Lorelei Bell's Take on Vampires: Her Debut Post!

So pleased to welcome Lorelei Bell, on to this blog!


My interest in vampires came in my teens watching the old horror classics of “Dracula” on TV late at night. I never did like that Dracula (or vampires in general) was the heavy, or villain. The one who inspired terror in all the living folk in the village, to be hunted down like a rabid dog, beheaded, staked etc. in his own coffin. I'd ask myself, “Why couldn't Dracula get the girl—the woman of his desires?”


Later, in adulthood, when I took up the pen and strove to put down my vampire stories, there was no such genre as “urban fantasy” or “paranormal romance” where vampires were hunks and women sought their attentions. Vampire works went under the heading of “horror”. Eventually, though, Anne Rice came to the rescue and brought a different type of story to the vampire genre. Whether she intended it or not, we all began to look at vampires differently. They have a story, each and everyone of them; they have different personalities, and their own motives and desires—just like everyone else on this planet.


In Vampire Ascending/Sabrina Strong Series I wanted the vampire to be more multi-dimensional, have more on his list of things to do than to drink blood, and I'll admit sex was part of this mix.




Furthermore, I wanted to create a heroine who has to learn who and what she was throughout the series, rather than plopping my readers somewhere after the beginning of the story and doing a lot of back story.



When it came to my vampires, I wanted to expose a large array of personalities, and they include the twins who were Beatles fans when they were turned, and Vasyl, who was a priest during the first century of Christianity when he was a human, and has continued his vigil for the sibyl. And, of course my seven-foot 1,000+ year old Viking, Bjorn Tremayne, owner/CEO of Tremayne Towers in Chicago. And then there is Nicolas who becomes Sabrina's romantic interest in the first book... but can she really trust him?




In my books, my vampires do have a reflection. They also have a heartbeat, but it's rather slow. Most of them can't go out into direct sunlight, and most of them sleep—not in a coffin, but in a bed. Depending upon their religion when they were alive, they shun those religious symbols, are unable to walk onto hallowed ground, or a church—but again if they were pagan, this wouldn't bother them at all. However, I've kept the “holy water” in tact for all vampires, as well as demons.




I felt that my vampires had to have their own hierarchy and governing system. Ba'al Demons are the enforcers of the vampire laws. In the first book, “Vampire Ascending” it is against vampire law for them to hunt humans. Instead, they've set up a donor program that works well, and do have their own bottled blood—some is 100% human, others are human and animal mix and depending upon the price there's less human blood in the mix. Bjorn has something he calls the “sanguine team” made up of elves—because their blood is not desired by the vampire. Thus they pay humans who choose to become their blood donors... and sometimes their bed partners. Sex and blood are both important to my vampires. They are a lusty lot!



My vampires all have their own personalities; you will not find a cardboard baddie among them. They each have their own needs, wants, and desires, and do fall in love—in other words are capable of human emotions.




When it came to creating my story, and my heroine in this series, I chose not to go with the kick-ass chick who went after vampires, demons or whatnot. I did not want her to work in some sort of newly created bureau (as in Karen Chance, Keri Arthur, and Kim Harris novels). I didn't want to do a lot of back-story. I wanted to begin at the beginning with my reluctant hero, Sabrina Strong, a sometimes quirky twenty-one year old who has this unique problem where she can't hold a job because she is a Touch Clairvoyant. Thus, when her father dies, she is forced to take something she can actually do. So when she answers the add for a clairvoyant, she isn't expecting to work for vampires. However, she is quite aware that they exist—even though most people don't believe it, or know that vampires, shift changers, werewolves, and demons do exist right along side them.

LINKS:


Vampire's Trill: http://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Trill-eBook/dp/B006GSS29Q/ref%3dsr_1_?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323540900&sr=1-1



Vampire Ascending: (this is a site which will take them to wherever they need to buy) http://vampireascending.copperhillmedia.com/

My Blog: http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com/

VAMPIRES: The GOOD, The BAD and the UGLY!

Three vampires and each a little different. Vampires we've learned over time differ because readers and fans differ. We don't all like the same things.

Who says fictional monsters can't differ? Yes, we have our purists and that's fine but variety is the proverbial spice of life.

I would say I go for the Dracula as depicted by Gary Oldman in the brilliant Coppola film, Dracula. That characterisation is for me completely. We get to see a before to the character: how he came to be the way he came to be!

Purists (myself included when the mood suits) will say that the horrifically monstrous vampire, Nosferatu, as depicted in the film (s) by the same name is the Dracula.
I say if you take Nosferatu's creature and you blend him with say Gary Oldman's or even Bela Lughosi's, you will get the Dracula that I happen to think Bram Stoker envisioned.

Now, Edward Cullen has an entirely different appeal as does Nosferatu. Edward Cullen and the handsome boy vampires as depicted in Twilight and Vampire Diaries are something else again, but these books (and film) although 'cross overs' in many ways do tend to be aimed at the Young Adult market.

I say why not, too? If teens enjoy reading about their own take on vampires, why shouldn't they? Reading is reading after all, and who knows where that interest in vampires will lead? There will be budding authors among them who will quite possibly redefine their own vampires in fiction they might go on to write.

