Story of the Story

The origin of Suck It Up? Teeth-grinding frustration.

When I was writing lots of kids TV for PBS back in the 90s I was often told by politically correct TV producers that I couldn't put such and such in a show because it might offend so-and-so. I couldn't put angels on a wedding cake because it was too Christian and might offend non-Christians. I couldn't write about birthday parties because Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in celebrating birthdays because it's a celebration of self.

At some point, I became brainwashed by all this political correctness and had a eureka moment. The one minority that no one seemed to care about was our bloodsucking brothers and sisters: vampires. I mean, c'mon, they have special needs too. They're subjected to unfair stereotyping. They even suffer from a terrible hate-crime: staking.

So I found my cause. I was determined to write a story that would let everyone know that vampires are like everyone else. They just have a slight drinking problem--correction--they're diet-challenged.

The story started as a screenplay for a movie (with the likes of Jim Carry playing Morning McCobb). It was called "Don't Call Us Vampires – We're Undead Americans!" It even won a screenplay competition, taking 1st place in The New England Screenwriting Conference of 1998. The Conference gave me a wonderful staged reading of it. But the screenplay never sold and became a film.

After I finished Out of Patience, I decided to resurrect the screenplay as a YA novel. And that's how Suck It Up rose from the grave of a writer's trunk.