Note: This post was first published in my newsletter on 1 October 2022.
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Ok, let's talk about vampires, because who doesn't love a good vamp? 😉
Vampires have been a part of folklore for centuries, often taking the form of blood-drinking demons like Lilitu, a Mesopotamian demon who preferred the blood of infants.
The word "vampire" wasn't coined until much, much later in 18th century England, and, of course, the most famous vampire, the fictional Count Dracula, was believed by some (though not everyone) to have been based on the real-life Romanian national hero, Vlad the Impaler.
Vampires are nearly ubiquitous in modern media and have been, in some cases, grossly altered from their original form. (I'm looking at you, Twilight.)
I've included vampires in several stories. In fact, vampires feature in all three of my separate story worlds. In the Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI Series, Nessa is unknowingly guided by vampire Dimitri Stanislov, whose ulterior motive has not yet been revealed. Their relationship begins in the very first scene of the very first book.
In the Kaya Fox Series, vampires play an important role in Kaya's life, as detailed partly in A Vision in Death.
You can get a free copy of "Death Omen" here [ETA: link redacted.] and see the entire series reading order here.
When I first started writing about the Vampyr, way back in 2014, serialized Paranormal Romances were becoming quite popular, thanks to authors like Milly Taiden and others.
I was still in my first year of writing fiction and wanted to experiment. The character that popped into my head was a vampire, but not just any vampire; he was a sexy Physics geek attending school at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Eric was introduced to the Vampyr by a friend and, well, things sort of went downhill from there (and uphill again, because the series is ultimately a Romance with an ultimate Happy Ever After, after many trials and tribulations).
This was also one of the darkest, most erotic series I've ever written, so much so that Amazon classified it as Erotica and shoved it into their Adult Dungeon. You can probably see why I separated the pen names out, and why I don't tell my family about having written The Vampyr Series. They're not the sort of stories most people want to read, but they did very well when I was still writing under that pen name.
And thus with that mildly scandalous confession, I conclude my ramblings.