Hey! Happy Sunday to you.

(People were amused that my last email was sent from a coffee shop with my daughter, so I don't mind telling you that this one was sent from a hotel room in Houston. I'm being a workaholic while my wife watches the Kentucky Derby and my son draws on his iPad. We're at one of my daughter's volleyball tournaments on a long-ass break. And BTW, I'm queuing this up to send on Sunday, so nobody be a wiseass and point out that the Kentucky Derby was on Saturday and conclude from it that I'm being disingenuous. So there.)

Aaaaaanyway, before I get to the point of this email, I wanted to thank the MANY people who responded to my last email asking for feedback. Your replies were immensely helpful and informative, and I'll be parsing through what I heard from you in the coming weeks and months -- basically finding more ways to hopefully be your favorite author, about whom you tell all of your friends. (And also Oprah. Tell Oprah, too.)

Now. About that TV show I have this Wednesday.

In case you're unaware, let me get everyone up to speed: One of my most popular book series, Fat Vampire, was made into a SyFy Network TV show called Reginald the Vampire. In the US, you can find Season One on Hulu. Google to find where it lives in other countries.

Most relevantly to this email, Season Two of Reginald the Vampire is coming out on Wednesday (on the SyFy Network in the US).

(Yes, I like the show. No, I don't care at all that they changed some things. The answer to the rest of your questions about me and the TV show are here and here.)

I've known for months that Season Two of Reginald was coming out on May 8th, but it somehow became just one more appointment on my calendar ... which then got lost in the many other less-interesting things on my calendar. I've had so much to do lately with my books that I kept bumping my "Prepare for RtV Season Two" task back further and further, figuring I'd deal with it later. As if the task was about taking out the trash or something.

In all the hustle and bustle, I somehow lost track of what a big deal it is. I mean ... my books were made into a TV show. Not many people get to say that.

Now, here's something you've probably never heard anyone say before:

When the first episode of Season One aired, I literally had no idea how to watch it.

I'll let you digest that (and how literally I mean it) for a second: I didn't know how to watch the show even as it was playing in front of me.

It was the strangest thing. I was just sitting in my favorite chair, seeing this thing that was LIKE my book but definitely not REALLY my book play out on a screen at the front of the room, having no idea how to deal with or process any of it.

For one, I was somehow entirely wrapped up in what was happening onscreen. I couldn't be passive and watch TV like a normal person. I'd had nothing to do with the show's writing or production, but it somehow still felt like something I needed to be responsible for, and "being responsible" meant I couldn't relax.

Atop that, I'd never seen TV from both sides of its making before. I mean ... I'd been there on-set, watching them film it in all its behind-the-scenes non-glory, and I'd been in the writer's room a few times while those who DID write the show did their thing. And now here was this actually-airing TV program that'd been all polished up, and my brain didn't know what to do with it. I'd seen how odd and awkward scenes look without editing and music, so what was this weird new thing they'd made from those awkward moments?

The vertigo was real, people.

Reginald was a character I'd invented, but I hadn't imagined him looking and acting like "Ned" from Spider-Man until I saw Jacob become him. (I'd imagined something more like LOST-era Jorge Garcia, who played Hurley.)

What's more, I'd watched them film a version of the first scene of my book, using most of the same words. (Except that whereas my scene took place in an office, they filmed "Reginald's prayer for his money back" outside the back of a workplace that wasn't in the books: The Slushy Shack.) That was downright bizarre. Jacob played sidekick in three of the biggest movies ever made ... and yet here he was, saying lines that I'd written one day in my home office, long before I considered myself a "real writer."

And now this strange horseshit was in front of me:

And this strange horseshit below, too, by the way. I'm sure I've told some of you about this before, but I sure hope nobody's who's seen the show missed my Emmy-award-winning performance as "random guy in Slushy Shack window." I'd half forgotten my stellar acting chops by the time I sat in my living room with all of my friends and vampire-themed charcuterie and vampire-themed wine ... and THIS came onscreen:

That's why I'm shocked that I've let the May 8th Season Two premiere date sneak up on me. It was such a weird big deal the first time I watched Reginald on my TV (a GOOD big deal too, lest there be confusion) that I wonder if I've pushed it into the background because my brain just didn't know what to do with it.

But now that I've remembered, it's time to get Sling again.

I'm 100% a streamer these days, so figuring out how to even watch the SyFy channel was hard the first time. At least this time, I know what to do. (Subscribing to Sling for a few months was the answer.) My friends have been really supportive and really into it, so we'll have everyone over for weekly watch parties again even though it unfortunately means vacuuming.

There was even bootleg fan merch. Bill and Paula had these shirts made ... BUT ONLY FOR THEMSELVES, LAWYERS:

(For you superfans out there, this is the same Bill as on the One-Drink Book Club podcast. Mike and Emma from the ODBC were also there.)

And now it'll all happen again, coming up this Wednesday.

I'm not truly ready, mentally speaking. Our vacuum cleaner also broke in two different ways, so I'm hoping a part comes in the mail soon. Otherwise my guests will be watching while knee-deep in dog hair.

But I'm excited.

You may have read the vertigo and snarky descriptions above and wondered if I'm actually excited or happy about the show returning, or if it's just weird and nothing else.

No. It's not only weird. It's also really fucking cool.

I just don't know what to do with it, is all. People keep asking me about "my TV show," but it's not MY TV show. Not at all. It's based on my characters and my plot, but it's not the same between book and TV and honestly shouldn't be.

And because they're not the same, I don't think it's fair to compare the book and show -- that thing we all do, where we say, "the book/show was better." They're cousins, not derivatives of each other.

I'll put this way: It's like there was a pre-existing idea of "underdog vampire in an elitist society" out there in the aether, and while I chose to write a book about that idea, Harley Peyton decided to make a TV show. We interpreted things differently, but the root of both is the same. So when I watch the show, I'm watching something Harley made, not something I made.

That's how I need to approach Season Two, I think ... which, by the way, I haven't seen in advance. (Nor have the actors. I was talking to Aren Buchholz (Todd) just last week, and he said he's seen nothing. He was too busy developing a super-sexy-hair-and-beard off-season look that just makes me jealous.) I'll watch it like a fan of the show, and see what Harley and the gang came up with, rather than as a creator.

And I'm curious.

I wonder if you, my readers, will be watching the show. I'm not suggesting you do so because readers aren't always watchers, but I am curious. What I'm REALLY hoping is that some of the watchers become my readers. Maybe TV fans will decide to pick up the books that started it all, and join us here in the Truantverse.

Either way, I'll be watching, vampire wine in hand. :)

JT

P.S: If you haven't read the Fat Vampire books, they're super fun and you can get them cheaper here than anywhere else. There are six books and a prequel in the core series, then four more books in the "The Vampire Maurice" side series, which all about Reginald's maker. The last book in that side series (Fangs and Fame) is a total bizarro fourth-wall breaker. In that book, a TV show is made about Reginald, and it's basically the show that was actually made ... although officially the story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious, and no identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

P.P.S: You can totally infer it. Just don't tell the lawyers.

​