Vampire Use In Contemporary Fantasy

[BigMama]

Wow! Now that's a new viewpoint. I'm going to have to ponder that--yuk! 

[fjeastman]

 

It reveals the problem with the more recent press for "not magical undead, but sexy predatory humans with a disease" ... blood-eating parasites are all much smaller than their hosts.  Blood is a rather inefficient food source, so a human-sized blood parasite would have to drain people by the carloads.

The tick swells to almost 300% of it's original size, IIRC.  Leeches are also built to expand.  Every vampire would have to wake up at sunset looking like Calista Flockheart and end the day looking like the internet-troll vampire from Blade.

Would be an interesting conceit for a short piece.

--fje

[resurrectedwarrior]

- christian fantasy (fantasy in general has really been kicking christianity around for years and promoting wicca and new age religions.  I think this will backlash; I'm not even christian, and yet I really like Jim Butcher's Carpenter family, because it's christianity treated with respect, which is so rare in the genre.)

I, personally, would love that. You'd think you'd see some people trying to do this in the Christian market, but there really isn't much fantasy wise--not that's set in the real world, anyway. Most Christian fantasy that I've read either takes place in an alternate universe (LOTR) or have their characters cross-over (Narnia). It would rock to have a urban fantasy or something where the christian chars kick demon butt for JC. Or something. 

[novium]

isn't there some tongue-in-cheek book about a soccer mom who is a secret agent for the vatican battling demons?

[Amber]

- christian fantasy (fantasy in general has really been kicking christianity around for years and promoting wicca and new age religions.  I think this will backlash; I'm not even christian, and yet I really like Jim Butcher's Carpenter family, because it's christianity treated with respect, which is so rare in the genre.)

I, personally, would love that. You'd think you'd see some people trying to do this in the Christian market, but there really isn't much fantasy wise--not that's set in the real world, anyway. Most Christian fantasy that I've read either takes place in an alternate universe (LOTR) or have their characters cross-over (Narnia). It would rock to have a urban fantasy or something where the christian chars kick demon butt for JC. Or something. 

You might want to try LA Bank's series.  I only read the first one, so I don't know if the preachy "jesus lord and saviour" continues through the whole series, though.

[BigMama]

Novium, the books you are thinking of are by Julie Kenner and the first of the series is entitled Carpe Demon, Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom.  Very light and amusing. I personally don't like the Banks series but it is much darker.

[Belial]

Most of the fantasy that i write focuses around the supernatural... i have an obsession with Angels and Demons that i can't really explain... but needless to say i find myself researching the topic.

However, at the moment I'm actually writing a Vampire story. Why? Because i have D&D character that's a Vampire, I thought I was role-playing him quite well, and I thought he had a great story behind him.

The character I play is very much a dandy hero... however, i went dark and brooding in my story.

But he's not an angsty vampire sex-god by any means. He's good looking, but it's more his force of personality than anything else... he tends to scare the hell out of people, and with good reason.

I went the feral, vicious, murderer route. But besides that, he's a fairly good guy  .

So, it's a vampire story, but it's a lot different than most of the vampire stories I've read. It should be noted also, that it's not contemporary fantasy that I'm writing, it's in a medieval fantasy setting.

"I feel true pity for whoever found them in the morning, they were a sight that none should have had to behold. However, looking back, even now, I cannot help but smile."

[terioncalling]

Uh, I took the vampire and gave them a whole heirarchy called Lines (6 of them) with Elders at the heads of those lines and the First (Vampire) above them all.  They have no issue walking in sunlight (it hurts their eyes and going to put in that it somewhat weakens their powers) and their eyes change color with some emotions (example: red in the eyes equals anger; completely red eyes = run the HELL away, stuff is about to get destroyed.  All use Power (yes, capital P), which is basically energy around and within them that they can lash out with in invisible waves.  Some have small power over certain elements - such as the Cyclaryn Line which can use fire.

There are also Slayers (separated into eight Clans of slightly enhanced humans that hunt vampires), Witches (separated into seven Sects, four with control over elements and the other three are Healers, Seers, and Shapeshifter respectively), Werewolves (five Packs; also immune to silver and can change at will but must change during the full moon), Halflings (those of only half Slayer blood or Witch or Werewolf or, even, vampire - which is difficult to do and only a handful exist) and of course vanilla humans.

I actually created a message board role-play years ago based on all this.  Here's the link to the webpage that has all the info on it  -->  http://www.terion.net/vampiredust/ .  There's a link to the current incarnation of the message board there too.  There's only 3 of us going at it right now but we're expanding the plot line of in-story characters so we're fine with that.  Also, the last three on the Species list (exclude the Halflings) don't exist within the real storyline.  Well, the last one MAY.  Dunno as of yet.

The main character of the whole story is Darien O'Connell, a 362-year-old Irish vampire.  He lost most of his memory when he was turned because he's nearly something called a Rogue (basically vampire's that go insane with bloodlust and kill everything; also are more powerful, which is why usually its the First and one or more of the Elders that hunt them down and kill them).  His memories return some years later and he's abandoned by his Sire.  The story moves into present times after that, where Darien's an FBI agent based in NYC with a human partner.  From there there's attacks from Slayer and Witches alike with Darien trying not to get his partner killed and keeping his harsher side at bay.

