Michael A. Ventrella

Every politician has some skeletons in their closet, but for only one is this literally true.  Presidential candidate Norm Palmer’s road to the White House is progessing smoothly but for those crazed right-wing fanatics who are accusing him of being a vampire!  Their accusations are the laughing stock of the campaign, until one investigative reporter stumbles across some very interesting evidence — but who would ever believe him?

“Bloodsucker!”  It’s the West Wing meets the bat wing.

Yes, I’ve started work on my next book.   More on this later.

At the recent Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ writers conference here in the Poconos, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of great writers, agents, and editors.   As one of the few in attendance who wrote Young Adult novels, I sometimes found that I had little in common with those who wrote children’s picture books, but it was still a learning experience especially since the things we did have in common (finding agents, dealing with publishers and editors) provided fuel for conversations.

I was honored to be asked to participate as a moderator for a group of aspiring unpublished writers and to join the other published authors in a question-and-answer period.  

There were seminars and group sessions where we had our work critiqued, and I was able to pitch the idea for Bloodsuckers to other writers and editors, where it was well received —  well, except for the “Oh, not another vampire novel” comments.

I’ve never been a huge vampire buff.   I haven’t read or seen “Twilight” or “True Blood.”  But I am a big political junkie.  I graduated cum laude with a degree in Political Science before going off to law school, and have worked as a lobbyist and political reporter as well as spending a summer as a campaign manager for a state representative up in Boston.  I’m still actively assisting local campaigns.

Anyway, when someone made a comment about all those “bloodsuckers in Congress” recently, the proverbial comic light bulb illuminated the brain.   I expect this will end up more as a political novel than a supernatural one.

In some ways, I plan on making fun of those extremists who believe in every conspiracy about a candidate.  Of course, this time they happen to be right…

I see this on the political boards I visit.  The right wing crazies who hate Obama attack him for the stupidest things:  He wasn’t born in America!  He is a closet muslim/socialist/drug dealer!  He wants to create a North American monetary system and work toward a world government, making us all subservient to the UN!  — You know the type.  

The problem with this kind of “Chicken Little” hysteria is that when they finally have a real issue to criticize him on (and there are real issues, of course) no one pays any attention to them.

So what if these same loonies uncovered the fact that the candidate was a vampire?  I mean, they’re crazy already, but this is going too far, right?

I should have a lot of fun with this!

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