Let all the undead flourish in their own way! 'Live' and let 'live,' I say! And why not?

Vampire lore is all around us. They are the part of legend from all over the world. Every culture has stories of these strange beings.

They exist because we do, because man has always dreamed of things impossible, things different from himself. I think it is our yearning to overcome death, to defeat it and live forever that vampires exist at all.

You see, if you think of it, the one real nightmare that does exist is Death. So why not try to defeat that spectral kill-joy with undead creatures that can tell Death off?

Oi! YOU! Death, hop it!

Can We Pity The Damned?

Just going to make the focus of this question general. It refers to both The House on Blackstone Moor as well as the sequel, Unholy Testament.

A lot of dark things come out of the first book. Human beings and demons alike are shown to be capable of great evil, of horrific violence and the worst sins imaginable.

Louis was referred to by one of the books' reviewers as a Byronic hero. Perhaps he is. After all, he's  damned through no fault of his own yet he has a moral code he exists by, despite the fact that it ensures absolutely nothing will come of it. Louis Darton because of his father's support of Lucifer knows what his destiny is. As he says:

I am what I am... no promise of heaven awaits me. I have too much  freedom and no restraint…”

Think about it! How would we behave if there was no reason to live a decent and honorable life? Would we live principled lives if nothing we did counted, if there was no punishment ever?

Can those creatures (whatever they are) vampires, fallen angels, demon spawn, be the object of our pity ever? Should we try to see how it all began for them? Why it was and how they came to be what they are?

I probe these questions in the first book as well as the second. And this probing and pondering has led me to some very surprising conclusions--or questions. And let me say, I don't always know the answer!
But I do know something. I think  this debate all hinges on one word: 'pity.'

And that leads me to one surprising conclusion: which is, I think, I can have more pity in my heart for a vampire or a marauding werewolf on the loose than I can for an unrepentent entirely human serial killer.

What about you? What do you think?

Twilight and Jane Eyre--closer than you think!

Take two handsome Edwards! Add to that forbidden love and sexual tension and you have two block busters: Jane Eyre and Twilight.

I am making the case that there is a kinship between Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

For your consideration, I present first: Jane Eyre.
Edward Rocherster, darkly brooding tortured man has a mad wife locked away in a tower.
She is his nemesis: the sad, pathetic creature who is holding him back from the wedded bliss he could have with the young governess he has fallen in love with.

"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame..."
--Edward Rochester

That got me where I lived as a teen! Still does, and besides--what more heart-wrenching scene can there be than the wedding scene?

It's a lovely wedding and we're happy for these two, but then the lunatic wife's brother storms into the church to declare an imediment to the marriage!

Rochester takes the wedding party to the tower to introduce his mad wife at last. It is an unforgettable moment.

We understand his dilema. Her family never told him that their daughter was mad, he was used in the worst way.

Jane flees--frightened and confused, which only adds to Edward's misery.
But alas she can find no peace for her longing is great.

So what do we have? We have enough sexual tension and unfulfilled desire to make us chew ice cubes!

Okay?!

Twilight: Edward Cullen, dark and handsome, brooding and tortured too—loving Bella despite himself.

He too has a dark secret. But it is not locked away in a tower, it’s in his veins!
For it is his sad destiny that he is one of the undead--a vampire!

Bella, awkward and clumsy, is newly arrived in town. When she sees Edward she is smitten by him. But he appears to hate her, avoiding her at every opportunity.

We feel for her!

But then we find out that he didn't want to hurt her, he was fearful of his vampiric hunger!

The two get to know one another, he saves her life--they fall more deeply in love.

 "Besides…the more time I spend with you, the more human emotions seem comprehensible to me. I’m discovering that I can sympathize with Heathcliff in ways I didn’t think possible before."

— Edward Cullen

See?! Heathcliff, from Wuthering Heights, penned 150 years ago by Emily Bronte!

She is needed, she fills up his life, her feelings for him are so great that she is willing to become a vampire!

Stephanie Meyers on Jane Eyre:

''I read it when I was nine,'' says Meyer, ''and I've reread it literally hundreds of times. I do think that there are elements of Edward (Cullen) in Edward Rochester and elements of Bella in Jane. Jane was someone I was close to as a child — we were good friends! I think in some ways she was more real to me than any other fictional character…”

And you know what? I can see it too. Not only in the brooding Edwards but in Bella and Jane.

Each is shy and retiring—each has arrived in a strange place. Each knows lonelieness and isolation and each wants desperately that brooding intense man they have fallen in love with.

Jane does not understand Edward Rochester’s unhappiness and at first she thinks him uncaring.

Bella too doesn’t understand Edward Cullen’s behavior and thinks he hates her at first when in fact it has nothing to do with that!

Jane Eyre is a romance in the gothic tradition.

Twilight is a romance in the new gothic tradition.

Each has captured the imagination of a wide audience.

Both are great romances and romance is romance.

A quesetion: why do we love our heroes to be tortured?
Answer: because it makes the story that much more involving, that much more gripping.

We care about Jane and Edward as we care about Bella and Edward.

And why is that? It is because we have well-drawn characters facing tremendous conflicts.

Added to that, we have a great love story! No! Make that two great love stories!