A New Twist to Old Legends
By Lynne Connolly

When I was asked to do a vampire book for Triskelion Publishing, I was a bit wary -- could I add a new twist, something that would make revisiting the legend worthwhile?

I'd read the classic of the genre, Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was as much about sexual repression as it was about monsters. I'd read the two leaders in the field, Christine Feehan and Sherrilyn Kenyon. I'd read the first three Anne Rice vampire books. Was there any more to say>

Well, actually, yes.

I decided to go back to the old legends and see what I could do. I found far more than I'd imagined was out there. So I'll share some of it with you, and perhaps, try to show you what went into creating my version of the legend.

Vampires weren't always called that, but as long as there has been written history, there seems to have been legends of bloodsucking creatures, humanoid in form, and the one thing that drew them all together was the blood.

The ancient Greeks had the lamia, bloodsucking creatures preying on women and children, and even the ancient Hebrews had something similar. The mysterious Lilith, said to be Adam's first wife, was a bloodsucker.

The Indians had legends of bloodsucking humanoids, as did the Chinese, Monsters of nightmare, for the most part, but with a tragic history. And the goddess Kali, the Black Goddess, has associations with blood and death, but also renewal.

Blood is the lifeforce, easily studied, easily associated as one of the essential ingredients of human life, but it also carries disease and death. The dichotomy has long fascinated the mythmakers, and so the vampire has been with us, it seems, forever.

The vampire we would recognize appears in Middle Europe, and legends may have been carried there by gypsies, in their long exodus from India across Europe. It is possible that all vampire legends have a common origin, and who better than the nomadic gypsy to carry it?

However, as the grand-daughter of a pureblood Romany, I would say that, wouldn’t I?  more >>