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Beneath Blackthorn #6

Welcome to my series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight. 

FANGS AND FEEDING – Part 1

All Vampires Have Fangs – Don’t They?

Despite fangs being a defining characteristic of a vampire, they were never present in vampire mythology. Vampires have always had penetrative teeth of some description, but fangs as we know them today didn’t actually appear until the early 20th century. Ever since then, their style and placement have been manipulated.

Traditionally, vampires had a mouthful of sharp, ratty-like teeth not unlike those displayed in the 2007 film 30 Days of Night – based on the comic series. However, the first visual performance of a vampire was is Nosferatu (1922) and, in this instance, he had two extended front teeth (incisors) to bite with. Hmm, not the most appealing! But that was back when vampires were there purely to terrify.

The Mexican film, El Vampiro (1957) was the first film to show a vampire with elongated canines. But, of course, the most famous portrayal of vampiric canines was by Christopher Lee in his role as Dracula in the 1958 Hammer Horror classic. (Bela Lugosi never showed his teeth at all in Universal’s version previous 1931 version of the infamous count). With canines long having been associated with masculinity, power and virility (mine are bigger than yours, etc, etc…), the introduction of these as the penetrating tool of vampires introduced the new romantic vampire with all its sexual and sensual connotations.

Since then, films and TV have continued to manipulate the size, placement and mechanics of ‘fangs’ to suit their own creative needs. Examples include The Lost Boys (1987) who bypassed those canines for lateral incisors as well as True Blood, whose creators again opted for laterals. True Blood also played with the mechanics, nestling the teeth in roof of the mouth like a snake’s to click into place at feeding time. Avid fans of Supernatural might remember a Dean and Sam case when a vampire had retractable fangs that protruded from the gum whenever it was time to feed. And then there was the time when Dean was ‘infected’ and that brought us back full circle to the mouthful of sharp implements of old.

I found this on Pinterest a while ago and I think it gives a great snapshot of some of those examples:

Source: sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net via Lindsay J. on Pinterest

So, canines or incisors? 

When I had to decide on the design of my Blackthorn vampires’ feeding teeth, there were a few things that influenced my decision.

Canines are the most deep rooted and pointiest of teeth and their primary purpose is for gripping and subsequently tearing food. However, a) Blackthorn vampires don’t need to grip their prey using their canines alone and, more relevantly, b) my vampires don’t tear during feeding – they pierce. I therefore decided to keep to the principle of incisors (albeit a pointier, non-chiselled design unlike ours), as biting and cutting is the prime purpose of those teeth.

Therefore, Kane quite rightly corrects Caitlin in Blood Shadows when she refers to his incisors as ‘fangs’ as this is an interchangeable term for the canine or, in humans, the cuspid. Caitlin didn’t get it wrong though (she’s worked with them long enough). When ‘fangs’ are referenced in the Blackthorn series, it is in relation to the old legends and not least the feral nature of vampires – so is used to provoke. Kane is therefore really correcting Caitlin about his nature.

And their position? 

My only issue with this was that I never did much like the physical appeal of the front or lateral incisors extending. I’ve always preferred canines positionally. So I decided to find some middle ground by giving Blackthorn vampires an extra set of feeding teeth between the lateral incisors and their canines. They’re much narrower than their neighbouring teeth (to account for the extra set) – but lethally sharp and extendable. They’re also hollow so they can drink through them like a straw with the rest of their mouth consuming any excess bleeding.

This additional set of incisors are, of course, an obvious way to differentiate my vampires from humans. It equally differentiates them from the lycans who have the traditional elongated canines true to their origins – after all, they do like to tear.

I’ll be back with part 2 on Friday where I’ll be telling you about the feeding habits of Blackthorn vampires. I hope you’re not squeamish!

Win a Signed Copy of Blood Roses!

Members of Goodreads can be in with a chance of winning one of three SIGNED copies of Blood Roses, the second book in my acclaimed Blackthorn dark paranormal romance series.

