(picture from the movie, Van Helsing)

Why I Write About Vampires

Those who know me know why I love to write about vampires — because there have been vampire myths in the history of every major country and continent in the world. I’ve had a fascination for these creatures since I was about seven. And that curious fascination is what caused me to begin what has become a lifetime of research. Since I was twenty and overseas, I have looked into the vampire mythos extensively. I’ve prowled libraries and read history books, visited mausoleums and churches, and walked many a dirt path of ancient abbeys. Every step was to discover the origin and possibility of the vampire, this creature that inhabited the culture and mythology of every continent.

For something that didn’t exist, it seems a strange thing to be found everywhere, don’t you think?

I thought so and that is why I fell in love with the vampire. It’s why I write about them. The possibilities of truth, the seduction of the legends, is compelling.

Of course, the word “vampire” didn’t exist in ancient times. The blood drinking, prowling night creatures were called ghouls, demons, spirits, Some were known as goddesses – like Lillith or Egypt’s Sekhemet, beings that craved the blood of babies and had a penchant for luring men to their beds.

Older even than Lillith is the Mesopotamian demon Anu or Gallu, also child-stealing and blood drinking, usually with animal forms.  But always a “she.” Even the Greek Gods (you know the ones we all hear about with Zeus?) had Lamia who supposedly slept with Zeus, was found out by Hera, punished as Hera killed all her children. As a result Lamia swore to kill every child and drink their blood. The Goddess Hecate had a daughter who was believed to be as a siren and seduced men before drinking their blood (sounds like our modern myths, yes?)

I’m sure you’ve heard tales of the Russian “upir” or the Romanian “strigas, or even the Jewish Estries continue the myth of the bloodsucker. Consider the word “leech” that comes from a Hebrew word “alukah.” In India, they had the vetalas, written in detail in their Sanskrit folktales. In Catalonia, there is the “Dip,” an evil vampire dog.

As if to capture our imaginations further, literature around the world can’t stop writing about the vampire creatures. From Homer’s Odyssey, thru the ancient Indian text Kathasaritsagara, and into Irish Le Fanu’s Carmilla to Stoker’s Dracula, every history, cultural myth and country would have you believe the vampire roamed their land if not their psyche.

Today, this trend continues and we celebrate our myth in more books and movies. Crypts are open and skeletons show us ghoulish possibilities. Historians continue to debate. And the search continues for proof of Dracula in the missing bones of Vlad the Impaler, who bore the Order of the Dracul.

Is it any wonder then why authors continue to offer vampiric delights (okay, except for sparkly vampires)? This is why the vampire is my study and my joy. This is my passion and why I write stories of vampires and the creatures they know. 

The trick is to tell the aged vampire myth in a way that has never been told. To seek out new myths in new civilizations. To boldly go where no vampire has gone before. (apologies to Gene Roddenberry).

There are other reasons for writing vampires beyond the idea of their immortality. There are the seductive aspects, even the sexual ones. But what fascinates me is the psychological ones: the manipulation, the physical possibilities, how the psyche must adapt, just to name a few. There are other books dealing with the influence of the vampire, and how it touched children and adults. Is it beautiful with ugly side effects? Or ugly with a beautiful heart? Does the vampire kill selectively or without prejudice, widely or like a lion with a hunting ground? Is it solitary and why or why not. Yes, the vampire has much to offer and this is why is continues to be fascinating. Many of these issues are in my books and my fiction addresses them.

This is why I write. Because with nearly every country in the world believing in such myths, how can all of them be a lie? I am seduced, enchanted, and teased by the possibility of truth. I consider it an honor to add my name to the immortal records of this legendary creature.

Vampires. Don’t look now but they’re watching you and the seduction continues.

Thanks for dropping by.
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

In other News:  

I am pleased to announce the release of a new anthology, Inspiration for Writers by Writers (Writing is Art Book 1). My perspective is in it as well as 13 other interesting authors. Give it a read (an ebook version is coming too). Click the picture to take the link.

Happy Halloween, NaNo, & News

This is the last post for October. In just two days it will be Halloween, the spookiest, creepiest, giggle-fest of the year. I decorate on October 1 and I do enjoy the ghoul-fest, despite not having children. I have such great memories of trick-or-treating, but I think the reason my joy remains is the care Mother took in explaining WHY we did the things we did. Understanding helped make the holiday indelible and I thought I’d share with you.

