You bet I'm Proudly Paranormal!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about vampires. There are several of them in my novella, A Vampire’s Deadly Delight, and there are a couple more in the short story I wrote for the anthology Bites - Ten Tales of Vampires. While I didn’t do much research before I wrote about them, I’ve done some catch-up in order to write quasi-intelligent sounding blog posts. Like this one. You’ll have to let me know how I do.

In my research, I came across the article, My Vampire Boyfriend: Postfeminism, "Perfect" Masculinity, and the Contemporary Appeal of Paranormal Romance by Ananya Mukherjea in the journal Studies in Popular Culture. With a title like that, you know it has to be a fun read. 

The author argues that the reason vampires are so persistently popular right now is that it takes a paranormal figure to balance all the roles that contemporary women are expected to assume. Women are supposed to be strong and career-minded, when they’re not wearing slut shoes and flashing their ta-tas on the internet. We’re supposed to raise kids and gardens and keep the house Martha-Stewart-worthy. While working a full-time job. And getting pedicures. Real men can’t keep up. Only a vampire with many years on earth, old-fashioned values, strength, financial stability, and a streak of nasty sexy danger can turn us on.

Her argument was pretty persuasive. I’ve sure as heck never fantasized about a reasonably handsome man whose job blows hot and cold and who never remembers to put the carton of milk back in the fridge. Real men are great for some things, but when I want to get away from it all, find me someone who’s pale and fanged, someone who drives a sleek black car and who doesn’t care if I forgot to put the clothes in the dryer.

And while I'm at it, can I just say that I don't get the whole zombie craze? They're all nasty lurching dead things dropping body parts on the floor. Hey, I've got teenagers. You can look at my living room and see it's kind of the same thing.

Heh.

So what did I do? I wrote a book where one of the main characters stabs vampires with her demon blade, ending their undead lives. And then I wrote a story where the vampire comes to a mysterious end at the hands of a rusalka. It kinda makes me wonder what I'm up to. Given the perspective of the article, I seem to have a need to destroy the perfect man. Repeatedly. Wow. That’s enough material for a whole lot of therapy sessions. 

I’m going to put a positive spin on this and say it shows how much I value the Real Man in my life. Hugging someone with a pulse is the only way to go. And if he would just put the silverware away correctly, so that all the salad forks go in the same little slot, he might be perfect, too. What, me, issues?

Peace,

Liv

Make sure to leave a comment as I'll be drawing for prizes including copies of A Vampire's Deadly Delight and Bites - Ten Tales of Vampires! You can check out the "My Books" tab above to learn more about both of them.  ;)
And check out the next stop on the Proudly Paranormal Blog Hop tour, YA writer Rebecca  Ryals Russell!