Modern Vampire Genre

I don't think any vampire venture is pointless! Although some are better than others.



I like these modern takes like Buffy, Blade, and Underworld, but I grow tired of them after awhile. I prefer old world gothic vampires, but that is just me. I like internal conflicts, emotions, that kind of stuff. Effects and cool action are no good without realistic people-even vampires- to back it up. Dark Shadows, Forever Knight, some aspects of Buffy. Many fans seem to prefer Angel's mature take. I just like Spike.

The genre itself is fascinating! The confederacy of what ties vampire fiction together is little, "They drink blood, sometimes!"


One thing I don't totally care for is the mix of vampire romance. IF it's in the romance section, it's not for me.

I'm more curious to know what the vampire publishing trends are. Who is publishing and what exactly do they want?

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16547&highlight=vampire+fiction+dead

Check out that thread for more. I write vampire fiction with a human lead I put several twists on it. I have two completed novels anf a third almost done. Every agent that has requested my stuff says "I love it" BUT vampire fiction id dead.... I don't know, I don't want to believe this but I still haven't sold my stuff. Will I keep writing it? Yeah, I love to but I will branch out to something salable too.

well, I HOPE vampire fiction isn't dead 'cause I just sold my first novel based on it!

however, I'm going away from the "we love vampires and they're just misunderstood!" line that's permeated the genre for a bit - it just doesn't work for me anymore, tho I loved and enjoyed Buffy and Angel when they were on the air. So my novel's something like "Romancing The Stone" with a vampire bad guy.


*points at sig*

have hope!!!

I've had trouble selling my vampire work also. Every publisher I check out says yes horror, no vampires. I've written and published other works but my vampire stories have turned into a series for me. I return to them often and
write with their characters in mind, not their vampirism.

The first book I just sent to Brutarian. I was wearing of saying vampires, because simply in that story there are a lot of serious murders and abuses before my characters even become vampires. The thing I love about genre fiction is not the outstanding elements, its that there are regular people behind those extras.

Like Kirk says, "I'm from Iowa, I only work in outer space."

I also enjoy action scenes. I see things in my head like a movie, but when I write them, it doesn't come out like award winning cinemotagraphy. Go fig

About 10 years ago Pinnacle and Zebra seemed to have a whole line devote to vampire books. I have a few like The Vampire Princess and Night Life, and I personally didn't think they were that good.

Maybe the market got over saturated and soured. Lucky for us, things happen in cycles!

I like the Vampire genre myself--just can't write it, i've tried. I think it's a really cool genre and find it fascinating.

If you do it well, there is a market for it. There are still a few bastions of vampire lit out there. Dreams of Decadence comes to mind and bloodlust-uk.com as well (I've got a piece there ), so it's around. The pop vampirism has cycled out, I think, drained dry by Blade and Buffy. (bad pun. I take full responsibility).

It's out there and I'm sure there will be a resurgence as soon as something new and trendy (more emphasis on the latter) comes about. Have you struck it? time will tell...

i'd love to comment on vampire stories, but i don't feel like getting banned today. suffice it to say i list them under 'stories that don't need to be written.'

You would never be banned for that, Preyer. WHere's my Romance? I still think vampire stories can be sold, but due to the surplus of them, the bar is higher.

Grant Rhoades said:

Hey guys.
... Make it a dark gothic story that has some religious themes and action. So, do you think this would be a pointless venture?

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Grant

Before you start, you might want to check out the work of Karen Koehler.... she writes very much the same kind of thing you're proposing
http://www.khpindustries.com/covenhouse2.html


I'll declare an interest here, Karen and I share the same publisher, Black Death Books, who you might also want to check out, as their raison d'etre is precisely the genre you're interested in.


Willie
http://www.willie.meikle.btinternet.co.uk

Personally, I am not that big on the vampire genre as it is nowadays. The films are too "pretty" and unscary, while the fiction has become incredibly cliched.

I once watched an episode of Buffy, where the characters enter an alternate universe in which Willow and Xander are vampires. The fact that Willow had become a vamp meant that she automatically had to dress like a PVC-clad dominatrix, as if a change in wardrobe was a biological necessity for being one of the undead. As much as I like seeing Alysson Hannigan in tight-fitting PVC, I just thought it was a ridiculous idea. And it is one I see in most vampire movies since 1990. It seems that being a vampire means dressing like a Goth/bondage enthusiast and looking sexy for the cameras. Before seeing your look replicated in every Goth nightclub around the country.

