tales of vampire Lailoken

THE MADMAN OF THE WOODS

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. Lailoken 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 motels 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.

a few fun facts

The origin story

I’m excited to give you another book. 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 it

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

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 the random thought, What if he was a vampire? And everything clicked into place.

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’s overcome with bloodlust.

Meet Josie

Josie is a hunter in training who stumbles upon Lailoken at the worst possible moment only to catch him red-handed. Bringing him to justice is her duty. But the more she gets to know him, the harder it is to tell what the right thing to do is anymore.

choose a platform

Read The Madman of the Woods

The story is available on two platforms.

Wattpad is where the contest takes place. This is the best place to cheer on the contestants, leave inline comments, and join the ONC hype.

Campfire gives you access to the story extras. Check out behind-the-scenes bonus content like character and location profiles, bonus short story, and other notes directly from the author.