Blood, Sex and Inhumanity

When writing Suzie and the Monsters, I wanted to strip away all the absurdities that go hand-in-hand with so much modern vampire fiction. I didn’t want to write a horror story with an evil monster, but I did want to strip away all the soft-focus filters. Suzie is not a monster, and yet she is. She’s a vampire. She drinks the blood of the living. I don’t understand modern vampire fiction that tries to deny that.

I also wanted her to be a sexual creature. And a real person, having real relationships, real sexual encounters, again unfiltered. Why are there so many vampires out there in films, TV and literature that only ever have one true love, and then it’s a sweet, loving relationship?

The beginning of the novel is rather graphic. Perhaps excessively so. It’s a question I keep asking myself. Did I go a little too far? The whole book isn’t like that… Then again, anyone who can’t stand to read the beginning will probably hate the end.

It’s a shame, though. Suzie may be a vampire, but she is also a loving creation, and I tried very hard to make her a real person in a real setting. But reality brings darkness and grief, and, at several points in the story, writing Suzie’s life left me in tears.

But the novel is often very explicit in its eroticism of blood and sex, and I have been reluctant to ask specific people to read it, or even to recommend it to anyone. I love the book myself, but it’s definitely not for everyone. So far I have received two reviews, and neither reviewer (at the time of review) had read the whole book. The first review was short and wonderful:

Love the characters so far; just the right balance of things that I love to read in a vampire novel

which made me so happy to read, although whether the reader felt the same after finishing the book (assuming they ever did) I have no idea. The second review is quite the opposite:

I didn’t get past the first few pages. If you like filth, this is for you. This makes 50 shades look like a nursery rhyme!!

I felt really quite depressed after reading that.

Although, that last bit would make a catchy advert: Suzie and the Monsters – makes 50 shades look like a nursery rhyme!!

They say authors shouldn’t read reviews of their books… but my heart and soul went into writing Suzie and the Monsters, and I hope it won’t just be hardcore lesbian pornstars who enjoy it.