J Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman - Wanted Undead or Alive

Please welcome Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman who are here at PVN to tell readers about their new book an "indispensible guide that identifies and describes mankind's enemies - supernatural beasts, ghosts, vampires, serial killers, etc. - and unearths effective time-proven responses to each horrific threat." Halloween is the perfect time for the valuable information in this book. You never know who or what will come knocking at your door.

FIVE THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT VAMPIRES

by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman, authors of WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil, Citadel (September 1, 2010)

There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about vampires. The ideas came about because most people get their vampire lore through books and movies, through the fictionalized versions that modern storytellers have created.

So what’s the real scoop? We’ll tell you.

1. How about driving a stake through the heart to kill a vampire?
Sure a stake was used in folklore but it didn’t provide the instant kill we see in most modern day vampire movies and books. To kill a vampire, a stake was driven through the body of a resting vampire. This prevented the vampire from rising and the creature could be destroyed through the Ritual of Exorcism, which generally included decapitation, stuffing the mouth with garlic (and sometimes turning it backward in the coffin), immobilizing the body with steel pins or a tightly-sewn shroud, and other equally nasty measures. The only vampire species believed to die from a stake through the heart is the Kozlak of Dalmatia.

2. What about sunlight? Do vampires really fear it?
Most vampires in folklore don’t fear sunlight—that’s a modern twist on the vampire lore we’ve created to ante up the stakes (no pun intended) in movies and books. For example, the Upierczi of Poland hunts during the day; and numerous vampires, including the Bruja of Spain and the Loogaroo of Hariti, live normal lives during the day and turn into vampires at night.  Even Dracula walked around in daylight in Stoker’s novel. The origin of the ‘fatal sunlight’ concept comes from the production of the silent movie, Nosferatu: the filmmakers were over-budget and over-time for the film, so they needed a quick and inexpensive method of destroying the vampire. The lighting designer suggested using sunlight, and the director, F.W. Murnau thought it was brilliant. They shot the ending that way and from then on sunlight has been connected to vampires.

3. Not all vampires are dead.
Some are and others are shape-shifters capable of turning into dogs and cats and dragons and all kinds of creatures. Then there’s the humans who transform into vampire-like creatures, living vampires, and vampire gods. Living vampire species include the Pryccolitch of Romania, the Strix of ancient Rome, the Talamaur from the Bank Islands off the coast of Australia, and many others.

4. A bite to the neck is the only way to transform a human into a vampire. Wrong. That started with Dracula and it was part of the story because Bram Stoker was an Irish Catholic and he loaded the novel with plenty of Catholic elements.  The bite, and the swapping of blood, was his way of showing a demonic perversion of communion (which symbolizes drinking the blood of Christ). Every culture has its own opinions on this belief. Some think a vampire is created when a cat or dog jumps over a grave; others believe a person born with a caul or teeth will become a vampire; and in some cultures you are destined to become a vampire if you die without repenting for your sins. Being born with a deformity, or with red hair, or certain kinds of birthmarks will also do it, according to various world cultures.

5. You can tell if someone is a vampire by having them look into a mirror.
If there’s no reflection then they’re definitely a vampire. However, that’s not necessarily true. Again, this belief is something the movies cooked up, although the notion is popular in ancient beliefs where it was thought the soul could be seen on reflective surfaces and that breaking that surface would damage one’s soul.

So there you have it. Five things you didn’t know about vampires.

For more about vampires and other monsters, check out WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil. The book deals with the struggle of good vs evil in film, comics, pop culture, world myth, literature, and the real world. Everything from ghosts to vampire slayers to paranormal investigators to FBI serial-killer profilers.

It includes interviews with folks like Stan Lee, Mike Mignola, Jason Aaron, Fred Van Lente, Peter Straub, Charlaine Harris and many more; and the book is fully illustrated by top horror, comics and fantasy artists. In stores everywhere.


