Award-winning author Nancy Kilpatrick has published 18 novels, around 200 short stories, 1 non-fiction book (The goth Bible) and has edited 10 anthologies. She writes mainly horror, dark fantasy, mysteries and erotica and is currently working on two new novels. Some of her recent short fiction appears in: Blood Lite (Pocket Books); Hellbound Hearts (Pocket Books); The Bleeding Edge (Dark Discoveries); The Living Dead (Nightshade Books); Don Juan and Men (MLR Press); Vampires: Dracula and the Undead Legions (Moonstone Books); By Blood We Live (Nightshade Books); The Bitten Word (Newcon Press); Campus Chills (Stark Publishing); and Darkness on the Edge (PS Publishing) Recently she co-edited with David Morrell the horror/dark fantasy anthology Tesseracts Thirteen (Edge SF&F Publishing). She is the editor of Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead (www.vampires-evolve.com). Her graphic novel Nancy Kilpatrick’s Vampire Theatre will be out in August, and a collector’s edition of the erotic horror series The Darker Passions begins December 2010. You can check out Nancy’s latest endeavors at her website: www.nancykilpatrick.com.

Charles Tan: First off, what’s the appeal of vampires for you? What made you decide you wanted to write vampire fiction? Edit a vampire anthology?

Nancy Kilpatrick: I’ve always found vampires appealing, right from my earliest years when I’d watch horror movies on the late show. This was from the age of 8 or 9, and only when I was allowed to stay up on some weekends. Like a lot of kids, I loved horror movies and like many people today, I loved vampires the best. Bela Lugosi and Gloria Holden set the standard for me in those old b&w films and then later, Christopher Lee added to it brilliantly. A dark, mysterious stranger-vampire, all powerful, all dominant, that had and apparently has great appeal still. I think for a lot of people the attraction to vampires is a bit like an attraction to a feral animal–you’re afraid yet something in you wants to be able to tame this creature. And of course, with vampires, at least well-written vampires, that taming is practically impossible because if they’ve lived more than one lifetime, they should be not just strong and wily but very very smart; smarter than us. And full of self-protection options. It becomes a challenge for a human being: do we kill them or be killed by them. Can we avoid being under their spell? Do we want to avoid that?

As I got older, the vampire took on a kind of metaphoric quality for me. I became interested in myths and legends of the undead as well as fiction & film. As I acquired books, magazines, films, toys, all vampire in nature, one day I found myself with what is called a ‘collection’. It’s an ongoing interest for me.

I find the vampire has a lot of qualities that I’m attracted to and I think I share this with a whole lot of people. They are usually sexy, often charming, mesmerizing, erotic and strong. They live forever or a reasonable facsimile. They aren’t really fearful of anything. They are at the top of the food chain and, funnily enough, that’s an interesting place for humanity to be, one down and not the top.


CT: There’s a diverse set of vampire stories in Evolve but personally, where do you see the future of vampire fiction heading?

NK: I wrote the first book in my Power of the Blood world–Bloodlover–in 1975 and that book (originally set in 2006 which has come and gone and Bloodlover wasn’t published until 2000 so I changed the format to a flashback novel), setup a world that vampires lived in, a world unto themselves but where they also mingled a bit with humans apart from the usual predator/prey situation, although they were superficial relationships at best in that book. The next books in the world opened that aspect up.

Other writers of vampire fiction began doing the same thing. For example, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St. Germain world, and Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula world. Anne Rice did some of that but most of her realm is vampire on vampire and creating more vampires.

It takes a while for film to catch up with literature and Buffy (the TV series) and now Twilight, True Blood, Being Human and The Vampire Diaries all focus on relationships between humans and vampires. Believe it or not, that has been happening in fiction for the last twenty-five years, in both major publishing house books and in small press and fan fic. Like I said, literature is in the forefront.

In Evolve, I wanted to explore where these relationships could go. The authors in the book found intriguing ways to move the vampire forward. I agree with all the ideas and concepts in the book. And I won’t say more about the future because I’m editing another book on vampires and want to save the surprises, including my own thoughts, for that one, which should be out in 2011 or 2012, depending on when I can get the manuscript in.

To glimpse my own interpretation of the future of vampires, you can check out my story “Traditions in Future Perfect” in The Bitten Word (Newcon Press).

CT: There’s been a trend in vampire fiction, your anthology included, to present vampires as benevolent creatures. In your opinion, how did this trend develop? Are you fond of this interpretation?

