Vampire Anatomy 101 and Love Fang Giveaway with Guest Author Susan Blexrud

Thanks, Roxanne, for inviting me to share my insights. I can never resist talking about my favorite subject…vampires.

At the risk of getting clinical…Oh, what the heck, let’s get clinical. My experience in writing about vampires started with a life-long fascination that led to a potential storyline that led to oodles of research. I incorporated much of what I learned about historic vampires into the world I built for John Wright, my Vampire Vigilante. His energy field can stop or start appliances. He can morph to bat form. Humans are instinctively drawn to him. His hearing and eyesight are superhuman, and of course, he’s more gorgeous than the average hunk. Anatomically, he has a heart. The way I see it, how could any creature fall in love without a heart? The Twilight vampires and Charlaine Harris’s undead don’t have heartbeats, but let’s think about this for a minute. For a creature who subsists on blood, wouldn’t you have to have a circulatory system? Where would the blood go, for Pete’s sake? Don’t hearts beat to the rhythm of romance? And ladies, we all know it takes pumping blood for our guys to get it up. Without a circulatory system, the hose would be mighty limp.

Then there’s reproduction. My vampires beget vampires, and a born vampire, in my undead world, has exceptional powers. If vampires were sterile, they’d be shooting blanks, and does that make sense for an Alpha vampire male? Not to me.

Here’s another bee for your bonnet. Most everyone agrees that the transformation to vampire must be made BEFORE the human is pronounced dead. Therefore (or at least, therefore for me), the life form remains, meaning a beating heart and other anatomical accoutrements.

Have you ever seen a vampire use the bathroom? It stands to reason that without food or drink, there’d be no need. My vampires don’t eat, but they do drink liquids besides blood. I’m assuming my vampires would need to use the bathroom after a few pints of Guinness. I just don’t talk about it. Lyndsey Sands’s vampires eat when they’re in love. And Mario Acevedo’s vampires are down right gluttons. They eat like a reincarnated Henry VIII. Sure, I’ll have leg of lamb with a blood chaser, and then I’ll need to make a pit stop before I fly off into the night.


Okay, enough of that.

What do you think?

Susan Blexrud is the author of Love Fang and Fang Shui, both currently available from DCL Publications (www.thedarkcastlelords.com). She is working on the third book in the series, Real Men Have Fangs, and the fourth story, Mistletoe Fangs, will appear in a DCL Christmas anthology, Season of Love.

Visit her at her website, www.susanblexrud.com.

She welcomes your comments at: susanblexrud@bellsouth.net

Would you like to win a pdf copy of Susan's first book in the series, Love Fang? Answer this question in the comments section below to be entered to win.

"Do vampires have hearts?"

3 lucky winners will receive a free download of Love Fang. Make sure to include email contact info. Thanks.