A figure appears from the mist, right outside your window as you lay in bed, unable to sleep.
You recognize the stranger from the gathering, the one who kept catching your gaze. You tried to look away, a thrill of danger running down your spine, as alluring as it is terrifying.
The feeling returns as you see the stranger at your window. It’s just a dream. How you long to let them in, even as you shrink from the possibility. For if you do, the vampire will have you, giving you a kiss that will suck your life away.
These were all elements of the vampire in story and film, which I fell in love with, drawing inspiration from that love.
A vampire was a scary monster and a seductive temptation. Vampires embodied forbidden desire as much as a creature coming to get you. As someone struggling with contrary values of beware of strangers and open your heart to another; this particular monster resonated with me like no other.
I was fascinated by the varying folklore, the different sorts of vampires; but my favorite version was the seductive stranger or someone you once knew transformed into a seductive stranger, whom might hunt and seduce you in turn.
Many elements of vampire lore drew me; turning into bats, the way they mesmerized their victims, the gothic castles and crypts they often made their lairs.
Many of those elements return to me during October, the Halloween season where they are the spooky vogue.
I’ve often created characters with vampiric elements, trappings from the legends (such as shadows like Christopher or witches like Briar) in my own stories. Anne Rice’s vampires; those beautiful statues whom obtained a hardness capable of crushing tender humans, yet they regarded with their vampire eyes humans with a certain detached tenderness remain my favorites. I do have a lot of affection for some of the classics; Mircalla in all her romantic, if deadly affection for her victims and Dracula; who visits a trance-like state of walking in a dream upon his (one I thought of often, watching Will Graham sleepwalk on Hannibal).
Vampires inspire me, even when they leave me in a listless, entrance state; watching Daughters of Darkness, the Fright Night movies, Lost Boys, and read Anne Rice’s books again and again.
Creatures of the night, what classics you’ve invoked! What more will you drive me to create?
I look forward to finding out.