I’ve got Google Doodle to thank for this awesome heads up.

It tickles me because I love The Addams Family – was raised on the original series before moving on to the cartoon and then the most recent film adaptation (though I only saw the first movie). Coming from a big family whose members are all horror fans (especially those classic Hammer Films), watching a ghoulish family live day-to-day as though being creepy was the norm, while the rest of the world was weird, touched something that I honestly can’t explain. I think in my family’s case, it’s got everything to do with the humorous horror elements, but personally, the appeal of Addams’ creation is both the humor as well as the outcast nature of the Addams family. It’s the state of being outsiders that they don’t seem to get, or at least they consider themselves like everyone else, and they go about their days all hunky-dory in their obliviousness and, in the case of Gomez and Morticia, all lovey-dovey toward each other.

The Addams Family was one of my main sources of inspiration when I wrote Desmond and Garrick. I wanted to satirize Regency bodice rippers as well as the current trend of paranormal YA romances. I figured, what better way to do this than by turning vampires into an actual species that procreates naturally and go about their days no differently from ordinary humans? The Addams Family fed that idea, anyway, and I went for it and damned well had so much fun doing it.

So, yeah – for that, I’m very grateful to Charles Addams and his bizarre, hysterical, and lovable characters.