What do vampires, flappers, and the Chicago mob have in common?

What do vampires, flappers, and the Chicago mob have in common?

Well, Ruby Ransome, of course!

I'm attending the Muse Online Writers Conference this week -- I've attended it in the past and recommend it for writers and aspiring writers, although its too late to register for this year's conference -- and it has me thinking about the creation of the idea my whole series hinges upon.

Vampires in the mob in the 1920s.  When, and how, did I actually come up with this idea?

I can't actually remember anymore.  I can't recall whether vampires + the mob came first, or whether it was Ruby Ransome I conceived of first.  Regardless, her character is the glue that holds it all together: the vampires, the mob, and my whole 1920s paranormal world.

I do remember one defining moment when I was still in the early stages of figuring out what the story was going to be, before I even conceived of it as an entire series.  I was browsing the Internet for information on Capone's gang in Chicago, and came across a mention of Capone's partner, Johnny Torrio, getting shot up by rivals in 1925.  He was shot something like a half a dozen times, yet he lived.  My immediate reaction, of course, was: "Ha!  He was totally a vampire!"  I think that may have been when I realized that the vampires in my world weren't just spectators of the 1920s -- they were the movers and shakers.  They were the ones running the mob!