Denyse Bridger
Erotic Romance
This week's guest author is our own Denyse! She has a page on our main website where you can click over to read about her and learn about her books. This week, she's talking to you about those beloved vampires and holding a CONTEST!
The Eternal Fascination
Regardless of the passage of time, the intrigue
of vampire heroes never seems to diminish. There is truly an eternal attraction
to these creatures of the night. I’ve often wondered myself what the allure and
mystique really is. I’ve written many stories and novels with vampire heroes,
yet I rarely read them. (That has changed recently to a small degree because I’ve
read all of JR Ward’s Black Dagger
Brotherhood books, and enjoyed them, but the ones I feel are really wonderful
are Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed
series!)
Having said that, I still find the passion for
vampires one that has many sides to it, and all of them are intriguing for
various reasons. In the new genre romances, I think we’ve seen a surge of
“redemption” stories, whereby the objective is to “restore” the vampire to his
humanity, if not his human/mortal state. While the romance of this is appealing
on some levels, I much prefer a vampire who is comfortable in his own skin, so
to speak. I’m not interested in “curing” the vampire of his curse, so often
times those stories are a total disappointment to me.
I also don’t think there is a lot of noble
sacrifice in the true vampire. This creature is by very virtue of its existence
a mythical power, bound by nothing as mundane as constraints of morality. The
traditional vampire is a killer, beyond the reach of mortal law. If your
vampire has not streak of cruelty, or indifference to human worries, he loses a
great deal of his power and appeal, I think. We look to this mythical being for
escapism in reading and film, and while everyone has their vision of a perfect
vampire, I believe for myself, that the good-guy vampires are often weaker than
the counter-parts they invariably fight.
The sexual aspect of the vampire allure is another
of those areas where a lot of personal preference comes into play.
Realistically, if you can even use that word in this context, a vampire is not
capable of the sex act. However, if you are writing vampire/paranormal romance,
you don’t have much of a book if you hero can’t make love to your heroine, so
once again, we have that perception thing happening. And once again, just how
“dark” is this hero? If you create an ancient vampire, presumably he’s had
hundreds of lovers, so the author is challenged to create a heroine who is
strongly defined and unique enough to capture the attention and dormant heart
of this incredible being. Therein lies the problem of many romances–the
heroines are too often irritating, or weak, and you wonder why anyone would want
to cherish them forever, especially a man who’s known so many others? All in
all, it’s a fine line, and I’m not convinced anyone’s done it real justice even
now.
Ultimately, I think vampires are seductive and
alluring, but I also think amid that “glamour” there must be an edge of cruelty
and power that is restrained and once in awhile brought out to reveal the
nature of the beast. It is in those moments, we see the truth of the “curse” of
this nocturnal existence. To rob a reader/viewer of the darker aspects is to
short-change the entire mythos. The appeal is timeless, and everyone loves
these creatures for different reasons, so I think it will go on enduring if
writers continue to craft stories that capture the essence of the vampire
appeal in some way. I’ve written books myself that experiment with the vision I
have, and while not perfect in any way, I do hope they entertain readers.
So, let’s have a contest/giveaway: drop by my website, pick any tale you’d like to
read, post the title in a comment, and if your name comes out of the hat, you
get the book of your choice! You’ll also get one of these lovely book thongs:
Grab your copy today of her newest book.
Fantasy Pages (general) BLOG
Bound By Passion (adult content) BLOG
Twitter: @denysebridger
