Reginald the Vampire: After Sunrise

In this FINAL EPISODE, I talked to the two producers, Harley Peyton and Jeremiah Chechik, who initially contacted me and wanted to bring my Fat Vampire books to the small screen as Reginald the Vampire.

You’ll hear the origin story, sure … but you’ll also hear about the creative decisions they made along the way, including how to fit big set-piece scenes into a show that was “budget constrained” from Day One. I think they did a pretty good job, personally.

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

This super-fun episode was a real trip behind the scenes of the TV show, in addition to … you know … actually talking about the penultimate episode of Reginald the Vampire — the episode right before Reginald has to submit himself for the dreaded ASSESSMENT.

A cool bonus discussion in this one is how, quite by surprise, the show’s writers adapted mid-season to make the character of Ashley nonbinary because the actor who plays them, Marguerite, is also nonbinary. Just a little tip of the hat to some real representation, which was very cool to chat about.

The next episode is the last of them. Enjoy ‘em while you got ‘em!

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

Okay, nobody knew exactly how to talk about this episode of Reginald the Vampire. It’s a very cool but also very trippy episode wherein a bunch of super weird shit happens.

I bugged a lot of the cast, but ultimately Aren, with his friendly Canadian demeanor, was the least able to say “no” when I asked. So here we are, talking about WTF happened in this game-changer for Season One.

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

In this episode, I talked to Christin Park, who plays Nikki, and also welcomed back Savannah Basley, who plays Angela.

We spent more time than was comfortable on Christin being forced to sing on the show despite insisting she wouldn’t, as well as unpacking a bunch of movie magic that happened on set.

Oh, and we also recapped the episode. Vampires. Bloody love triangles. You get the idea.

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

Okay, this episode is one of my favorites. They’re all great, but Aren (who plays Todd) and Ryan (who plays Mike) have such great rapport that we just laughed all the way through this one.

Bet you didn’t know that hot tubs were important to acting, did you? Well, now you do. You’re welcome.

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

In this episode, I break down Episode 4 of Reginald the Vampire’s first season with Mandela Van Peebles (who plays Maurice) and Savannah Basley (who plays Angela).

These two were so much fun to chat with. We talk about how horror has a way of telling deep truths in covert ways, the power of entertainment in social change, and what it was like to live in the 1970s for an episode. (We also talk about the odd vampire orgy scene even though it wasn’t in this episode because c’mon; of course we had to.)

Enjoy!

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

In this episode, I break down Episode 3 of Reginald the Vampire’s first season with my favorite vampire comedy duo: Sean Yves Lessard (who plays LeBron) and Georgia Waters (who plays Penelope).

Yes, we covered the episode’s happenings.

Yes, we covered the growth of a surprising pair of scene-stealing characters on a show.

But mostly, we covered the controversy of the editing-out of the best parts of the elaborate, hilarious, and disgusting dinner scene. THIS is what special effects were invented for.

Enjoy!

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

This is one of my favorite episodes of the long-lost Reginald the Vampire companion podcast. Marguerite is beyond fun to talk to and we cover all sorts of cool behind-the-scenes on the TV show!

If you’re interested in reading my Fat Vampire books (the “undead underdog” series of books upon which the TV show is based), you can find the 13th anniversary “vampire grimoire” special edition — as well as the same books in other, non-special-edition formats — at JohnnyBTruant.com/reginald .

For a while there, I had TV show on SyFy that was based on my books. It was called Reginald the Vampire, and it starred Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned “The Guy in the Chair” Leeds in the Spider-Man movies.

Reginald the Vampire ran for two seasons. I went and hung out on the set, watched the filming, met the cast, ate a lot of food from craft services, which in Canada is simply called “Crafty.” I wrote (and recorded) a few posts here if you’d like to catch up on the whole thing. Then SyFy did away with pretty much all of its scripted programs (including very popular series like Chucky and Resident Alien) and Reginald got the axe along with it.

Boo! Hiss!