Since the 1920s, kids in North America have been doing trick or treating. The idea is to dress up (so the real ghosts and goblins think you are part of them and don’t bother you), then you go door to door and ask for treats in lieu of a trick being played on the owner. Those who don’t give treats are tricked with soap or toilet paper (in the more gentle and benign tricks).  In those countries where they dress up, the costumes must be scary. Only in America will you find the custom has been altered to include the sexy, cute and Disney. 

Give good treats to appease the spirits. Long ago, the food was left on the doorstep and the spirits were invited to take what they wished and be happy. Can you imagine leaving unguarded chocolate on your front porch? Yikes! I don’t know what would be worse, the melting, the ants or the stampede!

Don’t forget to leave out a glowing Jack-O-Lantern! The lighted gourd actually began long ago in Europe. You carved out a turnip (not a pumpkin) and put an ember in it so that it told the roaming spirits that the house was taken or protected. Without the lighted lantern, you might be possessed! It was the Irish who brought the custom to America and found the pumpkin, then changed the custom.  The Jack-O-Lantern is named after the will-o-the-wisp, or the jacks, who were believed to spirts who hung out in the marshes and bogs.

Knowing some of the Halloween customs gave the holiday life for the little kid in me and I learned to love and not fear the fun. I think it’s why creepy and spooky highlights my writing, because I am not afraid to go deep into the dark. For only in the dark do you see the light.

I hope you share the customs of the day with your friends and children, then have a most haunting candy-fest. Remember to stay safe, and share some of your goodies with your children. haha

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honeymoon kids

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Yesterday was my 29th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe it’s been that many years! My hubby and I spent the day being lazy and cuddly, enjoying each other’s company and then going out to dinner. I am blessed to have found such an amazing human being with whom to share my life. As with so many things in my life, I think about how I show long standing relationships with my characters and how I share the rich relationships. Nothing in my emotional life is wasted, every joy and sorrow is personal and fodder. But I must say, in this special moment of knowing and loving someone for so long, the depth of our caring is so much more mature than it has ever been and I make note how he and I manifest that love. A writer never forgets that every moment is noteable. But Happy Anniversary my love. Let’s go for another 29 years.

National Novel Writing Month

In just a couple days, National Novel Writing Month begins again! I’m in! I hope you will join me. Make your preparations now:  find a writing spot, identify your writing buddies, get all you snacks and papers together and mentally prepare for the daily write. If you are used to it, then get that outline ready to go. I’m poetphoenix on the website. Let’s hook up.

This year will be epic. I’ll give you updates at least weekly – stay tuned for videos too.

WRITER NEWS

You know what I’ve said about how important it is to market and promote, right? So here’s what’s been happening with me.

A great many events have been going on helping to market my latest release, LOVE AND BLOOD.

– Kicked off my promotion with an interview by my friend and fellow author Yvonne Mason of Off The Chain on blogspot radio. What fun! She’s showcased every book over the last few years and is a strong and generous supporter of Indie Authors. Check out her diverse archives!

– Hanging With Web Show has been a staunch supporter and hard marketer of all my books and right now they are heavily promoting Love and Blood. Check out their podcasts and see what Featured Authors they have because you might discover something new for your reading list.

–  Jennifer Wedmore of Wickedly Innocent Promotions worked a Facebook release for the book.

–  Jodi Hunley Bird of Ruby Red Romance Reviews, fostered me for Foster An Author 2018. As a fostered author, she promoted me for a week, from Oct 22-26 and wonderful promotions gave my book delicious exposure. Plus I made new contacts on Twitter, Instagram and on my Facebook page! If you haven’t done this program before (this was my first time), then I recommend you give it a try next year. #FAA4 #FosterAnAuthor #FAA2018

– On Oct 26, Laurie Kehoe interviewed me on blogspot radio program, Authors Corner. What a fun hour! If you missed the advertisement about it, please check it out. We talked writing, the new book and books we loved by others. It was a free interview and what a gracious gift to an Indie Author like me. Check into her archives too because she interviews all sorts of cool folks!

– Coming up, I’m a part of the 2018 Halloween Pub Crawl, and you can sign up! All you have to do is join a bunch of groups. Then starting Oct 31, the groups will give out passcodes which you will need to collect and then return to the main page and turn in on a form. The more passcodes you collect, the more entries you get to win. What do you win?  Some books and a $250 Amazon gift card! So what are you waiting for? The crawl only lasts 48 hours once it starts!