Janice Gable Bashman has written for THE BIG THRILL, NOVEL and SHORT STORY WRITER'S MARKET, THE WRITER, WILD RIVER REVIEW, and many others. Her website is www.janicegablebashman.com .

Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestseller, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winner and a writer for Marvel Comics. His works include ROT and RUIN, THE DRAGON FACTORY, CAPTAIN AMERICA: HAIL HYDRA and THE WOLFMAN. His website is www.jonathanmaberry.com.

Scott M Baker- Guest Post

Today PVN welcomes author Scott M. Baker who discusses vampires and their slayers. He has written the novel The Vampire Hunters which will be published by Shadowfire Press in April, 2010.   

Vampires vs Vampire Hunters

Of all the monsters that scare us, none have terrified the imagination as much as the vampire.  These creatures of the night embody our most inner fears.  The primitive fear of being preyed upon in the dark when we’re most vulnerable and of having our life slowly drained away.  The more modern fear of losing control over our own free will and of giving in to our basest desires.  And the spiritual fear of losing our souls.

     So pervasive and disturbing are these fears that legends of the undead can be found in almost every culture stretching back thousands of years, whether it’s the strigoi of Romania, the chiang shih of China, the brahmaparusha of northern India, or any of the other various names they are known by throughout the world.  Over time, the legends became literature, and the supernatural aspects of the undead gave way to their entertainment value. Today, vampires appear more frequently in film and fiction than any other monster.

     Almost as common as vampires are the men and women who hunt them.

     The man-versus-monster theme made its first appearance in Dracula, the first of the modern-day vampire tales.  Bram Stoker told his story not from Dracula’s point of view but from those of van Helsing and the others who track down the count.  Universal Studios would forego the hunter, only bringing back van Helsing for a brief cameo in Dracula’s Daughter, and instead making the monster the recurring character of its sequels.  In the 1950s and 1970s, Hammer Studios took a different track, introducing Peter Cushing as van Helsing in Horror of Dracula and making the doctor the mainstay of their vampire movies, bringing him back to fight the undead for seven sequels.   

     Stoker’s vampire hunter is the most famous, but van Helsing is only the first among his profession.  Over the last twenty years we’ve watched the battle standard be taken up by Blade, Buffy Summers, Anita Blake, Harry Keogh, Jameson Arkeley, Vampire Hunter D, Jack Crow.  And now, even Abraham Lincoln.

     So why the fascination with vampire hunters?

     Simply enough, the hunters are the good guys.  It doesn’t matter whether they are chosen ones, professionals, or simple men or women who realize the need to confront the undead.  When faced with the ultimate evil, they fight the good fight.  They go into combat outnumbered and outgunned.  They face death, or worse, being turned into a vampire themselves.  In the end, they defeat the undead.  In short, the hunters appeal to our sense of justice and righteousness, and they vindicate our belief that good will triumph over evil.

     It’s why I chose vampire hunters as the theme upon which to base my vampire trilogy.

     I’m an old monster kid who grew up enthralled by the Universal and Hammer monsters.  My first hero was Peter Cushing as van Helsing.  No matter how much vampire films changed over the years, with increased action and special effects, nothing can compare with Cushing sliding across a long dining hall table to tear the curtains off of a bay window and douse Dracula in sunlight.  It was that theme of a normal man going up against the undead that eventually compelled me to write The Vampire Hunters.

     If Peter Cushing could save the buxomly damsel in distress (this was Hammer, after all) and defeat a nest of vampires by himself, then there were few things that I couldn’t face down.  Idealistic?  Yes.  But what type of writer isn’t idealistic?

     So if you like your vampires malevolent and evil, and if you like your good guys flawed but able to kick ass, please check out the book at http://shadowfirepress.com.

And please drop by my blog at http://scottmbakerauthor.blogspot.com.

Or you can follow me on Facebook, My Space (Scott M Baker (author)), or Twitter (http://twitter.com/vampire_hunters).