A Vampire a Day: Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambley

When I moved to the Pacific Northwest last year and was paying my movers $20 a box, I culled my book collection ruthlessly. I have a Kindle and I like the convenience of an eReader but there are some books that I just want in my actual library. Those Who Hunt the Night made the cut, along with its sequel, Traveling with the Dead.  The book was published in 1988 and now appears to be out of print in paperback, although you can find used copies in hardback. The books have been reissued in a digital omnibus collection, which is convenient.
James Asher, the hero of the novels, was once a spy for Queen Victoria. In the first book, he's approached by a Spanish vampire named Don Simon who wants his help finding out who's killing London's vampires. And let's just say, Don Simon does NOT take "no" for an answer.
I am a huge fan of Hambley's "Benjamin January" mysteries (that's how I first came to the writer) and I was delighted by the James Asher books. Hambley is not a spring chicken and last year was tough for her, but she's still writing and I am so glad for that.

One Night Only--new fiction for Nikki Finke's Hollywood Dementia

I have a new story up at Nikki Finke's Hollywood Dementia. Illustration by the talented Thomas Warming.

Cover reveal: The Unknown Road

I've been writing a series of novelette-sized modernized fairy tales, and grabbing covers from various sources. The fabulous Ravven was running a Christmas deal on her pre-designed covers and I snagged that great Hunter's Kiss (Snow White) cover from her for a fraction of what her covers normally cost. (And believe me, when I can afford it, I'm going back to her for my series covers because she does gorgeous work.)
As does my friend Joy Sillesen of Indie Author Services, who created this great cover for my retelling of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," which was always one of my favorite fairy tales. I love the color palette on this cover.
The novelette will be out later this summer, but I just had to show off the cover now.

A Vampire a Day: The Shiny Narrow Grin by Jane Gaskell

Jane Gaskell wrote her first novel, Strange Evil, when she was 14.  Nobody had ever seen anything like it. (You can still find copies around. Here it is on Amazon with illustrations by Boris Vallejo.) China Mieville has called the book the first example of "new weird," a genre he now owns. Gaskell worked as a journalist for a while, and continued to write fiction until 1990. According to Wikipedia, she is now a professional astrologer.

The Shiny Narrow Grin is Gaskell's vampire novel and it is soooooo 60s pubished in 1964). I have a friend, born in the 70s, who is fascinated by everything Swinging Sixties, and this is one of her favorite books. The Shiny Narrow Grin .  the book is almost impossible to find. But strangely, it's up at Wattpad. (Read it here.)

A Vampire a Day: Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin

I first encountered George R. R. Martin as a fan of the original Beauty and the Beast, which he created. I found out he'd written a couple of novels and went in search of them. I really liked Armageddon Rag, but I REALLY liked Fevre Dream, his vampire novel. It's an obscure one that ended up on the B&N Reads list of "the Ten Best Vampire Novels No One Has Read"  (I've read one other book on the list, Suzy McKee C Charnas' Vampire Taspestry but haven't read the other eight which means I have the chance to discover eight (EIGHT!!!!) great new books.

Fevre Dream is a gothic novel with a capital G. Wikipedia, which has an entry on the book (of course they do--it's not a "thing" unless it's got a Wikipedia article) that likens the book's style to a mashup of Bram Stoker and Mark Twain. Martin worked out a complex backdrop for his vampires (the "red thirst" they experience, the Pale King who leads them) and it mostly takes place on an elegant and elaborate steam boat (the Fevre Dream of the title.)

This is a lush and decadent and nuanced novel and (in my opinion) leaves Anne Rice in the dust.

A Vampire a Day: Salem's Lot by Stephen King

I'm pretty sure this was the first book I read by Stephen King. I never read Carrie, but I picked up Salem's Lot at the Westover Hills Public Library in Richmond and was completely hooked. I am an unabashed fan of King, and think he's a master at crafting character. (I believe he is the Charles Dickens of our generation. He is superb at characters. And even on his worst days--Desperation, Rose Madder, I'm looking at you--he's better than most people.)

I loved the way he played with the tropes of the vampire myth in this book, especially the way he did the "stake through the heart" thing. I liked the pairing of the kid and the writer who has come back to his home town. (SPOILER ALERT) He has written about killing the love interest in the book and he's absolutely right about the way that unsettled the reader. Because if he killed her off, what might he do next???

