Vampire mortality

Or use the ash to turn her into an urn

Seriously, if there are dimensions involved, perhaps she managed to port herself to one the instant before she was vaporized, leaving behind only the remnants of her clothing or a skin she shed or something.

What?

Yanno, when a vampire is exposed to the sunlight and they go "Poof" ala Buffy, or burn up ala traditional lore, why do their clothes burn too?

It's usually cotton, not vampire.

It's bugged me, too. In Buffy-style poofing, one can assume the clothing should land in a pile on the floor. But if they actually combust, then I'd guess the cotton/silk/rayon is goin' up in flame-o's. Be kinda funny if you had a punk hipster vampire in all polyester who ends up leaving behind one of those zoot suits and some patent leather shoes

Shadow_Ferret said:

Well, as I said, she was but a minor character and vampires haven't been fully thought out. She was used to introduce the werewolf character my MC helplessly falls in love with. You see, werewolves don't become savage killing animals when the moon is full. They change at will. The reason they are so associated with the full moon is because they go into HEAT when the moon is full. They give off were-pheromones that drive each other crazy and they run around screwing like rabbits, villagers with torches be damned, and that's where the current myths of savage beasts baying at the full moon really comes from. (and the were-pheromones are the reason the MC falls helplessly in love. He's sensitive to them.)

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Were-humping, were-humping, Sis, Boom, Ba!

With the amount of paranormal romance/ erotica lately, I can see the possiblities of this hitting the shelves. On the Laurell K, note; never worry about trying to compete with her or others. Just have fun. I dug her earlier Anita books until they hit hard core, mostly because it became "difficult" to enjoy the read while my children kept interrupting me. (Whatcha reading? What're they doing? Why's your face all red, daddy?) And don't forget, Anita was a prude for mutilple books. She refused to sleep with the monsters, and now can't stop! What a whore. (hope she didn't hear that)

Good luck and have fun!

Pike

Ed, may I give it a try????

Ok. So the house burns, the firefighters hose it down, turning everything into muck. Arson investigators and police then tramp through the muck.

Crime scene abandoned.

Dry weather. Wind blows dust into corner where it accumulates. Rain...turns it into muck again. Dry, wind ..rain..dry..wind, leaves snow. freeze, thaw, rain, muck.

Leaves...organic on top of muck.

Mold/spores/fungus/spores.

MUSHROOMS!!!

Rat eats mushrooms...Rat..developes unholy tastes.

Rat is eaten by...fox!!!

Fox becomes too intellegent, but not intellegent enough to avoid getting trapped in some kids trap, where it dies, and 'fruits' and the kid comes back to his trap and the fruiting'vampire infected' fungi get their spores into an open cut...freeing the vamp DNA into an unsuspecting victim.

HUH???? Will that work?

...do I get a beer?

Shadow_Ferret said:

I was thinking... and stop the wise cracks!.

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Yeah...he's not a smart ass!

Rllgthunder said:

No. Arthur was enchanted and paced into suspended animation instead of dying. To rise again when Britain needed him.

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Zombie.

What about if she does indeed come back as normal, but as the dust from the house was mixed with her vampiric dust, she comes back different e.g; parts of her body are wood, some parts are stone and so on. Could be very cool.

Saundra Julian said:

To hell with the vampire traditionalists. If we all stayed true to the original story we'd just be writing Dracula over and over again...

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I agree!

If every vampir story used the same Vampires, Matheson would never have written I Am Legend. Make your own rules.

If someone's suspending their disbelief enough to read about vampires I don't think they'll care how you bring her back.

Also - everyone makes up their own rules don't they?

As long as it's sort of logical - if you can have logic and vampires existing at the same time that is - you will get away with it.

I don't like vampires unless it's a comedy - they are either maudlin or mental

I agree with the above. I've read it all and have come to the conclusion that if it's my book it's my rules. As long as you don't go entirely out of the vampire realm I don't see it as a problem.

Although, I kind of lean toward vamps being creatures of the night. More mystique, less perfection.

Sorry, just my own personal opinion SF

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eudaemonic
Also - everyone makes up their own rules don't they?

