Barry's introduction to Cadmus Pariah

[tinhuviel]

This is coming up on its ten-year anniversary, which just boggles my mind. Needless to say, he approved of his demon child and all went mostly according to plan. Ain't life grand sometimes?

From: Evans, Tracy, BMG - Duncan
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2001 2:10 PM
To: 'Barry Andrews (E-mail)'
Subject: The Pariah

Good Eve to You ~

Okay, I finally found and scanned the latest 'thorough' update on this character ~ a collection of doodles I did to pass some time while I was still in the Quality Assurance department of BMG (critical listening all day long with freedom to do what I wanted with everything but my ears ~ those were the days!), so excuse any mistakes (I know they're there).

Mind you, I was looking for a villain for a vampire book that had been pestering me to be written since 89 (I'm halfway finished). But what or whom could be bad enough to be a threat to vampires? About a year later I discovered Shriekback via the 'Nemesis' video (the whole Roman splendour thing caught my eye, otherwise I would have just fast forwarded through the whole piece!) and got 'Oil & Gold' and 'The Dancing Years'.

So I was in a twilight sleep listening to 'DY' one night when 'Deeply Lined Up' came on and I half dreamed a surreal performance by this faceless cowled individual who subtly worked the audience into a frenzy of offering their blood to a goblet he passed around. The beastly laughter that they thought was special effects actually came from him and, when the club DJ saw from his control board the gory bloodfest below him and tried to shut the show down (wait a minute wait a minute, cut this shit!), the individual shot him a glance and the DJ instantly fell dead.

Well, I woke up more than a little shaken, but with an idea of a really cool, bad ass villain for the story. But the dream also instilled a seed of fear of you (it was very real)~ illogical, ridiculous, I know ~ but quite fun in a really perverse way and very inspiring when it came to fleshing out Cadmus.

So, as I said, all this may flatter you, insult you, or frighten you. But I felt it had to be done, particularly after I read your bit about 'Despite Dense Weed' ~ another song I devour when I'm writing Cadmus. Anyway, here's a sketchy overview of your 'child' (some of which has already been somewhat altered) and I'll be sending the Eve story later on this evening when I get my other computer up and running again. It's one of two short stories that are solely Cadmus tales. He's otherwise reserved for the book proper.

Sorry for the babble! I just don't want to offend you with this, 'cos that was never my intention from the very beginning. Villainy always seems so much more interesting than the 'white hat crowd' anyway ~ there's so much more going on there ~ the wherefores, motives, etc. But, should you dislike The Pariah and wish him destroyed, just say the word. It'll kill me as he's become quite entrenched in the arch story, but you've as much right to him as I, since you were his principal inspiration.

Hope you have a faboo weekend and, should you get into trouble, make certain it's of the festive sort.

Peace,

Tracy Angelina