I also really liked the first television adaptation of this. David Soul, Lance Kerwin, James Mason and a scary, Nosferatu-type vampire. The scene where a vampire Geoffrey Lewis floats outside the young hero's window was damn scary. (Geoffrey Lewiswas one of my favorite character actors. I saw him in a spoken word performance years ago and he just killed it.) James Mason was perfect.  (And another example of the "all the villains are Brits" idea.)

Salem's Lot was written when King was only 28.

A Vampire a Day: Innocent Blood

You didn't see this movie. Nobody did. I know this because it was a Warner Bros. movie and I was working at WB at the time. In fact, I was working at Warner Bros. helping develop a vampire script that had been written by two guys who'd penned a massive, franchise-spawning hit. The premise of the script was original and featured vampires in Vegas preying on people in 12-Step programs. We submitted the script to the studio the weekend Innocent Blood opened and on Monday, our script was deader than disco. And unlike vampires, it did not rise from the dead. (For the record, Box Office Mojo says it made less than $5 million in domestic release (and even in 1992, that was terrible). It never got an international release and considering the global appetite for horror, that tells you just what a stinker the studio had on its hands.

On paper, the movie was a no-brainer. Directed by John Landis, starring Anne Parillaud who was hot off La Femme Nikita, and the late, great Robert Loggia, with Anthony LaPaglia and Angela Bassett in supporting roles. The movie was chock full  of character actors, from Zhazz Palmenteri to Luis Guzman. Even Don Rickles showed up. The storyline combines romance, Mafiosi, and dark humor. Maybe it was the humor that was the problem. Audiences seem to prefer their vampire movies straight up unless it's an out and out spoof like Vampires Suck.

It had a GREAT poster. The kind of image you could see on a paranormal romance today. No fangs, just Anne Parillaud's gorgeous face and big red eyes.

If you're curious, you can watch the trailer here.

A Vampire a Day: Sabella: Or the Blood Stone by Tanith Lee

You don't always remember what your gateway book was to a new author but for me, the Science Fiction Bookclub 1980 double-novella collection SOMETIME AFTER SUNSET (comprising "Companions on the Road" and "Sabella') was my introduction to Tanith Lee.

I had never read anything written in that darkly lushly style before. Tanith Lee used words the painters use oil pigments, just slathering them on, layering them, swirling them around. Her prose was absolutely  gorgeous and I was a fan from that moment on. I've read most of her work and that's saying something because she was wildly prolific.

She wrote several vampire stories, including Dark Dance, which I somehow missed (and which sounds like it has a bit of 50 Shades of Grey in it), and several other books in her Blood Opera series. It's probably heresy to admit it but I never much cared for Anne Rice's vampires. Like everyone else, I devoured Interview with the Vampire but it didn't send me off on an Anne Rice reading binge. (And for me, the absolute best thing about the movie was Kirsten Dunst's performance as the child vampire.)

But Sabella...It was science fiction. It was horror. It was fantasy. It was beautiful. And if I had never read it, I would have missed out on 30-some years of wonderful books.Now if I could just find a copy of BLOOD OF ROSES, which you can get used on Amazon for $151 or new for a few thousand.

A Vampire a Day: FOREVER KNIGHT: Intimations of Immortality by Susan Garrett

I knew Susan Garrett. She was a friend of a friend of mine and soon after we met I realized that Susan was a friend to everyone. She was warm and generous and lovely and when she died a few years ago, even though I hadn't known her long or known her well, I felt bereft.
Susan was active in the fan fic community, writing stories in several different universes, including Forever Knight, the Canadian television show that has attained cult classic status. She and I shared a fondness for Forever Knight. (My best friend is a dead ringer for actor Geraint Wyn Davis, who played the vampire lead.)

The powers-that-be producing the show read some of Susan's fan fiction and invited her to write one of the tie-in novels. I think there were three, but this is the only one I ever read. It was a lot of fun, and can be read as a stand alone, even if you never saw the show. It preserves the struction of the television episodes, which involve a modern-day story taking place in an unnamed city (clearly Toronto because you can see the CN tower in most of the exterior shots) and then flashing back to a time in the main protagonist's past life.

The book was a mass market paperback published in 1997 and you can still get copies on Amazon for a penny and postage (around $4). If you like vampires with a side-order of romantic angst, you'll love this book. And you'll love Susan's writing too. A lot of her fan fic is still online, so if you liked this story, you can find shorter works she wrote.