Khaibi Katana - Book 1 (Unedited)

The History of Khaibi

The Origins

Around 2012 and 2013 was when Khaibi was born. During PE, in the school's gym, we'd exercise and discuss ideas to help create the basics of the story. The Twilight Saga had just ended so vampires, love triangles and teenage dramas were around their peak. All things discussed were written in a notebook.

The original story was "Katie Katana and the Town of Ember", later changed to "Katie Katana and the City of Embers" – strange, considering the location, Ember, remained a town. The name was changed even later on as another story/film had the subtitle as the title: City of Ember. Thus, the story became "Khaibi Katana: Ocean of Embers".

Khaibi, as you may have noticed, was originally called Katie. Her name was changed as it was the same name of a friend. Her sister, Myst, was called Monica in the first draft. Details were discussed about later titles, including improvements to the vampires' ability to survive in the sun evolving from sunglasses, parasols and covering up to sun creams and injections. While the vampires were like those of the Twilight Saga, they still burnt and had red eyes until they came of age (the vampires aged). Vampires could be created and give birth to vampire babies that would age.

The story was set in high school/secondary school, revolving around Dean and Tony vying for Katie – the vampire's – affection who they had an instant attachment to. Dean was the strong badass, whereas Tony was more of a wet paper towel, though for some reason was in the higher PE class.

However, this story was less about a love triangle between a vampire and two normal humans (a gender swap of Twilight. Instead of your normal triangle, you had a sodding pentagon. This had a female vampire (Katie) being the one sought after by: an older male vampire (Wendal the Wanderer); a vampire hunter (Dean); the hunter's older brother (Shade); and the raised-as-normal brother of a female hunter (Tony). Obviously, there were tensions between the hunters' duty and their desire for Katie. Katie, for the most part, had no interest in the younger men, preferring the older boys, Shade and Wendal. This made sense as she was over one hundred and was soon to come of age as a born-vampire.

This original draft is the one you see before you – but the original names have been changed. Awkward structure, cringy character names and all. It was completed around 2015. Schoolwork and personal issues got in the way of writing it.

Rewriting Begins

The first rewrite was planned not long after the first draft was finished in 2015. It is plausible that the rewrite was actually planned during the later stages of the novel as it was being written/planned.

For the most part, the story would remain the same but with a few changes beyond simply editing. Khaibi was to attend Sixth Form College so everyone was aged up accordingly. A new timetable was structured with appropriate free time.

This version was never completed and remained in the planning stage.

The planned sequels were given names during this period, even if there isn't much written about what happens in them. They go as follows: "Khaibi Katana: Firebird", "Khaibi Katana: No Man's Inferno" and "Khaibi Katana: Ashes of War".

Final Version?

The current rewrite – rewrite no. 2 – is currently in progress and we aim for this to be the published version. This rewrite started in 2017.

The characters have been aged up again for Khaibi to attend university, thus making her coming-of-age to make more sense. She moves out of her parents' house to attend university instead of "coming-of-age" by being allowed to attend a human school. It also separates the story at last from the Twilight Saga, though could lead to some comparisons to later seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It was found to be lucrative if she was in university as she is not noticed as much by other students. Tony and Dean attend similar classes which is how they meet. Shade attends the same university but is a couple of years older. This makes their relationship appear far less creepy, despite the fact that Khaibi was still far older than him in years.

Characters are planned to have more depth, such as Tony's sister being a journalist as a cover. Lacy, herself, is given more depth as she hates Khaibi for getting special treatment from the administration instead of getting more attention than her. Elements of the book that were dark may be even worse as the characters are older and the circumstances are different, ie Lacy's death.

Khaibi is also linked to an extended universe as her family and all vampires on Earth came from Keonnomos, the Vampire Realm.

This is where the series stands for now. The original version – with its original changes – is now out in the world while the true version of Khaibi will remain hidden until it is truly complete.