Jim Newport – Author – “THE SIAMESE CONNECTION”

“Blood on the Keyboard – How to write a vampire novel.”

The Siamese Connection is the fourth book in the Vampire Of Siam series – an epic tale that spans half the globe and a course of 150 years.

In The Vampire Of Siam (Book 1) a nineteenth century explorer, Ramonne Delacroix encounters an ancient Chinese demon in the temples of Angkor Wat. His subsequent nocturnal transformation leads him to the capital of Siam where he witnesses the coronation of kings and the city’s metamorphosis into the modern day sin-city of Bangkok.

Living the life of the lone hunter for the first 145 years of his incarnation as a night stalker, the vampire is reborn in Ramonne (Book 2) and eventually seeks to know the true extent of his powers. As he learns, he evolves. By the second book’s end, the Vampire’s strength is enormous and he has control of the true magic he has been vested with.

In The Reckoning, (Book 3) armed with this new-found knowledge, Ramonne seeks the source of his powers and journeys back to Cambodia and the ancient temples to a fateful encounter with Zhoupeng – the mighty devil who “turned him” so many years before. Ramonne vows to put an end to his reign of evil over the poor land.

Throughout the three books, Ramonne’s fate is inextricably entwined with that of Martin Larue – wealthy American ex-pat. Drawn to each other by mutual admiration and fascination, they eventually end up relying on each other to sort out the twisted path they find themselves thrust upon. Together they face vampire-hunters, corrupt cops, opium dens, bordellos, blind fortune-tellers, jealous lovers, terrorists, suicide-bombers, smugglers, warlords and soul-sucking demons.

The author gives a bit of insight into the process of writing his new thriller:

“It’s been a little over 14 years since the last V.O.S. Tale – The Reckoning. I took some time off to write 2 books that were demanding to come out.
First was Chasing Jimi. Next was Tinsel Town.

Both of these were ‘Factoids’ – mixtures of Fact & Fiction. I had first tried my hand at this with The Reckoning. In that tale the modern day narrative is crossed with flashbacks to 1860 – the young Frenchman (Ramonne Delacroix) and his journeys with the explorer Henri Mohout up the Mekong and into the ruins of Angkor Watt.

I used the vampire’s own journal from 1860 as the vehicle to introduce this part of the story. It was great fun to delve into Mohout’s own well published journals (Travels in Siam, Cambodia, Laos and Annam – White Lotus – highly recommended) and inject a Chinese vampire that had been haunting the temples for 1,000 years (thus solving the
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mystery of what happened to the original inhabitants – driven out by a bloodthirsty vampire.

In Chasing Jimi I got to write about a real legend – the great Jimi Hendrix. I had mis-spent a bit of my youth as a rock ‘n’ roll photographer and later – in 1983, I traveled the rock ‘n’ roll road again with the great band the Animals on their reunion tour. Stories were rehashed on the tour bus, and more often than not, they involved Jimi Hendrix. By the end of that tour I felt I knew enough about Jimi to write a book.

It took another 20 years, but I finally wrote that book. Great fun. Imagining conversations between Jimi and the likes of young Brian Jones. It flowed from the keyboard like the blues from Jimi’s cat gut guitar strings.

When it came time to write the new vampire book, I knew I was headed down the historical trail again. In the earlier books I had alluded to my vampire having spent some time at the original Bamboo Bar in the Oriental, as an impresario. If you’ve read any of the books, you know that Ramonne is a jazz aficionado. He often ends his evenings by putting a Chet Baker or Miles Davis disk on the turntable (none of this digital crap) and slipping into the silk folds of his coffin. ‘Compere’ at the Bamboo Bar would have been his idea of a dream job. And you couldn’t ask for better hours for a vampire.

So I started with that. A simple premise. A dapper French vampire running the Bamboo Bar. Now on to the research. When did the Bamboo open? 1947. Interesting time. WWII just over. Thailand had a curious position in the war.

And then I found a very intriguing fact. Jim Thompson was one of the original partners in the restoration of the Oriental Hotel.

Jim Thompson – The mysterious Silk King.
Ex CIA.
In the Oriental. With a French vampire.

