Vampires Are Hot: A Coffin Hop Guest Post by Karen Dales

Our first Coffin Hop guest stops by today.  Please welcome author Karen Dales, who is here to chat about vampires and her Chosen Chronicles series.

VAMPIRES ARE HOT!

I’m not just talking about the vampires you see or read about who are leading men material in paranormal romance. I’m taking about the fact that now, more than ever, we’re seeing vampires on the rise in fiction, television and in movies. But why?

That’s the real blood in the mix, isn’t it?

I’ve been on several panels at different conventions, such as Ad Astra, ConCept, and FanExpo where we discussed where the Vampire was evolving into. Though these talks only lasted an hour, I’m sure we could have gone on for the whole weekend. Regardless of what some people may believe, vampires are here to stay and may in fact be a burgeoning literary genre rather than a trope. One thing, as a vampire fan, that I have discovered, is that there seems to be two distinct vampire camps: Vampires as lovers/heroes as in paranormal romance and Vampires as monsters who would do anything to dominate, subdue, enslave and devour you like the little cow that you are. Sometimes you have these two types coming together where the good vampire beats the bad vampire. It works, but it isn’t something that is new.

In my opinion it was with Anne Rice’s vampire novels that we truly see a new invention on an old idea. In essence, she gave us a new mythology behind vampires. No longer did vampires descend from the lineage of Vlad or Dracula, Ms Rice took the mythos far enough back in time to tie her mythos to the Egyptian mythos. It was brilliant. Unfortunately, there really hasn’t been a new incarnation or mythos of vampires since.

At least not until now…

I have endeavored to do just that through the story of The Angel in my series The Chosen Chronicles.

When I started writing the series, beginning with Changeling: Prelude to the Chosen Chronicles, I had several questions that came to mind. The main one was what the hell did vampires call themselves before the word vampire was even created?

It came to me…they were Chosen. They were Chosen out of humans to become something more, something powerful, but for what exact purpose? The answer to even that question was lost to antiquity, and for an immortal that’s a pretty long time. I do plan on answering it in Thanatos: Book Three of the Chosen Chronicles, which I’m currently writing.

Little does anyone know, including himself, the answers all surround The Angel.

In Changeling the reader is given The Angel’s origin story. It is in this novel where many questions arise about him and what it meant to be Chosen. There are two great hints in it; the fact that the Angel is believed to be the Welsh Lord of Death and the Hunt – Gwyn ap Nudd, and The Angel’s interaction with the white faced demons.

 It is in the next novel, Angel of Death: Book One of the Chosen Chronicles, that we are transported through time to the late Victorian age in London. The Angel truly is one of death and I draw upon Christian mythos to help validate our current image of the cloaked figure with skeletal paleness and a blade that cuts down people. It is not a mistake on my part that Gwyn ap Nudd was/is considered an Angel of Death, even today, mythologically speaking. As an author I used those and wove them together.

In the time of Angel of Death: Book One of the Chosen Chronicles, the Chosen have ‘bought into’ the idea that they were the vampires that publishers and penny dreadful published for the mass mortal market. The Chosen have bought into their own bad publicity despite the fact that they haven’t come out of the coffin. The only thing that alerts them that what is being written is not the truth of what they are are the discrepancies of description.

In Angel of Death, The Angel is commanded to the Mistress’ presence or see his Chooser, Father Paul Notus, (yep, he’s a Christian monk and a Chosen), killed. He is then given the task of finding out how the Chosens’ food supply (ie. Mortals) are becoming poisonous to the Chosen and put a stop to it. A solitary creature for the most part, The Angel ends up teaming up with Fernando de Sagres. Fernando is Chosen, but he has fallen into the ‘Vampire lifestyle’ and attitude. He’s the guy you love to hate. He’s also the type that loves a good meal, if you get my drift. The two Chosen are joined by Notus’ mortal housekeeper – Jeanie. She becomes the love interest of The Angel and it is in part her participation in the quest that keeps things very dangerous and interesting.

I’m not going to spoil the end by telling you whodunit, but through Angel of Death, more questions to the true origins of the Angel and how that fits in with the Chosen come about.

In Shadow of Death: Book Two of the Chosen Chronicles, I bring The Angel and Notus to my home town of Toronto, Ontario, about 100 years after Angel of Death. It is here that revenge against the Angel for having thwarted the attempted genocide against the Chosen comes to play. Unfortunately for the Angel, it comes about in the worst way possible, and not all of it is due to those he hunted down in the first book.

Here I play more. I don’t want to give too much away, but needless to say, in Shadow of Death my take on vampires becomes different than what I’ve read (at least), and lends to even more questions about the Angel. There are more hints and more clues, but it won’t be until Thanatos is published that a brand new mythos about vampires will be revealed.

Is it hard to do something brand new in the vampire genre, especially concerning its mythos? You betcha. But at the same time I have a plethora of real mythology, archaeology, and anthropology to draw upon. Yes, there’s lots of research that goes into making a mythology seem plausible.

The Chosen are evolving and that evolution will be seen in Thanatos.

Vampires are evolving and that evolution will be seen in the minds/imaginations of those that write about them.
Please enjoy my free short story –“The Guest.” It is a short story of the Angel of Death within my series “The Chosen Chronicles.” http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/139342

You can check out the series here:
Dark Dragon Publishing (free shipping in Canada and USA) –http://darkdragonpublishing.com/books.html
Amazon/Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/Karen-Dales/e/B004TG6U1Y/
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/karen-dales
Smashwords - http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KarenDales
Kobo - http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=the+chosen+chronicles
iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/karen-dales/id442956746?mt=11

You can keep up to date with me and my writings on:
Website – http://karendales.com/
Blog - http://karendalesauthor.blogspot.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/karendalesauthor
Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/karendales
Amazon – http://amazon.com/author/karendales
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/karendalesauthor


I like to thank Karen for joining the Hop and if you'd like a chance to win with Karen's Halloween Giveaway, there's still time.  Just pop on over to her Facebook page, like it, and enter the RaffleCopter Contest: https://www.facebook.com/KarenDalesAuthor/app_228910107186452


And please be sure to visit the other Coffin Hoppers, just scroll down to the list at the bottom of this blog to see the participants.  Also, you can check out the Coffin Hop Store for an array of creepy souvenirs.