“The old neighborhood sure has changed.”
I am very behind with my mail and there are a lot of good friends I should have emailed and haven’t. Much of this neglected mail has been about The Renquist Quartet, my foray into gothic vampire fiction, and how I felt about such a set of highly cinematographic books not being a movie or TV series in this time of so much vampire action in mainstream entertainment.
A couple of weeks ago HCB wrote “I was wondering how you might get your Vamp books revisited in this feeding frenzy.” Around the same time, our pal Peromyscus went even further. “How come you, a man who writes about vampires, is without a book contract in 2009, the year of the vampire? At panels at the Worldcon in 2007, the editors said that vampire-mania had peaked. It appears not. These fads are weird, though. When I was a kid it was all westerns and World War II. Being a kid, I thought that all films and novels had always been westerns and World War II. Now kids must be growing up thinking there are only two kinds of books - ones about young wizards and ones about vampires.”
The answer has to be, of course, that I am not at all overjoyed by the situation, but I’ve been doing this kind of thing long enough to be well aware that sitting around, resentfully fretting about how one isn’t rich and famous after all these years is a short road to madness. The current vampire genre covers a multitude of nosferatu stylings, but far too many are either romance novels with fangs or teen fodder that owes everything to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This appears to be what sells, and needless to say, I went for something completely different.
In fact, I hurled myself into the four Renquist novels with an inhuman glee, loving the central character and making them a vehicle for exploring a fun spectrum of 20th century folklore that included voodoo houngans, Lovecraftian ancients, Paleolithic alien colonists, Lizard men, Nazi flying saucers, the intelligence community, the hollow Earth, drunken Scotsmen, Marlon Brando, a whole new take on Merlin, and all from the vampires point of view. A pinch of sado-masochism, a new, well researched location for each book, and I figured if folks enjoyed reading the stuff as much as I enjoyed writing it, I had me a winner – even a franchise. I even broke the demarcation between science and magic, espousing the doctrine that magic was only science we had yet to understand. Unfortunately, in so doing, I also broke the arbitrary, publishing house distinction between fantasy and science fiction and this may have been an error.
Maybe I read too much Burroughs and Dick in my formative years, but the publishers started to mutter about how the Renquist books lacked needed teen appeal. I, of course, ignored them. (Teen appeal? Get the fuck outta here.) I preferred to believe the whining was corporate ass-covering of the total lack of promotion and the unholy clusterfuck that had given the books such disastrously lame covers. When I mention the complaint in passing, however, our buddy Faux Smoke responded. “I still think that was some of the stupidest shit I've heard since Bush was still giving speeches... I can hardly believe somebody had the gall to said some bullshit like that to you, if you hadn't wrote it I wouldn't have even entertained the notion.”
I totally agree with him, but it doesn’t change the fact that Johnny Depp isn’t playing Victor in some movie opening Christmas 2009. The Renquist material has been optioned more than once for the screen, but nobody had the juice to get a green-light. (And don’t even mention the studio execs and directors who think it cute to refuse to actually read books.) On the bright side, I have at least been spared the fate of poor old Alan Moore who had to see his brilliant The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen carved to drek in Hollywood. And who knows, maybe I’ll end up the like the revered Philip K. and become rich and famous in the movies a couple of decades after I’m dead.
I hope this does something to clarify matters. (I think I’m allowed to piss and moan every now and then.)
Someone – not me – has created a Wikipedia page for Victor Renquist (Click here)
The secret word is Phlegmatic
I am very behind with my mail and there are a lot of good friends I should have emailed and haven’t. Much of this neglected mail has been about The Renquist Quartet, my foray into gothic vampire fiction, and how I felt about such a set of highly cinematographic books not being a movie or TV series in this time of so much vampire action in mainstream entertainment.
A couple of weeks ago HCB wrote “I was wondering how you might get your Vamp books revisited in this feeding frenzy.” Around the same time, our pal Peromyscus went even further. “How come you, a man who writes about vampires, is without a book contract in 2009, the year of the vampire? At panels at the Worldcon in 2007, the editors said that vampire-mania had peaked. It appears not. These fads are weird, though. When I was a kid it was all westerns and World War II. Being a kid, I thought that all films and novels had always been westerns and World War II. Now kids must be growing up thinking there are only two kinds of books - ones about young wizards and ones about vampires.”
The answer has to be, of course, that I am not at all overjoyed by the situation, but I’ve been doing this kind of thing long enough to be well aware that sitting around, resentfully fretting about how one isn’t rich and famous after all these years is a short road to madness. The current vampire genre covers a multitude of nosferatu stylings, but far too many are either romance novels with fangs or teen fodder that owes everything to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This appears to be what sells, and needless to say, I went for something completely different.
