Stephanie Meyer really set herself up for ridicule when she made her vampires sparkle when they got out in the sun. I’ve heard so many people make fun of her, especially fellow authors. And I’m sure she’s crying laughing all the way to the bank. Yes, I do think sparkling vampires are a little silly. But she wanted to do something different, and she did.
Vampire lore has been around for a REALLY long time, and most of the older stories stuck to the same general ideas. Vampires couldn’t go out in the daytime, and they slept in a coffin at night. They could be killed by a stake in the heart, sunlight, or fire. Oh, and beheading. They hated garlic, and could be burned by crosses and holy water. They couldn’t eat food. How dare anyone deviate from that when writing about vampires???
The book I’m reading right now deviates from the old stories in several ways. Like Meyer’s vamps, they never sleep. They can go out in sunlight without burning up, but it hurts. They can’t be killed by a stake in the heart, only by fire. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had vampires that could eat real food. Kim Harrison has vampires that are dead and vampires that are not dead. We are seeing so many deviations from the old vampire lore.
I’ve written two stand alone vampire novellas, and two (working on third) in a series. One thing is common in all of them…my vampires can eat food! This is important because I’m a real foodie and life (or unlife) without being able to eat food is not worth living, in my opinion. I actually had a reader give me a low rating because I didn’t stick to the no eating mythology. She complained because my vampires ate food, and that wasn’t true. Hello? Vampires aren’t real! The vampire in one of my novellas only took blood at a certain time interval. The rest of the time he ate like everyone else. The vampires in my current series can’t go out in sunlight, and they lie dormant during the day and are cold and lifeless (but on a bed, not a coffin). When they feed upon rising, they are warm and they breathe. They can eat real food, INCLUDING garlic. So I use parts of the original stories, but I add my own twist, too. My vampires never sparkle. LOL
What about you? Do you like to see writers stick to the original stories that we’ve heard for years, or do you like to see a deviation? Do you actually get offended if an author’s vampires do things differently? What do you think?
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