Anyway, when the show was live, I talked the producers into letting me host an official companion podcast for the show. But before I was able to so much as finish Season One of that podcast, the show was cancelled.

Again: Boo! Hiss!

The producer in charge of such things told me that I could do “whatever I wanted” with the episodes I’d finished (8 out of the planned 10), but I didn’t know what the hell to do with them. So I sat on them for two years. I guess I was in mourning. What was the point of releasing a companion podcast for a show that was no longer being filmed?

Then, an anniversary came.

Fat Vampire — my books that Reginald the Vampire was based on — turned 13 years old this year. Thirteen is a very important anniversary for vampires. Maybe you didn’t know this. If you didn’t know that, don’t look it up. It’s totally a thing. Thirteen is a horror number. Just ask any hotel that doesn’t have a 13th floor.

And as part of that anniversary, I decided to create a super-special vegan-leather-bound hardback special edition of the full-series omnibus. Check out these mockups:

That 800-page, full-series special edition launches October 1 on Kickstarter. If you’re interested in that special edition (or any other Fat Vampire stuff I’m going to add), go here and click the black “Notify Me on Launch” button so you don’t miss it. (Or, if you’re reading this after 10/1/26, you can pledge right away if the campaign is still live instead of clicking to be notified.)

I spent more and more time in the Fat Vampire world as I was preparing the anniversary edition, remembering everything. It made me think of Reginald the Vampire. I wished I could go back on set. I liked meeting the cast and crew and producers.

And then I was like: “Oh, snap. That podcast I never did anything with.”

The podcast is FULL of me talking with the cast and producers. It’s super in-depth. The episodes are around 45 minutes long, and there are 8 of them. I got almost all of the cast to join me, missing only a few of the biggies: Jacob, Em Haine (Sarah), and Thailey Roberge (Claire). We just ran out of time. Sadly.

But the episodes that exist aren’t sad. They’re awesome. I asked my reader list if they wanted to hear the podcast, and they said hell yeah. So here we go — me sharing this “Episode Zero” with you first so you get the lay of the land.

The Episode One companion is one of the two I couldn’t complete in time, so this series will begin with Episode Two. If you want to watch the TV show and haven’t yet, I suggest watching Episodes One and Two of the TV show before listening to the Episode Two (the first one I have) episode of this companion podcast … which I’ll release as soon as I have time to do so.

Enjoy, and stay tuned!

Missing SPP? Sean, Dave, and I will be recording a LIVE “reunion episode” of The Self Publishing Podcast at 3pm Central time on Friday, August 1st. We’re recording live just like in the old days, at the old time, and will be doing all the original “SPP stuff” (Dave sound bites, anyone?) to maximally stoke all the nostalgic feels. Join us on YouTube, participate in the comments, and bring your old-school! LET’S HAVE SOME FUN AGAIN! Click here to join us live at 3pm this Friday (or, if you’re seeing this too late, to watch the reunion show after the fact).

The Artisan Author Kickstarter campaign (and the going-to-be-full-of-old-school-fun-energy “Artisan University” that’s part of it) that we talk about in this chat is live now. Check it out here before it closes for good.

This was a super fun discussion. If you were a listener of the old Self Publishing Podcast, my chat with fellow co-host Sean Platt and I will give you all the nostalgia feels. If you weren’t, though, there are worse ways to learn about self publishing than this discussion between two O.Gs who’ve seen it all.

In this chat, Sean and I talk about what used to work in publishing, what works now, and what’s bound to stop working soon. Will you be one of the authors who adapts and survives, or will you flame out?

You can watch the video if you’d like, but I’ve also included an audio-only version below if that suits you better:

If you want to make money as an author by writing what you want on your own schedule rather than playing the high-stress game of Rapid Release, check out the Kickstarter campaign for my new book, The Artisan Author. It’s live right now.

We got into writing because we love writing. The Artisan Author is a way to succeed and thrive on your own terms … a way to love writing again.