I would not even call most vampire movies nowadays "horror", despite how the TV guides classify them. Blade, although a good film, is not what I call horror. Nor is Underworld, etc. I think "dark fantasy" would be a more accurate term.

As for the fiction, it has already been done very well by the likes of Poppy Z Brite and (very early) Anne Rice (before she lost the plot completely). But relgious themes and dark gothic stories are not so popular now, because everyone seems to be doing them. The genre has become littered with cliches, and I personally would not even consider trying to sell a book or script about vampires for a long time yet, simply because it is difficult to come up with anything original.

I don't want to put a dampener on your enthusiasm - if you are that fired up about your idea, then go ahead and do it and get it out of your system. I have already written two vampire novels, neither if which are published. Both were my attempts at doing something original with the story by returning to the original folkloric vampires and sidestepping hollywood's style over substance. My main character from my first novel is one who I am very proud of, and has cropped up in my short fiction since then. My character was simply a walking corpse with fangs. He has more in common with Jason Vorhees than Lestat or Louis. The difficulties of leading a normal life when you have to drink blood has realistically led him to a life on the run from the police as a serial killer. Thanks to him, I sold my first piece of short fiction.

James Patterson did an interesting thing with vampires in Violets are Blue. Yeah, that James Patterson.

Like I said before, if it works, it works. You'll sell it and be happy. If it doesn't quite work, well, you can always move on and come back to it later.

Of course, if you wait to sell your vamp fiction, then you might miss the next wagon when it comes around instead of driving it. Write what you are inspired to write, then try to sell it as you work on your next piece. No one can predict the next trend or bestseller. If they could, they would be enormously rich and powerful...

I think the challenge would be to come up with vampire fiction that hasn't been done before. Find a new angle, a new slant on it--as far away from Anne Rice and Buffy as you can get.

I think it's important to either follow the mythology or create a new mythology around the idea of vampires. Of course, when speaking of vampires there are numerous kinds.

You have the uber-text, Stoker's Dracula
There is Anne Rice's world
Stephen King's version
There are emotional vampires, which I'm not sure if it's turned up in a novel yet...
Also, as I mentioned before, Patterson deals with real vampire subculture

Then there is vampirism in film. Buffy, Blade, Underworld, etc.

Yet, I think there is still room. These books span quite a number of years, so I think the possibilities are there. Can you do something, not necessarily new, but neat? That is the real question.

Ask yourself, what can you add to the mythology? Whatever it is that you add, that is how you sell it...

emeraldcite said:

Like I said before, if it works, it works. You'll sell it and be happy. If it doesn't quite work, well, you can always move on and come back to it later.

Of course, if you wait to sell your vamp fiction, then you might miss the next wagon when it comes around instead of driving it. Write what you are inspired to write, then try to sell it as you work on your next piece. No one can predict the next trend or bestseller. If they could, they would be enormously rich and powerful...

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I think that the only way to get a vampire story published nowadays is through (mostly) small press horror zines. Short fiction seems to be the only way to go for this genre right now. The amount of book publishers with "No vampires" in their editorial guidelines is enough to ut me off the idea of writing another vampire novel. The same goes for writing a vamp screenplay I would imagine.

and yet too many vampire authors still think dracula explodes in the sunlight. nope, he just loses a lot of his powers, but it doesn't kill him.

One place that vampire books are stoill in demand is romance--other than that iot is a flooded market. As an avid reader of vampire fiction even I am very tired of Buffy-esque clones. I suggest you include at least one very original twist. So vampires and demons has rather been done (Angel etc). It could still be great but what woudl get my attention more is a new mythos. I don't kn0w, vampires and lephrecauns, selkies or dryads...

Grant Rhoades said:

I'm thinking Vampires and Fallen Angels now.

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Sorry to be a smartass, but demons and fallen angels are the same thing in many mythologies. Satan for example, was originally an angel of God, as were the rest of the denizens of Hell.

I'm thinking of writing a vampire novel based on a magazine subscription that turns people into vampires. The publisher being Dracula.


Or perhaps a vampire who is the head shrink of an insane asylum, whereas, the people are not insane but under the curse.