–Coming up on October 31, Silver Dagger Book Tours is going to do a month long showcase of my books. YOU CAN SIGN UP AND HELP! Go here and join in on the party. I will thank you!

-Finally, if you want a treat, join me for my monthly live chat, FIRESIDE WITIH THE PHOENIX, on my Facebook Author page, Hallloween day 1pm EDT for 15 min (or so) of craziness. No telling what I might do on that spooky day!

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As you can see, marketing is both a pain and important. You can’t skip it if you expect to sell books or gain visibility. I hate doing it, but doing it means someone new might learn about me. So help me by checking out these fabulous people (and maybe they will be helping you later.

If you have read any of my books, I would be very grateful for your support by leaving me a review on Amazon, Goodreads and BookBub. Your love is always best shown by reviews. Authors think of them like hugs.

NEWSLETTER!!! Going out by Halloween! Sign up NOW.

Hope your Halloween is FRIGHTFULLY fun.

Yours Between the Lines (and in the dark)

Sherry

Proof Vampires Are Real

A few days ago, I read an article in Ars Technica about some archeologists who discovered the burial of a 10 yr old child in a 5th century Roman site in Italy. The child was buried with a rock in its mouth. This practice was done to keep the body from rising from the grave. It is believed the child died from malaria and the rock was to prevent the child from returning and spreading the disease.

picture by David Picked of Stanford University

The locals are calling this corpse the Vampire of Lugnano and is believed to be one of the more unusual preventatives to a body from rising and wreaking havoc like spreading disease to the living. It goes to the belief that vampires must be, might be, could have been, were believed to be, REAL.

I’ve studied this belief of, and in, vampires for over forty years and in every major civilization in every continent around the world. The legend of the vampire, or some version thereof, is deeply seeded in every culture with stories and legends, and makes one wonder if so many believed, why is the possibility of real vampirism also dismissed as a lie?

From the Ars article: QUOTE: Pretty much every culture on Earth has some version of a vampire (or proto-vampire) myth. Chinese folklore has the Jiang shi, [corrected] which are reanimated corpses that rise from the grave to prey on the living; one type has sharp fangs, the better to bite into the neck of said prey. Russian, Albanian, Indian, and Greek folklore have similar undead monsters. Russian villagers in the Middle Ages often drove stakes into the bodies of suspected vampires upon burial to keep them from rising again. UNQUOTE

Again, if so much is believed, then there must be some truth just out of reach. Other cemeteries have odd practices, and it is believed that the Romans even used witchcraft to spell the evil to stay within the bodies. However, burials with stones in the mouth is very eerie and uncommon and drew a great deal of attention to this excavation.

There was a previous discovery of a burial where a 16th century Italian woman was buried with a brick in her mouth. She was discovered in 2009 and the discoverers named her the Vampire of Venice. (Photo courtesy of National Geographic Television)

Archeologists learn a great deal about a civilization’s culture from the way they bury their dead. The dead do not bury themselves, therefore, how a people perceive death and the possibilities of what happens after death, are telling in these discoveries.

Again, I have to ask, with so many cultures afraid of the chance of rising from the grave, of a chance that vampires may be near, why are we so quick to scoff at such a fear?

VIVISEPULTURE

You know the English used to bury their dead with a rope in the coffin tied to a bell up above. If you woke and proved you weren’t dead, you pulled the rope and it rang the bell above. Truth was there weren’t any documented cased who were saved from suffocation in their coffins. But some of those buried rose without ever ringing the bell and families have told tales. And they were never found again. Thus buried alive, vivisepulture, was the precursor to vampirism. Embalming seemed to correct this problem. Still, families did dig up their family members to check to see if they were truly dead. Many did not go back into the ground. Why not?

Picture of Safety Cross, courtesy of Kimberly Bannister

I believe Vampires are real. There are too many cultures afraid to be less than the truth. 

If you are a writer and you want to give new life to a tired trope like the vampire, consider the realities of a culture and their long-held beliefs in superstitions. There is always a bit of truth in every legend. Find it and give new life to your stories. Every day there are new discoveries that give a twist to the vampire mythos. Make use of them, be inventive, surprise us. History certainly does, so why not you?

New life. Like the vampires. A Legend that will not die because they don’t.

Something to think about late at night. Perhaps while you write. Or read. Listen for the bells.

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Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry