Jaye: Okay, let’s jump right into this, Reno. Why do you like writing paranormal characters? Vampires, demons, therianthropes?
Reno: You took the easy route asking me first!
Jaye: I have to edit afterward. Cut me a break here! 😆
Reno: Touché. I think the major part of why I like writing paranormal stories is that these creatures allow me to dig into my darker side. The characters are allowed, even encouraged, to say and do things not accepted as being socially or politically correct.
Jaye: Makes me kind of afraid to go to sleep next to you now. :help: But I have to agree. Writing paranormal characters that have different or no moral standards allows me to play around with my darker side. Does this bother you, given that I do all the cooking? :eating:
Reno: Is that why my pizza tasted a little extra spicy tonight? *cough* We’re getting off track here. I’ll admit, I have to blame Anne Rice for my love of vampires. I was twelve years old when I read The Vampire Lestat.
[/caption]
It’s all about the hair.
Hooked. What was your first experience with the paranormal, writing or otherwise?
Jaye: Anne Rice is way too wordy and much too paragraph-less for my reading tastes. The first literary vampire that made me have dirty thoughts was Henry from Tanya Huff’s Blood books.
Like Lays Potato Chips: Bet you can't eat just one!
The unfortunately short-lived television series based on those books, Blood Ties, got him totally right. Too bad the show was on the LifeTime Channel and only lasted two seasons. I think if they brought it back today on a cable station that isn’t quite so niche, the show would do well.
Reno: I missed out on that one, but I did watch every episode of Forever Knight. Now that we write our own stories, I prefer writing vampires who like being what they are instead of angsting over their situation. Demons are probably my favorite paranormal species to write, though. It gives me a chance to pick your brain regarding your experiences with Roman Catholicism. Having grown up without any religion at all, the way religion and supernatural lore intersect fascinates me.
Jaye: I enjoy taking what I like from the established lore and tweaking that a little, but without changing it too much.
Reno: Yeah, I like to stick to the original lore as much as possible. Were-beasts have changed quite a bit through the last few decades. They’re certainly sexier than the black-and-white 1950s versions.
Jaye: One of the things I like most about how we tweaked therianthrope lore in our StarCrossed series is how shape-shifting is a painful and lengthy process for creatures who are intrinsically evil, whereas the metamorphosis for creatures who are inherently good is rapid, seamless, and painless. I kind of like the older movies in that regard, like An American Werewolf in London and The Howling, rather than newer movies where the shifting is instantaneous in all cases.
From the days before werewolves became shirtless hotties in cargo shorts.
Reno: I like some of the old film trickery of using sound and leaving some things to the imagination. Although I guess Jace can get pretty gruesome on the page.
Jaye: Jace. Rawr. I’m sorry, you were saying?
Reno: I thought I was easily distracted. 🙂 Jace is probably my favorite character to write. He’s so unapologetic about everything. Sometimes I feel bad for Konnor. One of the other reasons I like to write demons and shifters is because I really enjoy the animal instincts and traits of those creatures. Konnor and Jace are extremely pack-minded in their relationship. I love playing with that concept.
Jaye: I like playing with that aspect of Jace and Konnor also. For those not acquainted with these two characters, Jace and Konnor Barton are mirror-image twins who are demons. They had a very bad start in life as hostages of a religious cult that used them to control the human population.
Even though they were rescued from that life and given a chance to better themselves, they still bear the scars of those experiences in their own ways. It’s fascinating to play with broken yet ultimately strong characters like them, exploring our manifold human frailties and themes of other-ness through them.
Reno: It’s another way of showing how nothing is black and white. Looking forward at our books-to-be-written list, we have plenty of paranormal in store. In 2012, we’ll introduce ghosts to the mix, although Jace has already had a few brushes with phantoms. I think living in a paranormally active house has certainly given us inspiration!
Jaye: Nice segue to Monday’s post! 😈 Seriously, that’s the fulcrum of most of our work, isn’t it? That there is no black and white, but only shades of gray. In my former life, when I designed programming for computers, there was one particular term that fascinated me—a concept called “fuzzy logic,” which defines reasoning that is not fixed or exact, but rather approximate. Most of our characters fall into that category, both the ones who may appear outwardly good and those who appear outwardly evil.
Reno: It’s the not knowing that keeps a character interesting to me as a writer. I find our characters grow and develop as we write them. Their traits and personal quirks aren’t from a checklist, but evolve organically as we write, some of which are hellacious faults that would be too far over the top for mortal humans. That’s a lot of fun to mess around with. But I have to admit, that ultimately the reason I love writing paranormal stories is because I wish those creatures were real. If the only way I can make them be so is through constructing that world myself and sharing those adventures, then that is how I’ll do it.
Jaye: Without thinking too hard, give me three words that immediately come to your mind when I say “vampire.”
Reno: Ironically, “sun” is the first word that comes to mind. Then “coffin” and “biting.”
Jaye: Same question for “shape-shifter.”
Reno: Fallon. 🙂 Strength. Raw sex. Maybe that’s why shifter books are so popular these days. The fantasy of being animalistic and a servant to your baser instincts can be sexy.
