What's with all the damn vampires?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I never understood the attraction of the sexy tortured vampire. What use is super vamp strength if they can't change your flat tire in a mall parking lot at 2 o'clock in the afternoon?

You wouldn't know about it though, would you ?
You'll still be in that box, along with some dirt from your homeland, surely....

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

You wouldn't know about it though, would you ?
You'll still be in that box, along with some dirt from your homeland, surely....

A common theme is that the "hero" vamps have psychic connections to their loves, that would be aware of the plight. I've seen multiple instances where they have woken by distress felt through this connection.

I mean, you always hear stories about someone's love is kidnapped, and the guy fights to save them. Well, in this case, they could kidnap her in broad daylight, and have her hidden halfway around the world by the time the vamp is able to do anything. Hell, merely kill her and walk away scott free. You got your revenge, the connection is severed since she's dead, so he's got no way to track you or even an inkling of where to start, and you can be sipping mai tais on some beach.

[anjirlly]

Vampires and other paranormal figures practically require some major suspension of disbelief, and that opens up some very interesting possibilities for tweaking our sense of what's realistic in the socio-economic-political fabric.

[CazMar]

I really miss all the dinosaur/out of control large beast movies of the 80's and 90's - vampires may be a cool urban fantasy but watching a T Rex devour a car or King Kong smashing his way through a city had a certain satisfying and destructive quality.....
Vampires? Well, they just suck.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by CazMar

I really miss all the dinosaur/out of control large beast movies of the 80's and 90's - vampires may be a cool urban fantasy but watching a T Rex devour a car or King Kong smashing his way through a city had a certain satisfying and destructive quality.....
Vampires? Well, they just suck.

For some reason, whenever I'm sick I end up watching a Godzilla movie.

[cfrizz]

To each their own. I'm having a blast reading Paranormal romances including vampires, werewolves, and various other shapeshifters.

The only sci-fi books I got into were Star Trek TOS books, once I outgrew those, I haven't had the slightest interest in reading sci-fi.

But I certainly don't begrudge anyones who likes reading them.

[Jack Silkstone]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

I'm seriously thinking about writing a short story merging the two markets.

Maybe a team of Navy Seals stumbles on a clan of sparkly vampires an unleashes hell.

Fj torres, real life is nothing like an action novel lol. Action novels are all about a hero overcoming obstacles. It's pure escapism. It lets the bored accountant escape his cubical for a few minutes. How do you explain the popularity of the most successful entertainment product of all time - Modern Warfare 4.

Food for thought.

Jack

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Jack Silkstone

I'm seriously thinking about writing a short story merging the two markets.

Jack

The Vampire Lestat Vs. Godzilla?

Well, if you set it on Mt Fuji, and they battle around the larger crater...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Jack Silkstone

Fj torres, real life is nothing like an action novel lol. Action novels are all about a hero overcoming obstacles. It's pure escapism. It lets the bored accountant escape his cubical for a few minutes. How do you explain the popularity of the most successful entertainment product of all time - Modern Warfare 4.

Food for thought.

Jack

Real life isn't like action novels--to the extent that in real life the bad guys win more often than we'd like them to. Beyond that, hostage-taking, terrorists, car chases, sniper attacks, serial killers, mass murderers, biochem attacks, etc, may be Jack Bauer challenges, but they're also unfortunately real world events that could (again) pop up on the evening news at any time. When one person's escapism becomes somebody else's (near) reality, the appeal of that escapism suffers and other options appear more attractive. Doesn't mean *everybody* will look elsewhere, just that many/most will.

At any point in time, there is a market for pretty much any kind of escapism but how popular any specific variant is will change with the times; today it is glittery vamps, in other eras it was tough guy private dicks, suave secret agents, or singing cowboys. Which one is *most* popular *when* will depend on the tone of the times.

As for the Call of Duty games, I'm familiar enough with them (although I favor the Mass Effect and Fallout series myself) that I wouldn't look for hints of book market trends in the very different and violence-desensitized FPS gaming market. Nonetheless, remember that Modern Warfare 2 itself received plenty of bad press for a sequence where the player assisted terrorists in an airport massacre. And the competing Medal of Honor game was similarly criticized for offering up the opportunity to play as Taliban soldiers killing NATO soldiers. Some scenarios simply hit a little too close to home for comfort.

