Reading/ Paranormal or Urban Fantasy Gaming

While in Florida I read Touch the Dark by Karen Chance.  It was enjoyable with some dark moments, vampires, weres, witches, and tons of supes. I will get to reading the remaining books in the series as well.

I am one of those people that start a series and read through it entirely.  Currently I am alternating the Undead & Un____,  the Queen Betsy books by MaryJanice Davidson with Kim Harrison's The Hollows series.   Ms. Davidson's series is the perfect example of paranormal chick lit, complete with the wealthy and gorgeous hunka-vampire.

Ms. Harrison's work also has vamps, witches, fairies, weres, pixies and such, but these books are much darker and have more of a mystery air than a chick-lit air.  The characters do dangerous things and get the heck kicked out of them!


So, it is nice to be alternating the fluffier fun book with the darker thrillers.

Maybe by the time I am done Dead in the Family will be available on Kindle! Any other book suggestions.would be welcome.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I play Vampire Wars by Zynga.  I as getting pretty frustrated because the skill points for fighting were easier lost than one.  Then a   lovely vampire adopted me and has been helping me up my clan.  The beatings have diminished by about 75 to 80 %. I have noticed a lot of other supernatural/paranormal online role playing games.  Do you play any?  What is your favorite?  Vampire Wars can cost money in order to get Favor Points.  Are other games "free" but if you buy this point system it will be better?  Or, are they just free? 

I want to know what you think.  I am truly a babe in the woods in this "arena."

Dracula As A Metaphor for George Wickham - Blood Sucker versus Fortune Hunter.

Yesterday I said that there was much written about Vampire Sexuality; written with a great deal of research and scholarly intent. One such piece at Answers.com, The Vampire Book: Sexuality and the Vampire (http://www.answers.com/topic/sexuality-and-the-vampire) is particularly readable.

The history of a sexual association is discussed, ... through the folklore of the Gypsies and their neighbors, the southern Slavs. For example, corpses dug up as suspected vampires occasionally were reported to have an erection. Gypsies thought of the vampire as a sexual entity. The male vampire was believed to have such an intense sexual drive that his sexual need alone was sufficient to bring him back from the grave.

Russian folklore, Greek mythology and Malaysian folklore all have similar beings who are sexual.  Russian lore of the vampire appearing as a young stranger crosses the gender line in the La Fanu story Carmilla.  Carmilla tries to seduce young women. Dracula's sexuality is implied through his defilement of both of the "good" women in the story.  The article points out that the vampire is really an extension of the Victorian literary character type, the rake. Yes, you read it here folks, Dracula is a blood sucking George Wickham ( from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice). The female counterpart is the Vamp, a term from the 1920's used to describe women who flaunted convention.  Needless to say, a rake has a higher position than a vamp who in polite society is ruined while a man is simply sowing his wild oats.

Recently NPR featured a story with Margot Adler (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123115545) about "good vampires" as a literary  and social phenomenon, so it is not only sexual attraction, good looks and the like that are becoming more and more part of the vampire mystique, nor does making the vampire good (not killing their "donors" and not turning people at all or only with their permission or only as a final measure), de-sex them.  Although the Twilight series is chaste, with the main characters only consummating their relationship after marriage, it is still sexy.  The kiss-scene from the first film gives me butterflies of a teenager on her first date.  The defunct series Moonlight features a detective vampire who is bent on preventing unwilling blood donation and who is trying to "un-vampire" himself.  The Argeneaus don't like to be called vampires, preferring "immortals" but none the less, they have a strict code against biting except under special circumstances, but the sex scenes in this Lindsay Sands series are blisteringly hot (if somewhat repetitive after the first few installments.  The same holds for the Love at Stake series and Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed Series. The True Blood and Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries series is less clear cut -- it has the battle for good and bad engaging vampires, were-beings, faerie, and human -- but, the books had reasonably erotic scenes and the HBO series is a bit warmer still.  Videogum, among many sources, believe that True Blood is a metaphor for the current homophobia issues in America. http://videogum.com/23001/how_much_worse_can_the_true_bl/everyones-a-critic/

In the NPR story a colleague, Eric Nuzum posits that the vampire is a mirror of a period's society.  In that case while a vampire like Edward oozes brooding sexiness, we seek an immortal with financial stability and family values.  I have often explained Edward's attraction for women my age as "He's handsome, polite, rich, does the dishes, and doesn't expect sex!"

