When I was writing Late Bite, I was fascinated by anthropological reports that indicated our ancestors may have killed off our hominid cousins, Homo Neanderthalis, Homo Idaltu, etc.

All other animal life forms have multiple species within a genus. There are many species of whales, bears, and apes but not so when it comes to the genus Homo. Only Homo Sapiens Sapiens survive — that's us.

My mind started thinking that if we were the bad guys back then, has our civilization developed enough to share our planet with another Homo species if one of their number suddenly made himself known?

Would it further complicate things if that individual possessed characteristics that reminded us of the vampires from ancient legends and more modern ones presented by Hollywood.

My 'vampire' in Late Bite, Dragul Mangorian, is not of the Bram Stoker variety, nor is he much like the 'sparkly' handsome fellas in Twilight.

He's 6'-6" and gaunt and haunting as a cadaver. His face is as pale and dry as parchment except for his eyes. They blaze yellow like a Jack O'Lantern.

And he lives on blood — human blood that he extracts via three-inch fangs.

His nails are tinged green, an inch long and sharp as talons. His breath, reeking of dead things and the sewer he lived in, could sink a ship.

When he's put on trial in Toronto, a city that prides itself for being open to all, the citizenry and the courts are tested whether inclusiveness includes someone who is not quite human.

Mangorian's lawyer Al Hamblyn explains to the court that his client is not a supernatural creature but the sole survivor of the Homo Sanguinus, a once mighty species that splintered from Homo Sapiens 30,000 years ago.

Since then mankind exterminated the Sanguinus to the point of extinction — less one.

Hamblyn argues Mangorian should not be on trial because it is he and his kind who have been systematically slaughtered by mankind.

Hi Dragul.

I think you'd quite enjoy the approach I've taken in my new science fiction novel The Schrödinger Enigma (will be released on 1 January, 2018). It offers an explanation for the absence of Neanderthal Man on Earth - and the reason ISN'T extinction.

- Greg