#letters from the author

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

so I got bored...

[wightclan]

Some concept art I've had laying around, including coming up with designs, and the characters' canon palettes from the generator!

[thevoiceofthepeople]

Sometimes the smell of beer flashes her back to a childhood she'd like to forget. Sometimes thought it reminds her just how far she's come and that puts a smile on her face.

[thebloodofsaints]

What is The Blood of Saints?

So, if you're here, on this page, then you have probably heard about the story I've been working on. Hello! I appreciate your company. I realize that perhaps I should give some sort of a synopsis of this story, and what it means to me as the author.

So... what is The Blood of Saints?

It is a passion project, above all else! I really have no desire to publish it in a professional setting, or seek out financial gain from it. It is, quite literally, just for funsies.

It is also a means of exploration for myself. An exploration of religion, guilt, trauma, loneliness, and sexual liberation. The setting is no accident, either, it was not random. Setting this story in rural Tennessee in the early 1980's was deliberate. While there may be some of the classic elements of horror and suspense in a vampire story, the real horror comes from the regional conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism (particularly, Evangelical Fundamentalism).

My father is a lapsed Catholic from Northern Pennsylvania, my mother a former Christian of the Church of Christ, from Tennessee. I was born and raised in Tennessee, and they both made the decision early on to raise me without any religious affiliation, because all of the churches they attended in the area as a means of testing the waters conflicted directly with their morals.

To put bluntly, they were all a bit horrifying and cultish. This was, of course, the rural American south, post-9/11.

Unfortunately, due to some lingering prejudices, my mother told my father directly that I would not be raised Catholic.

All of these factors led to a very interesting upbringing, a focus more on doing good and being kind just for the sake of it rather than out of fear of my eternal salvation. It also led to some pretty relentless bullying and an intense feeling of isolation that lasted all my life. Couple that with being trans and queer and knowing that I was different in some way, but being unable to place just how I was different, and you've got... a bit of a neurotic mess.

A lot has happened in the last two and a half decades for me to be here, but I ultimately wouldn't change it for the world.

What else inspired this story?

Glad you asked! Besides my kind of weird agnostic upbringing in the deep south Bible Belt, it was, admittedly, inspired by a lot of the media I consume. I've been fascinated by vampires since I was a kid. But it should come as no surprise that Midnight Mass was the biggest catalyst in me even starting this story. The way it delved into religion, loss, love, and evangelism spoke to me. As I said, I've always been agnostic, but make no mistake, I am actually pretty religious. But... just sort of in my own way.

Another piece of media which spoke to me was Wise Blood, both the book by Flannery O'Connor and the movie directed by John Huston. The tone is almost absurdist, and the setting threw me right back into my small town where I grew up, where nothing at all seems to have modernized.

The Exorcist and The Exorcist III were also inspiration for me, the first for the horror elements and the questioning of faith, and the second for its strange and Lynchian tone and imagery.

In terms of music, I was inspired particularly by artists such as K. D. Lang, Nick Cave, Neil Diamond, Simon and Garfunkel, Townes Van Zandt, and Colter Wall.

What else is there, besides religion and vampires? Are there any other horrors?

Possibly. I'll be honest, I'm sort of making this up as I go, but there may be more to everything than vampires and priests and preachers and love and folk music. The Appalachians are an ancient and strange place. Who's to say?

How does it end?

With love. But you'll just have to find out the rest for yourself!

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

yall gay or sumn?

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

Everyone take a chocolate crinkle cookie!

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

and what if i said (horrible smutty thought below the cut)

danny would hold sam's hair back while sam ate you out

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

jake's the type of guy to make a whole moment of getting out of his comfy chair like a grandpa, like huffing as he braces his hands and sighing and smacking his lips and patting down his pockets when he stands up

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

Jake's familiar soft grey shirt tucked into his new boot cut jeans over his little heeled chelsea boots

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

i'm so grateful for the boys in brown*

(*hozier, josh kiszka, & UPS workers)

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

good night

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

if you told me this morning that by the end of the day I'd see jake shirtless, sweating, bucking his hips, flexing his biceps, flipping his hair, curling his fingers, all from multiple angles...

[wightclan]

Have NOT forgotten about WightClan, just got hit by a truck with real life, and other projects, including Mamma Mia with cats,

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

You can’t…you can’t just say that 😵‍💫🫠

you're gonna look at me, and you're gonna tell me that I'm WRONG?

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

happy turkey day! may your tummy be full and your family not be intolerable

[sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine]

no but the number one thing that will guarantee a band will become my next longterm obsession is if they're FUNNY. yall know me for this gvf blog, and the boys are all hilarious, and some of you might know but in middle/highschool I was obsessed, for literal years, with Black Veil Brides. And I will tell you TO THIS DAY Andy Biersack is one of the funniest people ever.