Margaret L. Carter is the author of the Vanishing Breed series of vampire novels. At the time of this interview the series was underway. Today she has published seven novels, numerous collections and non-fiction books. This interview was done in 2002 for E-Genre Weekly. Her work is available on Amazon.
G. W. THOMAS: The vampire predominates your writing. Why?
MARGARET L. CARTER: Ever since I first heard of vampires (from an older playmate when I was about 6), the concept has fascinated me. I read Dracula at age 12 and was marked for life. The novel got me interested in all kinds of speculative fiction and inspired me to start writing. As a result, I became a writer and, inevitably, an English major. My interest in fantasy, horror, and “soft” SF even caused me to meet my future husband, when we were both teenagers obsessed with reading and writing fantasy and SF. (We’re still married, with 4 sons and 3 grandchildren.)
While I acknowledge the fascination and horror of the violation of body and soul implied by traditional vampirism, and the terror and pathos of living far past one’s normal span, my primary interest is in the sympathetic vampire, who has the same free choice and moral responsibility as any person (rather than being automatically classified as “evil”). I’m enthralled by the question of how a “monster” views the world and how he or she comes to terms with his/her peculiar needs and challenges.
The first vampire story I wrote, at age 13, was the journal of a man being changed into a vampire, who had no idea what was happening to him. This was 15 years before Rice published Interview With a Vampire. Two characters from my earliest vampire fiction remain “alive” in my 1999 novel, Dark Changeling.
GWT: You have several e-books. One is Sealed in Blood, a vampire romance. How do you blend romance with horror?
MLC: I’d have to say, like P. N. Elrod, that most of my vampire fiction isn’t horror. Sealed in Blood is light romantic suspense, in which the vampires who appear “onstage” aren’t evil. The villain is human, and the romantic male lead is a vampire. Since my vampires are another humanoid species living secretly among us, rather than undead beings animated by the Devil, they have the choice of good or evil behavior, just as ordinary people do. I enjoy books that portray a non-traditional angle on traditional horror tropes such as vampires and werewolves, so I like to write the same kind of thing myself. Blood drinking need not be presented as horrific. In sympathetic vampire fiction, blood-sharing, if by mutual consent, can represent the ultimate intimacy. (Notice how often the drinking of blood is accompanied by telepathy in contemporary fiction — ultimately suggested by Bram Stoker’s “baptism of blood” scene, of course, although he frames it as rape rather than intimacy.) Therefore the exchange of blood can be written as highly erotic.
GWT: Your novel Dark Changeling won an Eppie Award. How did this change things for you? How do you feel about e-publishing in general?
MLC: I was thrilled with the Eppie for Dark Changeling because this novel is truly “the book of my heart,” which I’ve been working on in various incarnations for most of my adult life. In fact, as I mentioned above, two of the secondary characters go back to the vampire stories I wrote at age 13 and 14.
The award bolstered my confidence and encouraged me to continue writing novels and pursuing electronic publication. E-publishing has several advantages over traditional mass market publishing, if the author carefully chooses an established, reliable publisher in this volatile new field. In many cases the turnaround time for submissions, as well as the time from acceptance to publication, is faster than in the print realm. (Not always, because the better-known e-publishers are quickly getting overstocked, too.)
The author gets personal attention from editors rather than being lost in the crowd. We get to participate in writing our own blurbs and even suggesting cover art, something that never happens in mass market publishing. (I did get this kind of personal attention and cover input with Shadow of the Beast, my first novel, a werewolf story, but the publisher, Design Image Group, is a small press and therefore also able to work closely with authors.) In my experience with Hard Shell Word Factory, the publisher of Dark Changeling, we get fuller sales and royalty information than the big New York houses typically give. And royalties come quarterly instead of annually or semiannually. Royalty percentages are much higher than in traditional publishing, so that even though “cover” prices are lower, the net to the author per copy actually comes out higher.
GWT: You write vampire non-fiction as well as fiction. Your latest is Different Blood: The Vampire As Alien. This is a survey of vampire fiction between 1898-1990s. Has the vampire changed much in 100 years?
MLC: Certainly the proliferation of the sympathetic vampire, as well as the appearance of many different variations on the traditional figure as seen in Le Fanu and Stoker, has made a great difference in the kinds of fiction available to readers. In the late twentieth century, vampire fiction – like many other sub-genres of fantasy and SF — began to focus more on the allure and fascination of the Other instead of the fear and loathing of the Other.
Vampire fiction flourished in an unprecedented way in the 1970s (even before Interview With a Vampire appeared on the scene in 1976), and while its popularity has fluctuated over the past 3 decades, it has continued to expand in new directions. I discuss trends in 20th-century vampire fiction in an essay called “A Gravedigger’s Dozen” (lots more than a dozen books, actually!), which is linked from the “Realm of the Vampires” site:
GWT: Vampires have become a genre all of their own. Do you think this boom has reached its peak?
MLC: I think the boom has had several peaks, followed by “valleys” when editors decide vampires are “overdone” and become reluctant to accept novels and stories in this sub-genre. But an excellent, innovative vampire piece will always find a market, especially in e-publishing and the small presses, which respond to the interests of devoted readers rather than following mass market trends. Currently, Laurell K. Hamilton, P. N. Elrod, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and several other established authors have vampire series that are going strong, new authors such as Christine Feehan and Charlaine Harris are attracting attention, and paranormal romance seems to be enjoying resurgence. And there will always be another “peak” down the road. The vampire is immortal and always rises from the grave!
GWT: Issue 25 of The Vampire’s Crypt (Spring 2002) is the last one. What did you learn from editing this magazine? Do you have any future editing plans?
MLC: I’m getting old and tired!<G> As satisfying as it has been to see my zine in print twice a year, especially with the comprehensive, detailed book review columns by Catherine B. Krusberg, the issues are a lot of work (even though I do it the easy way, having the authors send me camera-ready copy) and always lose money. I don’t plan to start any other zine in the future. I have one vampire anthology project that I would like to get into print, but I’ve tried to market it off and on for many years with no luck.
GWT: What in the future for Margaret L. Carter?
MLC: The publisher of Sealed in Blood has accepted another vampire romance, Crimson Dreams, and a fantasy written in collaboration with my husband, Wild Sorceress. We’ve started planning a sequel for Wild Sorceress . A sequel to Dark Changeling is under consideration by Hard Shell Word Factory. I’m working on another vampire romance, and I have a quasi-Lovecraftian horror novel I’m trying to market. Back issues of The Vampie’s Crypt will continue to be available from the new distributor.
GWT: Thanks for your time.
