VAMPIRES: LOVE & VIOLENCE - guest blog by Nancy Kilpatrick

VAMPIRES: LOVE & VIOLENCE

Nancy Kilpatrick

 Today's blog features a special guest appearance by acclaimed author and editor, Nancy Kilpatrick, who's written more than 20 novels in the horror, supernatural, and paranormal genres, edited 15 anthologies, and been recognized by Fangoria as "Canada's answer to Anne Rice."  She's best known for her vampire novels and short stories, including her latest, Savagery of the Rebel King, which comes out this month. I've been a fan of hers for a long time, and I'm more than happy to have her with us today talking about those sexy, scary creatures of the night, vampires!

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I've written and read way more vampire books than any mortal likely should. 

The Undead have always fascinated me. They look like us, and now the modern vampire (unlike their dirtier grave-dwelling ancestors) smells like us. They sit at the next table at chic eateries and on one of the plastic seats at a McDonalds, and they are no longer invisible in mirrors or allergic to crosses and garlic.  As a writer, I love these developments. But, some say, well, if they lose all of these traditional tropes, how can they be scary? Then the Twilight series of sparkling blood drinkers that attend high-school after hundreds of years of existence pops into the discussion and many lovers of vampire fiction say Feh! and move on to zombies.  

Because I've read a lot (2,500 vampire novels and counting), I think I have a fairly good idea of where the vampire has been and where he/she/it is going in literature. As an editor, I tried to address that in two anthologies: Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, and the sequel Evolve 2: Vampire Stories of the future Undead, both of which include stories by writers who got it, with wonderful tales of how the vampire has changed and might be changing in future, just as we mortals do! 

In my own vampire fiction, I've leaned towards the superior species perspective. I've always been annoyed that in some books and films the vampire is too easily dispatched. To live 100, 500, 1,000 years and still not know how to defend oneself makes a character stupid in my view. I never wanted to go for stupid; too often that is the easy way out. We've all read or viewed novels and films where the complications are wondrously presented throughout and yet the resolution is slip-shod and disappointing.

The steps away from Victorian ambiguity to the full-blossoming erotic encounters between immortals and mortals has also intrigued me. The new vampire is so much like us and what we humans seem to prefer: young, intelligent, attractive, suave, mesmerizing—did I forget to mention sexy?—what's not to fall for?

But if they are so appealing (and this is where Twilight comes in—btw, a young adult series which should be seen in that light), doesn't this diminish the fear factor? AKA The Good Boyfriend/Girlfriend Books, there is little frightening about most YA Nosferatu. The fear seems rooted in a youthful virgin's sexual awakening push-pull towards the opposite gender. 

I like to call my Thrones of Blood series: Vampire Books for Adults!  Why? Because amidst two large overarching series plots where those macrocosm plots develop within the individual microcosm plots of each novel, the enmity between vampire and human societies leads to violence, and sex, and sexual violence, all of it precipitated by interspecies relationships that go against the grain. 

 

I also like to say—over and over it seems—VAMPIRES ARE NOT HUMAN! (sorry for shouting!) Their inhumanity makes them interesting because like every species on this planet, they have their own agenda, which isn't our agenda. They are Other, and Other in fiction is usually  captivating...and often dangerous!

Thrones of Blood is a six-book series. Four are out so far in ebook and print, found, well, everyone knows where, as in, the usual places:

- Revenge of the Vampir King (Vol 1)

- Sacrifice of the Hybrid Princess (Vol 2)

- Abduction of Two Rules (Vol 3)

- Savagery of the Rebel King (Vol 4) (ebook just out, print to follow by the end of Feb.)

And coming in 2020/2021:

- Anguish of the Sapiens Queen (Vol 5)

- Imperilment of the Hybrids (Vol 6)

If you love vampires, maybe you'll give my series a chance to show you how they have evolved along with us while retaining their ability to terrorize within an alternate reality world, which I guess is always the world in which the Undead dwell. 

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Nancy Kilpatrick is an award-winning writer and editor. She has published 21 novels, 1 non-fiction book, more than 220 short stories, and 6 collections of her short fiction, comic books, a graphic novel, and she has edited 15 anthologies. Her work has been translated into 7 languages. She is the recipient of the Arthur Ellis Award and has been a finalist for numerous Bram Stoker and Aurora awards. You can follow her at https://nancykilpatrick.com/, https://www.facebook.com/nancy.kilpatrick.31, and https://twitter.com/nancykwriter.