Authors and Readers Blog their thoughts about books and reading at Fresh Fiction journals.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Carolyn Jewel | Vampire Reproduction
The other day over at my writing blog, I mused about something that’s often puzzled me; that is, the subject of Vampire Reproduction. With vampires, I wondered, why are they so often infertile, when by the rules, they ought to be more than capable of reproduction? I won’t rehash everything I said over there, but do take a look if you’re curious or would like to weigh in on the subject.
I find my mind often wonders into these strange little alleys and then gets stuck there sometimes, leaving me no choice but to slowly work my way out.
Today’s little alley concerns werewolves. Werewolves aren’t infertile, but with them, I wonder, since they can change forms without damage to their internal organs, how come t werewolf lore so often includes the caveat that they have to mate as humans? Or, alternatively, that they can’t mate as wolves and have the pregnancy last? Let’s set aside one of the really obvious answers (the squick factor).
When I was in fourth grade, I convinced myself that a vampire loitered outside my bedroom window waiting for me to go to sleep. Being a precocious child, I decided to outwit this fiend. So when I'd get in bed, I'd lay still and flat as a plank under the covers with a pillow over my head. I'd leave the bedside lamp on too, for that added touch of authenticity. "Nothing to see here. Move along." My plan must have worked because that vampire never found me. He also never, as I'd hoped he would, bypass my "empty" bed and go down the hall to take care of my sister. Oh well.
A few years later, Michael Jackson's Thriller video gave me nightmares for weeks. In fact, I still can't watch it now. I didn't watch the Exorcist until I was in my late twenties, and then stayed up nights imagining that tribal mask peering through my windows at night. Basically, what I'm telling you is I'm a big old sissy.
Thanks so much for having me as a guest at Fresh Fiction. I’m thrilled to be here!
For me, knowing where a character hails from is an essential part of figuring out what makes them tick. This background—the place and time—is especially vital for the vampire characters in my new novel, WICKED GAME (Pocket Books, May 13). My vamps are psychologically and culturally stuck in the era in which they were ‘turned,’ making them walking, stalking time capsules (and perfect for their jobs as disc jockeys at WVMP, The Lifeblood of Rock ‘n’ Roll).
WICKED GAME’s hero Shane McAllister, for example, was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1968. He was just a boy when the steel mills closed, collapsing the city’s economy. Shane’s own family fell into poverty and despair. Growing up poor made him tough and pessimistic, but it also gave him a core of compassion and understanding.
The oldest vampire DJ, blues musician Monroe Jefferson, hails from Natchez, Mississippi. He grew up in a place and time governed by Jim Crow laws, which institutionalized racial segregation. Even now, he’s extremely cautious around the heroine of WICKED GAME, since in Monroe’s day in the Deep South, a black man could be lynched for the so-called “crime” of having a friendly conversation with a white woman.
Some people deliberately reject their place of origin. Regina, the punk/Goth vampire DJ, comes from a farming community in Saskatchewan. At age eighteen, she left town to hit the music scenes in London, New York, and LA, and she never looked back. A vicious vampire no one dares to cross, Regina defies the stereotype of the ‘nice Canadian.’
Being from nowhere can affect one’s personality, too. The human heroine, con artist Ciara Griffin, spent her childhood on the road with her parents’ fake ‘miracle show.’ This life of wandering made her leery of commitment and reluctant to settle into a steady job or relationship. But maybe deep down, Ciara secretly wants to belong somewhere, with someone.
Do your favorite characters embrace or reject their backgrounds? What about you--how does your home (in place and time) affect who you are as a person?
Nancy Haddock | Invisible Friends: A Play Day with Characters
As a reader, don’t you just love finding characters you’d like to have as friends? Or for back up if life got down right dangerous? Or, oo-la-la, as a secret admirer if not a lover?
I adore it when I become attached to the characters in books. Those I meet in only one book, I’ll revisit by rereading over and over. Those I meet in a series, I get to revisit with each new book. And, yes, I have been known to reread every book in a series before I read the newest one, if only to touch base and catch up.
As a writer, I’ve grown attached to my own characters. So much so, that they are no longer merely “imaginary” friends – they’re full-scale invisible ones! In my debut from Berkley, LA VIDA VAMPIRE, my heroine Cesca is a born and bred native of St. Augustine, FL, the city I now call home. When I go down to the Old Town – with friends or by myself – it’s all too easy to view the sites from Cesca’s point of view. In fact, it’s a struggle not to see through her eyes because she’s that real to me.
