A meme and Vampires!

[errant_jane]

I am procrastinating! Sometimes I don't do great with deadlines. ANYWAY! A meme I think I could actually manage:

Give me a prompt and a pairing/character and I will give you one to five lines of the fic it's from.

It's kind of like writing, but not!

We have several inches of snow on the ground right now. The only reason I'm not completely belligerent about this is that I don't have anywhere to be right now. Still. Blech.

All the Buffy hoopla got me thinking about vampires (confessions: I'm interested to see what they do with it and I don't think Joss is God). The thing is, they're always relevant, right? What I want to know, internets, is: What is your vampire origin story? As in, what got you interested in vampires in the first place?

This is, of course, predicated on the assumption that everyone has a point in their lives where they were into vampires. If you never have been, IDK what to tell you.

I was thinking that my starting point was the Vampire Chronicles, BUT IT WASN'T! Upon further reflection, I realized what got me completely hooked was Christopher Pike's vampire series (The Last Vampire, Black Blood, Red Dice). I read The Last Vampire when I was fourteen and it was amaaaaaaaaaaaazing. I actually would love to read the whole series again (I think I only read the first three) to see if it holds up to how I remember it. IIRC, the world-building was incredible, the vampire heroine was awesome and it had one of the most interesting vampire origin explanations I've read. (OF COURSE the stupid library doesn't have it. *grumps*)

So! *chinhands* Tell me, what was your first vampire love?

Comments

[radiophile.livejournal.com]

I used to read Darren Shan when I was younger (lol terrible books), but I don't think I was ever really into vampires any more than a passive/mild interest in them? I can't remember a movie/TV/book series that I was ever super into that involved vampires. And now I must confess I'm kind of sick of vampires, just because there's SO MANY movie/TV/book series about them ~_~

... Werewolves are cooler, anyway ;)


FOR THE MEME: J2, werewolf/vampire. (YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE)

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

I am unfamiliar with Darren Shaun. If I manage to get a hold of the Christopher Pike books, I will do a review, because I do think they are totally different from the current popular stuff. For one thing, the vampire protagonist is a GIRL and she's AWESOME! Already paradigms are being subverted!

... Werewolves are cooler, anyway ;)

I am working on a story that might be relevant to your interests. If I ever get it done...

OIC WHAT YOU DID THERE! Ahem:

"Look, Jensen, before we go any further, there's something I've got to tell you. Something you don't know about me." Jared glanced over his shoulder and sighed, his expression defeated. "Or, well, show you."

Before Jensen could protest, Jared started to shift and within seconds he was a full-blown wolf with a rather guilty look on his face. Jensen looked up at the full moon, then back at Jared and said, "You've got to be kidding me."

Jared cocked his head with curiosity, and Jensen raised his upper lip to show Jared his fangs. Jensen nodded when Jared sat back on his haunches, looking rather dumbfounded. "Tell me about it."

[imonlyobsessed.livejournal.com]

I remember when I was 5-6-ish my mother watched a Dracula mini-series on tv. For some reason this version had a little boy (8-9-ish) in it. There was a scene where the little boy was playing with a ball outside Lucy's mausoleum, bouncing it back to himself off the ground and her wall, doing this creepy little sing-song "if I catch this one, Lucy isn't dead." She wasn't and she rose and attacked him. Scared the crap out of me. So, of course when my mom went to watch the Keanu/Winona Dracula, I was sitting right in front of the tv waiting.

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaa! I remember that Dracula scaring the CRAP out of me (which, admittedly, isn't all that difficult). My mom loves the creepy old Nosferatu stuff, which I completely REFUSE to watch. So, so creepy!

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY READ THEM!! At the time they were being published, even!! Like, I waited for the second one to come out!

I kind of want to go back and reread a bunch of his stuff because I think the storytelling was so interesting, though I'd probably be less impressed as an adult (He's the one who got me interested in Greek mythology as well). Still, I really would like to reread the vampire books because they ARE (still, sadly) so different from everything else out there.

If I can get a hold of them, I totally will!! Especially since Wikipedia says there might be movies, though I take that with a grain of salt.

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

I barely remember any of them, really. I just remember being fascinated by the world-building and how much thought went into what parts of vampire mythology were true and why and what was just made-up, etc. The lack of that in Jossverse actually bugged me quite a bit, TBH.

I have not, but it looks like my library DOES have those books. I kind of love that about YA fiction, though. Like, the sexy concepts at a time where you don't really realize it (does that make sense?). There were a few Christopher Pike books like that where I look back now and go, "Yup, that's where that kink came from..."

[shakespearsgrl2.livejournal.com]

I was thinking Anne Rice too, but now that I'm pondering this, I think it was actually MUCH earlier than that. I'm now starting to think it was probably Annette Curtis Klaus's "The Silver Kiss." Horrifying and sexy teen fiction, none of this stupid Twilight nonsense. Simon is better than Edward.

[beckaandzac.livejournal.com]

This sounds EXACTLY like me, only I guess I liked The Silver Kiss more than you did, heh. But OMG, BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE. I read that book in eighth grade, and it was like, the hottest thing ever to my eighth grade mind. And I reread it recently, and it totally is more mature than a lot of what would be considered its genre-mates today.

I totally cannot remember my vampire origin story, but I feel like it must have been really early because I remember making all these vampire Halloween decorations in like, first or second grade and drawing lots of pictures of pretty girls with long dresses and fangs.

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, perhaps I will have to check this book out. Though, that's how I felt about a lot of the Christopher Pike books. There were some sexytimes things that BLEW MY MIND at that age. IDK how they'd hold up now, post-fandom.

Ahahaha, that's AWESOME!! There should be way more stories about kickass awesome girl vampires, now that I'm thinking about it. Bella Swan doesn't count (obvs).

[beckaandzac.livejournal.com]

The author is a librarian in a local library system on the other side of DC from me, and my friend who works at a branch library up there runs into her sometimes, and I, like, IDEK. I think I would flail like an idiot. I cannot even count how many times I've read that book.

It's so well-plotted and does not go the way you expect it to, and YES, the alpha bitch fight, and really the complicated pack dynamics in general, SO GOOD. (elizah_jane, I am totally hijacking your vampire post to talk about werewolves, but you should FOR SURE read Blood and Chocolate!)

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

(Hijack away! I never really went through a werewolf phase, but I am VERY INTRIGUED!!)

[shakespearsgrl2.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was probably about eighth grade when I read Silver Kiss. I think it was my first encounter with both vampires and UST. I've been in love with UST ever since, vampires, too, but not as much. But yeah, back then it was totally the hottest thing ever. Blood and Chocolate was good, too, but I never liked it as much as Silver Kiss. It seems kind of weird to me now, that I was thinking Anne Rice first, because I didn't get into her stuff until I was nineteen or twenty.

I have to confess that while I didn't go the route of artwork surrounding vamps and pretty girls in long dresses, I did write a shockingly bad attempt at the fictional equivalent. Everyone has horrible V names (Valerian? Vincento? What was I thinking?) and there was lots of white dresses and black tuxedos and whirling around the dance floor wearing the same, while dark men with bright eyes and long canines whispered threats of neck-biting into girls ears if they didn't give them a kiss. I don't know whether to blush in shame, or smile in amusement.

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with "The Silver Kiss", but not at all surprised that it's better than Twilight. It makes me sad that an entire generation's entry point into the vampire genre is Twilight. *forlorn sigh* I'm actually kind of hoping the Christopher Pike books make a comeback (or whatever).

I did enjoy the Anne Rice books, as well (up to "Memnoch the Devil", at which point I gave up entirely).

[wendy.livejournal.com]

Before I was able to read (!!) I can remember my mom talking about vampires and why she loved them and an idea she had for writing a short story about vamps. This "new" resurgence is all the more amusing to me because of it.

J2: reading poetry in bed.

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

That's awesome!! Yes, the "OMG, vampires are popular!" thing always amuses me. It may fluctuate a little, but when aren't they popular? I mean, really.

J2: reading poetry in bed. Heeeeeeee!! <3

The one and only time Jensen tried to win an argument by withholding sex only lasted until it was time to actually go to bed. Not that Jensen couldn't sleep next to Jared without jumping him. The problem was, Jared played dirty.

He was already in bed when Jensen got there, propped against the headboard, reading Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: (Dual Language Edition), smug grin on his face.

"You're such an asshole," Jensen told him as he kicked off his boxers.

[wendy.livejournal.com]

Heeee! Jensen, you never had a CHANCE!

♥ Thanks Hol!

[wendy.livejournal.com]

P.S. Ask your library to inner-library loan (ILL) the Pike books for you. It's free, and also their job. But, a librarian has to do it for you, so call and ask!

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

OMG, that's AWESOME!! I had no idea you could do that! Thank you!!!

[mini-moue.livejournal.com]

I have the Christopher Pike books in PDF format, if you'd like them. PM me your email address and I'll ping them over to you. :-D

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

OMG YAY THAT'S AWESOME!! <3<3<3 PMing you now!

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

Dark Shadows (vampires and werewolves and alternate timelines, oh my!) and the Lugosi Dracula. My dad's side of the family comes from the Carpathians, so I was predisposed.

edit for prompt - J2 tourists in Eastern Europe

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

I have never actually watched Dark Shadows, but it used to come on before Highlander on SciFi and I would catch like the last minute of it and always be all, o.O

They haven't even landed yet and Jensen is regretting the entire vacation. It's been nothing but shenanigans up to this point, between the reservation mix-ups, the weather delay in Chicago, and the irrefutable proof that they will never be able to join the mile-high club. He's not even sure how Jared talked him into trying that one in the first place.

To top it all off, Jared is now sitting next to him singing, which would be obnoxious enough in and of itself, but the fact that he only knows the words, "Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul not Constantinople" is making Jensen feel very genuinely homicidal.

They aren't even going to Turkey.

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

Heee. I meant the original soap that was on in the afternoons. 1966-1971, Yeah, you're too young :-)

Now I have an earworm. And that's nobody's business but the Turks.

Thank you :-)

[errant-jane.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you meant! The SciFi channel used to show it (and Highlander and the Sentinel) in syndication. ;D

Hee! Sorry. I've been singing that for like a week. IDK why.

[dybji.livejournal.com]

I don't think I ever had a Proper vampire phase, more's the pity, but I did have a lot of really good "Ohhhhhhh, I think I get it now" moments from crack fanfiction. <-- Really really hot crack fanfiction, okay, it's a totally legitimate source for vampire action.

Any interest I have in vampires now though is from this truly ridiculous camp musical (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeCjqb38aIk&feature=related) that at some point features singing Nazis and ballet-dancing gypsies.

ON WHICH NOTE, J2, ballet. ;)

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

I'm a little late on this, but I just wanted to say - it all started with The Lost Boys. I was like 11 yrs old and I was totally willing to let Keifer Sutherland bite me and kill me dead. Totally.

I can't remember being into any other vampires until Spike. I must have been. I also enjoy the non-sexy, much more terrifying aspect of vampires, like in 30 Days of Night. I can't remember reading about vampires though. I think there was a vampire in the M.Y.T.H. books but it wasn't a book about vampires, so it doesn't count. Right now, I have a friend trying to talk me into reading something called "Wolf House". Idk anything about it but she's insistent that they are my kind of vampires. I think it might be about a vampire rock band.