Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello, Hammie, I am Nightmare. The first thing you need to know about me: I write. A lot. My posts tend to read like books, though I often get to the point within the first few paragraphs and fill up the rest with examples. Extra long posts often get a tl;dr warning. XP I also tend to talk about my preferred fandoms a lot, so if it bugs you, you can feel free to tell me to shut up (though, the only place this is not in effect is my own journal. I will rave to my heart's desire there). XD

On your stories: The first one, I could see myself reading. Unless the half-blood is supposed to be a mystery, a common way around it is to make vampirism more of a disease than an undead state [/suggestion]. The second, while I can see the conflict potential, does not have so much to go off of, so I cannot really comment either way.

I am not really a big fan of Romeo and Juliet-esque stories, but whatever floats your boat. Dark modern fantasy is a favored genre of my own. Then again, being a Tim Burton fan, this is probably inevitable.

One series you should try is The Hollow by Christopher Golden and Ford Lytle Gilmore. They take The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, twist it around, and expand on it, bringing in other myths and creatures, and building up to larger demons.

Well, then.

I would definitely figure out how your vampires work, where they are on the living vs. dead scale, and how they turn people back. And explain why it splits the soul.

That makes a bit more sense, though now that I think about it, I did sort of use it myself. I have two feuding (more like "cold war" than flat-out hate) families, but "Romeo" forced "Juliet" to marry him and dragged her and several others down with him. "Juliet" tried to get away from him, and "Romeo" got her killed because of his selfishness. It takes the families a who new generation or two to bury the hatchet, though "Juliet" is mourned on both sides (none of this was her fault, and even "Romeo's" family understood this) while "Romeo" is hated by both sides until his death.

Tim Burton does = amazing.

It is actually a series of four books: The Hollow, Drowned, Mischief, and Enemies.