Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer #77: "Julian"

Responding to a call for submissions titled “Vampires Aren’t Pretty,” I reflected on how we make them pretty. When vampire literature began, when authors started to write novels based on the ancient legends of the undead, the characters were evil. Dracula lived only to kill and live off his blood of victims. The earlier vampire tale, Carmilla, by J. Sheridan LeFanu (which predates Dracula by 25 years) centers on a character who is rapacious, treacherous, and deceptive. All of that changed with Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. Here we see vampires that are violent and greedy but also rather wistful and worthy of our sympathy. And this evolves into the attractive character in such TV shows as The Vampire Diaries. The call for submissions wanted the old-school vampires who were rapacious and murderous. I set myself to the task and came up with a story called “Julian.”

Julian is a character in the spate of stories I wrote for a period of time about Jancinda Lamott, who is bitten and taken into the world of the undead. Julian is the one who attacks her. In my vampire world, not everyone who is bitten becomes one of the undead. In fact, very few do. Most simply die. One out of about 3000, enter the realm of the undying and joins their nefarious fellowship. Jancinda is one of them. The vampire who attacks her is Julian Proust.

Julian

As his name suggests, Julian is French. He has lived about 300 years and been in the United States since the 1800s. Bonita, who is Jancinda’s mentor and adviser in all things vampiresque, tells her friend to avoid Julian, describing him as “trouble,” which amuses Jancinda. “Aren’t we all trouble?” she quips. Bonita is not amused. She says Julian is “trouble to us” and gives the example of how he abandoned Julissa after he bit her. Vampires know at once when a victim will become one of their kind and, on those occasions, is obligated to take the candidate in, shelter them from the sun, and begin the process of education they will need to survive. Julian, apparently, did nothing of the sort for Jancinda but left her lying in the snow. Bonita rescued her. Julian got in trouble for his actions but, as always, came out the winner in the situation. Jancinda meets him a little while later.

He is handsome, has a charming French accent, and immediately engages Jancinda’s interest. She is with one of her mortal boyfriends and he leaves in a huff at Julian’s intrusion. Later, Jancinda learns he has gone missing. She knows Julian has victimized him and chides him for killing one of her acquaintances. She also tells him what Bontia has told her about Julian’s behavior toward her. Julian defends his behavior, giving plausible reasons for why he behaved the way he did. Because she is so taken with him, Jancinda is willing to at least give him a chance.

Jancinda

Eventually Julian worms his way into her heart—and into her bed. He continues to explain his actions and justifies his behavior. Soon she learns he has killed someone else in her circle—not a close friend, but someone she did know. She learns he has done something else too.

Julian lives by selling stocks online. It is difficult for vampires to earn a living because they can’t go out in the day. Jancinda also works online doing editing and grant writing. Before he leaves after a day of lovemaking, she asks, “Did you find anything interesting on my computer?” He is a good hacker, but she knows he has broken into her files. He asks how she knew. She replies:  For one, I heard you get up. And I have some safeguards built into my system that only I know about. You’re a pretty good hacker, but I work online for a living and know how to protect my files. You made the mistake of using your system to scan my password. That gave me all the information I need to drop a very destructive virus into your system. We’ll see how your stock business goes after that.

Julian is alarmed. Jancinda tells him she might send the virus and she might not. He leaves upset and she smiles smugly as she hears him clomp down the stairs of her apartment.

Being a vampire isn’t easy—and often for reasons people don’t consider much. Besides having to hunt for blood, you have to make a living and navigate the complexities of only being able to come out at night. You must navigate romantic and sexual relationships; most everyone has to do this, but, unfortunately, the romantic possibilities you have as a vampire are very limited and you must make due with only a few candidates, some not very likeable.

So it is that the old, driven, evil, one-dimensional vampires have been laid to rest. Many new possibilities exist for vampire tales. “Julian” explored just some of these.

The story did make it into the book. You can get a copy here.

For more titles, check out my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments.