Vampires and vines in miniature . . .
I’ve not been able to get into the vampire in literature thing. Not in any way. Whilst I enjoyed the splendour of the Masked Ball in Van Helsing, much of the rest of dracule-infested life left me for dead, if you’ll pardon the pun!
Although in A Thousand Glass Flowers, my protagonists battled in one chapter with the terrible winged Strigoi Mort who are in fact dracules from Eastern European folklore. That is my sole adventure along such haunted night-time paths.
But my dear friend Pat, artist extraordinaire has just created a Vampire Hunting Kit in miniature. Go to her blog and read her detailed journey of the creation. (http://bopressminiaturebooks.com/blog/2010/05/14/a-vampiric-experiment)
Whilst this exceptional little piece won’t turn me into a vampire lover, it has certainly given me an idea . . . if Pat made a similar kit for the wine-lover with flavours and bouquets in bottles, a corkscrew and little books on the art of tasting and maps of the Bordeaux etc . . . now that I would really dive into. But in the meantime, I want to know how Pat found such tiny bottles, such miniature knives and crosses and did she make the tiny bible and so much more. Her imagination is quite astonishing . . . and enviable.
It’s too bed, because if you could stand a very light touch of vampire, you’d enjoy the excellent historical novels of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, whose timeline extends from BC to the present.
I know I’m a stick in the mud but in all the supernatural and fantastic, I just prefer the fey.
Vampires can be an interesting subject if treated as either a true deep horror subject or very Gothic one. What irritates me is this modern wave of sexy-high school teen vamp stuff that’s clogging up the entertainment world.
SJAT, I’ll take your word for the deep horror or very Gothic, I haven’t even read Bram Stoker. As for the Y/A vamp romance, I tried Twilight and fell at the first hurdle. It was a subject matter thing, not a style thing, as I didn’t get in deep enough to judge. I just don’t find vampires engaging. Having said that . . . I adore Count Dracula from Sesame St.