Jaye: I guess we’d better get back to that new story we recently started, huh?
Reno: Speaking of vampires . . . . :diablogrin:
All commenters to our three posts this weekend will be entered into two drawings for a complete set of our entire paranormal backlist (PDF format). Have a safe and happy Halloween weekend, everyone!
–Jaye & Reno
Great post! You guys crack me up. 😆
Glad you enjoyed! 🙂
Love the ‘things that sparkle’ t-shirt! American Werewolf in London was my first werewolf experience and I do find it difficult to picture them as the romantic interest. I love how authors can make their own worlds though and the new take on vampires is good. I adore the old Hammer Horror vampire movies!
Reno designed that T-shirt! He’ll pop in later to post a link.
I used to watch all the Hammer flicks too. Some of them were so bad. LOL
Here is a link to the CafePress store with the T-Shirts!
http://www.cafepress.com/xtwilight
😛
That was a fun post to read and cute pictures to look at! 🙂
Thanks!
You’re welcome! 😀
So good to hear Henry being enjoyed, so very under rated in these post Edward days. 🙂
Great post. Thank you.
Oh, Henry has been enjoyed all right, and on more than one occasion. 👿
Glad you enjoyed the post!
I liked American Werewolf in London, but I still have a soft spot for the original black and white Wolfman. Movies presented in black and white make me imagine the characters more vulnerable for some reason. Maybe it’s the lightning or how actors portrayed their characters back then.
Great post! ^_^
I took a class on the History of Film back in college. Once a week they’d show a classic film and afterward we would talk about it. There are so many things going on in those old black and whites you’re not really conscious of. Lighting, positioning of the camera angles, the long pauses with silence. They relied much more on theatrics back then than they do now.
Ooh, I like your Jace muse as well. Not on the horror side, but I still watch Teen Wolf on occasion…it’s like a train wreck I can’t help but watch.
I too like how different standards and situations can be explored through the paranormal. With so much variety potential, you just never know what you are going to get.
We’ve been watching Teen Wolf too. Not half bad.
Interview with a Vampire wasn’t my favorite by Anne Rice but the movie had such delicious hotties in it, I decided it was my favorite for that reason alone. :pant:
As for MM paranormal, I have only read a handful since it has never been my favorite type of book, but every time I mention that on here, I get piled on with recommendations – everyone telling me what great books I’m not reading. I went ahead and put your StarCrossed series on my TBR list after you guys’ last post because the both of you just crack me up (and we seem to have the same taste in men :flirt:) I gotta see what I’m missing out on! Thanks for a fun post guys!
And by the way, your Jace muse is super hawt hawt hawt!!!
I’m ok with the shirtless hotties in cargo shorts. Uh The Howling movies scared me but made me laugh too. Those last couple were really bad! :nuts:
Fun post. These smiles are a riot!
Great post guys. :ahhh: I’m looking forward to the other treats you have in store for us this weekend.
Oh, yeah Jace’s muse is niiice. I prefer reading about vampires who are comfortable in their own skin so to speak, so I’m glad that’s how you like to write them.
Loved this post, and yes, Jase-Muse is smokin’ :blush: One of my favorite things about paranormals is the way that on the surface they’re so escapist/fantastical/unreal, but underneath, they’re just stories of individuals and relationships, filled with emotions and motivations that are familiar and understandable. At least, they are if the writing is good. (Thanks for the good writing, guys!) 😀
Darn Urs is a hotty and he can sing :-).
Fun post, thanks guys. I’m with Luci, give me a Vampire that enjoys being a bloodsucker. The darker the story the better.
“It´s all about the hair” I knew it!! 😆
Thank you for your post and happy Halloween weekend too 😎
Looks like some interesting stories. 🙂
great post!
I LOVE paranormal stories for much of the same reasons you both listed. lol
You guys are funny. You also write the best stuff, that is just the right amount of pervy.
Have a good Halloween Weekend!!! 🙂
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on why you write your supernatural stories.
My first experience with paranormal writing was The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. I borrowed *cough* the book from an older cousin without his knowledge *cough* and read it in secret when I was eleven. Scared the bejesus out of me, I wasn’t able to sleep for weeks and got myself into a mess of trouble when I was found out. And yet it set me on a course of devouring horror books one after another in my adolescence and even inspired me to study the sub-genre in college.
In terms of paranormal creatures in fiction, I’m not into shape-shifters much (although I must admit Fallon is a cutie). I do have a fascination with vampires and the whole mythology surrounding them (I did enjoy Rice’s Interview), as well as witches and the not so mythical Pagan religions. Practical Magic (the book not the movie) by Alice Hoffman remains a favourite.
But my favourites of the supernaturals in fiction are definitely the horned and haloed (sp??) ones. Give me a well-written demon and/or angel story any day and I’m so there. I think Reno articulates it quite well from a writer’s perspective and I don’t think it’s all that different for me as a reader – it gives me guilt free license to explore both the polarity and muting of evil and goodness and our inherent capacity for both. For me the Jace-Sariel dynamic in the SC series is classic in this respect and yet at the same time, as Jaye aptly put, there is no black or white only shades of gray.