The giveaway started yesterday and will run until a week before the release date. Here’s the link:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Blood Roses by Lindsay J. Pryor

Blood Roses

by Lindsay J. Pryor

Giveaway ends April 19, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

If you decide to enter, I wish you oodles of luck.

And don’t forget, you can pre-order a paperback version of Blood Roses now by clicking on the Amazon link in the sidebar.

The release day is drawing near!

xxx

Beneath Blackthorn #5

Welcome to my series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

Last time, I explained what Blackthorn vampires can’t do. So this time it’s…

WHAT BLACKTHORN VAMPIRES CAN DO:

They can breathe and have palpitations.

Blackthorn vampires have an autonomic nervous system similar to ours – which basically means they breathe, have a heart rate, eat, perspire, salivate and get aroused. But their respiratory and pulse rate is vastly slower than a human’s. I’ve based their extended lifespan loosely on the as-yet medically explored theory that if we slow down our heart rates, we’ll live longer. Apparently, a human body has only so many heartbeats (about a billion) and so many breaths. With so many variables, it’s a complex theory the more you read into it, but perfectly plausible – so I decided to extend it to my vampires. And just like we can control our breathing and heart rate to some extent, so can they. They also have a similar nervous system to ours so can feel pain as intensely as we do.

They can self-heal quicker.

My vampires like to sleep (and not in coffins!). You don’t see much of it in the series – firstly because each story happens in a very short and intense space of time, but also because it would obviously make a somewhat dull read. Human bodies heal up to 50% faster through sleep. You can increase that heal rate for my vampires. Fresh blood also helps them rejuvenate by stimulating cell re-growth. On that note…

They can go out in sunlight.

Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight. In fact, vampires could walk around like anyone else. Dracula’s a prime example – he lost his strength and power but could still walk around in the daytime. It’s popular culture that has made sunlight lethal to vampires. Sunlight won’t outright kill Blackthorn vampires, but their mild form of porphyria makes them intolerant of prolonged exposure to UV rays. Because of the extra stress this places on their self-healing, their bodies are under greater strain thus exhausting them quicker. In Blood Shadows, I refer to how Kane will have to go home and sleep after his walk home in daylight.

They can see themselves in mirrors.

It would be a crime if they couldn’t because they’re darn good looking. 😉 The reason vampires are reputed not to be able to see themselves in mirrors is because mirrors are believed to reflect souls which, of course, historically vampires don’t have. It was a particularly popular myth back when mirrors used to be backed in silver (see what I had to say about silver in Tuesday’s post). Okay, so my vampires don’t have souls, they have shadows. But with all that aside, if inanimate objects can cast a reflection, so can Blackthorn vampires.

They can be staked.

There are extensive theories as to why wooden stakes are recommended to kill vampires. One belief is that wood used to be alive so is subsequently said to suck the ‘undead life’ out of vampires. Some claim only wood from trees that bear fruit is effective. Others choose whatever wood was native to the area. The most commonly used woods are hawthorn and the rowan tree (lots of fascinating mythology around why!). In England, up until 1823, ash stakes (TVD anyone?) were deemed the most effective. Magical associations aside, using stakes has probably got a huge amount to do with the fact that vampire stories predate the existence of firearms. Wood would have been readiest and most cheapest substance available for the ordinary person. And why are my vampires susceptible to stakes? Because anything living that has a stake drummed into its beating heart is going to die.

They can enter your place uninvited.

Some traditions claim a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner. This is an extremely old theory linked back primarily to safeguarding against ghosts, demons and faeries. Vampires have always traditionally been classed the same way. However, as Kane proved in Blood Shadows, my vampires are more than capable of anyone’s home that they choose.

They can hear you coming long before you can hear them.  

They aren’t a superspecies, but Blackthorn vampires do have more efficient senses – hearing and olfactory senses in particular – allowing them to be more effective predators. They also have faster reflexes and reaction times, run faster and are significantly stronger.

