Gasworks Excuse
A few small but significant details in ‘Little Brother’ depend on the house having gas lighting. I wrote it quite happily and then it occurred to me that a small country town probably would not have had gas at that date. In a panic I wrote to Hannalee for advice, and she invented the gasworks excuse. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time there was a small country town, where a young boy grew up. (Insert details of dashing good looks and winning character here, if you wish.) He was an enterprising lad and, like all enterprising young lads from small country towns, he sooner or later left to go to the big city and make his fortune. But he was a home loving soul; and, after he had made his pile, he one day returned to the small country town of his birth and had erected a new Town Hall with his name on a plaque over the door, a Commemorative Horse Trough, and a Municipal Gasworks. He is still remembered fondly to this day and the local teenagers still draw graffiti on his statue in the market place.
Which is why the vampires could have gas lighting in their house. So there.