Vampires and Tigers and Werewolves, Oh My

In the interest of my writing, I read a lot. Okay, well I'd read a lot even if I weren't a writer because I love to read. I have ever since I learned to read (with the book "Ann Likes Red", a truly classic tale about a young girl named Ann who, well, loves the color red. Hey, I was three, okay? And I can still recite the book more than thirty years later.) Even though I moved on to books with more challenging plot lines, I still love to read and even re-read my favorite books.

I like to keep on the current trends in fiction as I want to be a fiction writer. One of these current trends is the 'supernatural' romance. Like books where the heroine falls for a vampire or a werewolf. You know, the spooky take on the 'Beauty and the Beast" myth. One of the most popular examples of this genre right now is the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. This is a huge bestseller, one of those young adult novels that crossed over into mainstream (like Harry Potter). Mrs. Meyers' books are about Bella, a sweet girl in love with a bad boy. Vampires are the ultimate bad boy. Most of them are the love you and leave you kind (and you are lucky if they leave you alive!) She also has a Native American friend who is a werewolf. No boring life for Bella. Ad she thought moving to the tiny town of Forks was gonna be dull.

I enjoyed the Twilight series but there was a bit too much teen angst for me to love it. I did think it was interesting to read how Mrs. Meyers interpreted and changed around vampire lore to suit her story. Her vampire family, the Cullens, live in the Pacific Northwest because her vampires can come out in the day, just not out in the sun. (And too much light makes them all sparkly, a dead giveaway that something just ain't right.) And the tying in of the werewolves to Native American legend was cool. But frankly I had enough of Bella's whining about wanting to be a vampire so she could be with her beloved Edward forever and Edward's noble self-sacrifice to have Bella grow up first. I'll read the last book, but I also wish Bella would grow up some.

Then I was watching HBO when a teaser came on, a faux advertisement for a product called TruBlood. I checked out the website and it's an ad for their new show "True Blood" which premieres next month. It's created by the same guy who did "Six Feet Under", Alan Ball. And it said it was based on the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. So of course I had to run to the library to check one of these books out. (And have I mentioned lately how much I love the library? I have saved so much money there, which is a good thing for an unemployed writer.)

The Southern Vampire series is really the Sookie Stackhouse series, and she's not a vampire at all. She's a regular human girl, almost. She can read minds. It takes place in the alternate now when the Japanese have invented a synthetic blood substitute which would be a boon for the medical community but it also allowed the vampire community to 'come out of the coffin' so to speak. Sookie was like the rest of us, ignorant of vampire existence, until a tall dark vampire named Bill walked into the bar where our Miss Sookie works. And her life hasn't been the same since. One could also argue that, at least in Sookie's case, ignorance really was bliss. Oh sure, she's had some great vampire nookie, but now her Grandma's dead, her brother is a were-panther, her boss is a shape shifter, her best friend's a witch and Sookie has been beaten, bruised, bitten, bashed and nearly burned to death on more than one occasion. If I were Sookie, I'd leave the little town of Bon Temps, Louisiana and never look back, but our heroine is like a weeble, she wobbles but she won't fall down.

I expected not to like these books because I haven't been a huge fan of the supernatural genre. I have no interest in having sex with a dead guy and sleeping with a werewolf is yucky. I tried to read a Kresley Cole book but after a rape scene in the first chapter, I put the book back in my bag and returned it to the library. (Hey, maybe it is possible to fall in love with your rapist, it worked for Luke and Laura, but I'm in the 'no way in hell' camp.) But I liked Mrs. Harris' twists on the supernatural (who knew that fairies hate lemon?) and I've been sucking them down like a vamp with a pint of O negative. There are eight books in the series so far and I'm on number seven and I've only been reading them for two weeks. (Of course, I've had a lot of time at the hospital to read.) I think I like them because they remind me of a supernatural Stephanie Plum series (I love the Janet Evonovich novels, thank you Jamie!). Sookie is the "sort of" normal one in a world full of recurring colorful - if not quite real - characters.

Now I'll be interested in seeing the True Blood series, to see how close it comes to the novels. (I already have a quibble with Anna Paquin as Sookie, she is not nearly how I pictured the character) The notes from the previews at ComiCon suggest that the series is more lusty and violent that the books, which I find heard to believe since the books are plenty lusty and violent. At least in the books I don't see the blood. But if you want to sink your teeth into a good vampire series (yes, bad pun intended) check out my friend Sookie. Like a big ole glass of southern sweet tea, you'll enjoy it and want to come back for more.