Cowboys and Vampires: Shootout at High Midnight
This first ran on pocketafterdark.com
These two enduring archetypes, opposites sides of the same bloody coin, go together like fear and trembling.
When it comes to instantly recognizable icons, cowboys and Vampires are near the very top of the list — crashing them together releases nuclear amounts of energy.
The cowboy, despite a relatively short time on the stage, is a permanent fixture of the social psyche now, the embodiment of all that’s good and right in the world. The quintessential cowboy is tough, resourceful, laconic, honest, hard-working and — usually — ruggedly handsome. Cowboys are the products of simple country life and so are uncomplicated and driven by a clear moral code that prevents them from ignoring injustices. That’s why they are forever saving widows, orphans and puppies. They also have a habit of sweeping beautiful, headstrong women off their feet and riding off into the sunset together.
Vampires, existing in some form in most cultures for centuries, are the exact opposite. They are the very embodiment of evil, decadence and decay. The quintessential Vampire is cunning, conniving, scheming and — usually — possesses refined, cruel and often androgynous features. They are the products of ancient family lineages and as such are comfortable in urban settings. They are tortured and mysterious, driven by uncontrollable lusts for sex and blood that have them forever killing widows, orphans and puppies. They also have a habit of seducing beautiful, hysterical young women and discarding their lifeless bodies before they retire to their coffins at dawn.
The two could not be more different — and that’s precisely why they work so well together. Putting cowboys and Vampires in the room, or a novel, brings matter into contact with anti-matter. It immediately contrasts all of their vices and virtues with little need for exposition. Thank you, cultural zeitgeist, for splitting the archetype atom.
In The Cowboy and the Vampire, written with my lovely partner Kathleen McFall, we took full advantage of all the baggage already packed into these two icons in an “opposites attract” love story. The heroine, Lizzie Vaughan, is a reluctant Vampire (she doesn’t know at first that she’s undead) who falls in love with a cowboy, Tucker, who has been living a quiet life in the modern West. As they work through all of the many, many things stacked against them in their relationship — he’s from tiny LonePine, Wyoming, she’s from New York; he’s a human, she’s undead; he reads Western Horseman, she reads Kierkegaard — they ultimately find that all of their differences actually bring them closer together.
Nothing ensures love survives like a challenge and their love is hastened along by hordes of maniacal Vampires anxious to kill Lizzie and consume the ancient power running through her veins. No cowboy worth his salt, especially Tucker, would ever let a bunch of fancy talking city slickers come between him and the damsel in distress.
In Red Winter, my new e-novella, instead of playing the two stereotypes off of each other, I pared them down to their essence and then set them against each other in a fight for survival. Instead of romantic, the tension is homicidal. The story is set in LonePine in 1890 as winter closes in like a noose. Sheriff Early Hardiman is settling in for another long four months of bitter cold and boredom made bearable by the lovely Miss Grace, his new wife and the former madam of the Pearl — an infamous and now defunct brothel.
Sheriff Hardiman is a classic good guy — tough, honest and handy with a gun. Some say he’s the fastest draw the West has ever known, but he is getting on up there in years. The West is changing though and fewer young guns are anxious to make a reputation as the modern era gnaws away at the frontier. It’s not an easy life, but it’s a good life; that all changes when a Vampire arrives out of the snowy darkness.
Jericho Whistler is everything Sheriff Hardiman is not: immortal, immoral and inhuman. Whistler is pure evil, driven by a blinding biological impulse to feed on humans and a pathological desire to revel in the terror and cruelty he inflicts. He’s impervious to pain and lacks the common decency to stay dead.
Obviously, the town — and the archetypes — ain’t big enough for the both of them; LonePine is barely big enough for one of them. But it’s tough to have a classic showdown at high noon when Vampires are terminally allergic to sunshine and generally not inconvenienced by bullets. Red Winter strips away all of the attempts at deconstruction and icon-bending reinterpretations and let’s these two just battle it out, six gun against fang (actually, our Vampires don’t have fangs) in the isolated wilderness. The fate of LonePine, and Miss Grace, hangs in the balance.
Who wins? Fans of the clash of timeless titans.
Cowboys and Vampires are mirror images of the way we think about good and evil and there may not be two more natural opponents. At least we certainly hope that’s the case. We are hard at work on the sequel, Blood and Whiskey, that moves the story back to “modern” LonePine. There will be plenty of action, romance and horror as the two archetypes renew their epic battle. And as the cowboy rides off into the sunset to try and save the girl, his nemesis, the Vampire, is just waking up with an appetite for her blood.
About Red Winter
Sheriff Early Hardiman has seen a lot of bad things in his life, but nothing could have prepared him for the first Vampire to visit the Old West. It’s 1890 and winter is closing like a noose around tiny LonePine, Wyoming. Fans of The Cowboy and the Vampire know LonePine will see its share of Vampires 120 years later, but in 1890 the appearance of the fearsome Jericho Whistler — with an unquenchable thirst for blood and unwilling to die — created a new kind of terror.
About The Cowboy and the Vampire
It’s the clash of two iconic characters — cowboys and vampires — in a novel story about true love, culture clash and evil plans to take over the world. There’s also a healthy dose of laugh-out-loud humor, a rich portrayal of life in the modern West, a fresh new take on the Vampire myth and plenty of morbid ruminations on death.
