Today, I have a guest blogger for Supernatural Friday who
also happens to be an old friend (we bought met each other for the first time
in 1973), Jean Graham. She is blogging about vampires. She also has two vamp
short stories in two anthologies.
Blame it on Bram Stoker, Barnabas Collins and a guy
named Nick Knight. I love vampires. Always have, whether they’re in books, on
the big screen or on TV. I love them in all their forms and nuances, from
cape-twirling fiends to dentally-challenged love interests, and I’ve written
short stories about them since grade school. Over the years, a number of those
stories have made their way into print, though it hasn’t always been easy to
get around those ubiquitous rejection slips.
You’d think, in this age of Twilight and a
dozen other best-selling book series about vampires, that editors would be
eager to publish vampire stories. Alas, most are not. “Tropes!” they cry,
callously labeling our favorite undead characters cliché and unwelcome in their
pages. Some will, however, hedge a bit and add, “Not unless you do something
really new and different.”
Hmm. Well, how about something very old and
different? In centuries past, vampires were believed to be demons – you know,
those other angels – who possessed and reanimated the dead. In Stoker’s Dracula,
the Count could transform himself into a mist, a bat or a fly on the wall.
Combine those two supernatural milieus, and you have the critters that inhabit
my own vampire stories.
Jean Graham
My vamps’ most recent appearances have been in two
paperback and e-anthologies published this year. “Nightcrawlers” is in Arcane
II and “Turning Worms”
in Dying to Live.
Here’s an excerpt from the latter:
“Matt, sweetie.” Betty’s
long eyelashes fluttered innocently. “Didn’t you tell me once you knew someone
who knew someone who could ‘take care of’ a problem like this, you know,
permanently? Well, why don’t you tell that Janice bitch about those friends of
friends, too? Just rattle her cage, okay? Shake her up a little. But get her
off my back!”
Oh, this was
delicious. Lovely, naked, unabashed hatred. The demon drifted still closer,
savoring the moment. And in that moment, Betty Boyle began to realize that
something was amiss.
The half-empty cola can
tumbled from spasming fingers, bounced off her 60-inch thigh and sploshed
onto the carpet.
“Hang on again, Matt.”
Betty clicked HOLD again, pressed a fist to her considerable cleavage and
belched loudly. “Damned indigestion.”
“I’m afraid,” the demon
said, “it’s a great deal more than that.”
His sudden appearance in
human guise startled Betty enough to send the keyboard on a short flight from
her knees to the detritus-encrusted floor.
“Who the hell are you?”
The question came out in a wheezing gasp.
“Precisely.” Proteus
always found it so amusing when mortals answered their own questions.
If traditional vampires are more your
cup of tea (er... cup of blood?), you may want to check out my Dark Shadows
and Forever Knight fan fiction at http://jeangraham.150m.com/
where you can find info on my other pro sales.
Jean Graham's Bio:
Jean Graham is a San Diego
native (still lives there), founder of the science fiction organization
S.T.A.R. San Diego, and is an “original Trekkie”
who lives with five cats, 6000 books, 1000 DVDs, and a very indulgent husband.
Feedback on any of her fiction is always welcome. Besides her website, also find her on Facebook.
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