They can resist killing you.

Blackthorn vampires feed on humans, but they do not set out to kill humans – or so they claim! Drinking too much blood in one go makes them ill. Drinking the last drop of human blood can kill them. Proficient vampires can feed efficiently and effectively and sense the right amount to take for both themselves and their feeder. Kane makes reference to this in his conversation with Caitlin in the bathroom scene in Blood Shadows. Feeding is worthy of a post in itself though.

So on that note, I’ll be back on Tuesday to give you some additional insight into my vampires’ feeding habits and why Kane refers to his ‘fangs’ as incisors.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

Meet Caleb from Blood Roses

He’s dark. He’s dangerous. He was the most proficient serryn hunter of his generation. I’m so thrilled to be able to introduce you to Caleb Dehain from Blood Roses…

Blood-Roses-bites-Intro1

 

And if that’s not enough, there’s more Blood Roses news in the next couple of days – so stay close! And Beneath Blackthorn #5 is up tomorrow for those of you who want a little more insider info. 🙂

Beneath Blackthorn #4

Welcome to my series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

With the existence of vampires being recorded as far back at the 6th century BC, what is known about them varies from country to country and culture to culture. Most of what we now understand stems from 18th century Eastern Europe, the influences of Christianity and the success of vampire literature and films of the 19th and 20th century. There is no right and wrong when it comes to what vampires can and can’t do. There is just one rule – they survive by feeding on the blood of the living.

Look into the mythology of vampires and you will find reams and reams of information to support or dispute various claims regarding vampiric abilities. Throw the influences of literature and films into the mix and it all becomes incredibly complex. As a writer of fantasy, I can be selective about which aspects of mythology I want to apply. I can also create my own rules. What my vampires can and can’t do is as much about characterisation and plot as fitting in logically into the Blackthorn world I’ve created.

So, let’s start with…

WHAT BLACKTHORN VAMPIRES CAN’T DO.

They can’t live forever.

In case you missed it in the last post, Blackthorn vampires are not immortal. They are not the result of some evil spirit animating their undead body. They haven’t sold their soul in return for eternal life. They are a species in their own right.

They can’t shape-shift or change their features.

Blackthorn vampires can’t morph into another creature any more than their human counterparts can. They don’t change their features either. Eyes suddenly turning black or red, facial features becoming disfigured, or ears and nails elongating when they are harmed, angry or hungry is one way to represent the demon ‘outing’ during moments of stress. It gets used a lot on TV shows and films not only for that reason, but because visually it’s more interesting and generates more scares. With nothing to ‘out’ from my vampires, they stay looking the same aside from a few subtle differences. The ‘fangs’ I’ll be dealing with in another post.

They can’t be warded off by holy symbols.

Being warded off by holy symbols, primarily crosses or holy water, was established by the Christian Church to support their theory of the evilness of vampires. Again, mine don’t have any demonic association, hence no recoiling.

They can’t display superhuman abilities.

If Blackthorn vampires were a breed of supercreatures, then the tension in my stories wouldn’t exist. Introduce a few thousand super-vamps globally and it wouldn’t take too long for them to take over the world. They’re definitely more physically adept than us (more on that in Friday’s post), but not to the extent they can leap entire buildings, fly, knock through walls or bend steel. What would be the point of front doors, let alone border control?

They can’t read minds.

Vampires have been associated with hypnotic stares or an ability to compel as a way of controlling their victims. How sexy it is for a vampire to control another into doing what they want – especially in a romantic relationship – is down to personal preference. Personally, I think it’s much more powerful if an individual’s actions are generated out of free choice. What’s wrong with old-fashioned charm and a little bit of clever psychology? Hence no siring in Blackthorn! And if my vampires are psychic, where’s the tension? Most conflict in relationships arises out of trying to guess each other’s feelings, motivations or perspectives. It’s no fun if one side has all the answers.

