McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Vampire Use In Contemporary Fantasy
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. ;D
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version