Learn more
www.cowboyandvampire.com
www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire
Twitter: @cowboyvamp
These two enduring archetypes, opposites sides of the same bloody coin, go together like fear and trembling.
When it comes to instantly recognizable icons, cowboys and Vampires are near the very top of the list — crashing them together releases nuclear amounts of energy.
The cowboy, despite a relatively short time on the stage, is a permanent fixture of the social psyche now, the embodiment of all that’s good and right in the world. The quintessential cowboy is tough, resourceful, laconic, honest, hard-working and — usually — ruggedly handsome. Cowboys are the products of simple country life and so are uncomplicated and driven by a clear moral code that prevents them from ignoring injustices. That’s why they are forever saving widows, orphans and puppies. They also have a habit of sweeping beautiful, headstrong women off their feet and riding off into the sunset together.
Vampires, existing in some form in most cultures for centuries, are the exact opposite. They are the very embodiment of evil, decadence and decay. The quintessential Vampire is cunning, conniving, scheming and — usually — possesses refined, cruel and often androgynous features. They are the products of ancient family lineages and as such are comfortable in urban settings. They are tortured and mysterious, driven by uncontrollable lusts for sex and blood that have them forever killing widows, orphans and puppies. They also have a habit of seducing beautiful, hysterical young women and discarding their lifeless bodies before they retire to their coffins at dawn.
The two could not be more different — and that’s precisely why they work so well together. Putting cowboys and Vampires in the room, or a novel, brings matter into contact with anti-matter. It immediately contrasts all of their vices and virtues with little need for exposition. Thank you, cultural zeitgeist, for splitting the archetype atom.
In The Cowboy and the Vampire, written with my lovely partner Kathleen McFall, we took full advantage of all the baggage already packed into these two icons in an “opposites attract” love story. The heroine, Lizzie Vaughan, is a reluctant Vampire (she doesn’t know at first that she’s undead) who falls in love with a cowboy, Tucker, who has been living a quiet life in the modern West. As they work through all of the many, many things stacked against them in their relationship — he’s from tiny LonePine, Wyoming, she’s from New York; he’s a human, she’s undead; he reads Western Horseman, she reads Kierkegaard — they ultimately find that all of their differences actually bring them closer together.
Nothing ensures love survives like a challenge and their love is hastened along by hordes of maniacal Vampires anxious to kill Lizzie and consume the ancient power running through her veins. No cowboy worth his salt, especially Tucker, would ever let a bunch of fancy talking city slickers come between him and the damsel in distress.
In Red Winter, my new e-novella, instead of playing the two stereotypes off of each other, I pared them down to their essence and then set them against each other in a fight for survival. Instead of romantic, the tension is homicidal. The story is set in LonePine in 1890 as winter closes in like a noose. Sheriff Early Hardiman is settling in for another long four months of bitter cold and boredom made bearable by the lovely Miss Grace, his new wife and the former madam of the Pearl — an infamous and now defunct brothel.
Sheriff Hardiman is a classic good guy — tough, honest and handy with a gun. Some say he’s the fastest draw the West has ever known, but he is getting on up there in years. The West is changing though and fewer young guns are anxious to make a reputation as the modern era gnaws away at the frontier. It’s not an easy life, but it’s a good life; that all changes when a Vampire arrives out of the snowy darkness.
Jericho Whistler is everything Sheriff Hardiman is not: immortal, immoral and inhuman. Whistler is pure evil, driven by a blinding biological impulse to feed on humans and a pathological desire to revel in the terror and cruelty he inflicts. He’s impervious to pain and lacks the common decency to stay dead.
Obviously, the town — and the archetypes — ain’t big enough for the both of them; LonePine is barely big enough for one of them. But it’s tough to have a classic showdown at high noon when Vampires are terminally allergic to sunshine and generally not inconvenienced by bullets. Red Winter strips away all of the attempts at deconstruction and icon-bending reinterpretations and let’s these two just battle it out, six gun against fang (actually, our Vampires don’t have fangs) in the isolated wilderness. The fate of LonePine, and Miss Grace, hangs in the balance.
Who wins? Fans of the clash of timeless titans.
Cowboys and Vampires are mirror images of the way we think about good and evil and there may not be two more natural opponents. At least we certainly hope that’s the case. We are hard at work on the sequel, Blood and Whiskey, that moves the story back to “modern” LonePine. There will be plenty of action, romance and horror as the two archetypes renew their epic battle. And as the cowboy rides off into the sunset to try and save the girl, his nemesis, the Vampire, is just waking up with an appetite for her blood.
About Red Winter
Sheriff Early Hardiman has seen a lot of bad things in his life, but nothing could have prepared him for the first Vampire to visit the Old West. It’s 1890 and winter is closing like a noose around tiny LonePine, Wyoming. Fans of The Cowboy and the Vampire know LonePine will see its share of Vampires 120 years later, but in 1890 the appearance of the fearsome Jericho Whistler — with an unquenchable thirst for blood and unwilling to die — created a new kind of terror.
About The Cowboy and the Vampire
It’s the clash of two iconic characters — cowboys and vampires — in a novel story about true love, culture clash and evil plans to take over the world. There’s also a healthy dose of laugh-out-loud humor, a rich portrayal of life in the modern West, a fresh new take on the Vampire myth and plenty of morbid ruminations on death.
Learn more
www.cowboyandvampire.com
www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire
Twitter: @cowboyvamp
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