"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -Plato
"It's not too much to hope for things to feel all right. Nursing a drink till I get sleepy and go to bed and dream about sex and heaven, that's not empty shit." -Jonquil Florio
The above are not exactly the kind of musings one might expect in an erotic vampire novel. But each one appears in my new novel "The Blood Jaguar", released today from Passion in Print Press. In the book, I steer the Siobhan Bishop Erotic Underworld series into territory both new and very, very old. Vampires are the stuff of frenzy in creative media of all kinds these days; seems like everywhere you look on television, movies, books, someone is smiling back at you with bared fangs. A lot of those works repeat or revise themes popularized by Bram Stoker's classic "Dracula", or Anne Rice's wildly popular modern spin on the subject. But the human fascination with blood and sex (the essential elements in the tales of Stoker and Rice) goes back as far as human history, and has taken shapes from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other -- from fear to desire, from dark passion to bright exaltation.
For my own own exploration of the fierce sexual phenomenon of the vampire, I wanted to take things to a new and different place. So I rooted the story in a culture steeped in things that are quite the opposite of the dark and unholy night creatures of modern entertainment. Life, reverence for the faith and power in sacred things, love of the sun and delight in the day, along with intense eroticism, were the elements I wanted to weave into the vampire mystique. Not much like Dracula, I'm afraid.
I also wanted to bring things down to earth a bit. Most vampire tales are filled with fantastic elements like becoming "undead", having a strange form of immortality, possessing a form of sexual hypnotism to lure victims...right on down to sleeping in coffins or turning into night mist. Fun as all that is, I wanted to write about things on a level a little closer to our own. The fact is, there are real people who adopt a "vampire" identity as part of a lifestyle choice. In my current hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, one need only go down to the city park in the center of town to see young men and women who call themselves vampires, and they have little use for stereotypes, embracing an alternative lifestyle in which they mix blood ritual with their sex lives.
So I took those two basic approaches -- the "vampire mystique" as a source of life, energy, sex and health, and a subculture of realistic young people looking for an alternative way to have passion in their lives -- and wove "The Blood Jaguar". Among its characters, along with the regular protagonist occult book expert Siobhan Bishop and her lover Professor Richard Blake, are a young intellectual nihilistic woman working in the Central Florida sex trade; a highly successful Mexican couple of Aztec descent who run a high-end resort that offers the raptures of sexual enlightenment through "vampire" techniques; a devout Baptist pimp who is a sucker for hearts and flowers love; an equally devout Catholic woman who wears a silver cross given to her with affection by her vampire lover...let's face it, we're not in Transylvania anymore.
The eroticism of the story is intense, but under it is a theme I always strive to bring to works that explore sexuality: how does passion excite the soul along with the body? Without one the other can only be shallow and empty. Can the soul be excited by a wild closeness to our life-blood, and sex that is both savage and sophisticated? Ask the sangre angeles, the "blood angels" of "The Blood Jaguar", along with their kiss that changes both body and soul.
8 comments:
Sounds highly entertaining, R. Paul! I love the fact that you've taken the vampire theme and turned it on it's head - so like you to do. Congratulations on this, your second book in the Siobhan Bishop Erotic Underworld Series. I'm very excited to see what new adventures you've worked up for Siobhan. I love that you've set it in FL and that it involves a high-end tourist resort, so prevalent down here. Can't wait to see what you've done with it. Once again, congratulations. I've been waiting for this one to come out.
Hello Paul.Leave it to you to take an old fashioned notion and make it hot, exciting and fresh with a GIANT dollop of intellectualism.
I love the new cover.It's sleek , sexy and enticing.
Congratulations on book two I know you will give Mr Stoker a run for his money.
Yours JP
Thanks, Ivy!
I had a lot of fun turning every vampire cliche I could think of inside out, while at the same time exploring some fascinating sexual and intellectual ground.
I also enjoyed placing the tale in my current home state of Florida (as strange a place as I have ever lived, and that's saying a lot). Somehow it seemed perfectly natural to weave together elements like urban street life, resort hedonism, religious extremism (and wild sex)into the fabric of Sunshine State life. By the time the above-mentioned Baptist and Catholic characters (as well as Pagan intellectual Siobhan herself)were awash in Aztec sun-worshipping hot blooded sexuality, I knew I was in deep waters as a writer. But that's the only place I would ever want to be.
Hey there Tisha,
I know, I can never resist those giant dollops of intellectualism. Along with hot and frenzied sex, I sneak in a character who reads Nietzsche; a real 500 year old document called the Codex Rios; sprinklings of revolutionary thought from some of the great minds of history; an implied theft from the Vatican by an Archbishop who sneaks a priceless document out of their library under his cassock; and even a quote from Plato. All in the guise of feverishly sexy erotic fiction.
As for you, Jean-Paul, I am having a splendid time co-writing my next project for PIP Press with you...talk about intense, our "Torera" is as hot and fierce (as well as poignant and inspiring) as a book can be.
Hey R.
I am so excited to read your take on the vampire culture that really exists today, and I have a few friends that want to read it too. My experience with vampires is that they are anemic as hell and make awesome friends!
Miss Rylee wants to read this one too, I told her she had to wait a few years for that experience!
I am so happy for you and all your success lately, there is no person I know who deserves it more than you do.
Star to Star
Kristaline
Hey Kristaline,
I actually had a "vampire" co-worker for several years at the printing firm where I have my day job -- he was an unusual fellow, and an iconoclast of the highest order. He was in his thirties at the time, but he told me about the young vampires who hung out in St. Petersburg's downtown park -- at that time I would sometimes ride the bus back to that park in the evening after work, and sure enough I saw them there, a small group in Goth finery, smoking cigarettes and laughing with one another...apparently they would head out to a small coffee shop in the area later, and talk philosophy into the night. All of those things found echoes in "The Blood Jaguar".
And yes, Miss Rylee is going to need to wait a few years for this one!
Thank you for the warm good wishes, as always dear friend.
Star to Star,
R
I'm reading your book right now - couldn't resist - and am really enjoying this wild scene set in the Florida I know. Your characters are great, so many distinct ways of life all brought together in this book. Loving the vampire culture on Clearwater beach - ha ha. Siobhan and Richard are great as are Cipriano, Roberto, Esther, Jonquil and the blood jaguar, herself. Fabulous reading! I can't put it down just like the first one. Congrats on this second EXCELLENT book in your series. You are the bees knees, R. Paul, the cat's meow. And the sex is hot. Pick up a copy now, everyone, you won't be disappointed.
There are "vampires" near Clearwater Beach in Florida, Ivy?? Hmm...
But I'm glad you are enjoying the interplay of characters. I had a marvelous time weaving all nine (!) major characters in the story together, each with their own unique take on the glories of passion.
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