They can’t develop disease, get drunk or be affected by smoking.

My vampires aren’t infallible but they can tolerant things our more vulnerable human bodies can’t. They can drink copious amounts of alcohol and smoke without any health or side effects because, basically, their resilience and self-healing abilities are more proficient. It’s one of the reasons the Global Council think it’s acceptable to leave vampires to cope in the pollution-riddled Blackthorn (whilst making the most of a few experiments here and there…).

However…

They can’t tolerate silver, garlic or hemlock.

A vampire’s allergy to silver is hugely debated. Some say it was borrowed from lycan lore. Some say silver is a repellant because of its holy connotations – one legend claiming that vampires originated with Judas Iscariot and that silver was cursed when he betrayed Jesus with 30 pieces of it. Others say it’s down to the mysticism surrounding silver’s lunar associations. According to Greek mythology, Goddess Artemis had cursed the first vampire on earth that whenever it touched silver, the skin burned. It also has a paralyzing effect. Whichever, silver upsets my vampires’ internal balance. And it hurts. They also hate hemlock. Hemlock is a genuine poisonous herb that causes paralysis (it was allegedly used to kill Socrates the philosopher) – hence why Caitlin laces her gun with it in Blood Shadows. Blackthorn vampires are allergic to garlic because the allicin compound it contains thins their blood to the extent of making them bleed internally and externally. It also gives them symptoms of low blood pressure. Very unpleasant.

They can’t turn you.

As Kane said in his interview on GraveTells: “…we sure as hell don’t turn you as your religious leaders would like you to believe, anymore than drinking cow’s blood would have you grow hooves and chew the cud.” They can’t turn people because they don’t carry a virus and, as stated at the beginning of the post, are not part of a transmittable evil lineage. Once a vampire, always a vampire. Once human, always a human.

I’ll be back on Friday with what Blackthorn vampires can do.

Beneath Blackthorn #3

Welcome to my series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

The Third Species and their Shadows

For thousands of years, even before the term ‘vampire’ was known, blood-consuming supernatural beings have appeared in every culture around the world. Apart from rare occasions when they’ve been constituted as deities, they have almost always been associated with evil origins. This was further enforced by the introduction of Christian ideologies, with vampires not only deemed as a risk to our physical self but our spiritual self too.

The most popular belief is that vampires were once human before being transformed into the undead. Whether reanimated by an evil spirit upon death or willingly having sacrificed their soul in place of immortality, whether bitten by a vampire or having consumed the blood of one, in each circumstance the human’s soul is lost and their links with the afterlife subsequently severed.

Those beliefs don’t apply in Blackthorn. Blackthorn vampires aren’t immortal. They’re not humans reanimated or contaminated and they’re most certainly not the undead because Blackthorn vampires were never human at all. They didn’t swap their souls for immortality because they never had a soul to swap. Instead, vampires and other third species (e.g. lycans) have ‘shadows’ in place of souls. They are born that way and are subsequently a species in their own right.

This doesn’t mean they’re exempt from the judgement of human ideals, concepts and beliefs though. Blackthorn is based in an alternative reality but the humans that oversee it are still governed by the same historical and religious influences as us, right up to the point the third species outed themselves.

And it is the human-orientated Global Council (responsible for the political and social set-up since the third species came out into the open) that use evidence of this absence of a soul, and the presence of a shadow in its place, to define the third species.

The Global Council reinforces the theory that the soul is a pliable facet responsive to redemption, unique to the human condition and tightly associated with the afterlife. Humans are consequently defined as the ‘first’ species in the hierarchy of morality because, with the most to lose, they have profound reasons to govern their actions.

Any species whose actions do not need to be restrained by conscience, that are not subject to judgement and who, by the soul’s very absence, are excluded from redemption, are subsequently a lesser species morally. Until they prove otherwise, those with shadows instead of souls are hence categorized as the ‘third species’.

