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We are creatures of habit. Locked into our associative likes and dislikes, our fears and opinions, our desires, we are predictable by their unique definitions. Could the same be said for the Vampire, a creature that lives the span of lifetimes? Are they creatures of habit?
I should think they are. Even more so than you or I, the Vampire is a creature of habit because time has whittled them down to a fine point of identifiable traits and anxieties. They have exhausted the gauntlet of personal experience and know, without a doubt, the things that he or she prefers. But has time dulled even those sensations?
I guess the answer to that question would be "when" we, as readers, are introduced to the vampire within the story. This is one of the most intriguing and delightful areas to the Vampires' mystic that I enjoy playing with when I write. Defining character traits are always fun, but defining vampire character traits are absolutely intriguing.
Did he or she eat custard when they were a child? And if so, what flavor was their favorite?
How sickly were they growing up?
Did their parents beat them?
What was their first job, and more importantly, WHEN was their first job?
Asking basic, fundamental questions about the early years of a vampire aids me in figuring out who they were before the change, so I know how the transformation and their night life afterwards affected them twisted them .made them into the monster they have become. Sure, it may be easier to place the vampire character into a scenario and see how she or he is going to act without doing any extraneous detailing. That is always an option. But more times than not, when I have tried this approach, I see the character acting like something I have seen on TV instead of a real live thinking and being character. Without a pulse or basic structure under the veins, my imagination is limited to my own dull experience and who the heck wants to read about that!?!
For anyone that has read my work they know I don't fancy just scratching the surface. I dig. I get under the skin, because, as a writer, that is what interests me the most. Vampires, with their elongated lives and rich heritage, give me more of what interests me. So, in return, I pull out the intricate dramas of their lives and display them without prejudice to vice or virtue, letting the reader soak it all up like a biscuit with gravy.
You could even say that I have a habit of asking a lot of ridiculous questions for make-believe characters. It's something that I've found that I like to do. What do you like to do when it comes to the Vampire?
Do you imagine yourself as one?
Or, are you a willing feast, waiting for that delicate, nocturnal kiss?
Vampire News: Tasty Bits To Sink Your Fangs Into!
Vampire News Book One
Stavros & Bertena Varney, M.A.M.Ed
Genre:Nonfiction Vampires
Publisher: Crazy Duck Press (CDP)
Date of Publication: April 2012
Number of pages: 100
Cover Artist: StavrosVampire News: The (not so) End Times Edition
Vampire News Book Two
Stavros & Bertena Varney, M.A.M.Ed
Genre:Nonfiction Vampires
Publisher: Crazy Duck Press (CDP)
Date of Publication:Kindle - March 2013Print - April 2013
Number of pages: 188
Cover Artist: Stavros
Vampire News Book Description:
Collected & Edited by Stavrosor whether you stand anxiously in movie lines, blog, or are a member of a daring vampire community, drink blood, psychically feed, or support famous and up-n-coming authors, get vamp tattoos, make fangs, bite people, go to Cons, or are waiting in the wings of some dark dream, then Vampire News is for You!
With more articles, interviews, essays, and the largest Vampire Timeline ever compiled by man, Vampire Professor, Bertena Varney, M.A.M.Ed, and acclaimed author, artist, and fangsmith, Stavros, have established themselves with a truly delightful tome for vampyre/vampire fans of all ages!Researched thoroughly with love and dedication, Vampire News features some of the most insightful facts, tips, blips, quips, notes, essays, articles, interviews, art, news reports, weblinks, and radical thoughts from many of today's leading authors, professors, fangsmiths, enthusiasts, musicians, models, photographers, and fun-loving nuts working within the vampire genre today!
Vampire News gives readers a unique look at what lies behind the biggest social subgenre of all time.It exposes the hype and uncovers the real-life world that awaits you just around the corner.So, enter and step into a world that you may think you know from the people that craft the stuff of nightmares and walk the twilight glade between this world and the stuff of dreams!We dare you!!!
My Thoughts:
When I first gotten ahold of this book, I never read the description. Just knowing that it would feature vampires was all I needed to be interested. When I got into the book, it wasn't what I was expecting. I really should pay attention to descriptions and titles because when I thought it was getting a story about vampires, when I actually got is ... well what the title says... Vampire News.
I found this book very interesting and it has gotten me to check out a couple of vamp books / movies / tv series I haven't seen / read yet. If you are a vampire fan you might like this book because it has many things to keep you interested in the essays and articles and the listing of what has gone on in 2011 related to vampires that you may have missed and might want to check out.
Notorious Poet.Fool.Born in Washington DC.Stavros was a writer and editor for The Independent Underground Magazine.Raised in Southern Maryland, he fled the Chesapeake Bay to the wilds of the New Mexican desert.He is a single father of two, whose poetic works have been published in several online and print publications, including Central Avenue, The Sword That Cuts Through Stone, Poets Against The War, Conceptions Southwest, The Mynd, Imagine: Creative Arts Journal, and Bartleby, where he won a specialty award for his poem,Blackbird.
In 1999, he won an Official Selection into the Writer's on the Edge Festival for his play, The Redline.In 2001, he created thePoetry Television Projectfor public cable access in Albuquerque, NM.All eight volumes of Ptv's ground-breaking show were broadcast to over 100,000 viewers on a network of regional PAC channels throughout the Southwest and Baltimore.He helped to launchUnpublished Magazine, sponsored the monthly poetry series,The Word Caf , in the Duke city, and produced a political compilation,Poetic Democracy.In 2007, he released the award-winning documentary film,Committing Poetry in Times of War.
In 2010, he launched the production management company,Organic Ghetto, and released its first imprint,Crazy Duck Press, with his first novel,Blood Junky.Blood Junky received exceptional praiseand review, even being called "one of the best vampire novels ever written," by Living Dead Media.The following year he helped to launch BioGamer Girl, undertook a bigger East coast tour where he began selling his original photographic art, and released two new novels through Crazy Duck Press.Dead Girl: A RomanticZombie Tale of Revengefeatures a stunning full-color cover and twelve black and white illustrations from tattoo artist,Charles Hearn.Blood Junky's sequel,n, cemented the One Blood series with its continuation of the story, garnering such review as to claim that the book and the series is "comparable with, and at times surpasses, the 'Vampire Chronicles' by Anne Rice."
In 2012, Stavros joined forces with the Vampire Professor,Bertena Varney, M.A.M.Ed, to co-create the nonfiction annual anthology,Vampire News, and officially became a Fangsmith with the creation of Organic Ghetto's second imprint,Kaos Kustom Fangs.He rounded out the year by writing and editing screenplays for the One Blood Transmedia Project, recording Dead Girl as an audio book, and undertaking his biggest national marketing campaign, The Book & Fang Tour.
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