And in respect of your oh so well-nuanced treatment of “Other-ness” you already know how I feel – you guys rock!
I hope you don’t mind, I have a couple of questions: What inspired the writing of the Messiah stories? How much (religious) research went into the writing of the books? And did you pick the characters, or did they pick you?
Thanks again for an interesting post and no need to enter me in the draw. I’m fully stocked in the M&V backlist department 😉
Happy Halloween!
Thanks for stopping by, Indigene!
I hope you don’t mind, I have a couple of questions: What inspired the writing of the Messiah stories?
I think tequila was the inspiration for this one. :beer:
How much (religious) research went into the writing of the books?
A lot of it was already in my head after many years of Catholic school. Equating the Seven Deadly Sins with demons is from 16th-century German theologian Peter Binsfeld’s 1589 classification of demons. There were many such classifications published by various individuals during the Dark and Middle Ages (Guazzo, Spina, and Psellus among many others), but for the purposes of this story, Binfeld’s system worked the best for us.
And did you pick the characters, or did they pick you?
Unlike most of our collaborative efforts where we more or less split the writing duties for the “cast” equally, in the Messiah stories Reno wrote the main protagonist, Malcolm, and I wrote everyone else. More than two years after the fact, I really can’t recall why that evolved in the way it did. Maybe I don’t want to know. 😮
Tequila??? ‘Nough said! LOL 😉
Jaye, thanks for answering my questions. 🙂
I do love my paranormals.
Hammer vampire movies were my porn when I was a tween and early teen. Lots of buxom girls in lowcut night dresses, and Christopher Lee stalking through, silent and intense and compelling everyone to his will.
Anne Rice’s work is best enjoyed as e-book. Interview with a Vampire was the single steamiest thing I’ve ever heard and there’s no sex in it! Her descriptions fairly pant.
I like my werewolves modern, basically guys who have three bad nights a month but live normally rest of the time. Angels and demons I’m not so hot on. I’d like to see more variety in the paranormals, hellhounds and djinn, nagas and rakshasas, wendigos even.
Am I the only one who likes vampires who sparkle? Go Team Edward!
Happy Halloween. 🙂
No I’m with you too Lasha, I love my Twilight fix, books not so much the films after the first one. 🙂
Great post. I loved Blood Ties when it was on. Kyle Schmid was yummy and it didn’t hurt that Dylan Neal was on too. Liking the sparkle t-shirt. 🙂
OMG, the episode where Henry bit Mike! :flirt: Thanks goodness for that rewind button.
You guys have way too much fun writing. Jace is one of my favourite characters and he’s so different from Konnor. Funny how I thought that Jaye wrote Jace — Reno you are one scary writer. 😈 :nuts:
I love vamps and you reminded me about Forever Knight. I have to re-watch that series. 👿
Thanks so much for this post guys (even though you were VERY late Jaye) Reno, you rock. Jaye here’s your present. :reading2: :whip:
I blame Bill Gates this time. I had a Windows update that crashed my computer and I couldn’t get online.
But I’ll take the flogging anyway. You can’t threaten a masochist with a flogging. :droll:
P.S. The smilies are AWESOME! :wave:
But I’ll take the flogging anyway. You can’t threaten a masochist with a flogging.
I’ll have to remember that. :nuts:
P.S. The smilies are AWESOME!
It’ll be awfully dull after November 2nd when they leave. Sorry! *cuinlove:
Everyone always thinks I am the sweet one. LOL! Jace is my ‘dark passenger’, to quote another wonderful character in medialand.
I was so addicted to Forever Knight when it was on, I would stay home from keg party at college to watch it! No VCRs in the dorm in those days…
Forever Knight. Just loved that show. Your books sound fantastic. Definitely on my TBB pile.
I really wanted Nick’s car. I built a plastic model of it. Yes…I am a geek at heart.
I have to read about that Jace now, thank you for the entertaining post 🙂
OMG Reno–Forever Knight–I adored that series–so angsty–such a poor misunderstood vampire. What can I say–I was young!! Love reading your two guys together–so much fun!!
I had no idea so many people watched that show, but it was on for many years so someone had to be giving it ratings!
I must admit, it took me awhile to develop a “taste” 😆 for paranormals in m/m even tho it was thru het vamps that I first discovered the genre. But now I can’t wait to “sink my teeth” :diablogrin: into a good paranormal story and you two guys write some of the best! Thanks for a wonderful post, and have a Happy Halloween!!!
Vampires are such sensual beings, I almost wonder if the question of sexual preference is even important to them. Even Dracula had his rather slashy moments with Jonathan Harker.
Great post, guys. I did not know about the blood ties series, I will surely check it out now. I enjoyed your StarCrossed series a lot.
Great post! Thanks for the laughs 🙂
What a fun post! Thanks! Your posts this weekend almost make up for it being Halloween tomorrow LOL