Vampire Son

So why did I give birth to the Puppet Master? Two reasons, one to do with a long-lasting love for vampires and the influence of one individual created the Puppet Master. Reading and myth telling was an important part of my childhood. I remember around the age of 8 receiving from Santa when he came to school, a book about monsters. I noticed that everyone, including my parents were disturbed by my choice, I loved that book, looking at werewolves, bigfoot, loch ness monster, etc. and of course vampires. My love grew from there, especially anything darkly horrific, from R.L Stine’s Goosebumps, (Monster Blood being a personally favourite) the Point Horror series, (loved Caroline B. Clooney contributions) to Stephen King, James Herbert, Edgar Allan Poe, and so many masters of horror. May be surprised that I am not blown away by Anne Rice, apart the Vampire Chronicles. As well as hovering up novels, I loved TV shows such as “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” (Twisted Claw the modern version of Monkey Paw, sticks in my head) and films such as “The Lost Boys”. My childhood involved looking for escape and finding someone to take me away, even if that was straight to hell. I wanted a mixture of a vampire and Jareth, the Goblin King from Labyrinth, although teenager fantasies got a bit raunchier. I become more aware of the sexual energy associated with vampires, (and Jareth’s Package!). Fantasies took on a new look. He did not arrived during my childhood but he did eventually arrive. And as I was now an adult, it was not surprising that he came in a package more closely associated with my teenager image than my childhood one.

After walking away from a terrible relationship, I was crying out for my vampiric Jareth and through my dark poetry, like a siren song he finally came to me. And while he filled all the fantasies that I had about this man, and so much more, it was just that, a fantasy. As a child, while the fantasies was dark, it still had a happy ending. However, as an adult this fantasy was destructive, for both of us. This person took me away from myself, as I had always wished for, but he burnt me through to my bare bones. While it was a painful process, it was necessary for the phoenix to be reborn. In some way, I was part of the same process for him, baring the part of him that he had kept hidden for so long. We both used this to our benefit but like all fires, it eventually burnt out. The only way to capture the fantasy and those feelings forever was to write them down and that was how the Puppet Master was born. However, this burnt phoenix was still struggling to fly, needed wings and from the stage left came Strong Man, and this is way the second novel, Blood Brother will be Strong Man’s story and not the Puppet Master’s. I will need to deal with the Puppet Master again but that can wait until the third book. Mainly because he is a voice that will not be silenced.