Dark
Shadows is back in print with a new novel from Angelique
actress Lara Parker, who took time out during
the recording of the new Dark Shadows audio dramas
to discuss The Salem Branch…
Angelique’s
Descent was released in 1998. It’s been a while
since the first book…
I
know, it has! Everyone has a novel in them, somewhere, I
suppose. It’s amazingly easy to write one, because
it just kinda flows out and you get a chance to say all
the things you’ve ever wanted to say. You don’t
think so much about the craft, and it’s just thrilling.
Statistically, of all the people who write their first novel,
only about 50 percent ever write another, and I think the
reason is that it suddenly becomes a craft, and much more
difficult. You suddenly have a critic in your head, and
you switch into another gear.
Right
after I got the assignment, 9/11 happened and thinking about
vampire stories just seemed too trivial to me. Then my father
got sick and I had to spend a year of my life taking care
of him. I really didn’t think I was going to complete
the book. It weighed on me so heavily and I would write
little bits of it. By the time I had about a hundred pages,
I felt I just wasn’t able to do it. So I decided to
get my Masters’ degree in creative writing. I went
back to school at Antioch, and when I told them my situation,
we agreed that I’d make it one of my projects to finish
the novel, and turn in 20 or 30 pages a month. And so, at
the end of the end, I’d realise that I have 30 pages
due, so I’d slog them out! [laughs]
So,
what sort of tale have you come up with?
This
is a much more complicated story. The first book was just
about my character on Dark Shadows, which was something
I’d thought about a lot while I was on the show. I
had the entire Dark Shadows story, so I always
knew where the plot was going, and the last hundred pages
were taken directly from the show. The Salem Branch
was completely original, and is more complicated because
it’s two completely separate stories that meet near
the book’s end. One part takes place in Salem in 1692
during the witch trials,
Do
I sense a link to the original show in there?
Maybe. One day on the show, during the Judah Zachery storyline,
for a single episode, there was a fifteen-minute scene where
they went back to the past to show how Judah’s head
was severed. I played the part of the girl in Salem who
blew his cover and testified against him, and her name was
Miranda duVal. That tiny scene was the seed for the entire
novel. I thought, what a fascinating idea it would be, to
have this witch girl in Salem, and it got me thinking. Also,
it was pretty clear in Angelique’s Descent
that she was this supernatural figure who kept being reborn.
She had memories of the snowy winters in New England that
she didn’t understand, and I’d always thought
that I’d go back and explain that previous life. Not
her childhood, but her previous life as Miranda. I was intrigued
by the idea that during the Salem witch trials, everyone
they hanged was innocent. So I thought, what if one of them
really was a witch? Not a bad witch, but a supernatural
creature who had some link with the devil, whether she liked
it or not
And
the other half of the story?
The other half takes place in Collinsport right after the
television show went off the air in 1971. Barnabas has been
cured by Julia of vampirism, and he’s suffering from
the process. He’s struggling, making new blood in
his marrow, and he has terrible bouts of pain. He’s
promised to marry Julia, but is not really sure that he
wants to marry her. Then, what should happen, at the beginning
of the novel, but another vampire shows up at Collinwood.
Soon he realises that there is probably only one person
in the world that can fight this vampire, and he is that
person. But of course now he has no powers.
How
did you approach Barnabas coming to terms with his new life?
Well, he’s weak, he’s ageing and battling all
the perils of being human, when for 150 years he had been
supernaturally strong. This is Barnabas’ journey,
which leads him back to Salem, and I think it’s a
fascinating and intriguing story. The complexity of it was
one of the things that made it so difficult to write. It
deals with some deep themes, one of which is the dilemma
of what happens when we decide to fight something we perceive
to be evil? I think that’s one of the strongest themes
of horror. Does it require that we become evil as well?
When we reach inside ourselves for the strength to fight
evil, do we become evil ourselves? And are we so influenced
by that evil that it transforms us? So how can Barnabas
fight unless he reverts and becomes a vampire again, to
accept that evil which he once was?
And
he’s dealing with the arrivals of hippies in Collinsport…
He is! When I lived in New York and was working on Dark
Shadows, we had a piece of land up in Chatham, New
York, where we’d live in tents. The whole hippie camp
in the book, which is supposedly in the woods behind Collinwood,
is a direct description of the camp where my husband and
my kids lived with several other people. It wasn’t
a commune, but it was the early 1970s, so of course we were
all swimming nude in the river, running around in the meadows,
watching the sunsets and getting stoned, while playing music
and singing. It was about the time when that whole movement
was running down and losing its mystical elements. There’s
a character who’s definitely based on Charles Manson.
He’s a crazed hippie who taking the love ideas to
their ridiculous extremes.
That’s
quite new ground for Dark Shadows!
I thought this is a wonderful period of American history
- and it is now history - which I wanted to delve into.
And hippies make great victims! It’s great –
Roger is furious at the idea of these degenerate people
living next to his ancestral mansion.
And
where does Angelique fit into all this?
I introduced a character who is like Angelique, but she’s
not Angelique in the least. She’s just a hippie, who
does drugs and plays music at the Blue Whale… badly.
I really love her, because she’s just a delightful
character. And of course Barnabas falls in love with her.
I think it’s a nice new twist on the Barnabas and
Angelique story.
I hear you took a trip to Salem for
research...
Yes, I did. It’s very touristy, but it does have an
interesting draw – so many people are fascinated by
this thing called witchcraft. I haven’t figured it
out yet, but I think it had something to do with the desire
for immortality. We’re drawn to things that we feel
offer some release from death. But Salem’s not a classy
place. It’s kinda dreggy, with crumbling wax dioramas
and dusty old exhibits. But there are some very real things
– the original gravestones and burial grounds. I had
a better time researching early New England life and what
it was like to live as a Puritan during that time. The trials
were all recorded, and the transcripts survive, which was
a big help with the language and the attitude. Those books
reek of the superstition and fear of those people. They
really believed that the Devil was there among them –
it was not a matter for question. He was really there. [laughs]
How
did you find it moving away from Angelique this time, inheriting
the other original series characters?
It was hard writing Barnabas – just to write as a
man. For a novel, you have to get inside their head and
catch their thoughts, which are very different from what
people actually say. And Barnabas really didn’t say
that much on the show – he was always so cryptic on
the show, trying to deal with other problems. Now he’s
dealing with the pain of his cure, and getting inside his
head. I’d have people read it and I’d ask, is
he too much of a wuss? Is he too feminine? Angelique had
been much surer ground.
Who
else did you explore?
Quentin was easy – he’s the rake, which is always
fun to write. Roger is the aristocrat, who’s always
upset about something, in his pompous way. Julia was great,
because Grayson Hall was such a strong character. It was
fun to write Julia falling apart a bit. She’s heartsick,
as she realises Barnabas is moving away from her, and I
enjoyed approaching Julia as more of a victim. David was
great, because he’s an adolescent reaching manhood,
so I had him falling in love for the first time.
And
with two novels under your belt, might we expect a third?
That depends on the sales. I would like to write another
book, and this one ends with plenty of possibilities. But
it all depends on sales, so if this book does well I think
there will be another.
To
order The Salem Branch from Amazon.com,
click
here.
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