Tales of vampire Lailoken

book cover for The Madman of the Woods by Isobel Lynx, a tale of vampire Lailoken. Image featuring a young man with long silver hair flying in the wind and a dark forest in the background

THE MADMAN OF THE WOODS

  • Price: FREE
  • Genre: Supernatural fantasy, vampire romance
  • Content warnings: Blood and gore. Suitable for audiences 16+
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Synopsis

The Madman of the Woods

Vampires and hunters are like cats and dogs. They either tolerate each other, or they go for the throat. Rarely ever is there a third option.

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A powerful, ancient vampire with peculiar fog powers awoke from a long slumber in his beloved woods. He’s known as The Madman of the Woods, The Wild One, epithets he doesn’t deny, but his name is Lailoken. He thirsts for an adventure in the modern world and brings chaos everywhere he goes. If not whimsical, then bloody…

He crosses paths with Josie, a strong, independent woman who isn’t intimidated by his fangs. With Josie as his guide, Lailoken is ready for his first road trip of the twenty-first century. While hunters are on their trail looking for a vampire killer on the loose, Lailoken and Josie hide out in shady motel rooms and vampire dens, and their friendship grows into something more.

But charming as he may be, Lailoken is a killer, and it is Josie’s duty to bring him to justice. Trusting her may be his undoing.

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Their entangled tale unfolds in a story filled with campy entertainment, romantic tension, and a fresh take on the vampire genre.

large play button on top of a close up of a man’s bloody lips
blood spatter

A few fun facts

The origin story

I’m excited to give you another story. I had lots of plans for 2024, and neither of them involved writing a new book, but another ONC came about, and I couldn’t resist when a vampire story idea was born. I had a blast writing this story, and I hope that you’ll have just as much fun reading it.

Open Novella Contest (ONC) is an annual Wattpad event where you’re challenged to write a full novella from scratch in the span of 12 weeks. This was my fourth time participating. The other books born from this contest were DragonSky, Soul Survivor, and Soul Seekers.

The Madman of the Woods was born out of 4 ONC 2024 prompts:

The main prompt

22. When you arrive at your car, the windshield is covered in blood.​

Secondary prompt

13. Every family has that one member of whom no one speaks, and that's you.

Fun extra prompt

15. Why are you glowing blue?​

Goes with the secondary

58. In a world where family business means being a bounty hunter, you're not really keen to be part of it.

Open Novella Contest 2024 Achievements

  • Round 1: 2k words milestone
  • Round 2: 8k words milestone
  • Round 3: 20k words milestone
  • Ambassadors Pick
  • Longlist
  • Shortlist

Mythology & characters

Meet Lailoken

Lailoken is a mythical figure I discovered when researching Merlin mythology. Merlin and Lailoken myths overlap, and unfortunately for Lailoken, some of his tales seem to be attributed to Merlin. I thought he’d be pretty pissed about that. Doesn’t he deserve the fame too?

I’ve wanted to write about him for several years, but I didn’t have the right story premise for the fun, eccentric character that I imagined.

But then I had a random thought, What if he was a vampire? And everything clicked into place. The myths don’t say that he was but they also don’t deny it. Hehe.

The Lailoken from The Madman of the Woods is a chaotic, impulsive, and whimsical immortal, but he’s also a powerful vampire, so powerful, in fact, that no one can stop him when he shows his not-so-innocent side.

drawing of a man with white hair on the background of trees, signed by Isobel
Lailoken drawing by Isobel Lynx
marker drawing of a woman with short hair, wearing a black leather jacket, signed by Isobel Lynx
Josie drawing by Isobel Lynx

Meet Josie

Josie is a bounty hunter in training who’s eager to earn her rank. She stumbles upon Lailoken at the worst possible moment and catches him red-handed. Their meet cute moment is when he drops a dead body onto the hood of her car.

Bringing him to justice is more than just her duty—it’s her moment to prove that she’s ready to be a hunter. It could be the makings of her career.

But the more she gets to know him, the harder it is to tell what the right thing to do is anymore.

If it’s the right thing to do, why does it feel so wrong?

Choose a platform

Read The Madman of the Woods

The story is available on two platforms in two versions.

The biggest difference between the two versions is that while the Wattpad novella is more focused on Lailoken, the expanded novel has additional focus on Josie and has more emphasis on the romance. The storylines are not 100% the same.

Wattpad is where the contest took place. This is the best place to cheer on the contestants, leave inline comments, and join the ONC hype. This is the novella that started it all.

Main genre: supernatural fantasy.

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Campfire has the expanded version of the story with the latest updates and access to the story extras. Check out behind-the-scenes bonus content like character and location profiles, additional artwork, bonus short story, and other notes directly from the author.

Main genre: enemies to lovers romance.

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