Seriously. No. There's a whole canon of literature. History. Legend. Myth. I try to be true to what came before and only make minor changes. In fact, authors who don't honor the past or convention, I don't bother reading. It would be like someone calling something a Hobbit, but it's a 15 foot giant. Wrong.

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Maybe I should have said variations on the theme.

Best of luck though - just because they're not to my personal taste doesn't mean that there aren't thousands who love vampires - which I know there are.

My prejudices are showing, I'd better go change.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I was thinking... and stop the wise cracks!

In my story, there are many dimensions and although I describe the vampiress being dessicated and turned to dust, it could have been part of the spell the demon was using and she was merely transported to another dimension (like how transporters on Star Trek work, disassembling molecules here and rearranging them elsewhere) where she sits until someone frees here. Which my MC could do unintentionally.

But I'm still willing to entertain any other suggestions. This is fun.

Hmm. I already have a scene where my MC throws garlic gloves at the vampire until she leaves. When they strike her they leave little scorch marks on her skin.

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Hmm..., this sounds like something from the old Superman comics. Toss the bad guys into the 1st dimension, flattened out like a bunch of pancakes, until some unlucky schmuck comes along and sets them free by default. Fact is, anything goes as long as its done well. Didn't Lestat return after being bled out and left for dead in a burning building? And everyone cheered, at least until he joined the rock band. I say Anne Rice went over the line with that and got a bit too modern.

If your vampire walks in broad daylight, doesn't crave blood, loves humans and kittens and sings 'these are just some of my favorite things', then I generally cringe and cry unless there's a damn good reason behind it. If your vampire is like that, why not just make them a human? If I wanted to read a story about someone with HUMAN characteristics, I wouldn't have picked up a story that's supposed to be about VAMPIRES. I'd go and read one of the million other novels that don't have vampires in it.

Now I'm all bothered.

And you know what else I hate? No? I'll tell you. I hate vampires that come up with these cute little pet names for humans and NEVER STOP SAYING THEM. And it's always something stupid/in a different language like 'ma petite' or 'mademoiselle'. I'm going to create a vampire and he's going to call the MC 'whore' every single time he says something to her. He'll be from France and he'll think that in English, whore is a term of endearment.

"Hello, whore. How are we today?"

"Do not fear, my precious, little whore."

"I do not wish to speak with you today, whore."

THAT'LL LEARN 'EM.

Bleh. Now that the rant is over with. . .

RESURRECT YOUR VAMPIRE!
Make it plausible. Make it good. The rest will take care of itself.

edit: I'm actually lost. I can't find the beta reader section for the life of me.

edit#2: FOUND IT!

Eudaemonic said:

I'm European. So I would be allowed. If they are really ancient, they could speak Latin.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum old boy. Da mihi sis bubulae frustrum assae, solana tuberosa in modo gallico fricta, ac quassum lactatum coagulatum crassum.

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*scratches head*

Now I finally understand why I was never selected for the Latin Honor Society.

Haggis said:

*scratches head*

Now I finally understand why I was never selected for the Latin Honor Society.

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Hey! Thought you was dead? Oh..., you the walking, talking, head scratching kind.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Ah, this female vampire called my MC "mon amour" all the time. In an affected French accent. But my MC explains early on:

"What is it with you vampires and those goofy European accents?" I asked. "You can't all be from Europe. Do you suffer from Bela Lagosi envy?"

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I hope I didn't offend you. I've just always had a problem in real life with being called things like honey, baby girl, and sweetie. So I naturally get upset when I read them.

Nice quote, by the way. Very funny.

I'm working on a vampire novel myself, so I will stick my neck out and give a big amen to the "screw the traditionalists" side of the arguement.

Yes, there are certain traits a vampire needs to have. No denying that. Drinking blood. Aversion to daylight. Immortality. To me, those are staples. If I'm reading a vampire book and any of those are missing, I would want it to be explained or I'd be a bit annoyed.

But what is the realm of fiction for if not giving you the freedom to create your own world? It's your story - do what you want to do with it.

What I'd worry about is how hard it'd be to feasibly kill a character and bring them back--and what it'd look like to the readerbase. It usually comes off looking like the author doesn't have the stones to actually kill characters and leave them dead. I've dropped a series because of things like this.