NK: First, let me say I disagree about Evolve. In Evolve you see a few benevolent vampires. But there are plenty of others who are not benevolent at all, for example in the stories by Gemma Files, Steve Vernon, Natasha Beaulieu, Kevin Cockle, Rio Youers, Claude Lalumière, Ron Hore, Heather Clitheroe, Bradley Somer, Sandra Wickham–none of these vampires are benevolent. And there are others where the vampire might try to be benevolent, but that doesn’t work out, for example the stories by Kelley Armstrong, Victoria Fisher, Colleen Anderson, Rhea Rose. Then there are the stories that don’t involve human beings, and focus on the world of vampires, by Kevin Nunn, Rebecca Bradley, Mary Choo and Jennifer Greylyn. The remainder is a mish-mash of ideas that include vampires trying to raise the bar, stories by Tanya Huff, Bev Vincent, Jerome Stueart, Claude Bolduc, Michael Skeet. There’s also a sweet poem in the book by Sandra Kasturi.

I’m not opposed at all to the idea of benevolent vampires. I’ve been immersed as a vampirophile for so long that I’ve seen a lot of changes and shifts in the undead. Currently we are in a place where the vampire is largely a romantic and/or erotic interest. And that means they must get along with humans to a large extent. After all, if every passionate encounter ended in the death or transformation of the living, a) there would be no story; and b) we’d see human population dwindling rapidly! Today’s vampire will evolve. It has to. All things evolve, which is why I wanted to do the anthology with that title, to show the evolution.

Because I’m looking at the big picture of vampires as opposed to someone who figuratively just stepped into this fascinating fang realm within the last 10 years, I go for the overview. It’s a bit like being a historian, but one who does an ergo: because this happened, and this, then therefore this will likely happen with vampires. I don’t resent the benevolence or the romance at all. It’s a stage.

CT: In your introduction, you have a comprehensive survey of vampires in pop culture, whether it’s television, cinema, or books. What kind of research did you have to do? Why do you think vampire stories are effective across multiple mediums?

NK: My research is really from my reading and viewing. I like to imagine I’ve seen every vampire film ever made. That’s probably not so, but I’m sure I’m close. My library has 2000 titles, most of which I’ve read. I’ve also been a big fan of Rob Brautigam’s website: shroudeater.com which focuses on mythologies around the world, although I’ve plenty of books on mythology and legend too. So really, I didn’t so much do research as fact-check what I know, and this mostly from my library.

For me, the vampire is an archetypal energy and that means it’s imbedded in the human psyche. Naturally, anything that touches all people everywhere throughout all time can easily work in all mediums.

CT: What was your criteria for selecting the stories in Evolve?

NK: For Evolve, I wanted a fresh approach to the nosferatu. I gave the writers a mini tour of the vampire’s history and told them to go check out what’s happening now, in film, on TV, in books. And then figure out where this can go. Most people are familiar with the various Dracula movies, and many have read Bram Stoker’s book Dracula. That seems to be the basis for the collective’s idea of what the vampire is about, and mapped onto that are Anne Rice’s books, Buffy the TV series, and now Twilight, True Blood, etc. I wanted the writers to explore the vampire in its myriad incarnations because the undead are viewed differently around the world, and have been at different times, but also, as I’ve said, literature is ahead of film, so it’s readers who have the edge on what’s new.

I honestly don’t know how many of the writers in Evolve checked out the vampire extensively. In fact, there was only one story I rejected, and it was because it didn’t quite hang together and the author didn’t want to change it to make it work. Otherwise, everything I received was wonderful and fit my criteria for showing the vampire that we will be seeing, the one evolving from where the creature is at today.

CT: Aside from the stories submitted to Tessaracts Thirteen, how did you decide who the other contributors would be? What made you decide to go for an all-Canadian line-up?

NK: One consideration, and a large one, is that the publisher is based in Canada, with a mandate to profile Canadian talent. We have some stars in the supernatural realm here–Kelley Armstrong and Tanya Huff–and I knew they would both write amazing stories and they did, so I asked them in. Otherwise, I mentioned the anthology to a bunch of individuals who I knew were good writers because I’d read their work. There are a couple of writers who had submitted to Tesseracts Thirteen. Their stories didn’t make the cut and they weren’t vampire stories but they were good writers, so I mentioned Evolve to them, which is why you’ll see a couple of writers who are new in Evolve and I’m thrilled to have published their first story. Edge SF&F also has a view that they try to include people from all across the country. Canada is a huge land mass. It’s so spread out that the various parts of the country are very different from one another, in geography and in culture beyond English and French, the two official languages. I was curious to see what people from different parts of the country would produce. In truth, almost all Canadian horror writers are in Ontario and any anthology of horror stories threatens to be Ontario-centric. But Quebec produces some great writers of dark material and I knew people here (I live in Quebec) would come through. There are also a few horror writers scattered elsewhere.

