There’s more to vampires than meet the eye –even if the vamp is a delicious eye candy like Alex in Bound by Blood.
Historically, vampires were portrayed as rotting corpses living off the blood of others. The romanticized and sophisticated vampire we see in most modern day works, first appeared in John Polidori’s novella, The vampyre, published in 1819. Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, came about much later, 1897, but it forms the basis for modern vampire fiction.
Modern vampires, particularly those portrayed on television and movies, have evolved somewhat. From Nick, in Nick at Night, to Angel, the vampire with a soul, in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, to Mick, in Moonlight, they have each brought similar new traits to vampire lore, and twists on the old. Then there are Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Diaries, and the Twilight series. Each of these books feature vampires – good and bad, and are given more human tendencies than the earliest vampires who were closer to monster than human.
Some lore includes that vampires cannot enter churches, nor can they enter a building unless invited in. They are harmed by crucifixes and deterred by garlic, and can be killed by a wooden stake through the heart. Modern vampire writers take many of those myths and rework them to fit their vampires. In both of my vampire books, Bound by Blood and Soul Guardian, vampires still need to be invited into private homes, but are free to enter public places. That is pretty common with all modern vampires. However, my vampires can also enter churches, but they cannot cross the sanctuary without some consequence. As Lucien, in Soul Guardian, so aptly puts it, the crucifix may or may not hinder some vampires; “Most of the amulet’s power comes from a person’s belief in it, not the amulet itself. If your faith is in the cross, and it is unshakable, it will work for you.”
While some vampires revel in their roles, others do not, but accept it as their lifestyle. There are plenty of both types in Soul Guardian and Bound by Blood.
If you would like to read more on the origins of vampires, you might want to check project Guttenberg for copies of The Vampyre and Dracula. Project Guttenberg offers over 38.000 free ebooks. If you are not familiar with them, I encourage you to check them out. It’s a truly admirable project.
To find Dracula on Project Gutenberg,
The Vampyre can be found at
Happy Reading!
Tara
No comments:
Post a Comment