Alex Bledsoe Guest Blog and Contest

Today PVN welcomes Alex Bledsoe author of The Girls with Games of Blood (Tor, July 2010). Alex tells us his thoughts on this question: Would an author of vampire stories be interested in actually becoming one of the undead?

[See contest details at end of post]

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WOULD I WANT TO BE A VAMPIRE?

by Alex Bledsoe

Lately it seems I've been doing nothing but writing blog posts about vampires to raise awareness of my new vampire novel, I've written about the book from the perspective of its place in the lineage of literary vampires, its relation to its predecessor (Blood Groove), the influences of its setting (1975 Memphis), even why I'd want to write this sort of novel with the market is glutted with them. But it occurred to me that no one's ever asked me whether I
would like to be vampire myself.

I think a lot of people, maybe most, think they would jump at the chance.  The perks are legendary: immortality, superhuman strength, domination of others.  Depending on what mythology you're using, you may or may not be able to endure sunlight, but since most cool things happen in the dark, it might be a fair trade.  Certainly if you're a vampire of the True Blood school, your evenings are positively filled with extracurricular activities.

Some of the down sides are also well known.  Any human being you get close to will age and die, either by your hand or the passage of time. You're vulnerable in your sleep, and (again depending on your mythology) you may be susceptible to things like crosses, garlic and holy water.  You might have to sleep in a coffin, maybe even on a layer of grave dirt.

But there are other aspects, more subtle, that are what give me pause. The dependence on blood, for one.  In Love at First Bite Dracula complains, "How would you like to dine on nothing but a warm liquid protein diet while all around you people are eating lamb chops, potato chips, Mallomars?"  It's a good question, because really, that's it: blood, or starvation. No substitutions, no impulsive stops
for greasy fast food.  Some stories get around this (the titular substance of True Blood, for example), but ultimately it's such a defining part of a vampire's existence everything else pales in comparison (no pun intended).  I mean, sure, I like pizza once a week, but I also like to vary the flavor.  That wouldn't be an option as a
vampire.

Not to mention the moral issue of where that blood comes from. Most vampires take their blood from unwilling victims, and many drain their victims dry. It takes the slogan "meat is murder" to a new literal level.

There's also your biological status as a corpse.  Unless you're one of those newfangled scientific vampires, you were once alive, and now you're not.  You can't say "undead" without "dead," and that state must feel weird.  Would you lose your sense of things like temperature, speed, even time?  Without the sense of pain, would you start hurting yourself just for the hell of it?

And if you're a closed system, unaltered and unalterable, what are your priorities?  It's something I've often wondered: what exactly did Dracula do with all that free time?  I mean, we've got plenty of evidence of the way human consciousness changes over a lifetime, but what about over multiple lifetimes?  Or would your status as an
undead corpse lock you into your personality the same way it does your physical appearance?

If I write another vampire novel, I'll try to address some of these questions.  But for now, I can honestly say I have no interest in really being a vampire.  As Dracula also says in Love at First Bite, "How would you like to go around dressed like a head waiter for seven hundred years?"

No thanks. I'm definitely the flannel-and-denim type.

CONTEST

Leave a comment about the post. One lucky reader will win signed copies of Alex's vampire novels Blood Groove and The Girls with Games of Blood.

That's it!

[If your email is not associated with your comment ID please include it in your comment.]

The contest is open worldwide and ends August 3, 2010.


Read a REVIEW of The Girls with Games of Blood

Read a REVIEW of Blood Groove

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