Anatomy of a Vampire: Part 2, Present Day centers around the investigation of a brutal attack in the Canadian forest that leads scientists to connect the deaths to a mysterious adaptive virus. At what point did you decide you wanted to completely rethink the traditional vampire myth?

The works of Le Fanu and Stoker along with the movie adaptations had always fascinated me as a young man but I wanted to approach this genre now through a modern lens. 

I had once read about uncovered vampire burials, one such individual was found with a stone slab placed in his mouth. This plus the sheer amount of undiscovered biodiversity gave me a plausible seed — what if the myth wasn’t purely imaginary but describes something real we haven’t yet classified?

That’s the premise I built the book on, treating vampires as a real, undiscovered species rather than a figment of our imagination.

The SAV virus gives the novel a strong scientific foundation. How did your interest in biology and virology influence the story?

I’ve always been drawn to biology’s edge cases, and viruses are the strangest of them. They sit in a gray area on how we define life — they carry traits of living organisms but lack others, and that only resolves once they enter a host and start replicating. That ambiguity has even led some scientists to float the idea that viruses may not have originated on Earth at all. I found that gap irresistible — a place where real science stops short and imagination can take over. SAV grew directly out of that space: as something not of this world.

Was there a supporting character who became more significant than you originally planned?

Yes, there was an emotional tie to one main character who grew as I wrote. However, I cannot reveal who the character is. The sequel will reveal this. 

If you could have readers ask you one question about the novel after finishing it, what would you hope it would be?

Is there more to this than just a science fantasy novel. Is there a personal or moral message imbedded the story you are telling?

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