Horror, It's No Longer a Man's Game

  There has been a lot going on so I haven't written a lot lately. (or at all in the last year) But recently I saw something on line that infuriated me. It was an online comic bashing the twilight series. Now I like to make fun of sparkly vampires as much as the next person. But the thrust of this jab was that girls had ruined vampires.

  Girls ruined vampires! Excuse me?! GIRLS RUINED VAMPIRES!!!! Maybe this is just the pregnancy hormones talking but....WTF! Pardon me while I take a horse tranquilizer to come down. ( it's ok to take that while you're pregnant, they're herbal. Ok no they're not but it was really a handful of almond M&Ms and one stuck in my throat so it was kind of like taking a horse tranquilizer)

  If you believe that than you haven't read any vampire fiction written later than the nineteenth century. I have two words for you sir. Ann. Rice. Doesn't ring any bells. That's alright I have a few more Laura K Hamilton, Tanya Huff, Charlene Harris. Nearly If not all the good Vampire fiction of recent years was written by Women.

  So think about that for a moment, sexist asshole, while Laura K Hamilton beats the s***t out of you. When she is done with you  Ann Rice wants to reenact some scenes from her books.   Charlene Harris and Tanya Huff are here too. Charlene has brought popcorn. (Don't ask me why. Its my twisted day dream. And Ms. Harris strikes  me as a woman prepared for any social situation) So while you  wonder exactly what these talented ladies are planing to do with that fifty gallon drum of miracle whip lets see what upsets you so much about "girly vampires".

  You don't like well educated erudite vampires. You want a predator, the monster within, the alien, the other with a capital O. Sunshine by Robin Mckinley. Read it and sleep with the lights on for the rest of your life. Her vampire is brilliantly characterized at the same time as she makes it subtly but clearly obvious that this person is not human in ways that we may never fully understand. She paints the other and the alien without resorting to outright gore.The fear Mckinley evokes comes from our own undefined fears.

  That is what makes all of these woman masters of their craft. The understanding that the true horror springs from the well of human nature. And that is why I prefer "girly vamps" Because whether or not they suck blood I like characters with well drawn personalities  and richly embroidered back histories. So not that I have got that rant out of my system I have only one more thing to say to the people who whine how woman writers have ruined horror. I see you Bram Stoker and raise you one Mary Shelly.