In fact, I hurled myself into the four Renquist novels with an inhuman glee, loving the central character and making them a vehicle for exploring a fun spectrum of 20th century folklore that included voodoo houngans, Lovecraftian ancients, Paleolithic alien colonists, Lizard men, Nazi flying saucers, the intelligence community, the hollow Earth, drunken Scotsmen, Marlon Brando, a whole new take on Merlin, and all from the vampires point of view. A pinch of sado-masochism, a new, well researched location for each book, and I figured if folks enjoyed reading the stuff as much as I enjoyed writing it, I had me a winner – even a franchise. I even broke the demarcation between science and magic, espousing the doctrine that magic was only science we had yet to understand. Unfortunately, in so doing, I also broke the arbitrary, publishing house distinction between fantasy and science fiction and this may have been an error.
Maybe I read too much Burroughs and Dick in my formative years, but the publishers started to mutter about how the Renquist books lacked needed teen appeal. I, of course, ignored them. (Teen appeal? Get the fuck outta here.) I preferred to believe the whining was corporate ass-covering of the total lack of promotion and the unholy clusterfuck that had given the books such disastrously lame covers. When I mention the complaint in passing, however, our buddy Faux Smoke responded. “I still think that was some of the stupidest shit I've heard since Bush was still giving speeches... I can hardly believe somebody had the gall to said some bullshit like that to you, if you hadn't wrote it I wouldn't have even entertained the notion.”
I totally agree with him, but it doesn’t change the fact that Johnny Depp isn’t playing Victor in some movie opening Christmas 2009. The Renquist material has been optioned more than once for the screen, but nobody had the juice to get a green-light. (And don’t even mention the studio execs and directors who think it cute to refuse to actually read books.) On the bright side, I have at least been spared the fate of poor old Alan Moore who had to see his brilliant The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen carved to drek in Hollywood. And who knows, maybe I’ll end up the like the revered Philip K. and become rich and famous in the movies a couple of decades after I’m dead.
I hope this does something to clarify matters. (I think I’m allowed to piss and moan every now and then.)
Someone – not me – has created a Wikipedia page for Victor Renquist (Click here)
The secret word is Phlegmatic
I loved the Renquist novels. They might be my favorite Farren books. I've read one book by Laurel Hamilton. She's wildly popular at the moment. It was the single worst book I've ever read. Hell, I guess I don't represent a desirable demographic.
ReplyDeleteI represent a desirable demographic well enough that most companies will gladly compensate me for my opinions. Young men in their early 20's have regular shit jobs & usually own the money they earn, but tend to generally run out & spend their pay checks like they just got their fucking allowance & have to get to the mall in a hurry.
ReplyDeleteI'm of the opinion that the series has something for everyone, especially those of my demographic. There's more than enough action & nudity to satisfy your average crowds seeking entertainment, there's enough drama & wit to make everything relevant & interesting for the more intelligent. Then there's scifi, fantasy & vampires to bring out geek culture & everybody caught up in trends like emo & goth. An adaptation to film would have to be completely fucked up every step of the way to not turn a noteworthy profit.
If things don't change, you should turn your back on these fuckers & embrace new mediums... If crap like GTA, Halo, God of War & Gears of War can make as much money as they do, something supported by writing like yours would be an immense powerhouse in the video game industry. & I know you told me before that you wouldn't know where to start with writing for a video game, but, man, if fucking James Cameron can do it, you'd annihilate the process. Also, I could easily see the Renquist series as a badass set of animated films if live action doesn't play out.
You've also been spared the fate of the John Steakley, whose "Vampire$" became "John Carpenter's Vampire$," not the same thing at all.
ReplyDeleteas much as i enjoyed the renquist novels, i think you hit the nail on the head when you said that a lot of the current vampire books 'n' pics are actually teen romances. my english-major daughter (my source of info on such matters) points out that in the popular "twilight" series, vampirism is actually a metaphor for, um, mormonism. deep sigh.
ReplyDeleteeh? MORMONISM?next time they knock on the door i`ll be a bit more polite.mormons!can`t trust no-one these days!
ReplyDeleteTis true! And best deconstructed with scathing grace in this brilliant blog:
ReplyDeleteLDS Sparkledammerung IS HERE!
Miss Templeton, That was great. Thank you. Thank you.
ReplyDelete"sitting around, resentfully fretting about how one isn’t rich and famous after all these years is a short road to madness"
ReplyDeleteWise words. If you don't go mad, you'll certainly lose the creative enthusiasm that got you started in the first place. After a number of near brushes with fame, I try to focus instead on engaging with the creative act (aka 'humping the muse').
On a side note, I haven't read these damn books (I'm here for the rock 'n' roll) but I certainly will, now, gadzooks.