...now that I've prattled on for three paragraphs, making an enormous post, I'll go away now.  Have to go to class.

[Richelle Mead]

Man, I don't even know where to start in this topic.  I agree vampires are flooding the market, but there are still some authors who use them well, so I can't knock them entirely.  Just as tragic loves and fish out of water stories are used over and over, there are always those who can reinvent them and do something cool.

Not me, though.  There are two vampires in Succubus Blues who have a very silly sidekick role.  They're not even very good vampires--they mostly get raw meat from butcher shops.  And on the topic of Succubus Blues, I thought I was the hottest thing around to think of putting succubi in urban fantasy.  Then author Jackie Kessler sold her succubus book a month or so after me.  We both cried upon discovering each other, then got over it.  Now we're promoting our stuff together.  No doubt other succubus franchises will follow.

And as for the next big thing...well, I'm curious too.  I asked a very well known fantasy author where she thought the market was going while we were at a conference, and she totally dug into me, berating me for daring to consider the market.  She didn't know I'd sold books and went on and on about how you can't write to the market, have to write what you love, etc., etc.  So my curiosity remains unfulfilled.

[Cathy Clamp]

Hmm... where is the market going, huh? I think there's probably no real answer to that. Everyone is riding the paranormal trend right now, from Harlequin's new "Nocturne" line to a novelization of the old Dark Shadows TV series (I kid you not! The first one is written by Lara Parker, who played Angelique, the witch on the series.)

I think so long as there are new twists to the old legends, there's plenty of room.  In fact, I just recently ponied up a BIG chunk of change for a hardcover book called The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology (Cotterell & Storm-Hermes House) that has myths from all over the globe and in all cultures. There are LOTS of vampire/shapeshifter legends that haven't been tapped from Russia, Roman/Greco mythology and even Native American cultures.

I don't see any end in sight (thank goodness!), so long as it's not just same-old/same-old. 

[BigMama]

I'll be the first to tell you I'm not an expert but I do read a lot and I post on many boards and on a lot of them readers are getting tired of paranormals. It is becoming hard to find anything new that has not been done by someone else and done better. For that reason, I think the paranormal has crested and will begin to give way to another fav, and I think it may be the supernatural. One opinion among many. 

[Dom]

Not me, though.  There are two vampires in Succubus Blues who have a very silly sidekick role.  They're not even very good vampires--they mostly get raw meat from butcher shops.  And on the topic of Succubus Blues, I thought I was the hottest thing around to think of putting succubi in urban fantasy.  Then author Jackie Kessler sold her succubus book a month or so after me.  We both cried upon discovering each other, then got over it.  Now we're promoting our stuff together.  No doubt other succubus franchises will follow.

I have an Incubus.    Or rather two; one's half-Incubus, one's quarter-incubus.  Given how Incubi...er...get around...there's a lot of halfbreeds out there.   Or so my reasoning goes.

[Tersa]

"Strike that, the health concious kid sister made it two.... succubuses.  Succubusees?  Succubi?  Stupid Latin correspondence course."

Sorry, with all of this talk about succubi and incubi, I couldn't pass up a chance to quote Harry.  Ah, how I love Blood Rites.  

Cathy Clamp, thanks for posting about The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology .  I love reading myths to get inspiration for stories, so I'll have to go track a copy down.   

[fjeastman]

One thing I've noticed ... I went to several Big Name Booksellers in various cities and went through their scifi/fantasy sections looking for books that obviously billed themselves as contemporary supernatural/occult.

About 2 in 3 were written by women about female protagonists and contained vampires or some variation of "The Hot'n'sexy Dangerous Supernatural Guy/Girl" in positions of romantic or at least sexual interest.

THAT combination, I think, is outplayed.  Two prominently displayed series were female witches of some stripe who are strong/sassy/sexy and yet frightened and thrilled by how easily their supernatural lovers could overpower them.

One, of course, involves a (mostly ex now, eh?) vampire hunter boffing kennels full of supernatural hunks.

Most have a universality of skewed english faerie mythology (faeries, often with wings, and Victorian to the hilt).  Out of hand I can only think of one that dealt with native american mythological themes (and turned them romantic).

I would say my favorite authors in the general area would be Butcher and Neil Gaiman, and Gaiman's stuff has been billed more as Horror and Contemporary Literary than fantasy.

--fje

[Richelle Mead]

Funny you mentioned the predominance of female protagonists.  I'm beating my head against the wall with a current urban fantasy project.  My agent and I were discussing it and both agreed the female narrator's love interest had a far more compelling tale to tell and that I should bring that out more.  I noted that it would work better and be more interesting if I made him the first person narrator instead of her.  My agent was cautious about endorsing that, noting that it might not fly in what's otherwise a female dominated market.  So now what line to walk?  Would I be consigning the book to oblivion by having a guy tell it?  Or is the market ready for more of that kind of thing (Harry being a success)?  Of course, the correct answer is to write whatever makes a good story, and that's what I'll do.  But still, it's just another example of how mind-boggling it is trying to figure out what this genre's going to do.