Evolve is the first ever all-Canadian, all-vampire, all-original stories anthology. It’s been wildly successful so far, with terrific reviews. The book will be released in the United States in August through Barnes & Nobel so it should be even more successful. I’m really proud of the book, of the wonderful writing it contains, of the writers who had not before written horror or vampires and who stretched themselves beyond their comfort zone. And I’m also proud of the writers who I know to be solid horror writers who raised their own level of creativity to meet my challenge. And frankly, I’m delighted that this book can reflect the country of Canada as a whole. No, we don’t have every province represented, but we have most, including the Yukon. And it just fell into place that there’s a balance between male and female writers, which, for some reason, always seems to happen in my anthologies. But overall, I’m humbled by the quality of the writing in Evolve that came out of Canada, my adopted home.

CT: You’ve edited several anthologies before. How different is the experience of solo-editing vs. collaborating with another editor?

NK: I enjoy both. When I edited Tesseracts Thirteen with David Morrell; Outsiders with Nancy Holder; and both In the Shadow of the Gargoyle and Graven Images with Thomas Roche, all of those collaborations were pure joy. I love the writing and greatly respect those people and am honored that I had a chance to work with them. The books I’ve edited alone, the latest being Evolve, have been fun as well, but of course require more work and a lot more checking. For a solo editing gig, it’s difficult to run anything by friends, as, say, compared to writing a short story or novel myself. With an anthology, you’re either in the know as the co-editor, or you’re so outside of it that you can’t really ‘see’ what the editor is trying to do in order to make suggestions. There’s a lot more weighty responsibility as a solo editor. When I co-edit, I can share the roses and the thorns.

CT: Were there any challenges you ran into editing Evolve? How about pitching it to the publisher?

NK: Absolutely no challenges regarding the pitching end. The publisher, when I told him about the stories that didn’t fit into Tesseracts Thirteen, he was gung ho on Evolve. My pitch was for a limited edition signed book, but quickly he saw the possibilities and decided to do a print run of trade paperbacks for stores, and special editions available through his Evolve website: signed trade paperbacks; hardcovers, and signed hardcovers packaged in a wooden coffin. It’s pretty amazing. Readers can go check the special editions out here: vampires-evolve.com

CT: For readers who are unfamiliar with the book, what makes Evolve different from other vampire anthologies?

NK: The quality of writing and the unique and forward-thinking ideas. These writers were not afraid to take a chance because I gave them carte blanche, other than my one stipulation: come up with something new. Send the vampire into the immediate future. And they did. You won’t find another book like this.

CT: Anything else you want to plug?

NK: I have a pile of short stories out, but I’ll just mention the vampire stories:

  • “Bitches of the Night” in Blood Lite
  • “The Vechi Barbat” in By Blood We Live
  • “Vampire Anonymous” Vampires: Dracula and the Undead Legions
  • “Traditions in Future Perfect” in The Bitten Word

A graphic novel Nancy Kilpatrick’s Vampire Theatre is being released in August which features three of my short inter-connected stories and the comics based on those stories which I wrote the scripts for when Brainstorm Comics published the Vampirotica series. The graphic novel also has an interview with me and as well, we have a tie-in song from the Vampire Beach Babes band which has an initial free download then will be available from iTunes, and an interview with the band leader Baron Marcus. A special website is being constructed so your readers can check my website and my Facebook wall for details shortly.

One last thing of interest. The UK specialty press MHB is reprinting collector’s editions of my The Darker Passions series, erotic and humorous pastiches which focus on horror classics. There are two vampire titles of the seven books: Dracula and Carmilla. The other titles are:

Frankenstein; Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; The Picture of Dorian Gray; The Fall of the House of Usher; The Pit and the Pendulum. They will be available beginning December 2010. Again, check my website. I’ll post the url there and on Facebook, once the publisher gets his new site up.

Related posts:

  1. TOC: ‘Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead’ Edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
  2. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Han Song
  3. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  4. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jason Andrew
  5. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Ellen Kushner Talks About ‘The Children of Cadmus’

Filed under: Interviews

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