An Interview on Book of Shadows (Part One)
James Cormier is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult novel Exile: The Book of Ever, which is available on Amazon from its publisher and is also currently on Wattpad. Wattpad, that wonderful place, where it all began. He is also my husband, my number one support system, and the real life human being on which Alexis Rex Sutton is based. He thought that, given the amount of interest in Book of Shadows and the number of questions I’ve been asked, over the past few months, that it would be incredible to do an interview. Of course, being my husband, he knew most of the answers to the questions already; but he thought about what he’d like to know, as a reader, if he didn’t share the same house with me. And so we took Memorial Day weekend, cracked open a bottle of wine, and had a little fun. I hope you have fun, too, getting inside our heads.
JC: First, is Alex really based on me? And why would you do that to people?
PF: He is! He really is. And, first of all, because all of my male protagonists are to some extent based on you. I can’t help it; it just happens. You’re the funniest, most intelligent, most charming man I’ve ever met. When I think of “man I find irresistible,” as a concept, to inspire me to write something romantic, I think of you. Which means that even when I’m not thinking, consciously, “I’m going to base this person on Jim,” to some extent it happens anyway.
JC: You’re delusional, but thank you.
PF: Alex, though, as a character, is more directly based on you. More than, for example, Tristan from The Demon of Darkling Reach. Although there are, of course, elements of you in him as well.
JC: Because you think I’m pale and depressive?
PF: Well, when we first met, you did joke about having that vampiric tan. But no, because Alex is a man who doesn’t see his own worth. And thus doesn’t understand why everyone loves him so much. But in terms of more immediate things…that sense of humor is all you.
JC: If by “sense of humor” you mean “state the obvious,” then I suppose. Yes.
PF: Exactly! That is exactly it! You and Alex both have the same…well, you can both be very deadpan. The same dry wit. But most of the time, when I was writing Alex’s dialogue, I would ask myself, “what would Jim say?” And really, dear, you are very chivalrous. And you’re such a total clotheshorse. I didn’t even know about half the brands I mentioned in this series before I met you.
JC: Including Agent Provocateur.
PF: Including Agent Provocateur.
JC: You should stop selling me. I’m taken.
PF: Finding the right person, and marrying them, can be the best thing in the world. If they’re the right person. If there’s one idea that I hope people take away from this series, it’s don’t settle. For anything. For a man, for your life. People say, “have the courage to be yourself.” But you won’t know who you are, in order to be that person, if you don’t first stand up for yourself. Standing up for yourself is how you learn: who you are and, at the end of the day, what you’re really about. You gave me the courage to be myself—and to write. When there were a lot of competing, negative voices telling me to be less weird and do something more practical. And now, a lot of people are going to say, “you don’t need a man to do this” and maybe some people don’t. And that’s great! But some of us did, and do. Some of us shine the brightest as part of a team. And that’s also great.
JC: So why does everyone think Sepha and Alex should have had a baby?
PF: Because they’re not parents? Honestly, I don’t know!
JC: Do you think they’re being unrealistic about parenthood?
PF: That’s tough to say. People like to read about a lot of stuff that they wouldn’t necessarily do. I love that film Everest, and I’m not about to climb the actual mountain any time soon. One thing I do know is that, while babies are wonderful, and I love ours to pieces, there’s nothing romantic about them. Babies are hard work! And while I think parenthood can—with the emphasis on can—bring a couple closer together, that’s only if the couple is really, really already strong and has their goals and dreams figured out. I might have been ready to get married when I was Sepha’s age, but I wasn’t ready to be a parent. I’m glad we waited a few years. And I’m glad we waited to get married, too, until we were finished with school. No one can decide, for another person, when they’re ready to do anything—I was more mature, ten years ago, than a lot of the people I know now who are ten years older—but there’s also no reason to rush. And that’s something else I hope people get about Sepha: she’s doing what she’s doing, because she’s ready. And because, as crazy as her choices might seem to the outside world, they’re the right choices for her.
JC: Do you think she wants to be a parent?
PF: Probably some day. But there are, also, lots of ways to be a parent. Love is about more than biology. Which is something I grew up knowing, but that most of us don’t necessarily have cause to consider. At least, not until something happens that gives us reason to reevaluate the meaning of the word “family.” Through the miracle of adoption, I think, I’m really blessed. In more ways than one.
