Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

What Flavor Is Your Vampire?

When I was a kid the rules of vampires were so simple and clear cut. Vampires were undead, had to sleep in coffins, sucked blood, couldn’t be out in the daylight, and were the bad guys. The advent of paranormal romance appears to have changed all that. Not that I’m complaining mind you. I like my vampires to be the tortured romantic heroes lost in their immortality and searching for the one who will make their hearts go pitter patter. As a budding author, however, the vampire world has become a complex nightmare and gives me a headache!

Vampires aren’t really easy to research, I’ve discovered. It isn’t as if one can find reliable sources on the culture, as is possible for the cultural nuances of say … Frenchmen in the 1700’s. I’ve been researching by reading other author’s ideas on the world of vampires. Hey, it is a good excuse to spend the day reading, right?

In one author’s world, vampires still need blood to survive, but they aren’t called “vampire” until they’ve become evil and lost their souls. And even then, they weren’t ever dead—not even the bad guys. That’s just the way they were born. In another world, they’ve been made legal and given rights, but still can’t go out in the daylight and still need blood donors to keep them alive. They did die, however, so are still the undead. Garlic and mirrors don’t cause them problems, but crosses and holy water do. And then there is the world where the “vampires” were cursed by a Greek God and not only do they suck blood, they suck souls out so they can have one of their own. Oh, and some of the good guys who were created to keep the world safe, suck blood too but most don’t need to, they just like it, while others need to but they aren’t called vampires.

Confused yet?

In my world, vampires don’t live off blood, they live off emotions. The psychic vampires, or psi-vamps as they are called, were created to keep soul sucking chaotic demons from infiltrating the human population and remaking the world in their image. Psi-vamps eat food to sustain their bodies, but it is human emotion that gives them life. They can cope with the sunlight, yet by preference they are creatures of the dark, and night is when they hunt. In centuries past, they lived side-by-side with humans until the great witch hunts in Europe—a demon plot to rid them of interference, and it almost worked. Centuries later they have learned to blend into and thrive in the modern world. How? Why, they dance for their supper, literally. My psi-vamps are male strippers. After all, what is headier and more filling than lust?

What flavor of vampire do you prefer? I’d love to hear from you!

TK