When Cesca and I go out for a play day in town, I’m fascinated by what she sees as “new” from her perspective. What is her perspective? Cesca was buried in silver-chained coffin in 1803, and doesn’t see the light of day until 2007. The oldest drug store, for instance, was in a different location in her time. The Huguenot Cemetery didn’t exist until at least 1812, if not later. The Castillo de San Marcos is no longer painted the distinctive white and red that marked it as a Spanish fortress. It’s interesting to feel both Cesca’s excitement about the changes in her hometown, and the sadness that she missed all those years of seeing things change firsthand.
What’s also a kick is to shop with Cesca. She is a far more intense shopper than I ever want to be, and I nearly feel her scan everything at once when she walks in to a store. She was “with” me in a Tuesday Morning once when I was looking for the special coffee makers advertised. I found what I wanted, but I also bought a retro wall clock that Cesca wanted. That’s right, I said I bought the clock my character wanted. Am I nuts? Not entirely. The clock was a reasonable price, and, though it’s not what I would’ve bought, it grew on me. It’s in my office, and even has a separate “egg” timer that I set to keep myself from spending too much time on e-mail.
The very coolest thing about going out for a play day with my characters is that I come back to the story refreshed and with a new depth of understanding what they’re like as people. That’s the energy I want to pour onto the pages. That’s the energy I hope readers will resonate with so that my invisible friends will become theirs, too!
And, hey, so long as I don’t buy that surfboard Cesca has her eye on, I haven’t gone too far ‘round the bend, right?
Chris Marie Green | MIDNIGHT REIGN, Vampire Babylon, Book Two
Years and years ago, when I still played with Barbies, Saturday nights were a magical time. They were all about steak dinners with the family around the candlelit table and my dad smoking his cigar in the backyard afterward. Saturday nights were also when IN SEARCH OF… aired on TV, and I remember watching it, enthralled, and oftentimes, scared to death when Leonard Nimoy told us about things like The Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.
Of course, I was young, and I freaked out at everything. So when a certain episode about vampires aired, it left an indelible impression that’s stayed with me until this day.
Long claws, sharp teeth, a woman in bed with a gnarly shadow creeping over her…. I was hooked, and it’s no surprise that I’m writing about vampires now for Ace Books.
In keeping with what scared me when I was younger, my own vampires usually have a mean streak and will do anything to survive. In fact, my first vamp book THE HUNTRESS (for the defunct Bombshell line from Silhouette) featured a tribe of female bloodsuckers, feral and hard to slay. I loved those gals, but the real villain in that story was vampirism itself.
I suppose you could say the same about my Vampire Babylon series, a noir-mystery-fantasy with romantic elements. This particular group survives because of secrecy; among their many gifts, they’re great spies who continually mess with the heroine, Dawn Madison, and her new team of hunters. Every book in the series revolves around a vampire-related mystery, but to me, the horror comes from how far a person might go to capture long-lasting life, youth, and fame.
Here’s a hint of what the first book in the series was about:
But NIGHT RISING, Book One (2/07), concerned more than Jesse Shane’s death. Dawn got sucked into the search for a vampire underground when her dad went missing, and her personal discoveries go hand-in-hand with what she finds out about these vampires—and what her own mother’s death might’ve had to do with them.
As you can see in this next trailer, the second book, MIDNIGHT REIGN (2/5/08), continues Dawn’s search for her dad.
There are a lot of twists and turns for you mystery fans. And for those of you who want to follow the relationship between Dawn and The Voice? There’s plenty of that, too, and BREAK OF DAWN, Book Three (out in September) is going to delve into Dawn’s search for who "Jonah" really is!
I hope you stop by my Web site at http://www.vampirebabylon.com/ because, among other things, I’m giving away a great prize for the contest. It’s a "museum quality" Giclee print called "Little Blood Sucker," and it’s signed by the artist, Billy Martinez of Neko.
Isn’t it great? I’ve got one hanging on my own wall.
The Undead Next Door, which releases January 29th, tells the story of a French vampire named Jean-Luc Echarpe. Jean-Luc has done many things since his transformation in 1513. He’s been a knight, a musketeer, a lieutenant-colonel in the Great Vampire War of 1710, the owner of a fencing academy in Paris, and the Coven Master of Western Europe. That’s him on the cover. What a hunk!
