn’t understand 21st century culture — she isn’t young and hip anymore. Eve makes friends with her, but they consistently clash over moral values and the direction their friendship should go in — they don’t just agree on everything.
The family dynamic matters to me in this book, too. Carissa Tominson is a CEO, an elder vampire, and a mother to Gerard Moreau, a young warlock who is troubled. She also raises a young lady whose father got in real trouble in New York. This dynamic — a family — is central to almost everyone’s life in the real world, and I wanted to reflect that in this story.
Overall I wanted to write a novel which showed a large variety of people, creeds, beliefs, and attitudes in a city in America — disagreeing and agreeing and living their lives and fighting and making love and being a community — a community threatened by a cult wanting to take over.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
