Interview with Nancy A. Collins

Originally appeared at Monster Librarian.com

Nancy A. Collins is the author of several novels and numerous short stories. She is a recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award and The British Fantasy Society’s Icarus Award. Her latest work is a young adult vampires series titled Vamps is reviewed here.

ML: You started your novel writing life with Sunglasses After Dark, the first Sonja Blue novel. How have you gone from rather adult horror novels to YA vampire princesses?

NC: It’s been a long road, but not a terribly surprising turn, at least for me. I have always had a good number of young/teen readers with the Sonja Blue series, and with my work in the comics industry. It wasn’t that huge a leap, personally, to start looking at the YA market. The biggest changes I’ve had to face are the differences in length (the average adult novel is 90 thousand words, while the average YA novel is half that) and some of the subject matter. Young Adult themes nowadays are far more ‘mature’ than when I was in junior high & high school. I do have a tendency to be dark, though, and I have to remember that the audience reading my books has yet to enroll in the School of Hard Knocks most adults attend after they graduate from college, so I have to remind myself to dial it back a few notches.

ML: You’ve been a rare, strong female voice in horror for a while. Do you think that being a woman has affected your career, either positively or negatively?

NC: I’ve never run into sexism in the publishing industry per se, whether from the editors or fellow writers. However, I become well aware that it exists whenever I deal with Hollywood, especially in regard to Sonja Blue. If she had been a male character named ‘Jason Blue’, there would be three movies out by now. But I think my being a woman does affect the characters a great deal. They tend to share a sense of responsibility (or a resentment thereof) to their family. But then again, I was raised in the South.

ML: The YA world has a lot of big dog vampire books, such as Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. How does VAMPS compare?

NC: I think VAMPS is for those readers who are looking for a storyline driven by something besides boyfriend/girlfriend drama. There is plenty of who-really-likes/loves-who or who’s-messing-around-behind-who’s-back going on in the VAMPS series, but that’s just a part of what’s going on. If you’re looking for a rehash of TWILIGHT, you’re probably not going to like VAMPS that much. However, if you like the Anne Rice vampires series or Harry Potter, you will probably enjoy VAMPS a great deal.

ML: Sonja Blue and Cally Monture are both half-blooded. What do you think the draw is to characters who aren’t of one world, or another, but are somewhere between?

NC: I feel that most women, on some level, view themselves as being caught between two worlds, whether it’s mother-wife, daughter-girlfriend, student-employee, or however you want to mix-and-match it. It’s also an excellent allegory for coming of age, whether you’re sixteen or fifty-two. In the Sonja Blue series the underlying theme is her constant inner struggle to remain human in the face of monstrosity. In the VAMPS series Cally is being tempted to forsake her human heritage in order to fit in with her new peer group. People are in too big a hurry to throw away their humanity, whether in exchange for ‘cool’ or ‘money’ or ‘fame’, if you ask me.

ML: In VAMPS, I have to admit I abhorred Lilith, the reigning social queen of Bathory Academy. But by the end you’d managed to soften her snottish personality and make her sympathetic. Does muddying the good guy/bad guy trope make for a better stray, in your opinion?

NC: When writing a character like Lilith you have to remember that no one ever thinks they’re a villain. Hitler, Bin Laden, and Jeffrey Dahmer all had a perfectly good reason (to them) for the evil they committed. With Lilith, I just took your basic self-absorbed, insecure, high- maintenance high school rich-biyatch and added the fact she’s a, you know, shape-shifting, blood-drinking MONSTER to the mix. Part of why Lilith is the psycho-sister that she is has to do with how she was raised–or not raised–by her parents, and the society she lives in, which is VERY Darwinian and favors the strong over the “weak”, and where ruthlessness is viewed as a virtue. It doesn’t make her any less evil, at the end of the day, but at least you can understand where she’s coming from.

ML: You’ve written novels, short stories, comics, nonfiction and novelizations, and edited anthologies. Do you have a favorite medium?

NC: They all have their different strong and weak suits. Comics are probably the easiest/most fun to write. I’m always excited to see how an artist interprets what I’ve described. I love writing short stories because you can experiment with style and format far better in short form. Novels allow you a great deal of freedom in regard to character development. Novelizations are definitely the least fun, because you’re working with other people’s characters, and while that can be fun if you’re a fan of a particular series or character, you have and have to abide by a fairly rigid ‘bible’ supplied by the producers, so there isn’t a lot of room to be creative and explore your own vision.

ML: Unlike a lot of authors these days you have very little web presence. Do you think this is a boon to your career or draws away from reaching potential readers?

NC: Actually, I have had a My Space page for several years now. It’s at
http://www.myspace.com/golgotham I’ve recently created a profile with Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1501539605&ref=profile

and Blogspot
http://arkansylvania.blogspot.com

Also, HarperTeen.com has an author page for me at
http://www.harperteen.com/authors/32665/Nancy_A_Collins/index.aspx

that features some Q&A and other fun stuff.

I used to have a LiveJournal blog for several years, but I closed it out when I changed my ISP. It was too much hassle to change all the jpegs I’d posted from my account over the years to Photobucket.

ML: What’s the draw to vampires?

NC: Since they look like us, and, in fact, used to BE us, they are a perfect allegory for the human condition. Depending on what you want to focus on, they can be a symbol of man’s darker drives (cruelty, ruthlessness, predatory behavior), or they can symbolize passion and romance (the love that lasts forever, the all-consuming passion that never ends). They also make excellent Byronic heroes, flawed heroes that battle with their inner demons in the name of love or beauty. They can also be painfully accurate portrayals of the perils of modern dating (the handsome charmer who seemed perfect at first, only to later reveal himself to be an inhuman monster).

ML: Do you think the vampire story will ever die?

NC: No. No more than the detective story, the love story or the ghost story will die. Indeed, the vampire story combines elements of all three. In the last 30+ I have seen several vampire-based books and movies become huge pop

culture successes: SALEM’S LOT, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, FRIGHT NIGHT, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, BLADE, FRANCIS FORD COPPOLLA’S DRACULA, UNDERWORLD, and now TWILIGHT. And then there’s the upcoming sequel to TWILIGHT and the DARK SHADOWS movie starring Johnny Depp. So, no, I don’t think vampires are in any danger of disappearing any time soon.

ML: What do you have in store for Cally and Lilith and the true bloods of Bathory Academy? According to your blog on Amazon.com there’s a movie in the works?

NC: Actually, the producers are working on trying to turn it into a TV series. But I would be just as thrilled if they can turn it into a feature film. As for Cally, in AFTER DARK, the 3rd book in the series, her relationship with Peter is going to undergo a huge shake-up, due to circumstances beyond their control. The same goes for Lilith and Jules. Both sisters also suffer deep personal losses that change their lives forever, and are given a chance at living a dream come true. Of course, how they react to these nearly identical parallel situations is completely different from one another. Lucky Maledetto, the twins’ older brother, will be playing a larger role in the third book, as will Exo. We also discover a great deal more about how Old Blood society works, and just how dangerous the Shadow Hand can be. Oh, and there’s an all-vampire fashion show.