Stephen
Mark Rainey co-wrote the bestselling 1999 novel Dark
Shadows: Dreams of the Dark for HarperCollins. In a classic
Dark Shadows Journal interview from 1999, he discusses
the novel's conception.
Did
you always want to be a horror writer?
I
started writing short stories when I was in middle school,
and one of them was a Dark Shadows story, which I turned
in for English and got an A. I guess that inspired me to write
more things, all of them scary, since I've always had a fondness
for horror.
The
horror market was booming in the early to mid 1980s. I began
writing and submitting my stories to everything from the biggest
magazines to the weeniest of trash-mags. I finally began to
get my stuff accepted, at first mostly in the little rags.
Because I worked at a company that manufactured typographic
systems, and I had access to them, I started to start my own
magazine, in the hopes of producing something better than
most of the crap floating around in the marketplace. And thus
Deathrealm was born, which ended up lasting for over 10
years and ended up featuring everyone from aspiring first
timers to the most established professionals in the business.
In
the last decade I've had over 80 published works of short
fiction. Some of the markets include Cemetery Dance magazine,
the online anthology Dark Whispers, Robert Bloch's Psychos,
The New Lovecraft Circle and numerous Chaosium Cthulu
Mythos anthologies.
How
did Dreams of the Dark come about?
One day I'd been looking for something to read from amongst
my oldest books and I happened upon the Marilyn Ross Dark
Shadows novels; I have a dozen or so of them that I've
jealously kept since their first printing. I ended up reading
them all and was lamenting the fact that there would probably
never be any more Dark Shadows novels, something that
I had always wished I could write.
Then
I received a call from Elizabeth Massie, a good friend and
writer I've known since the time I set up Deathrealm.
She said HarperCollins was starting a new series of Dark
Shadows novels, and since I knew more about the show than
anyone she knew, would I be interested in collaborating on
a novel with her? You can guess how the rest of that conversation
went. Anyway, by the end of that evening I'd come up with
a rough plot, characters, a bit of dialogue - you name it.
Harpers liked the idea enough to request a more detailed proposal.
After a number of revisions, it was approved and Dreams
of the Dark was given the go ahead. Interesting, the original
title Dreams of the Damned, which Beth coined, was
deemed too 'heavy' by the powers that be.
How
did you and Elizabeth split the writing?
Since Beth and I had two main points of view - Thomas Blackburn,
my original creation, and Victoria Winters - we had them alternate
points of view from chapter to chapter. Beth wrote the Victoria
chapters and I wrote the Blackburn chapters, at least for
the most part. Beth had several pressing deadlines, so I also
wrote a few of the Victoria chapters to take up the slack.
Then we'd pass the chapters back and forth so each could go
in and make any necessary tweaking. In the end I probably
ended up doing about 65 to 70 percent of the actual writing,
which suited me fine - I could have kept writing Dark Shadows
for longer than anyone would want to read it.
What
does the novel's story concern?
I was always disappointed that the 1991 Dark Shadows was
cut off in midstream; it was just hitting its stride when
it was cancelled. My original idea was to write something
that would continue its storyline, however due to copyright
and proprietary concerns, the new series was off-limits. But
since the final part of the 1991 show closely paralleled the
original show, we decided to work up a story that took place
not long after Victoria returned from the 18th Century that
could be inserted into the original Dark Shadows storyline
at the appropriate point. The book bridges some of the disparate
elements of the television show and even the films, with less
conflict in continuity than could be found even within the
television series itself.
The
plot concerns a vampire named Thomas Blackburn, who was 'changed'
during the Civil War and in recent days has begun experiencing
visions of people and places unfamiliar to him - but that
seem to involve facets of his own past. He follows clues from
these visions and ends up in Collinsport, and begins meeting
people he recognises, including Victoria Winters and Barnabas.
Needless to say, he is agreeably taken with Victoria, a fact
that does not sit well with Barnabas Collins. An intense rivalry
ensues and Barnabas makes a number of attempts to rid Collinwood
of this strange new arrival. However, Blackburn is not quite
the 'ordinary' vampire and things don't work out quite how
Barnabas has envisioned them.
In
the meantime, strange occurrences begin to plague members
of the household, Victoria in particular. As the events become
more threatening, Blackburn realises that the only way he
will be able to learn the truth about the visions - and to
save himself and Victoria - is to form an alliance with Barnabas.
Easier said than done, however. And for more than that, you'll
have to read the book!
Were
there any concepts that were vetoed?
In
the beginning, we were going to tell the entire story through
the eyes of our vampire, Thomas Blackburn. But the editors
and Dan Curtis productions wanted to have an insider's view
of well, to give the show's fans a familiar character to identify
with. We chose Victoria and, in the end, I'm very glad we
went down this route.
