...why vampire stories are on the downslide when it comes to romance publishing?
It wasn't long ago I heard from several sources that NY publishers were tired of heroes with teeth [pointed teeth anyway]. Vampires and werewolves were passe', blase' and sooo five minutes ago.
Okay. Fine. Aside from the fact that I love vampires and have written about them and werewolves with moderate success, I can understand the market could get saturated, but hello -
vampires seem to be alive and well [pun intended] on television.
Ever since [big sigh] Angel disappeared from the airwaves [what WERE they thinking?] there have been a long line of pretenders to the throne.
First came Blood Ties, starring Christina Cox and Kyle Schmid - an abrasive cop and a broody 480-year-old Duke.
Then came Moonlight, starring Sophia Myles and Alex O'Loughlin - an annoying reporter and private investigator turned reluctant vampire by his ex-wife.
Now, we have True Blood, premiering tonight on HBO which brings to life Charlaine Harris's bestselling Southern Vampire Mystery series.
Is it just me, or does anyone see a trend here?
Not that I'm insinuating the powers that be in TV Land really know what viewers want to see [they invented reality TV, after all, and there went ALL their credibility] but let's face it, vampires are hot. They were hot, they still are hot and I predict they will continue to be hot, so why the 'no teeth' preference in publishing? Give viewers and readers what they obviously crave, heroes with BITE!
5 comments:
Vampires have been on television quite a bit the past two years. I still don't think I have seen anything that makes me stop missing Angel *sniffs* but I'm glad that they're out there on television. I'm looking forward to the premiere of True Blood-I have high hopes for the show :)
More vamps/wolves in publishing is perfectly fine with me!
I had mixed reactions to tonight's premier of HBO's "True Blood"...
I thought Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer did a great job and I liked their characters. I especially liked Sookie's best bud Tara and her boss Sam (Rutina Wesley and Sam Trammell).
I thought the plot and storyline were excellent! The action and attraction between Sookie and Bill believable.
I did NOT care for all the gratuitous sex, however... I realize this show is airing on HBO, but come on; I was watching it with my 14 year old son! I don't object to sexual content as a part of the storyline, but scene after scene of graphic rough sex definitely detracted from the storyline for me. It was just excessive sex thrown in to jack up the ratings, and it lost them the younger teen audience (at least the younger teens who have any kind of parental supervision)...
In my humble opinion, the sexual tension ALLUDED to in Moonlight was much more tantalizing than the disruption of the storyline in TRUE BLOOD. I also thought the lead characters in Moonlight were MUCH better looking, and portrayed as MUCH smarter than the TRUE BLOOD characters. I felt that it portrayed Southerners in a very unfavorable light (the granny character couldn't have been more idiotic if they tried)! I'm sure they intended for us to view the characters in that light and, although I don't live in any of the southern states - I was offended for those who DO.
I tuned in because I'm a fan of the genre and for the vampire lore and mythology. If I wanted soft porn I'd be renting it!
Bottom line: I will probably continue to watch this show (I'll Tivo it and watch it when the kids are in school) because I DO appreciate the "sympathetic" portrayal of vampires. It is a poor substitute - (but a substitute nonetheless), for Moonlight; but TRUE BLOOD will NEVER replace or even compare to Moonlight as a series!
Moonlight brought something I have no name for into our lives each week. I CARED about Mick, Beth and Joseph. I don't think I will ever be able to actually care about the pathetically STUPID characters (with the exception of Tara, Bill and Sam) TRUE BLOOD has to offer.
On a higher note; it's nice to see all the Australian actors comming into their own in the U.S. market! What is it about their brooding, dark, good looks?
Just my opinion....
Christi
Hey Christie! Thanks for stopping by. I TOTALLY agree with you.
I haven't read CH's books, but halfway through the show, I said to my husband, 'If I were the author, I would be embarrassed by this.' I sincerely doubt there is that much bad language in her books. The sex - I can't say, and of course, on paper, sex seems a lot less gratuitous than on screen, but seriously.
Not that it's something I'm in immediate danger of having to worry about, but if HBO ever wanted to buy one of my stories, I'd think twice. They do a crap job with their series because thier writers seem to pick a favorite foul phrase and use it all the time and consider it scintillating dialogue. They seem to pander to the lowest common denominator.
While the story does have some merits, I actually did feel bad for Charlaine Harris.
It'll be interesting to see whether True Blood stays on the air after both Blood Ties and Moonlight were canned after only one season.
True. The thing with the HBO series is, they make five or six episodes and call that a season, then they string people along with gratuitous advertising [people who are already paying for the channel and therefore paying for the show whether they like it or not] and toss out five or six more episodes another year down the road and call that season 2.
So much easier than network TV where they have to hustle for a couple of months deal with sweeps.
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