Vampires~~Born or Created


Vampires come in all varieties.  Some are born as vampires, others must be created somehow.
L.J. Smith’s vampires in the Vampire Diaries series are created. Not from a mere vampire bite, but they have to have drunken  vampire blood themselves and died while it’s still in their systems.
A little different from the classic Dracula myth where a victim becomes a vampire after having been bitten three times.

Richelle Mead’s vamps of her Vampire Academy series, the Moroi are born. They have childhoods, are prone to diseases, age, and die,  however  they can also be turned into their darker evil counterparts the Strigoi.  Best of both worlds.

The vampires of Underworld are created as are Stephenie Meyer’s vampires.

When a writer introduces vampires into a story, all these things have to be considered. Are the vampires going to stick to the traditional mythos? You know, must drink blood to survive, burn in the merest hint of sunlight, and can only be killed with a wooden stake to the heart.

Or will they glitter?

Part of the fun of writing vampires is making your own little twists on the traditional. But whatever myth a writer decides on, she needs to stick to the mythos she created.

What effect does blood have on them? In Twilight, vampires must feed or they weaken. You can tell when a vamp has fully fed or not, by the hue of their eyes. A sated vampire has golden eyes. If a red-eyed vampire is near, you can try to run. The Vampire Academy Moroi use feeders (willing blood donors), and the feeding process acts like a happy drug on the human being fed on. Then there is the blood addiction that can be kicked by a vampire willing to be weaker by feeding on animals instead as in The Vampire Diaries where drinking blood has an effect on how much a vampire can tap into their human emotions.  

How does sunlight affect the vampires? Will they explode like the vampires of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer? Or grow sick as in the Vampire Academy? The enemies of the Underworld vamps created nifty bullets made of liquid sunlight that caused some awesome major effects screen deaths.

How a vampire can be killed—if it’s possible—is a major factor. Old school, a wooden stake to the heart. The vampires of the TV series Supernatural have to be beheaded.  Strigoi and Moroi are killed with silver stakes to the heart while staking will only put the Vampire Dairies vampires into a suspended animation until the stake is removed, but the bite of a werewolf will end them in a horrifically slow manner. The Twilight vampires appear to be killed by any blow that is strong enough to penetrate that hard cold granite shell of a body, so they are usually ended by another super strong being like the werewolves or other vampires.

So what variety of vampires do you prefer?

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These Kids...

I want to read this kids book when he grows up and writes one. Or his movies, or whatever. Gotta love a kid like this~~

Saturday with Writers



Had such a nice time with my writing pals at North Texas Romance Writers of America. We evaluated people's back cover blurbs for those brave enough to turn them in. There are a lot of good plots percolating amongst our group. Dang. Need to read those.

Had a nice little after meeting chat with author Cindy Dees. Okay, I mostly eavesdropped while C.A. Szarek chatted with her, but what Cindy had to say about where publishing and multi-media are headed was too interesting not to.  She gave a great example of how two scifi authors have a great interactive website with readers to help create their novel with chats and forums and fanfiction. I went and checked it out and it is awesome.

After that, spent a few more hours brainstorming with my four inspiring critique partners, which is always a good time--just the creative energy rejuvenates me. I still need a name for the German S.S. Officer who is chasing my current hero and heroine. I'd like to go with a German translation for monster or dragon or creature or something like that. Anyone have any suggestions?

St. Patrick's Day


Saint Patrick’s Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. How could it not be with a name like Clover, my favorite color being green, and being married to a guy named Patrick?

It’s like this holiday was made special just for me.

Okay, it obviously wasn’t, but I’m just the right amount of egotistical to pretend that it does.

With all that, you’d think I’d put on a big dog and pony show celebration. Except I’m also incredibly lazy, so I pull out my one or two St. Paddy’s Day decorations, consisting of a shamrock wreath hanging on my front door and a “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” picture. I am, by the way. Irish, not kissable except by Pat.

Oh, and I wear green so I won’t be pinched. And also my authentic four-leaf clover necklace my sister, Heather, gave me. Yeah, yeah, I know. Are you picking out a theme in my parents’ child naming process?
That’s it.

Like the Blues?


My husband Pat will be doing an internet webcast tonight at 7:15 pm central, and playing his Texas Blues album Blues Fusion from his band True Blue. He plays lead guitar and sings on many of the tracks. 

He is now a singer – songwriter, producer and studio owner and loves to help others write and record original music.

www.mixlr.com/patautrey/live

Check in and listen to some great music!!!
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