What is most apparent is that blood sharing in sex, is a fast, sure road to orgasm.  Forget the g-spot, the p-spot or any other spot, heck even forget vibrators, in vampire sex, it's the neck, the upper chest the wrist or the femoral that are the most erogenous body parts. In some traditions, this is a way to make the process painless and even ecstatic, in others it is a sign of a a spiritual bond.  In the bond lies redemption or at least affirmation. Where in stories like Twilight blood sharing is not a factor in others it is vital

There is another excellent article in the Times Online.  Entertaining and well-written, if plagiarism were not illegal I would have simply reproduced it here.  In explaining the reason vampires are so prevalent Wendy Ide writes:

That appetite for tales of undead bloodsuckers has led to more than 200 film versions of Stoker’s Dracula alone, not to mention bizarre vampire-themed spin-offs and subgenres by the coffin load (including vampire pornography, vampire blaxploitation, vampire stripper films and lesbian vampire movies).

Ultimately the sheer volume and variety of the vampire genre comes down to the fact that the vampire myth is so versatile in its symbolism. The vampire is a shape-shifter that can take the form of society’s fears at any particular time. Thus in the 1920s an emancipated, sexually aggressive young woman, unsettling for society, was labelled a “vamp”; her wicked ways would leach the very manhood from her unfortunate victim. Later on, the vampire would come to symbolise, among other things, Aids and drug addiction (Abel Ferrera’s The Addiction) but it could also represent the allure of the outlaw or rebel, the cool gang to which everyone secretly wanted to belong, as in Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys. But most of all the vampire represents the outsider, and by extension every confused, misfit teenager in the world.   http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4523559.ece (8/14/2008)

Speaking of Lost Boys, maybe I will look more into what one article calls the queering of the vampire.  Is homoeroticism more prevalent in vampire literature than other romantic or erotic literature or urban fantasy?

What do you think?  And do you feel this is an important part of vampire allure (that which sells books, movies and little Bella and Edward action figures)?

Thanks for reading and I hope you are well and happy!

O M G!!! Breaking (ish) News on Breaking Dawn

I say we must read the above title as if we were in the film Clueless only because that is how E Online, via IMDB.com, reports that Breaking Dawn has set a release date of November 18, 2011. Not a typo -- not 2010, but actually twenty-eleven. I will have turned 51 (shudder) and can only hope to have not entered a senior state wherein I no longer enjoy the Twilight saga. The heck with me; girls around the world who, in 2008 stood in line for hours to see Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart portray a reticent vampire and his human girlfriend could be married with children by then. The girls who last November sighed and giggled at the New Moon opening day noon show (charmingly)could be studying law or medicine by then. Additionally, we have yet to learn whether BD will be one or two movies.

No explanation was offerred.

Throwing poor little us a bone, Eclipse will be premiered at the Nokia Theatre in LA on June 24 and in theatres on June 30.

Vampire Sexuality

My investigation into the sexuality of vampires came about because, outside of the YA books, TV shows and films like Twilight, Vampires are so very closely associated with sex.  But Vampires were not always the fabulous creatures we read and see today.  Today's vampires have developed through literature and commercial means.  But, the original vampire was the folk vampire, the undead monster or decaying dead flesh. Some sources have explained this with actual reasons a body might be out of its grave: floods, improper burial, body thieves, etc.


Well, that probably didn't sell too many books. With the development of the novel and the Victorian era, Vampires became much more attractive  in many ways, and the Victorian subjugation of sexuality in the name of propriety merely made it more romantic, hence most literary themes became more romantic - so that of the undead, sort-of-dead, not human or whatever, blood consuming stalker progressed that way as well.

