Vampires Never Die

True confession (is there any other kind?): I've never thought of myself as particularly "into" vampires, but even at that, I've never been completely cut-off from them. By the way, I'm a pre-Twilight boom girl, so that isn't why I'm familiar with the whole vamp thing or it even being a "thing." As I added some material to a manuscript last night, I made a reference to The Vampire Lestat an Louis. Since I'm writing a YA thriller, and we know how realistic those are, I wondered if kids today would get an Anne Rice reference. Then, I thought, Why wouldn't they? Here's the thing about vampires: even if you're not a fan, they just don't die. Ever. It's a thing with them. You know, the whole immortal thing.
Let's start with the granddaddy of vampire literature: Dracula by Bram Stoker. I think it's safe to assume we all know about Bram Stoker's Dracula. Frances Ford Coppola even made a kind of embarrassing film version just in case anyone didn't want to wade through the original novel. Honestly, even with the antiquated and, at times, purple prose, the book is still superior to the movie. Not even Anthony Hopkins can compensate for everything.

I'm not sure what happened from the time Dracula  was published to the time Anne Rice published Interview With a Vampire in 1976, but I'm sure things were still plenty vampy. Anyone who wants to fill me in on the lost decades is most welcome. Interview With a Vampire was great. I discovered it and found out it was just the thing to read under cover of blanket and make a point of not discussing with my parents. (I was about 12 when I read it.) Also, it was just made for Hollywood. I mean, you can't tell me the world wasn't holding its breath waiting for a chance to let Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt have a sexy romp across the screen--oh yeah, it's totally implied. Don't pretend you didn't notice!

Then, we have L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries. Those came out in the 90's and were considered pretty awful even at the time. Then, Stephanie Meyer came up with Twilight and suddenly, there seemed to be a market for even the cheesiest vampire fiction.

So, what's the point of this post aside from me being punchy and silly? If you're a writer and you love horror and you love vampires, don't let fears of market saturation deter you. If this is what you were meant to do, keep doing your thing because you will always have eager fans. Fans or Fangs? Well, why choose, right?

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