Spring, 2002
Midnight Predator, originally titled Predator, Prey, was at first the sequel to Hunter, Hunted. In the first version, it also starred the same character, Karen. After I had written about fifty pages, Karen became a supporting character. In the first rewrite, she was wiped entirely from the book. Poor Karen. She's now living a "normal" life in Pyrige, MA, or was until I decided to torment her a bit more in 0113-Untitled.
Since first compiling this history of Predator, I have occasionally been asked why I chose not to publish Hunter, Hunted. Yes, I enjoyed writing Hunter; it introduced me to a new line of vampires, a completely new set of characters, and of course to Midnight itself- a whole world. However, the first book in a new world always suffers some from the artist fumbling to learn her way, and Hunter, Hunted was no exception. The characters were not as well fleshed out as they would later become, and Midnight itself had hardly even been mentioned. Moreover, I wasn’t particularly fond of Karen; she was idiotic and insipid, foolhardy at the worst of times, and intensely gullible. Beyond that, the “villains,” Taro and Varick, both of whom had been feared trainers in the first Midnight, came across as weak little dandies.
Predator, Prey helped me build on the world that the first book had just begun to reveal. It brought me into the heart of Midnight, and introduced me to some of the strongest of Katama's line, as well as introducing me to my fiercest guild of human vampire-hunters: Bruja's Crimson, Onyx and Frost. Finally, it introduced me to not one, but two characters whose greatest enemies are not outside them, in the walls of the empire that has terrorized Nyeusigrube for centuries, but inside...
Turquoise Draka, the protagonist of Predator Prey, has worked so hard to keep from being prey that she doesn’t know what it is not to struggle. In order to convince herself that she is not the slave that the vampire Lord Daryl tried to turn her into, she has enslaved herself in a mercenary life of the hunt. Now, she must enslave herself more literally, selling herself into the world that is her nightmares in order to destroy its creator.
The process of writing this book was an odd one. In the first draft, it consisted of several shorter segments, including about fifty pages inside the manor of Lord Daryl and Lady Brina (the latter was later cut from the manuscript, much to her relief, since it saved her life) and nearly as many pages of Ravyn’s history. In one draft, Turquoise actually goes home and spends time with her mother after escaping Midnight.
For a while, I didn’t know if I would ever finish this book. I didn’t know where it was going; it felt more like a collection of scenes than anything else. I was working off some basic ideas, inspired by quotes spoken to me by friends and family and in music:
Pain is temporary, but pride is forever. (Quoted to me by my friend; original author unknown)
No one can make you a victim but yourself. (From my mother)
"The servant is the master in disguise..." (Taja Syville)As always, I eventually ran into my demon of Writer's Block, and this time relief came from an unlikely spot. Not really expecting help, I complained to my father that I was stuck, in response to which he gave me the answer, "Just end it with 'In the end, my father was right.'"
Surprise surprise! It worked!
Predator, Prey has endured more changes than any other work I have written so far. Fifty pages were written while I was on vacation for a week with my family, on a cruise; that entire section, which detailed Ravyn's history, was later scrapped. Originally Turquoise was abducted by a vampiress named Lady Brina; Lord Daryl was her brother. There were another 50 pages or so of that history, which was also taken out. Jeshickah, who became the antagonist, was added. Jaguar's sister Alejandra was removed. Gabriel Donovan, one of my favorite wicked guys, was added. Several other hunters, Karen included, were removed.
The person changed from first to third to first to third to first and back to third with almost every draft. The ending was rewritten entirely at least three times. Turquoise's parents were killed, they lived, they were killed again.
At one point I made a list of scenes, cut them out into fortune-cookie-fortunes-sized pieces of paper, and rearranged them, sometimes planning a new one and sometimes throwing one out, until they were all lined up on a long piece of black duct tape-- my outline for editing.
Names, especially, were changed, primarily due to repeats with other published works. I had used the name Christopher on another vampire, and to avoid confusion with ShatMir's Christopher, Predator’s was turned into Nathaniel. To avoid confusion with Demon's Monica Smoke, a hunter's name was changed to Ravyn instead. Due to my editor's inability to connect the name Jacquelyn with Jamie, her name was changed to Catherine (Cathy, actually named after my publicist, though the spelling differs), and due to that change Katherine Red's name was changed to Jillian.
So long as we were doing the name dance, my editor said she didn't like the title. By this time I was too exhausted from editing to really care. I still think of it as Predator, Prey, I admit, and most of my family and friends still call it that.
I think that's about it.
Frequent visitors of fanfiction.net may have seen a very early draft of Predator, Prey, which was plagiarized by a no-longer-member of my writer's group and posted (with names changed) as He Who Carries the Whip. You will understand when I say a lot has changed.
Midnight Predator's music for writing included Taja Syville and Marcy Playground primarily, though it changed quite a bit, and included Vertical Horizon, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication, and Garbage Version 2.0
FAQ: Yes, the cover is a little... weird. I like the colors, though it doesn't really look anything like it should. Yes, that is supposed to be Jaguar. It's better than Shattered Mirror.