Thus began the tale – in Bangkok 1948. The vampire, Ramonne becomes involved in a quest for a mysterious artifact, stolen and hidden during the war by the Japanese. He joins forces with the famous American Expat – Jim Thompson, (before he was the Silk King he was an OSS agent.) The tale continues in modern-day Bangkok, picking up where The Reckoning (Book 3) left off.

I borrow heavily on my production design background when writing. One of the reasons I chose the novel format over screenwriting is that I get to describe the settings in detail. For instance on page 152 of the new novel there’s a travel agency (in 1948 Bangkok) It is essentially the one I designed and had built on a stage in Honulu for Fantasy Island. It was occupied by Fyvush Finkle & Sylvia Sydney- two marvelous octogenarians actors. (Miss Sydney was 88 and passed away while filming.)
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Jim Thompson dropped the two slugs onto the desk. Jane Farmer looked up over her reading glasses.
“What’s this?”
Jim merely arched his eyebrows, his arms folded across his chest. The office appeared to be, as the sign outside indicated, a travel agency. The necessary tools of the trade were in evidence. Maps dominated the walls and a huge globe stood behind the desk occupied by Jane Farmer. The other
desks were decorated with personal touches, photos, papers, pens, a typewriter. But only Lady Jane’s was occupied at the moment.
The office was a façade. A damn good one, Jim Thompsom thought to himself.

Throughout the writing of the book, I had a supernatural relic that everyone was after (fiction writers call this the ‘Maguffin’) It is ‘plot element’ that catches the viewers’ attention or drives the plot forward. The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are (at least initially) willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, or a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained. In the Siamese Connection the Maguffin is a relic somewhat like the ‘Ark Of The Covenant.’ I didn’t know what to call it. So each time it was referred to I just wrote The WORD (I type things in bold that need to be researched or defined.) By the end of the book I probably referred to it a hundred times or more – each time as The WORD.

Finally gave it its proper name. The Oracle.

I remember reading Dan Brown’s new novel The Lost Symbol and throughout the book he refers to his Maguffin (the Lost Symbol of the title) as The WORD. Obviously he did the same thing I did, only he never did come up with a proper name and just left it as The WORD.

When writing a vampire tale – first thing you do is make up your own vampire rules. You must know the science of your vampire. How does his blood work?

Photographs from the past help to propel the story forward. Therefore the notion that a vampire cannot b photographed does not suit my vampire.

The back story in my vampire tales is as important as the contemporary drama.

You have to find new ways to describe the same act repeatedly.

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In that moment she lost her will. She felt it slip away like a silken bed sheet sliding silently off her soul. He leaned in to her and she unconsciously unbuttoned the top button to her blouse.
She felt but a slight tingling sensation. It was less than the prick of a doctor’s hypodermic. She sighed.

The journey is personal. It can’t help but be. Much of my new novel deals
with Martin & Areeya’s pregnancy. Anyone who knows me and my wife well knows that we have struggled with this for years. My pain, my observations, my experience – is in the book.

You write what you know.

So, I’ve been embedded in pre-war Bangkok for over a year. I’ve revisited a dear old friend – Jimmy Witherspoon, and imagined him in his youth. I first met Spoon in London in the early 70’s and we became friends for a long time. He was working Ronnie Scott’s club and backed by young guitar genius Robben Ford and the nucleus of the band that would late become the Yellowjackets. Spoon was a towering, larger than life character. He’d been singing the blues since WWII when he first sang professionally in Calcutta while serving in the merchant Marines. He had a massive hit in 1948 with ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business’ was on a tour of SouthEast Aisa when the record topped the Billboard charts at number one. He was a natural to headline my version of the Bambool Bar.

It is very emotional to put an end to something you have been working on practically every day for a year or more. (I actually started this book on December 27 2009.) The characters are part of your life and you do not want to let them go. And the ride is like a roller coaster. You’ve been places you
never thought you’d go, done things you never imagined you’d do and learned things you didn’t know. And then you have to say goodbye to some very dear friends, who’ve just taken you on a long and wonderful voyage. “

Author’s note: Film rights to The Vampire Of Siam have been acquired by Millennium Films and the screenplay Sympathy For The Devil has been written by Newport. Sympathy For The Devil will form part of Millennium’s future slate that includes the colossal 3-D remake of Conan the Barbarian.

Jim Newport/Phuket July 2011