Having lived through many different styles of clothing, Jean-Luc knows fashion. So much so that he began designing evening wear for vampires in 1922. By the 1930’s, he was secretly designing evening wear for the Hollywood elite. In 1975, he expanded his business into the mortal world and became a great success! What a great life! He’s a celebrity, surrounded by beautiful models. What more could a guy ask for?
Unfortunately, the media has realized that Jean-Luc hasn’t aged in over thirty years. They’re following him everywhere, hounding him with questions. There’s only one thing Jean-Luc can do—go into hiding. He’ll disappear for twenty-five years, then return to his beloved Paris, posing as his own son. He’s too recognizable in Paris or Milan, New York or Los Angeles. Where can he go where no one will know who he is?
The hill country of Texas! There, high fashion is a great pair of jeans and a cowboy hat, and the most exciting topic in the small town of Schnitzelberg is the next high school football game. How will Jean-Luc manage to fit in? And how will he handle a feisty Texan girl who gives him hell? Yee-haw!
And that leads me to the Question for the Day: If you needed to go into hiding, where would YOU go? A haunted castle in the Scotland? A white-washed cottage on a remote Greek isle? Frodo Baggin’s Hobbit house in New Zealand? Or maybe you’d like to share your hideaway? How about sharing a little grass shack with Josh Holloway on a lost island in the Pacific? Now we’re talking!!
Enter my one day blog contest and tell me your ideal hiding place (and if you like, your ideal hiding partner). One lucky castaway will receive a signed copy of Be Still My Vampire Heart (the third book in the Love at Stake series). To find out more about the series and play vampire games, please visit me at www.kerrelynsparks.com/!
Diane Whiteside | Bond of Fire, or A French Lady Comes to Texas
Hullo! Here it is, January 2nd, the Christmas sales are over, the New Year’s Day buffet has been reduced to a neat stack of leftovers, and BOND OF FIRE, the Texas vampires’ trilogy volume 2, has finally hit the bookstores! Yes, Hélène d’Agelet, the French secret agent and firestarter, just made it into the Texas vampires trilogy.
Need I mention that she’s usually very well-groomed, as in very, very fond of designer clothing? No? Yes, I thought you might have guessed that, since she’s a French aristocrat. She enjoys a glass of good sherry but is willing to explore Texas’s unique ways of drinking beer. She’s also very bookish and prefers her flirtations take place in libraries, which isn’t where you’d expect to find one of those rare lady vampires.
Oh, and she’s passionately in love with Jean-Marie St. Just, Texas’s chief diplomat, spy, and assassin. They fell for each other across a crowded ballroom at Versailles over two centuries ago. They’ve suffered through a lot of trials and tribulations ever since, including major pieces of nastiness like the French Revolution and the Peninsular Wars. In fact, matters became so bad Jean-Marie and Hélène have spent the past two centuries thinking the other was dead.
Plus, there’s Hélène’s vicious little sister Celeste who’d dearly love to see Hélène dead. Not that Hélène realizes that – yet…
And now it’s present-day Texas and Hélène has just learned Jean-Marie is still alive. She’s on her way to Austin, eager to be reunited with her true love.
Sometimes I wonder who’s in for more changes – Texas or Hélène?
Hope you enjoy spending as much time with Hélène as I did!
Right about now you must all be breathing a heavy sigh of relief that Christmas is over and life for the most part--well other than New Years-- will get back to normal. Truly, Christmas is a lovely holiday, giving us the chance to spend time with family and—at least for me—visit with cousins and relatives who I only see two or three times a year (and I have great family so I love that.) But boy! Three days of non-stop visiting and eating and unwrapping gifts is very exhausting, don’t you think? I do. I’m about ready to drop.
And don’t even mention the Boxing day sales. Holy cow!! People get crazy grumpy out there on their hunts for bargains. It’s a very serious business that bargain shopping stuff. Do not get between another man or woman and their sale item. You could be placing your life at risk. And watch yourselves in the parking lots too! We saw an accident happen right in front of us. A fellow backed his pick up out of his parking spot and right into a car that had stopped to let another car get out of the way. I thought the drivers would come to blows. A little blonde gal was in the car that was hit. She got out and ran around, steam practically coming out of her ears and she didn’t particularly care that the fellow in the pick up was a big guy (just a small mountain really). LOL. I hate to admit it but watching her rail and wag her finger under the nose of the huge driver who was in the wrong made me smile and murmur to myself “You go girl! Give it to him.” She’s the kind of gal who would make a good heroine in a book. After all the excitement and rush of Christmas though, all I want to do is curl up with a good book. I hope you’re all the same because I have one that came out boxing day. THE ACCIDENTAL VAMPIRE. It’s book #7 in the Argeneau series of vamps and one I had a lot of fun with. The heroine, Elvi, isn’t a blonde, but she’d have no trouble railing and wagging a finger at a mountain in the wrong either.