With this theory behind the Global Council’s propaganda, reinforced by the physical risks the third species pose because of their predatory instincts, the decisions to ‘cage’ the third species is upheld.

But do the Global Council really believe in the divisive connotations it enforces, or is it just another excuse to retain the upper hand? Is the melting pot it has created within Blackthorn intentionally so? And is the very ‘darkness’ implied by the existence of shadows within the third species a darkness at all?

I’ll be back with more vampire mythology next week, when I’ll be sharing some more traditional beliefs and the origins behind them – and how I’ve applied (or not applied) these to Blackthorn vampires.

Blood Roses For You!

Blood Roses, the second book in my Blackthorn series, isn’t available yet but I’m excited to tell you the first three chapters are now live! So, if you’re ready for your next Blackthorn instalment, grab yourself a drink, maybe some solitude and click here.

You’ll be meeting Caleb and Leila – the next couple whose romance is going to be integral to the future of Blackthorn. Vampires and serryns are a deadly mix at the best of times but, as I peel away Caleb and Leila’s layers through the story, you’ll start to see just how much of a lethal combination these two are.

But enough from me – as always, I love to know what you think. Please do get in touch if you have any comments to share.

I’ll be back here later with my third ‘Beneath Blackthorn’ post.

Have wonderful weekend!

Blood Roses Press Release

I’m super-excited to reveal the press release for Blood Roses, book two in my Blackthorn paranormal romance series! HUGE thanks to the blogs that reviewed book one, Blood Shadows, and for providing such fantastic quotes.

 

Blood Roses by Lindsay J Pryor Press Release

 

And if you’d like a taste of what’s to come, the first 3 chapters of Blood Roses will be available for you to read HERE on Friday! Darker, more intense and introducing a vampire with an attitude to rival Kane’s, I’m hoping Blood Roses will be another enjoyable step into Blackthorn for you.

 

Beneath Blackthorn #2

Welcome to my new series of posts aimed at avid fans of Blackthorn who want a little extra insight.

Being Different

Some readers and reviewers have already picked up on and commented on the social and political underpinnings of Blackthorn and have quite rightly made comparisons with some aspects of our own culture. There is most definitely a theme in my Blackthorn series that deals with prejudice and stereotyping and, not least, the judgments and assumptions we make about others. After all, the creation of Blackthorn was triggered by one simple thought – segregation.

Avid followers will already know I was inspired to create Blackthorn when I got lost in a city I’d only lived in for a matter of weeks. Finding myself alone at night in a run-down, isolated area with reinforced doors, boarded-up windows and an eerie sense of disquiet evoked all sorts of possibilities on that frightening walk home.

By this point, I’d already been writing paranormal romance for about five years – random, handwritten stories that piled up under my bed. After that night, a world started to form and, with it, a structure. And, as barricaded societies were forged, forbidden romances based on that conflict became inevitable (more of that in another post).

There’s nothing like segregation to bring out the raw instincts intrinsic to our nature. Humankind needs to control threats to its wellbeing or, more relevantly, what it perceives to be a threat. It is inherent to our survival. If that threat cannot be destroyed, at the very least it needs to be contained or monitored. Our very existence is structured on this principle. Even basic things such as locking our front door and checking over our shoulder on a dark night is evidence enough that, by nature, we don’t trust our own kind, let alone those we deem ‘different’. And if those outsiders are a potential threat against those we love? There’s no greater catalyst to intensify and justify that instinct ready to erupt inside us.

So what if vampires (as well as other third species) came out into the open? What if they did so claiming they weren’t a threat at all? That they were subject to centuries of misunderstandings fuelled by rumour and media? If instead of hiding, they wanted to become an active part of our society? What would the powers-that-be do? More to the point, would you give them a fair shot at proving themselves? Would you agree to one living next to you or your family? (Kane fans need not respond to that one!) Doubtful. Even the empathetic humanitarians amongst us would probably have alarm bells ringing. Accept them maybe, but at arm’s length surely?

