No zombies PLEEEEZE! This is a zombie-free zone.
This blog is about vampires. And just so you know, I lean heavily toward the URBAN FANTASY, and do not get into the paranormal romance stuff. I mean... what is that but a romance with a vampire or a demon or a werewolf? Or goddess forbid--an effing zombie? Not that there is anything wrong with having a romance thread in the book. But I'll get into this in another post.
I've been into vampires since I was a teenager. That was late 1960-early 1970's. Yes. I'm dating myself. This vampire lover, yours truly, has been around for a long while. It was not "cool" to dig vampires. Usually you met other people into them, and they were far and few between, plus they were a bit on the kookie/weird side (more so than me). Before I get into what I watched or read, let me continue this train of thought. And just so you know, I put full blame on "Dark Shadows" and Barnabas Collins aka Jonathan Frid for my intense interest in vampires.
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| Johnathan Frid as Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows" the original TV soap |
Bela Lugosi, and Christopher Lee to name a few...
I did everything I could to make sure I either got home in time to watch the soap opera "Dark Shadows", or stayed up long enough to watch the movies with my favorite stars in the infamous roll of Dracula.
But let me make it clear I did NOT like that Dracula wound up being the "heavy" or villain. I wanted him to get the girl in the end. Why not?
Later on, when I began penning my own books, the vampires were not always going to be "evil". There would always have to be a villain, but nothing so cut and dry, not black and white, as with some of the movies, or the books I've read. Back then there were no such genre as "paranormal romance" or "urban fantasy". Vampire books were under the main heading of "horror". At some point, after Anne Rice took the bull by the horns (or vampire by the fangs), things changed drastically. I wasn't paying attention when that happened. I was a little confused as to what the difference between "paranormal romance" and "urban fantasy" was. In the meantime I was writing my own vampire fiction, trying to get an agent (I won't go into details here) *yeah, she was rejected*. Well, it was over 800 pages long...
Let me explain.
This work (Vampire Legacy), has lasted down through the decades whispering to me to re-write it. Yes, it is still with me. In the beginning it was somewhat different, because it was pretty green at writing. And then with time, Vampire Legacy became something of a loose cannon sort of book--I got long-winded. I almost had an agent interested, but alas. She chickened out on me (even when I shortened it in half). She said to me that vampire fiction didn't sell well. Uh.. Huh? At the time Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a big hit, and the movie Interview with a Vampire was out. So, whatever...
I shelved the 300 pound gorilla, thinking that maybe I should try something else. I did. I wrote a lot of other stuff. It was my practicing phase. My learning-to-write phase. Then, I quit writing for a while. But always, that little voice inside me said I had to do my vampire fiction my way.
Eventually I did write something, and a small publisher to took it. Vampire Ascending was born, and it did nicely. Then I wrote the sequel, and published Vampire's Trill. They both had wonderful reviews, and I thought things were going well... then my publisher decided to quit the biz. I went Indie over the summer, which is a good thing, since I have more control over everything, at last. I'm currently working on the fourth book in the Sabrina Strong, and I am currently rewriting Vampire Legacy.
My next post will be more about what I write, and what I like to read.
What got you interested in vampires? Was it a movie? A book? Which ones?
2 comments:
For me I'd say the Buffy and Angel side of vampirism interests me.
Ah-ha! An insight to Mr. Kendall's take on vampires. Interesting!
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