Marcia Colette: Serious Vampire Kick

Foreword: Among the contributors I have asked to help out with my blog, while I tend to my secret projects, I have urban fantasy and paranormal romance author Marcia Colette, an expert on all matters dreary and creepy as well as a dear friend of mine to take up the spotlight and do her thing. While we are the subject at how awesome Marcia is, she just had a book launch. "Stripped" is her third novel published by Samhain and also on my list of books to review. So I will go back to lurking in the darkness and leave you Marcia and her new obsession.

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Lately, I’ve been on a serious vampire kick. From movies to books to even researching the vampire subculture that exists. What is it about this genre that makes a lot of us paranormal folks gravitate toward it?

For me, it’s the mystique. Let’s face it. We’re attracted to curiosities and that’s pretty much what a vampire is or any supernatural creature for that matter. We want to know what makes them tick. What’s it like to be one? How would you live if you were turned into one? All of these questions and more are turning around in a brain and they ignite inquisitiveness fires.

Not all vampire stories or lore have provoked these questions. For instance, I’ve seen the movie Let the Right One In because so many people had raved about how good it was. Perhaps. But like everything else it’s a matter of opinion. I didn’t like it so much. Since it’s a Norwegian film—I think—I’m guessing that something got lost in the translation. Don’t get me wrong. It had its moments. However, it fell flat for me because there wasn’t enough excitement to draw me in.

On the other hand, I just started reading Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and I’m damning myself for not having picked up this series sooner. It didn’t suck me in with the first page because I found it a little confusing, but it built to the point where if anyone had snatched the book out of my hands, they would’ve found themselves bleeding from the jugular. I love love love this book. Who would’ve thought that high school could be that interesting? The vampire angle is weaved within the story so well that if you were to take it out it would fall apart and be a sad mess.

One thing I’ve discovered during my vampire kick is the lore and world building drives the story forward. However, it’s not the only thing. A good writer can weave such an incredible story around vampires that reused things like sensitivity to sunlight, allergies to silver and crosses, and sucking blood won’t matter.

My love for vampires has been reenergized. Whether that means I’ll be writing a vampire story remains to be seen because I love my shapeshifters. But that’s all I’m saying about that right now. At this point, the only thing I have on my vampire agenda is to bring it back to adult works because I’ve been reading a lot of YA Vampire books lately. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I’ve already read most of the heavy hitters like Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris, and Laurell K. Hamilton. The same goes for some of the new blood to the genre like Jenna Black, Jeanine Frost, and Jennifer Armintrout, and Jeri Smith-Ready—what’s up with the J’s. *grin*

And if you know of any vampire movies that are coming out, please feel free to share those too.