Elvi Black had been married, widowed and lost her only child when, at 57, she went on a vacation to Mexico with her best friend and woke up one morning to find she’d got more than Montezuma’s revenge. She was a vampire. Fortunately, Mabel was more than a fair-weather friend and helped Elvi through it. She got her home to Canada and even rallied together the population of their small town to help Elvi with this life change. For the next five years everything just sort of coasted along nicely, but then Mabel and some of their friends decided they needed to find a mate for Elvi, to keep her company in the long years ahead. A vampire would be preferable, but where to find a vampire boyfriend? The personal ads seemed the best answer. So they put out an ad and arranged for a bunch of the candidates to spend some time in their small town. That way they could give them the once over, and if they were suitable, see how they got along with Elvi. (Really, no one can embarrass you like your friends and loved ones, huh? LOL)
Unfortunately, advertising your status as a vamp is a no-no among immortals and that ad caught the attention of the council. They sent Victor Argeneau down to Elvi’s small town to check her out and drag her back for judgment—which with them can mean death. Victor doesn’t mind the job until he gets there and finds out he can’t read our Elvi. She’s his lifemate. Now he just has to convince her of that, win her hand over the other immortals who responded to the ad, and figure out a way to keep the council from demanding her head. . . Well, if he can keep her alive long enough to worry about that. Elvi’s managed to draw the ire of more than the council and someone’s trying to end her life before Victor can enjoy his happy ever after. Is life ever easy? (grin)
I truly did have fun with this book, and I hope if you get the chance to relax with Elvi and Victor, you enjoy it too. It should bring a smile to your holiday weary faces.
I’ve been an avid reader since I was ten years old. Blame it on the elementary school’s reading program (re: read twenty books in a month and win a prize!). I wanted that prize, so I read the twenty books. Along the way, I discovered…I LOVED reading. Since then, I’ve always had my nose stuck in a book, much to my childhood best friend’s annoyance.
When I was in tenth grade and my older sister was in twelfth, she brought home an assigned reading book. The fiction book sat in the exact same spot she’d dumped it—on the chair next to the stairs—for days. After a week of passing by this book, I picked it up and read the blurb on the back. A mystery to solve and a love story…hmmm, it didn’t sound too bad. I sat down that night and read the entire book and I loved it! I was so excited about the story that I told my sister all about it, hoping I could get her excited enough to read it herself. While I blabbed on and on, my sister nodded and uh huh’d and smiled. The next day she wrote the book report and turned it in. Got a B, too. *rolling eyes* :-) So much for trying to get my sister interested in reading.
But that author had hooked me and I went on to read her entire backlist. I told other friends about her books, turning them onto this author’s work. To this day, I believe the best advertising an author can do is write the best story she can. Give her readers a great plot with interesting twists, main characters to empathize and fall in love with, and deeply emotional, heart-wrenching moments that will pull the reader into the story, making them feel like a participant as the tale unfolds.
When I sit down to write my own books, I keep in mind all the things about the books that I adored. From suspenseful plots to stories that make your heart twist, I try my best to create heroes and heroines who readers consider their friends. My goal is always to create a compelling story with engaging characters. If the readers close the book with a smile and wonder what’ll happen next in the main characters’ lives, then that’s the highest compliment in my mind, because that’s the standard I use as a reader that “hooks” me on books.
Do you remember what books/authors have hooked you such that you had to go out and tell everyone, from family to friends to YES, even strangers you meet in line at the bookstore, “You HAVE to read these books? They’re fantastic!” What was it about those books that really drew you in?
Patrice Michelle currently has three series available in print:
1) Scions (vampire, werewolf, paranormal)– Coming January 2008
The other day over at my writing blog, I mused about something that’s often puzzled me; that is, the subject of Vampire Reproduction. With vampires, I wondered, why are they so often infertile, when by the rules, they ought to be more than capable of reproduction? I won’t rehash everything I said over there, but do take a look if you’re curious or would like to weigh in on the subject.
I find my mind often wonders into these strange little alleys and then gets stuck there sometimes, leaving me no choice but to slowly work my way out.