Thus segregation would be put in place – at least in the first instance until more could be learned. This is even more likely if the powers-that-be hear of whispers that the third species coming out was, in fact, due to an ulterior motive. With that in the mix, those walls are going to be reinforced.

And so the Blackthorn district was created – a neglected and rotten core in a human-controlled locale from which there is no escape (you can learn more about the structure of the locale by checking out ‘About Blackthorn’ in the tab bar). I wanted a world that was dark, unfair and oppressive to maximise the conflict, enhanced by borders that, for some, could never be crossed. A locale not only prejudiced against the third species, but some humans too. No one has a right to equality in the newly structured locales – everyone has to earn it. An equality that, if the powers-that-be continuously alter the goalposts, will never be achieved by some.

In that respect, the Blackthorn series is about vampires as the underdog. I wanted the so-called predator controlled by the prey. Whether the predator will succeed in living up to its name, whether it’ll overcome its oppression, is one of the core questions of the stories. As to whether it even deserves to, whether the powers-that-be are actually right and justified in their approach, well, that’s wide-open at the moment.

But before I delve a little deeper into the human-orienated Global Council’s regulations, I’ll tell you about the principles they base those regulations on. I’ll be back with Beneath Blackthorn #3 on Friday, where I’ll share what is meant by ‘third species’ and why I’ve given them all ‘shadows’.

Beneath Blackthorn #1

From The Inside Out

The most exciting aspect of writing fantasy is artistic license. There is no right or wrong, only what those before you have created. If you love fantasy, you’ve probably already got that switch in your brain that is willing to accept that, when it comes to fiction, anything is possible. And, if you’re anything like me, you like your writers to create a few new slants and concepts here and there to keep the subject fresh.

I always wanted Blackthorn to be an intricately built, complex world that included my own creations. I’ve lived with it a long time now. Avid followers will know it’s been sixteen years, in fact. That’s sixteen years scribbling away in the background creating things just as I wanted them, without subjecting them to scrutiny or reviews or trends. Soon, various stories became a series as I interwove naturally occurring threads that increasingly bound these standalone romances together towards an eventual conclusion.

Both of these elements – creating an unfamiliar world and developing a series – became a challenge when I needed to switch Blackthorn from being my stories to being suitable for an audience. For the first time, I had to think how I developed my world and its characters for my reader, especially with a lot to reveal, whilst avoiding painful info dumps that come hand-in-hand with having fantastical elements and concepts. And how, when I already have the bigger picture in front of me, to choose what to reveal where, when and how. It takes faith on the part of my reader that they’ll find out what they need to know when they need to know, and it takes patience on the part of me, as the author, not to spill too much too soon. It’s a very delicate balancing act.

But I know there are some readers already itching to know more – sneaky peeks into how I created the world of Blackthorn and why I have done things the way I have. So, for avid fans of Blackthorn who want that little something extra, I decided to slot in this series of posts between now and the launch of Blood Roses.

Do you need to read all these posts to enjoy the books? Are they an essential guide? No. The heart of Blackthorn is not fantasy, it is romance. Take the backdrop and subplots away, my intention from the very beginning has always been to create dark and intense, sometimes claustrophobic, character-driven romances about two individuals colliding and how they get through the conflict inherent between them. Even the series element comes out of the impact their love is going to have on the other relationships and subsequently how all the romances are going to meld to eventually shape the fate of Blackthorn. The love developing between the central characters will always be at the core, and everything you need to understand that will be right there on the page.

Instead these posts are an addition as you await my next release and I work on book 3, which I can reveal is called Blood Torn (do let me know what you think!). No other spoilers yet!!

So, if you’d like to know why Blackthorn vampires don’t ‘turn’ humans, why they bite with incisors and not canines, why I refer to them as the ‘third species’ and what the underlying themes in the series are, please come and visit every Tuesday and Friday – what triggered the creation of this series is up next.

I hope you enjoy!

xxx