Vampires… The Way They Should Be! Guest Blog by Matthew D Ryan

You’ve seen them. You’ve gagged at them. Have there not been enough vampiric Romeo’s spouting love sonnets to their mortal beaus? I say, no more!

Romance was the farthest thing from my mind when I conjured up the vampire Lucian val Drasmyr for my dark fantasy novel “Drasmyr.” I wanted someone evil. Someone dark and corrupt. Someone… to be feared.

I’ve always liked vampires, but more because I have a morbid fascination with all things evil, not because I’m looking for a hot undead date. To a certain extent, it probably stems from my youthful forays in the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons where vampires always played the part of villains… and particularly nasty ones at that. My gaming “career” has had a profound influence on my writing. Sometimes there are clear cut differences between good and evil, and the vampire falls safely in the realm of evil, at least in the worlds I create and enjoy.

There are a number of advantages that come with that. For one, the malevolent vampire can retain all the powers historically appointed to them. Could one imagine Edward Cullen transforming into a wolf, or mist? Or being fully vested with all the dark powers that accompanied the original Dracula? No. Edward Cullen sparkles. When the vampire is evil, when it has the powers of darkness on its side, it can change shape into a wolf or a bat, it can be held at bay by the power of the holy, and it be thwarted by simply not being invited into one’s home—when such accoutrements accompany it, the vampire is far more than a strange human that drinks blood. It is something far more sinister and alien, and all those dark powers augment its insidious nature. The more human and more human-desirable one makes the vampire, the less appealing the dark powers become to that character. I haven’t read “Twilight,” so maybe Edward Cullen could summon a storm to block the sun’s rays. But if he did, who would care? You get rain instead of sunshine… you aren’t running for your life from a monster intent on draining your soul.

Vampires as foes are at their most potent when they have quasi-demonic origins. This does not mean that they can’t be seductive, but it should be rendered in a more sinister fashion. When you are seduced by a traditional vampire, there are no fun and games… you’ve just lost everything. You become a slave of darkness, a minion of hell. And there is no turning back.

Even in a world where there is magic and sorcery (such as in my novel “Drasmyr”), the vampire can and should be rendered as a terrible foe. A devil in near human guise. And that just makes his predations worse.

Drasmyr

By Matthew D Ryan

In a world of wizards and vampires a clever man may make a fortune. But hunting the undead is no small task, as Coragan the bounty hunter will soon find out. He will need all his wits and the help of his comrades to succeed this time. Together, they must pit themselves against a creature so old time itself bends knee, an ancient vampire by the name of Lucian val Drasmyr. Read Drasmyr, a dark fantasy novel by Matthew D. Ryan.

We vampires do not make easy prey. Our weaknesses are few, our strengths many. Fear is something we do not know, and death but a distant memory. So tread softly, pray to your god, and gird yourself with silver when the moons arise and night’s dark prince awakens. We fear not the wizard, nor the warrior, neither rogue, nor priest; our strength is timeless, drawn from darkness and we know no master save the hot lust of our unending hunger. We long for blood, your blood and no blade, nor spell, nor clever artifice, can keep us long from our prize. Feel our teeth at your throat, your life ebb from you, and know as darkness comes to claim you that the price of your folly is your everlasting soul.

Author’s Smashwords Page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/matthewdryan

About the Author

Matthew D. Ryan is a published author living in upstate New York on the shores of Lake Champlain. He has a background in philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. He also has a black belt in the martial arts and studies yoga. He has been deeply involved in the fantasy genre for most of his life as a reader, writer, and game designer. He believes he saw the legendary Lake Champlain Monster (a.k.a Champy) once and he has a cat named Confucius.

Blog: http://www.atoasttodragons.com

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Twitter Handle: MatthewDRyan1