Simplification? I am positive.  There is certainly enough written about this topic, well-written scholarly texts and discussions of many natures including bibliography, reviews of film and books, arguments promoting one hypothesis over another and such. I think for me just bringing the idea up and looking into the idea is fun -- I am not going to write my doctoral dissertation and ruin my enjoyment of this theme in literature.

There is ample evidence that the Victorians were probably just as prurient in thought an deed as we are.  Think of the  lingerie, the Victorian erotica (the Pearl and such), the prevalent discussion of "ruin."

   Public Domain Image Wikipedia

Most vampires (outside of the aforementioned YA books & movies) are not wrapped up in the taboos of sexuality as mere humans are.   Perhaps because they have been freed by whatever transformation has occurred  from mortal morality.  All I know is that Vampires and sex are a hot topic and have been for a long time.  Charlaine Harris made several characters in the Sookie Stackhouse books gay or bi, including the very sexy character of Eric, the local Vampire Sheriff (Bi) and his assistant Pam(Lesbian). And, in Kim Harrisons"The Hollows" series the main vampire character is Bi leaning toward a Lesbian preference,  for the young witch lead in particular. The Battle of the Network Zombies book by Mark Henry (reveiwed a few weeks past) featured a gay male vampire culture.

Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan La Fanu is an early and well-known Vampire novels (available free in Kindle format  on Amazon).*  Written in the style of the time (tedious and where matters of sexualaity are concerned allusive the main vampire character's sexuality is alluded towards being a lesbian.  For example, in the lead up to revealtion our young heroine is accosted by the Vampiress, Carmilla (Chapter 4) 

Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet over-powering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, “You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever.” Then she has thrown herself back in her chair, with her small hands over her eyes, leaving me trembling.

“Are we related,” I used to ask; “what can you mean by all this? I remind you perhaps of some one whom you love; but you must not, I hate it; I don’t know you—I don’t know myself when you look so and talk so.”

It is only after this discussion of behavior repugnant (of course) to our young heroine that Carmilla's nature begins to be revealed as young women about the area begin to die of a strange malady. Honestly, the book is written in a style I find tedious because it is so of its time and I am not that I may never get to reading it in full and I have never been a great skimmer.

I do believe that there are more Vampire movies where important characters are gay and/or lesbian than straight.  I actually think there are more lesbian characters.  Now, as far as the Victorians go I don't know whether men were as obsessed with seeing two women together as popular culture suggests men today are obsessed, but most novelists back then were men and perhaps found this more titillating (or less threatening) than a straight female vampire. But today, watch any TV show after 9 PM and you are likely, of sex comes up, to hear about how hot it is to watch to women together. For example, this Screen shot ffrom Netflix shows a film from 2009. So given the power of men in the film industry perhaps there is one reason this is such a popular idea.

Image: Netflix (http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Life_Blood/) Fair Use

The International Movie Database shows 16 movies and 7 TV programs when the words Lesbian and Vampire are used. This including a kung fu action/ comedy/horror/musical "Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter."  That is of 677 total titles when the word Vampire is used as the search term. So while it may seem that there are more films where the characters are gay, lesbian or bi, I cannot find anything to justify the hypothesis.

I think that Vampirism frees the characters from stupid and bigotted ideas like anti-gay sentiments. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily continue into other areas of morality  where freedom is not necessarily a great thing (draining people of their life blood).






* Kindle software is a free download (in much the same way as Adobe Acrobat Reader) available for Mac, Pc, iphone, Blackeerry and Ipad. Just go to the Kindle Store at http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store-ebooks-newspapers-blogs/b/ref=topnav_storetab_kinh?ie=UTF8&node=133141011 and in the left hand nav bar look for Kindle Reading Apps. This book is also online, gratis, at http://www.sff.net/people/Doylemacdonald/l_carmil.htm and it is thence I have quoted)

New Eclipse Still Released (Spoiler Alert - sort of)

There is a loverly new still of Edward and Bell from the noon to be released movie, Eclipse, which (if you have been living under a rock the past few years or still wonder who that Harry Potter fellow is) is the third installment in the Twilight Saga based on Stephenie Meyers four book series.