JC: Is it hard, being adopted?
PF: For me, no. And for me, too, I think of parenting as being about love more than biology. After all, I am the product of two biological parents. But they didn’t want to be parents. And that’s another thing that’s important to remember: family, whether in the sense of blood ties or the people in your life who’ve become family through love alone, is still a choice. It’s one you have to make, again and again, every morning when you wake up. What keeps someone in your life forever isn’t that they gave birth to you, or share DNA with you somehow, but that they want to be there.
JC: So is that why Sepha considers, and discusses, adoption?
PF: Yes. It’s also the same reason that Lorelai, when the series starts, is a single mother. There’s more than one way to be a parent, and to be a family. People say “write what you know,” and I guess I am.
JC: Like getting married young?
PF: Yes. You are, as I’m fond of telling people, the only boyfriend I’ve ever had. Or wanted! I guess I just struck gold on the first try. There are a lot of—valid—arguments against getting married, or at least getting engaged young but sometimes those arguments just don’t apply. I wasn’t much older than Sepha is, when the series starts, when I met you; and, like Sepha, I’d been through a lot and because of that I knew exactly what I wanted. I never felt like I sacrificed anything to make the choices I did and that’s really important. I can honestly say that, sitting here, having this conversation, is what I most want to be doing in the world. I can’t think of anything that would make me happier. Every morning, when I wake up, I feel like I won the lottery—but better.
JC: You poor, poor fool.
PF: You love me.
JC: I do. But back to vampires. Some, apparently, can have babies.
PF: Some can! Sepha and Alex can’t, because of the limitations on vampires in this world. There are a lot of different vampires out there, imagined by a lot of different authors, and there’s nothing really wrong with any of them. They’re just not…my cup of tea. I’m something of a traditionalist, when it comes to horror, and my vampires are more Dracula-style. As in, Dracula the book. They’re subject to a lot of limitations that their human counterparts aren’t, and that’s because they’re a fundamentally different species. They might have started out as human, but they’re not now.
JC: And that’s why they can’t reproduce?
PF: They can reproduce by creating more vampires. But in the conventional sense? No. Just like they can’t eat or drink or do anything else “normal.” Their bodily processes simply don’t support that. Because really, they don’t have any bodily processes. They’re undead. So, in a kind of suspended animation, both created and supported by magic. And maybe all life, as Peter observes in the last book, is just magic—but this is decidedly a different kind. Which also explains why they don’t do things like use the bathroom. They draw their life—or, to be more technically accurate, they feed the magic that keeps them going—from others’.
JC: So a vampire can’t just break into a blood bank?
PF: It’s the life force they need, from a living victim, which flows through blood. Blood, once it’s been removed from a person, is no good. Because that connection is gone. It has to be actively keeping someone alive, while the vampire is feeding from them, in order to provide any sustenance.
JC: What about animal blood?
PF: Human beings, being natural creatures, can create life. And not just in the sense of giving birth; their life forces are self-sustaining. Renewable. Vampires, on the other hand, have no life of their own. They have this magic, which needs feeding. Some vampires, in some worlds, can feed on animals but in the world that I’ve created, because vampires were once human beings they need to now feed on other human beings. Feeding on an animal instead would be trying to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole. There’s just no match up.
JC: Sort of like how deer can survive on bark, but we can’t.
PF: Yes, exactly.
JC: I like that your characters have limitations.
PF: Again, I guess there’s no “wrong” way to imagine a vampire but, for me, there have to be limitations. It’s always bothered me, the idea of vampires essentially being “human plus.” Like, vampirism is this great thing with no drawbacks. They can eat, drink, go out in the sun, basically do everything a human being can do except they live forever. The first problem I have with that is that—I mean, at what point do you stop being a vampire and start being a different kind of being altogether?
JC: And the second problem?
PF: The second problem is that—again, for me—conflict creates drama, and drama is what keeps a story moving. If there are no limitations, then there’s no conflict. An essential part of Alex’s character, and of the conflict that drives the series from beginning to end, is this idea that being a vampire isn’t necessarily all that great. Just like being a human being isn’t necessarily all that great. Elevate people above their problems, and you’ve taken away anything they had to fight for. What’s, like, their reason for being? Once life stops being challenging, it stops being interesting.