But
the biggest thing, I suppose, was that in the beginning, Beth
came up with a background for Blackburn that tied into [Lara
Parker's preceding novel] Angelique's Descent. However,
we were told not to use Lara's book as a resource or attempt
continuity with it; our book needed to be completely standalone.
This might to some extent have been due to the fact that Angelique's
Descent had not been completed, so any changes made to
Lara's book would therefore affect ours if we tried to tie
them together. As it is, I'm more satisfied with the end result
than if we'd made that connection.
The
only very difficult hurdle was that at the beginning of the
project we were given precious little information of what
we could and couldn't do. We'd do the work, then find out
that certain changes needed to be made - we'd do that, then
have to change a few more things, and so on. It felt like
an awful lot of the changes could have been suggested when
we turned in the first draft of the outline, rather than the
third and fourth. All in all though, it was a very positive
experience, and I think the book is stronger for the work
we did to it before the actual writing.
My
original idea was to perhaps continue the story of the 1991
series, since it was so open-ended. However, I was told that
it would run into copyright problems. So we had to take our
primary influence from the original series. Still, I felt
it would be neat to fit Dreams of the Dark into the
original storyline that paralleled the end of the 1991 show.
As it is, I preferred working with the original universe,
with few exceptions. Our Victoria is much more closely modelled
on [1991 actress] Joanna Going than Alexandra Moltke. Barnabas'
character is more akin to his darker version seen in House
of Dark Shadows.
The
Dark Shadows movies do seem to have been an influence…
Without
giving too much away, the description of the grounds of Collinwood
is based entirely on [film location] Lyndhurst, since I went
there during the writing of the book, and a few aspects of
Angelique's character are directly from Night of Dark Shadows,
without conflicting with the origins of Barnabas. The mansion
itself is based on the sets and exteriors from the television
show. A few of the actual Lyndhurst interiors are also described,
as portions of the house we never saw in the series.
As
the novels are an alternative medium for the show, how necessary
do you think it is to reinvent it for a modern audience?
Not everyone who reads a Dark Shadows novel is going
to be a devoted fan of the original series, so you want the
characters and situations to be relevant to someone exploring
Collinwood for the first time. Perhaps the most important
point is that Dark Shadows is largely an established
world in and of itself. The key is to draw the reader into
that world, regardless of the time period.
In
Dreams of the Dark we've written the piece with only
suggestions of a specific timeframe; there's nothing like
in Lara's book, where it flatly states that the year is 1971.
Dreams of the Dark is written as if it is happening
now - whenever that 'now' happens to be. The insinuation is
that the events are taking place in 1999 or what have you,
yet they fit into the storyline of 1968. Our view is that
Dark Shadows is timeless. The attitudes and personalities
are as close to the original as we can make them, and they
react to the world they live in as those people, regardless
of the particular year of its setting. To a large extent,
Dark Shadows has a zeitgeist - independent of the world
around it.
Do
you think there's a danger of tie-in books becoming pastiches?
I don't think so, at least not in the right hands. In Dreams
of the Dark we've taken the world of the show into places
the series never ventured, while remaining true to its spirit.
Angelique's Descent was certainly no pastiches, and
given Lara's creative prowess, I suspect that if she contributes
more, she would continue to delve successfully into uncharted
waters.
Most
of the material in the original series was derived from other
sources. In the novels, one can make a reverent nod to those
sources, without necessarily falling back on such established
formulas. With new talent and imagination, combined with the
old foundation, there are endless roads that can be travelled
in Collinsport.
What
do you think Dreams of the Dark adds to the Dark
Shadows world?
Life! With only re-runs, plus the movies and a newer series
to keep the flame alive, there's a finite limit to the Dark
Shadows entity. Experiencing the show was a very personal
thing to a number of its viewers. It has inspired countless
journeys into the imagination. The Collins family became a
living, breathing group of people to their fans. Look at the
proliferation of fan fiction Dark Shadows inspired,
perhaps more than any other media property besides Star
Trek. That's because fans want the Collins family to continue
to thrive in their own imaginations.
Our
book will hopefully provide a new 'official' episode in a
saga that was relegated to fan writing for years, until Angelique's
Descent. It introduces a strong character from outside
the Dark Shadows world; one who at first provides an
outsider's view of the microcosm, then becomes a living part
of it. I think that's how we, as viewers and readers, interact
with the world of Dark Shadows. We're outside looking
in, until that crucial moment when we are drawn in, becoming
part of a wonderful world. Most importantly, hopefully, Dreams
of the Dark will be an exciting and satisfying enough
journey to Collinwood to make readers want to come back for
more.
Order
Dreams of the Dark from Amazon.com
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