It is easy to find the clip right here http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-laff-20100505,0,1618837.story?page=1

SPOILER:  This looks to me to be based on a scene in the book where Edward has a new bed put in his room to keep Bella safe from a cadre of Vampires after revenge.  Ever the Edwardian boy, Edward who was turned in 1917 is protecting her honor, and his own!

Fang it All! New Sookie Stackhouse Novel: Dead in the Family

Well, Fang it All! 

I am eagerly awaiting the release of Dead In the Family for Kindle but apparently Amazon and some publishers are not able to play nice.

On Charlaine Harris' website and forum one fan wrote and was responded to thusly:

Why can't I get DEAD IN THE FAMILY on my Kindle?
Due to ongoing negotiations between Amazon and several major publishers, including Charlaine's publisher, Penguin Books, Amazon is currently not selling books by those publishers for Kindle. Please understand that this is a result of actions by Amazon, not the publishers and certainly not the authors, as evidenced by the fact that DITF is available on other eReaders.

Okay, now you publishers and Amazon,  play nice and share your toys so I don't have to order a paper copy of this book.  And, the Kindle copy would be the same price as the hardcover is at Amazon! 

Come on let's "glamour" these guys and get the dang book on Kindle.

I wish I were a "big" time blogger and Ms. Harris' publicist would send me the advanced readers' copy so I could review the tome for you but at this rate you will have it read before I do!

I am working on my next heavily researched post about Vampires and their Sexuality.  In particular why there is so much about Vamps being bi, gay or lesbian not on a moral level but solely as a point of interest. Ms. Harris talked about this in the NYT on Sunday and Kim Harrison includes it as well.  And, there may be more bi/lesbian/gay Vampire films out there than straight ones. This has apparently sparked a bunch of interest through the years because there are tons of material.  I read something of dissertation quality (but not length last night). At least my pondering is not too unusual.

This blog is the best excuse I have come up with for either reading or sitting in front of my computer.  Now I just say, "Hey, I am doing research!"

(this image is from the public domain)

Pixies and Fairies - What's the Diff?

 

 Detail from painting by Edwin Austin Abbey

Pinning definitions on supposedly mythical creatures is like holding sand in your hands. Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series has a major character who is a Pixie with 54 children. I am currently reading A Fistful of Charms (number 3 in the series), which holds a major development for this normally 4-inch tall character. Her PIxies are funny, saying things like "Tinks Diaphragm!" (translation: Oh, come on you can't be serious) or, "Yeah, and Tink's a Disney Whore!" (translation: Tell me something I didn't know you lummox!). This is not my master's thesis so I am not going to go into serious and heavy duty detail on origins, or every possible permutation of what's what, nor discuss the many other potential magical fae like sprites, nymphs, leprechauns, &c.

    Pixies or Fairies? 

Ms. Harrison does an great job sticking to what I have read or heard before. Despite Disney’s take, where she seems to be a super-sexualized hybrid of Pixie and Fairy, I think Tinkerbelle is a Pixie. In Laurel Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series Fairies are very often not very nice at all, their only good quality is that they do not lie and once married adultery is verboten but marriage usually only occurs after the female becomes pregnant. These books are both hot and hard to put down. As far as morality goes, pixies are closer to human than faeries, perhaps a function of mortality.

Both of Karen Marie Moning’s series, Highlander and the Fever series discuss Faeries as being of alien origin. They are separate from humans, in another realm or dimension. There is a Seelie (light, good, beautiful) and an Unseelie (dark, evil or at least not good, ugly (sometimes)) side. In Ms. Moning’s books there’s a contract between the Fae and humanity that keeps us separate Unseelies are nasty, soul sucking and evil, but one cannot say the Seelie are sweet and good. They are mostly concerned with seeking pleasure and are apparently so darn-good in bed that people will have sex with them until they die or escape. Ms. Moning calls them “Death-By-Sex-Fae,” but whatever they are called her books are hard to put down, whether there is lots of shagging or not (the Highlander series is more erotic than the Fever series although that seems to be changing with the last book).

