Favorite Vampire Authors

Like many writers who also write book reviews, I have authors that I have on my short list that I would love to interview. Of course, when it comes to vampire books, the one that always tops my list is Anne Rice. But if you put the Queen of Vampire Fiction aside, there are plenty of great authors I can think of that would be fun to interview for this blog.

One guy that I have come to like as a write is Jim Butcher. I got into his stuff via his character Dresden and it just snowballed from there. I mean, there pretty much isn’t a single thing the guy has written that I haven’t loved. And the cool thing is, he is so down to earth on his blog, which you can read here. The guy even outlines what you need to do when you sit down to write your own masterpiece. And somehow, the attitude that I love in his books shines through even more on his site. His latest book, Ghost Story was nominated for Best Paranormal Fantasy at the Goodreads Choice Awards and his latest collection of Dresden stories Side Jobs is finally out. So although Jim writes far more about wizards and such then vampires per se, I still put him in the “good guys” list for authors I would love to interview.

There are a couple of other authors that come to mind: Poppy Z Brite wrote Exquisite Corpse, a book that for me was a shock and yet also a great introduction to thinking in a whole new way about vampires. If you don’t think her serial killer/lovers are vampires, at least acknowledge they sure as heck share the sensibility of vampires. I know her writing has gone in a lot of different directions in the last bunch of years, but I still consider her one of those very precious vampire/horror writers.

Of course, of the modern crop of vampire writers, I would be remiss to leave Sherrilyn Kenyon off the list. Her Dark Hunter series is just about the best “poster child” for a great fantasy series there is and even her Bad Moon Rising in the Hellraiser series kicks butt and takes names later. It is hard to classify her work because she has created such an inclusive universe of beings that vampires just seem like the least of anyone’s concerns. Well, except that she doesn’t know how to make a non-lethal character, so it would not do to underestimate any of her characters. I love a woman who knows how to write awesome and powerful characters that can still leave you rooting for them to succeed. They kinda leave you thinking, if these are the “good guys” the ones they are after must be beyond frightening, and they are!

I am sure there are dozens of great writers I missed out here, but this was just a bit of a musing about how many great writers are out there providing us with some of the best fantasy writing that has been seen in a long time. It really is a great time to be a fan of any kind of paranormal storytelling – but especially of vampire tales!