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Well...it isn't...not really...
In case any of you were wondering, I wasn't jumping of the recent vampire bandwagon. When I first conceived of the novel, way back in 1980, it had no vampires int at all...it was originally going to be a post-apopcalyptic story, which I then realised had been done to DEATH! I've long been intrigued by vampires, ever since the 60s-70s when the Hammer films began showing up on TV...usually on "Monster Movie Matinee" from Syracuse, New York, which we could juuusst barely pick up by wiggling the old antenna around (which usually caused my father to shout: "Would you quit messin' with that damned thing!") back at the old homestead. These films, edited and low-budjet as they were, scared the pants off the younger me (I often watched from the livingroom doorway). Christopher Lee (Dracula) and Peter Cushing (Dr. van Helsing) did a creditable job with what they had to work with, to my mind. I actually have some of those old films on DVD, "Brides of Dracula" (sans Dracula, actually) being my favourite. My first reading of Bram Stoker's novel also gave me a fright.
Recently, starting with the Coppola version of the story, suddenly the Count became a vulnerable, sexy and romantic creature. Of course, before that, Anne Rice had made vampires slightly homo-erotic and pretty cryptic. Now, we have the series of books and movies of the "Twilight" variety. Along with the vampires of the "Underworld" series, you have been presented with rather low-powered creatures of the night who can't even handle a werewolf...
That's when I decided I had to draw the line. My novel, which incorporates vampires as the main antagonists, has given power back to them. The nitschen...well, think blood-drinking zombie; the etvaschen...with them you have vampires who can think but aren't happy with what the are; and, finally, the nosferatu, the "true " vampires, who revel in their existence and power. One of THEM would take a werewolf and turn him into a nice rug for the lounge.
So, as you can see, in my long-winded way, I'm trying to separate myself from the "pack". I just originally thought powerful vampires would be the perfect villians for my novel...and that's my story and I'm sticking to It!
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