Since, apparently, the release of my old vampire series – Those Who Hunt the Night and Traveling with the Dead – on digital last month via Open Road Media (www.openroadmedia.com) qualifies me as a “well-known author of vampire fiction” these days, I guess it’s okay for me to write about my take on vampires and vampire fiction. (The third of the James Asher vampire series, Blood Maidens, is available in print from Severn House, U.K., but not yet in digital).
I’ve always preferred my vampires dangerous. When I was working on Those Who Hunt the Night, I read various novels of vampire fiction which were around at the time (this was long before Twilight – Ms. Meyer might not even have been born then), and I recall one in which the vampires, though eerie and powerful, were rather benign, like a secret society of people who lived forever and only “immortalized” those who really deserved to live forever; who only drank a little bit of human blood from people who knew them: consenting adults, as it were. And I remember thinking, “No. If vampires were really like that, why the horrific legends?”
So I came up with the best reason I could think of, that vampires have to kill. The blood nourishes vampire flesh, and doesn’t necessarily have to be human. (I recall Anne Rice’s Lestat, among others, lived for decades on rats). In my view of vampires, they kill – and kill humans – because the psychic energy released by the human soul at death is what enables vampires to exercise psychic influence on people: to read dreams. To influence dreams. To make themselves appear to the living as overwhelmingly attractive, to cloud human judgement and human perception… Why else would you walk down a dark alley with a total stranger?
Vampires must kill in order to hunt, and in order to survive.
That being established as a base-line – along with total destruction at the first touch of sunlight, something which is in some legends and not in others – what kind of person would survive as a vampire? What kind of person would become a vampire? Not someone anybody in their right mind would want to get close to.
The development of my version of vampires evolved from there.
Another thing about vampires in legend: a lot of them are very snappy dressers. They’re frequently protrayed as sophisticated, and wealthy enough to have all sorts of henchmen and booby-traps for the unwary around their castles. This is because, of course, even a moderate amount of money looted from early victims, if properly invested, yields a quite substantial income over two or three centuries. And if a vampire isn’t smart enough to get himself a good accountant and proper investments, he probably doesn’t survive.
Wealthy, well-dressed, sexually attractive, been everywhere, remember the world centuries ago, utterly selfish and ruthlessly charming – the ultimate power figure. No wonder people are fascinated by the idea. And, an infinitely variable archetype: every writer does them differently.
And that’s what fascinates me.
Barbara’s blog
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I read the original 2 James Asher book years ago and had to re-buy them to refresh my memory before buying Blood Maidens and I can say that while the slow pace of these novels will not attract a lot of PNR/UF types I found the books to be excellent reading. The advent of the ebooks like the Kindle have made many books which were not viable for the printed publisher world are now being written by authors. I hope to be able to see another James Asher novel but the ending of Blood Maidens can stand as either an ending or as another chapter in this superbly written series. Don Simon is such a tragic figure I would hope there could be some redemption for him in a final book.
thanks for the comment! More vampire books are coming!
Well, I checked this homepage for years hoping that there would be another James Asher novel. (Jeah!)
I found the second one (translation of course) in my local library in Germany and asked a friend to bring me the first from another town because I couldn´t find it anywhere else. I had only half a day to read it because she had to bring them back….
I believe I was 16 at that time. Now I´m 25.
I love the vampires in your books. I like the nostalgia and the amusing conservative behaviour they show from time to time.
I was impressed by the idea of a human being living so long that they are forced to see their friends and relatives die and later their whole century change beyond recognition. Reading the books it became clear to me that eternity isn´t anything a person takes easily. And it´s not wise to long for a eternal life. I´ve read a lot of vampire books but none of them felt so real to me as yours still do. It´s simply because I can imagine how the changes slowly takes place, making you… well,… old, even though your body doesn´t show it.
It always irritated me how other writers made their vampires so adolescent, sadistic or simply horny…. It´s hard to imagine that a person behaves like a 15 year old boy/girl after several hudereds of years. The human mind doesn´t work this way. And time DOES matter. But it´s influence is ignored in nearly every novel except of yours.
Thank you for your books. I love them. :)
Blood Maidens is now available for the Nook. [Very Very Big Grin]
Just finished _Blood Maidens_, which I hugely enjoyed. Now I’ll have to go get _Traveling With the Dead_, for sauce. Looking forward very much to that.
I vividly remembered _Who Hunt By Night_, enjoyed so much when it first came out. Am startlingly picky when it comes to historicals, mysteries–or that very occasional romance–brava, Ma’am, on another fine job.
I never read vampire fiction. Never. Knowing this, you may enjoy the work of my friend Elisa Paige, an extraordinary voice. http://www.elisapaige.com
And say her friend JB sent you, please. Best wishes–and many more excellent stories welcome soon,
Jeannette
When you mentioned vampires influencing dreams, I remember how Don Simon Ysidro got Margaret Potton to be Lydia Asher’s traveling companion in _Traveling With The Dead_.
At the time I first read that, I thought it was your comment on the romantic vampire.