Consider this, from a veteran gamer:
http://trueslant.com/tassi/2009/11/1...port-massacre/

Sounds more like watching Schindler's List than fun escapism, doesn't it?

Write whatever story you have within you to tell; that much is your duty.
Just don't expect it to be evaluated in a vacuum.

[BookCat]

I think the current spate of vampire novels is written with teenage girls in mind, not intelligent adults. At least it gets them reading, but then girls were never the problem anyway as the most reluctant readers are boys.

I still think that Dracula and Lestat are sexy and that is their main appeal: the sinking of fangs into the helpless female (Dracula; Lestat was a little more varied in taste) mimics the sex act, especially when remembering that B. Stoker wrote at a time when sex could only be suggested. I used to love the Hammer films: the moment when Dracula wrapped his clock around the swooning, hypnotised female and slowly went in for the jugular....swooon

Vampires are definitely hugely sexy. I haven't read the recent spate of books: Twilight and Co, considering them the undead equivalent of Janet and John.

That nymphomaniac succubus novel sounds like fun!

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

In fact, maybe we need a new mythological character: A nymphomaniac that will die if they don't have fantastic sex every night...

(Added to story ideas folder)

We had Blanche on The Golden Girls. To be honest, she wouldn't die without daily sex. She'd just be "devastated."

[covfam]

Originally Posted by Fbone

We had Blanche on The Golden Girls. To be honest, she wouldn't die without daily sex. She'd just be "devastated."

Whenever my parents watched that blanche always reminded my of my aunts Horny chihuahua who always humped the cat or the coffe table or your foot. only toby didnt have as annoying of a voice

[crich70]

Originally Posted by jersysman

Jack, I am sure that there is room for your action thrillers. As mentioned above, it's a cycle. I remember when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s there were a lot of action thrillers at the time and not too much SF or anything.

Just write what you want and are comfortable with and I am sure that it will find a market.

Yep. In the 30's-40's they had a lot of monster movies and some things like the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials, then it went to science based science fiction in the 50's (the atom bomb etc.) and musicals for a short time and then things like Dirty Harry and Death Wish then to movie series like Alien, Friday the 13th, and Halloween etc. Movies do seem to come in clusters and books I'm sure follow similar guidelines.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I think the current spate of vampire novels is written with teenage girls in mind, not intelligent adults. At least it gets them reading, but then girls were never the problem anyway as the most reluctant readers are boys.

I still think that Dracula and Lestat are sexy and that is their main appeal: the sinking of fangs into the helpless female (Dracula; Lestat was a little more varied in taste) mimics the sex act, especially when remembering that B. Stoker wrote at a time when sex could only be suggested. I used to love the Hammer films: the moment when Dracula wrapped his clock around the swooning, hypnotised female and slowly went in for the jugular....swooon

Vampires are definitely hugely sexy. I haven't read the recent spate of books: Twilight and Co, considering them the undead equivalent of Janet and John.

That nymphomaniac succubus novel sounds like fun!

Stephen King referred to the Vampire as the ultimate zipless sex act (to paraphrase his words) in (I think) his book of Danse Macabre. He pointed to the 3 sisters (in Dracula) and how Harker was going to be 'orally raped' by them before the Count barges in and breaks things up. He went on to point out that Harker didn't appear to care he was about to be assaulted by the 3 ladies and seems to be disappointed that the Count puts a stop to things. After all he was under their spell and couldn't fight back if he wanted to and what man wouldn't enjoy having the attention of 3 women? Mr. King goes on to say that he imagines Stoker's readers (when the book 1st came out) were no doubt disappointed that the Count stepped in and broke things up as well. Certainly there does seem to be a sexual component to the idea of the Vampire.

[joenunya]

Originally Posted by crich70

what man wouldn't enjoy having the attention of 3 women?

Highly overrated...but at least after the first 28-seconds I stopped losing my place on the page I was reading on my Kindle.