So ... you like Vampires

As a reader, I enjoy an innovative and especially "nuanced" vampire tale: the novels of Anne Rice or Laurell K. Hamilton come to mind, especially their early work. But, as a writer, I don't "do" vampires. I don't find them particularly believable, so I can't develop them as life-like characters. I guess I like to have my fantasy grounded on this planet. Still, I understand their attraction, and my goal has been to tap into the source of their appeal without trying to copy their "undead" characteristics.

The Desidaria in my novels were created partially as a "not-another-vampire" effort and partially as the result of my own study of the original Gothic novels, the eighteenth-century ones of Walpole, Maturin, Radcliffe and, above all, Lewis. Having been introduced to these works at the same time as I was discovering psychoanalytic theory, I became fascinated with the philosophical core of the historic Gothic, something often lost in today's more graphic, but often less thoughtful efforts. I mean, it's one thing to believe that vampires and many of these clearly troubled souls are "hot," but quite another to understand why we are drawn to them in spite of their obvious shortcomings and occasionally evil ways.

In fact, there is something about the "outsider" nature of the villians developed in these books that forms the heart of our attraction to them. They connect with our pleasure and pain in a way that is more experienced than explained.

It is with this unexplainable connection to our deepest desires in mind that I created the Desidaria, beings evolved beyond humans in their ability to understand and even touch the soul. With this understanding, the Desidaria draw an energy from the universe that provides them with not only exceptional strength, but also a seductive quality that gives them a unique power over most of humankind. There are some, of course, who resist them and see them as witches or demons.

Check out my other thoughts at http://www.larryhamm.com/.