Uber Blood Suckers

Here's an interesting article on the TIME magazine online link:

TIME on VAMPIRE ROMANCES

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There's mention of three big vampire romance authors--Laurell K. Hamilton, Christine Feehan and Mary Janice Davidson. I thought it was a generally good article, albeit a little sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek, that covered all the relevant points. Also LKH, CF, and MJD all represent the three different genres in this subgenre: horror, paranormal-romance, and chick-lit.

I love LKH's first ten Anita Blake books; she reintroduced me back to the subtle eroticism of the horror genre. But the tone of the books have changed a LOT since book 10, and although her writing is still so compelling, I miss my old Anita very much. I also remember reading Christine's first Dark book and got sucked into that world. What a fantastic beginning hook! Michael in Dark Prince is still one of my favorite rereads. I haven't read MJD's vampire chickie but enjoyed her SECRETS contributions, which were really sexy reads.

As a little girl, when I used to watch vampire movies in the sixties, I would wrap my small pillow around my neck to protect myself. I figured the vampire's teeth weren't long enough to go through my pillow ;-). But I've always been fascinated by the dude in the black cloak, even back before I actually understood the underlying eroticism in those movies--the seduction of the heroine, the "marriage" symbolism, the blood lust. I was just fascinated by a creature that "looked" human.

Most of my childhood undead look scary--the Malaysian vampire is called the "pontianak," and it's always portrayed as a really oozy, ugly long-haired creature that screamed a lot. Then there was the Chinese vampire, the "kiong-si," which is GREEN, dressed in ugly Ching Dynasty costume, and they HOP. Hoppity-hoppity hop. I never understood exactly how they could get their victims when they hopped so slowly but I was too terrified of their green faces to think logically ;-). I remember also watching the old movie, Nosferatu, and had nightmares of that creature for weeks.

Then came Count Dracula. I snuck downstairs faithfully to turn on the TV for HIM. I always felt sorry for him in the end, even though he was such a bad man, going after pretty girls and sucking them dry. As I grew older, I began to get more of the symbolism (besides the religious ones) of forbidden sex and dangerous seduction. So vampires contributed to the deflowerment of my innocence, woohooo. Anyway, the movie would end around 1.30am and I really, really loathed having to WALK to the television set to click on the OFF button. Yes, my dears, those were the days before REMOTE ;-) and the shows were in BLACK and WHITE.

Look how much has changed since then. The Undead is now KEWL and the coolest of all is the vampire himself. And he's been changed from evil to "evil by myth-only coz he's a really, really misunderstood dude." And he gets a happy ending!

Part of it is that the writing of the genre has given the vampire HIS POV. As a reader, you become sympathetic to his psyche, his cause, and his "undeadness." Come on, everyone suddenly became existential after reading Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire. We get to "see" what the blood means to him. We get to feel his loneliness. And we want him to have his "mate." So now Van Helsing is a total bastard for killing the vampire.

Total turnaround, huh? And that's the power of being a writer, and the key to being "original." Because there was a time turning the POV around to the vampires was so extraordinarily different. There was a time when making the vampire the HERO was an unheard of concept. And now, it's an accepted thing in our genre.

We're doing it more and more with the myth of the werewolves now, have you noticed? Do you have a squee line that you can't cross? I think shapeshifters might be it for me. I can accept the sex and the sexiness when they are in human form, but when they are half-and-half, like Hari in Marjorie Liu's Tiger Eye (excellent book!), when he was between the form of tiger and human and the heroine was naked with him, eeeeeeek. ;-) That one had a few of my friends and I discussing about cat's balls. Ew. LOL.

Of course, it's hard to explain the vampire fascination. To those who can't understand it, it all boils down to sleeping with a cold corpse that needs to feast on blood. it's ALL in the words and the Imagination, isn't it? After all, some really important people read Frey and REALLY THOUGHT THAT WAS REAL LIFE.

Who's your favorite vampire romance author these days?

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