Author Bites - Mari Mancusi Talks Vampires

Consider this my first official guest blog post from an author. I'm not sure how often this is going to occur. I guess however often I really like a book and said author agrees to do a post! Makes sense, right? So this time around it's Mari Mancusi because her Blood Coven series is nine different levels of awesome. Here she talks about creating vampires and her upcoming fourth Blood Coven book. You know you want to know! And I swear, I didn't tell her to write about The Lost Boys! No, really! Ok, maybe I hinted but she didn't have to! She's a fan. Just ask her.

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The great thing about writing about vampires is you can make them into anything you want them to be. From tuxedo-clad Dracula to mega rock star Lestat. Brooding, neutered Spike to punk rock biker boy David in the Lost Boys. Goth vampires, fashionista vampires, vampires with a soul – the possibilities are endless.

When I started writing my Blood Coven Vampire series I had a blast creating my own vampire world. Taking from myths, legends and a whole lot of pop culture, I mixed and matched and made it my own. My vampires don’t kill humans to drink their blood – they are assigned donors who are contracted and paid well for their services. They don’t just randomly turn other people into vampires –there’s a three month certification test, DNA analysis and blood screen. All very high tech and organized.

Once I had my vampire world, I added two humans to interact with it. Twins who are polar opposites – as different as Sunshine and Rayne (their names, thanks to their hippie parents.) While Rayne’s a goth girl who wants to be a vampire more than anything, Sunny is much more concerned about getting a date to the prom. What surprised me, once the books were released, was how strongly teen girls either related to one or the other twin. I, personally, relate more to Rayne. I was a goth girl in high school and though I was not as outspoken as she is, was probably just as irritable. But there are a surprising amount of Sunny fans out there as well. (So much so that I gave in and gave them a second Sunny book – Bad Blood – out in January.)

However, while the sisters may be different in personality, what I love about them both is their loyalty to one another. They bicker and fight constantly – as sisters do – but at the end of the day, they’re there for each other. They have such a strong bond at the end of the day. It’s the kind of thing I’d wish for myself if I had a sister. They also have a very strong, supportive mom whom they are very close to, mostly because I really wanted to create a strong sense of family in the books. (Their dad, on the other hand, is a different story and a cause of a lot of suppressed pain and anger.)

The girls are also both very strong. They are able to take charge and make decisions and choose their own destinies. They don’t passively sit back and let life happen to them. And they certainly don’t put up with any crap from their vampire boyfriends. (Just sayin’.) And while they may not always make the right decisions at first, they always eventually realize what’s important and what matters in the end.

And that is something I try to include in all my books, whether or not they have to do with vampires.

Marianne

PS I’d be remiss not to mention The Lost Boys! Yes, Stake That has quite the Lost Boys homage in it. After all, as a child of the eighties, I felt it was important for the next generation to realize that not all vampires are created Emo. You can even have a mulleted Jack Bauer!