So, every time I talk with readers, other writers, and just about anyone else, the subject of vampires and angels comes up. Mainly because that’s my series, Fangs & Halos.
But the almost universal question is always asked: Why Vampires?
Because it seems I’ve lived with them all my life. Almost literally.
My late mom was the one who introduced me to vampires. When I was 3 years old (1960), mom spread out newspapers on the floor in front of the black and white television in the living room and, with popcorn and koolaid, and let me watch the 1931 version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi. I remember watching it, vaguely.
I was bit by the vampire bug at that point. Mom says I started talking about vampires a lot after that. I also got interested in things like the Wolfman, Frankenstein, and other paranormals.
And ghosts. I loved ghosts at that point. Movies like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (both the 1947 movie and the 68-70 TV show), and the Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) all had a part in giving me ideas later when writing or exploring ghosts.
Vampires weren’t exactly popular, not like they are today. I saw at least 2 of the early Hammer film vampires with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee even before first grade.
I was in elementary school when the Munsters and Addam’s Family started in 1964. The characters were what got my attention and I would try to watch every time they were on. Of course, Lily Munster was a vampire and while I later learned Morticia Addams was actually a witch, her dark clothing and demeanor was vampire so I tended to see her that way.
Then there was the other thing that solidified my romance with all things vampire: Dark Shadows. Running in the afternoon, 4pm Central in my hometown, I would run home from school to watch it.
So did many of my friends. We used to play Dark Shadows at recess while I was in late elementary school, I was Angelique, who was both a witch and a vampire. A kid named Larry played Barnabas and he even did his dark hair in the signature forehead curls. It was those years that I learned that a damp red grading pencil would make decent vampire marks on a neck (well, descent to someone like the ten-year old me).
It was Dark Shadows that was my first writing experience. It was fun to play at recess and watch on TV but I wanted to have more. I did read all 33 of the Marilyn Ross books from the series. But what I wanted was me in the story. I learned later that the trope of someone writing themselves into a story was a “Mary Sue” but a kid still in school writing these things was pretty normal, many of my friends did the same with other things.
So, Alisandra Amiciajenuice Collins got into the series as Barnabas’s little sister who, eventually becomes a vampire. I don’t have any of those stories any more but I do remember a few of them, and they’re not good enough to revisit. And I have no idea where I came up with that huge, weird name, just so you know. I was 10.
Since then I read and watched everything I could on the vampires, both fiction and non-fiction. Some of my favorite movies are things like the various incarnations of Dracula, with the “Dracula Untold” with Luke Evans as Vlad being the newest best favorite.
I saw Interview With The Vampire (Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt—1994) in New Orleans, which was a cool experience.
One of my kids fell in love with the Lost Boys movie and I think I have seen that at least a hundred times because of it.
I even put Dracula 2000 with Gerald Butler in my series—Lilly sees it and thinks it’s real since she hasn’t seen much television.
Movies aren’t the only favorite vampire fare for me, I’m also pretty much addicted to vampire novels. You can check out some of my favorite authors in the list below but I think my hands-down favorite series is the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. I have all of the series in hard back autographed and all of them in electronic form so I can read them.
The vampires in her series are different from the ones in mine, mine are the usual “human bit and turned” variety and hers are a separate species completely. She’s made reference to vampires in other parts of the world, and I made a quick mention of hers by citing the vampires in Caldwell NY.
My other favorite is Charlaine Harris, author of the Southern Vampire series that turned into the HBO series True Blood. I’ve actually met her and had a panel on vampires with her and embarrassed myself by being such a fan-girl that when we did introductions I said “Hi, I’m Charlaine Harris!” and then tried to find a way to fall out of my wheelchair to under the table in mortification. But she was an awesome sport about it. That’s her with me in the picture.
So, I’ve been a fan all my life. It was quite normal for me to write vampire novels. I do have a lot of lore and history for the Fangs & Halos vampires and I’ll be exploring those in future blogs so stay with me!
Here are my favorite authors (with links to their pages/books). Go visit a few great vampires!
The Anne Rice vampire series
Anno Dracul by Kim Newman
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Night Hunter (“Cat and Bones”) series by Jeaniene Frost
Dark Carpathian series by Christine Feehan
The Hollows series (Rachel Morgan series) by Kim Harrison
Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris:
Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward