E.E. Knight: Desparkler of Vampires

E.E. Knight has a great hometown write-up (In the photo, Knight is the one on the right.) If you aren't into his spectacular Vampire Earth series, then you should at least check out his Age of Fire books.

After all, there are only two kinds of people on this planet: Vampire People and Dragon People - you must be one of them.*

Anyhoodle, Knight's vampires are of the decidedly Lovecraftian sort - otherworldly, grotesque, uncaring. Not an ascot to be found among them.

"Beneath the heavy robes of bullet-resistant material the Kurians wear is a bony, angular physique of wiry muscle. Their knees and elbows can bend either way in an unsettling manner. Aside from the grotesqueness of its motions, this allows the Reaper to coil its entire body for a leap, climb rapidly, and change position in a hand-to-hand fight with terrifying speed. Their bones are not white, but rather a dull black, as are their pointed seizing teeth within their snake-hinged jaws. Their blood turns into a thick, tarry substance when exposed to air, so they rarely bleed to death.

...they use their long, flexible, beaked tongues to stab into the prey, using their teeth to fix on the victim as a lamprey does while they pierce poor wretch's heart with their stabbing lingular syringe...They are hard to kill, vulnerable only to massed firearms, burning, or decapitation....

Only a fool takes on a Reaper alone at night."

Entirely unrelated (unless they are a front for a vampire hunting operation): have you ever wondered what the most beautiful website in the solar system for a Ukrainian Orthodox Church might look like?

Me too. (The photo gallery alone is worth the price of admission.)

*I'm both. This places me in the unique class of "First to Die" during the Vampire/Dragon apocalypse.

It's All About Meme: Book Memories

Ugh. A human touched me.

Apparently, the only way to rid myself of the mental infection is to respond and pass it on.

1. Do you associate reading particular books with the places you read them or events of the time you read them?

Generally no. There is one exception. I've read the Lord of the Rings probably eight times so far in my life. The very first time was by candlelight, at a dilapidated antique writer's desk.

Believe it or not.

2. Do you remember the books you read or do they fade quickly? Or do you remember some better than others? How about remember details like character names, not just overall plot?

I stop reading any book after page 100 if I determine I'm not making memories with it. I think any author I pick up has earned a hundred from me. If they can't skewer me with something good by then, there's no match to be had. I'll give every author a second shot with a subsequent novel, but if that one doesn't do anything by the 100 page threshold, it'll take a lot for me to try a third time with them.

If I make it through to the end of the book, it is highly likely that it'll stick with me. If the story was great or rotten, it will stick with me forever. If it had some engaging qualities, but nothing spectacular (or embarrassingly bad) it has a shorter half-life in my brain.

It has been a long time since I've come across a new plot, so, while those are easy to remember, there are characters and scenes too vivid to ever let go: Tod Clifton, The Unman Weston, The Child at the Window (Salem's Lot), The Seventh Circle, Sancho Panza, Mrs. Prest, Jo March, Frankenstein's Monster, Bunny Corcoran, The Misfit, Lucian and on and on. I still remember the final sentence of Stephen King's "The Long Walk" and the brilliant mix of release, uplift, defiance and glory it evokes as I recall it today, twenty years after my first (and only) read.

3. Have you ever forgotten you’ve read/own a book and borrowed/bought it again?

Quoting Luke Skywalker on the scaffolding - "No. That's impossible."

+++

The problem with memes is that you must have some sort of relationship with humans in order to complete its requirements. I eschew such things, save when my belly rumbles.

So I'll just tag some people who wouldn't know me from a passing bus, which distinguishes them in no way from my closest (imaginary) friends:

Nicole Petrino-Salter

Tom Lommel

Tosca Lee

Felicia Day

E.E. Knight

A Writer's Plague: E.E. Knight's Formula for Madness

First three sentences.

That sounds about right.