With Halloween right around the corner, one question I've received a few times recently is "Why do you write about vampires?"
Probably the best way to answer this question is to start with the basics of why I love vampires and how they make up for the ways everyday life sucks. haha!
Reason number one:
They're immortal. We are not.
I like being able to "kill" my characters without any true repercussions. A stake to the heart? No problem. Someone send you to Hell? A witch will get right on that. Their immortality is what allows me to keep them "alive" and keeps the reader in suspense. In real life, death is so final. I like writing books where life and death don't have to have such an "ending point". Books are meant to be fun. I like books to challenge the imagination and that's exactly what I strive to do with The Slayer.
Reason number two:
I love writing about vampires because I can transport them from time to time. If you've read The Slayer, you will know that my main man is from 1787, born in 1760. I find that period to be very enchanting, much more so than today. I'd rather write about it. However, I also like intermixing those characters with present day and vampires give me the opportunity for creative freedom. Often times, vampires are mixed up with witches or warlocks (mine are mixed up with both! Read to find out!) and they use these resources to jump back and forth between different worlds and times. As a girl who wished she could've seen 1787 or 1800, I like to imagine what it would be like to be able to time travel, and I use my characters to give me a glimpse into what that might be like.
Reason number three:
We are weak and get sick, but vampires have superhuman healing powers and capabilities. I don't know about anyone else, but I am always sick. I hate being sick or feeling sick and I hate feeling weak. I love writing about creatures that are never weak or tired from their own doing, and they have very few weaknesses. If you read Dracula, the original vampire story (and also my favorite), you will know that vampires have always had the capability to heal faster than mere humans and that makes for interesting story writing. Run them over with a car? They don't die. Bullet to the head? They stand back up. In fact, I've sent my vampires to Hell several times. Some people say that's boring story writing, but as a girl who's been sick so much her whole life, I don't want to read about sickness; I want to read about power and strength and something better than myself.
Reason number four:
Vampires are expected to be beautiful and perfect. Since the invention of vampire novels, the concept of the flawless and beautiful vampire has been instilled into our heads. I recently read an article about there never being a fat vampire, and while I have my own theories on that (I will write a blog post soon...), they make a valid point. Vampires are usually beautiful and perfect, and visually pleasing. I too am guilty of this in my own writing. My leading role, Tom Barclay (and obviously his twin brother Henry), is described as being 6'5'' with dark (chocolate brown) hair and looking as though he walked right out of the pages of GQ. Eh, what can I say? It's just another reason for why I want to write about vampires.
They're the underworld's most beautiful creature.
Reason number five:
There are many reasons I continue to write about vampires. One huge factor for me is the creative aspect I can have in the freedom in that I can make them assholes without repercussions. Yes, you read that correctly. People expect them to be assholes because they have no soul. They belong in Hell, after all. It's not like they're nuns, the pope, or your English teacher. They're people who've been turned into creatures who thirst and hunger after your neighbor's blood with no thought of it. Of course, I can make them arrogant pricks! It makes writing more fun too. If someone opens a book with a vampire, they certainly don't expect it to be rated PG. My vampires eat people and they like it.
Reason number six:
Vampires open the door for a whole plethora of other fantasy genre characters and I like that freedom. I like the entire dark fantasy genre. I don't like to include just vampires. I include witches, warlocks, and sorcerers. My main character, Abigail, is a vampire slayer. Satan even makes an appearance, along with his Hell Beast, and a few other eternal world creatures... especially in book 2. People say, "Oh, well, you could write about those things without vampires..." Yeah, that's true. But, why would you want to?
“Nobody minds having what is too good for them.” —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
©MegS
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