From Childhood Terrors to vampires in new York

There’s a moment from my childhood that still makes me smile, even as it explains so much about the author I’ve become. Picture this: a group of neighbourhood kids huddled around a tattered comic book, probably smuggled from Carl’s older brother’s collection. The pages were filled with fanged creatures and shadows, and while I can’t remember the exact title, I remember the abject terror it sparked.

That night changed everything. For the next year—possibly two—I went to bed surrounded by an army of stuffed animals. My pillows, my teddy bears, every soft toy I owned formed a protective barrier around my head and neck. In my child’s logic, if the vampires couldn’t reach my throat, I was safe. My parents must have wondered why their daughter suddenly needed a menagerie to sleep, but that plush fortress was non-negotiable.

Fast forward through the years, and my relationship with vampires transformed from fear to fascination. Like many of us who came of age in the eighties, The Lost Boys became my vampire gold standard. There was something electric about that film’s blend of horror, humour, and heart that hooked me completely. Plus the Corey’s.

But it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I finally read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and suddenly everything clicked into place. All the vampire rules I’d absorbed through countless films and books—from Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to the terrifying TV series Midnight Mass—suddenly had their source code revealed. It was like discovering the Rosetta Stone of vampire lore!

And here’s something: my favourite time travel series, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, also features vampires prominently. It seems I can’t escape them, even when I’m writing about time slips and temporal paradoxes.

By the time you read this, The Vampires of York Tower is already in the hands of readers around the world. But what you might not know is that this novel—set in a luxurious Manhattan apartment building overrun by vampires—was born from an unexpected source: major surgery and the haze of anaesthetic.

The Vampires of York Tower by Kirsten McKenzie

Just over a year ago, I found myself preparing for a ten-hour operation—a preemptive bilateral mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction. With an extensive family history of breast cancer, I was saying goodbye to two ticking time bombs before cancer could claim them. By the morning of my surgery, I’d updated my will, wrapped Christmas presents (in June!), booked my daughter’s hair appointment for her ball, and tidied my dresser drawers.

I joked about the silver linings: a free tummy tuck, finally being able to wear shirt dresses without looking like an industrial tent, and most importantly, not dying of breast cancer.

Then, the magic happened. Post-op, as I lay in hospital drifting in and out of drug-induced sleep, monitored around the clock and swaddled in bandages, a story took shape. A paranormal thriller about vampires lurking behind the sleek facade of a New York apartment tower, preying on unsuspecting tenants. The plot arrived almost fully formed, as if delivered by some mischievous muse who’d decided my post-surgical state was the perfect time for inspiration to strike.

Thank goodness for my phone’s voice recorder. In those groggy hours, I dictated every weird and wonderful detail before they could slip away in the anaesthetic fog. By the time I could sit up unaided, I had the bones of a novel. I’ve never written a book this fast.

Of course, recovery brought its own challenges. Pain, fatigue, and the battle to rebuild both body and energy levels meant progress came in bursts. And six months post-surgery, the manuscript was done. But life threw another curveball. My immune system, weakened from the ordeal, couldn’t keep up. Exhausted and battling infections, I had to do something I hate: hit pause. I delayed the release, reminding myself it’s always better to launch a story when it’s truly ready.

That delay turned out to be a blessing. It gave me time to fine-tune the novel, to let early readers weigh in, and to add those final touches that transformed the manuscript into something I’m genuinely proud of.

Think Interview with a Vampire meets Only Murders in the Building: elegant and filthy rich immortals, dark secrets, and a mystery that needs solving in the shadowy confines of York Tower. There’s glamour, there’s danger, and yes, there’s some delicious vampire mythology.

If you’ve ever slept with stuffed animals guarding your neck, or if you’ve found yourself rewatching The Lost Boys for the hundredth time, or if you simply love a good vampire tale with a twist, I think you’ll enjoy this journey into York Tower.

The Vampires of York Tower is available now in both paperback and ebook formats, with an audiobook in production.

I would never have believed I’d one day be writing about the very creatures that terrified me. But that’s the magic of storytelling. We take our fears, our fascinations, and our fantasies, and we transform them into something new.

Sweet dreams, everyone.