Writing About Vampires

It used to be okay for writers of speculative fiction to write about vampires. They belonged in the same camp as ghosts, demons, wraiths, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. They were proper subject matter for horrific tales and represented a speculative tradition that went back to The Vampyre written in 1819 by John William Polidori, Lord Byron's personal physican. The genre took off after that.  Elizabeth Caroline Grey wrote The Vampire Mistress in 1828 (first vampire novel by a woman). Carmilla, by Sheridan le Fanu, featured a female and lesbian vampire. Later would come Dracula and subsequent tales.

But then Twilight ruined it for everyone.

Now, when I check listings for horror, the submissions pages say things like "No vampire stories." "Horror (no vampires)"; or at best, "Vampire stories if they're really good, but no sparkly vampires." Horror magazines are putting up crosses and hanging out garlic. They don't want vampire stories. Why not?

Several reasons, of course. The success of the Twilight series spawned a tsunami of vampire tales. Editors got sick of them and took drastic measures to stem the flood. Vampire stories meant the things that people disliked about the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer: sappy romance, bad writing, melodrama, unrealistic scenarios, cliches . . . whether these assessments are accurate or not, they stuck. So anything resembling  Twilight became taboo. And, of course, Twilight contained vampires, so forget any story whatsoever that talks about them.

Too bad, since the vampire tale has a venerable past and has long been a staple of horror writing. When I create vampire stories there are certain givens (just as there are in any sort of horror or sci-fi story). It is the variations on the tradition that make the stories fascinating. Those who write about the undead create unique worlds. They have wide parameters to work within. I will go out a limb here to say that Meyer's vampire world is unique and innovative.

But even those of us who don't write about sparkly vampires create variations. In my world, for example, vampires cannot go out in the sun, but much of the time they are more or less "human"--they eat, breath, excrete, get drunk, have sex, visit with mortal friends, and hold down night-time jobs. It is only when they hunt or when they are threatened that their vampire "soul" kicks in and they grow fangs, have impermeable skin, and can turn into bats and wolves. And during their many human-like hours, they consort with each other, love and hate one
another, amass wealth, and wonder about such questions as (one of my vampire characters asks this), "How can God let something like this [becoming a vampire] happen to us and then hold us responsible for it?" They have laws, rules, and local government. Some of them don't like being vampires and search for ways out.

Let's hope the editors who publish speculative fiction can get over their aversion to the fallout from Twilight. Vampire stories have long been an important aspect of the horror genre, both in print and in film. May the tradition awaken and walk the earth again.

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