31 days of Halloween – Tony-Paul de Vissage
Bio: Tony-Paul de Vissage is a Southerner of French Huguenot descent, who now lives in the Midwest. He began writing late in life—six years ago—and now has four novels under his belt, and hoping for more. More information can be found on his website: http://www.tony-paul.com/ , MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Videos of his novels can be seen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/tonypauldev
Someone once told me a good blog should open with a somewhat shocking sentence, to catch the reader’s attention and make them want to read more. In keeping with that, I’ve decided to make my opening sentence the following:
When I was six, I was seduced by a vampire.

My mother was a moviegoer and since she didn’t believe in babysitters, whenever she went to the cinema (which—since we had five movie houses in town and each showed a different film and changed the marquee twice weekly—was several times a week), I was dragged along. Horror, romance, western, musicals…it didn’t matter what was playing. I was bought a ticket, supplied with popcorn and plopped into a plush-covered chair to have my impressionable young mind warped for the next 120 minutes.
I still remember it well…of being in the darkened theatre, Maman sitting next to me but it was as if I were totally alone…staring up at the screen at those faces enlarged to frightening proportions, and the words appearing in stark black-and-white, accompanied by music designed to send a shiver down my spine and make good-bumps prickle my skin…Dracula’s Daughter…
When I toddled out of that theatre, I was completely under the spell of a woman who, according to the dialogue in the story, had “died 500 years before.” A woman who didn’t want to be a vampire but had to answer the call of her heritage from her father, a certain well-known bloodthirsty Count. Not only under her spell, but completely and thoroughly hooked as far as vampires in general and Dracula in particular were concerned.
And I still am.

Somewhere in my literary blogging, I’ve a piece called “When Imagination Calls,” about my advent into the world of writing. I started off small…writing short stories…and after having three published, the fledgling decided to try his literary wings and write a novel. The Countess was right there at my elbow, though it probably wasn’t the story she expected since Dark God Descending was about a Mayan vampire and he was a pretty likable guy—for a “monster.” It wasn’t until Vampires are Forever came out that I wrote about a “real” vampire, but this one still wasn’t true to form because it was a light-hearted story with not much anguish and torment, and definitely no ripped-out throats and dripping blood.

My fourth novel is being released this month from a publisher in the UK. Entitled Sweet Sips of Blood, it’s an anthology of all my short stories. Some are funny, some ironic, a couple downright chilling, but they are all, as the blurb says, …sweet sips of the vampires’ secret souls…
I’m still enjoying novels about vampires, and any television show or movie which even hints at the presence of one will definitely get my attention. Back in the 1970’s, I started collecting vampire novels and at last count had over 300. (This has now tapered off due to financial reasons.) I always look forward to Hallowe’en because then the “Creature Features” and cable channels such as SYFY and Chiller roll out the tried and true, as if specifically for my benefit. To paraphrase the motto of New Orleans, that well-favored haven of vampires and other denizens of the supernatural, Laissez le frissons roulez!
Let the shivers keep coming!
Thank you, Countess, wherever you are!