“Officially,” Faeries are immortal, or very long-lived; where Pixies have a lifespan of about twenty years, have many children and a very high infant mortality, and they are very susceptible to the cold. Faeries are sometimes the size of humans but are sometimes small, but Pixies are about four-inches high. Faeries don’t always have wings but Pixies do.


I have yet to see evidence of a Pixie political or social structure. In this it would seem they are more like squirrels, or hummingbirds. They are territorial “gardeners” who tend and eat from a plot they tend. They eat pollen and nectar and bugs. I would be thrilled if they existed in fact and would eat the Japanese beetles that attack my roses each year or did the whole picking and squishing thing. While mischievous they are benign, and as long as they request permission to trespass territory, will assist each other. In Ms. Harrison’s books Pixies are the enemy of faeries as they compete for the garden. But while a pixie tends and lives off of a garden, Faeries just consume it and have a malicious intent.


She also brings the Elves back, but very secretively. They have pointy ears, but I don’t believe pixies do. And in Ms. Hamilton’s world, Faeries do not have the ear thing either.


As I said earlier, it’s really hard to pin down a definition of mythical creatures; however the definition of Pixies as short-lived is pretty standard while Faeries are immortals or very long lived. In most things I have read pixies are usually benevolent where faeries are at best self involved and can be soul-eating, world-destroying baddies. (note: after Writing this I came upon a paragraph about Pixies in Fistful of Charms where they ganged up to kill a hummingbird which had invaded their territory. Maybe it was self-defense?)

It all goes with the variables in the literature, life span, diet, sleep habits, magical abilities, good versus evil, etc.

I would love to know what others have read or learned about these two species. If you have a garden pixie send him or her my way I will provide lots of flowers and pollen (I can spare the darn pollen – achoo!).

Please comment, or email me at my new email address steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com. Oh, please share me with your friends; I would truly appreciate the help.

Charlaine Harris In the Times Sunday Magazine

We all know that Ms. Harris' 10th Sookie Stackhouse Series Novel, Dead in the Family releases on May 4 (release date TBA for Kindle -- grrr), so the promotion machine is in high gear.  It is not easy to score a place in the Sunday Magazine and Ms. Harris proves quite charming.  Read it and weep bloody tears!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02fob-Q4-t.html

And, True Blood Season 3 is starting on June 13th -- I suspect a Fairy tie in coming this season.

Pixies vs Faeries

Faeries and Pixies are confusing.  Well, at least they are confusing to me. So after I do a bit more research that will be my next substantial post! I am aiming for this evening or maybe tomorrow.

So, have you ever read a book -- the first published novel even, and enjoyed it so much that you waited, and waited and waited for the author to write another?  I know you have.  Such, for me, is the situation with Eternal Seduction by Jennifer Turner.  This is one of the books about the "good vampires"  whose job it is to protect humans from bad vampires.  A drug addict, Logan knows too much about vampires and has to be turned or the less attractive alternative to turning. The Vamp in charge of NY, Kerestyan takes her back to his place and their relationship develops from there. There is some very hot action, (fanning face)  in a great kitchen and again in other locations, and then there is also some fighting as well.  It sure gives rehab a new look.

I also have to admit I love the cover - there is something intensely provocative about it but it is not nasty; and I enjoyed, hmmm, the relationship between the two main characters Kerestyan & Logan. Ms. Turner is considering a trilogy of their characters to allow the relationship to grow past lust into love (on Logan's part).   But, the Darkness Within series is not about just the two characters, it will feature other members of the Darkness Within world. 

On her blog http://jen-turner.blogspot.com/  Ms. Turner offers readers some sneak peeks, reviews, interviews, information about what is holding up Eternal Hearts, etc.  And, her website for these books, http://www.darknesswithinnovels.com/ offers even more.  I support this author in her quest to rewrite a novel under difficult circumstances.   It takes a lot of fortitude to stand up to the many distractions of the everyday and put hand to keyboard.

Hopefully we'll see the book soon, but it will get here in its own time.