An Interview with M. Christian by Tom Cardamone
Tom Cardamone: I really liked the excerpt here from Running
Dry. It
seems like, if this is a vampire story, it's going to be heading in a very
different
direction
than what's typical for the genre. What should readers expect?
M.
Christian: Something
very different, I hope. The book is a spin-off of a short story I did for Michael
Rowe and Thomas Roche's Brothers of the Night, which was
then in my own collection, Dirty Words. I got lots of great comments
on "Wet" and
so when I hit up Alyson to do a novel they suggested I play with that character.
Doud isn't your typical vampire. In fact that word never appears in the book.
Sure he needs to drink blood, can transform someone into a creature like himself,
but he can walk around in daylight like the rest of us, as well as pull off
some very unusual tricks. The basic idea of the book came from some thinking
I did about the whole nature of a vampire, finally deciding that they are basically
predators, needing to kill to survive. For Running Dry I explored
that idea, deciding that being a vamp would either make you a complete psycho
or push
you over the edge from guilt.
In Doud's case it's the latter, but with the added twist that he's also desperately
lonely—but every time he tries to "make" a companion to share
his odd life with they end up turning into the former, leaving Doud to clean
up
the mess. Beyond that, well, buy the book!
Cardamone: Octavia E. Butler has a vampire novel out
and has said that in her research she noticed a misogynist trend in past
books.
That aside, obviously vampires
have a place in gay culture. We like the darkness, the power, the submission
and of course there's all that sucking! But when you were editing the Bloodlust anthology
did you notice any trends in the submissions pertaining to gay culture, any
surprises, good or bad?
Christian: Blood Lust was a lot of fun, mainly because
Todd Gregory (my co-editor) tried to pick stories that said something about
vamps aside from their dress
sense
and fangs. I'm pleased to say that a lot of the writers really outdid themselves,
going out onto all kinds of limbs to explore the allure of vamps, especially
to gay men. The exact answer as to why, though, is probably way too complicated—at
least for me to figure out. But I have noticed it covers a lot of ground, everything
from the allure of immortality, living a perpetual night life, dominance
and control, or even just the commonality of being an 'outsider.' As for misogyny
I have to say that I didn't pick up on that very much. But what I did observe
is more a kind of misanthropy—after all, a vampire may look human but they
are anything but. To love the idea of vamps is to think that humanity is more
than a bit lacking.
In fact, vamps are very often depicted as being simply 'misunderstood,' even
becoming sympathetic victims at the hands of puritanical humans.
Cardamone: I guess what I want to know is what makes a great vampire story?
Christian: I'd say what makes any kind of great story: characters,
setting, plot, depth, literary skill, all combined with a new approach, some
imagination.
No one
wants to read a story that's lacking any of those.
The problem with selecting stories about vamps (or writing about them for
that matter) is the weight of all those cliché's: crosses, garlic, angst,
capes, fangs, and so forth. Way too many writers seem to want play with those
rather than exploring the basic nature of what it would be like to be immortal,
predatory, undead and so forth. When Todd and I read for Blood Lust we tried
to pick stories that spent more time on character and thoughtful exploration
of the myth than ones detailing the main character's wardrobe or favorite flavor
of hemoglobin. That's part of the reason I threw away the usual vampire stuff
for Running
Dry: it was a lot of fun to create my own 'flavor' of vampire, as well as
giving me a chance to really get into the whole idea of what it would be
like to have
to kill to live.
Cardamone: Okay. And what makes a great erotica story?
Christian: Same thing, really: characters, setting, plot, depth, literary
skill, all combined with a new approach, some imagination, etc. When I read
for an
erotica
anthology I judge the work with my brain and not my dick. It a story makes
me laugh, or cry, or whistle, or sigh then I'll take it. It sounds bad to admit
it, but most of the time I speed-read over the actual "sex" in a
submission, preferring to get back to the 'story' in the story. Sage Vivant,
my wonderful co-editor, and I just finished three erotic anthologies for Thunder's
Mouth (Confessions, Amazons, and Garden of Perverse) where that was very much
the case.
All too often we'd pass stories back and forth between us, giving them high
or low scores—and completely forgetting about the sex that took place in
them. Not that 'erotica' in erotic stories isn't important, but it's much
more important that it not become the sole point, or emotion, in a story. Sex
is
a personal thing, but a well-crafted story—no matter the kinds and
amounts of ins and outs in it can be eternal.
Cardamone: Back to Running Dry. This isn't an
erotic novel, which might surprise some of your readers.
Christian: Yep, this one isn't erotic. There's a bit of tension, of course,
but no sex. More than anything I did it as an experiment, to try and write
not
just
a different
kind of vampire book but also a different kind of "M. Christian" book.
Don't worry, though: I have lots of smutty projects coming up soon. For this
one, though, I thought that it would be better to play with the idea, the nature
of desire and longing, rather than showing too much of the physical.
Cardmone: Well, I look forward to reading the rest of
Running Dry. Are
you brewing up any new stories or projects?
Christian: Busy, busy, busy! I just turned in my second novel,
The Very Bloody Marys, which will be coming out next year from Haworth Press.
It's also a non-smutty
vamp book but completely different than Running Dry.
It's much wilder, frantic, funny, and off-the-wall surreal—more details
when the book is nearer to press time. I'm also working on a straight, erotic,
SF novel, which may be out sometime in 2007 from a British publisher; as
well as a more mainstream erotic novel I hope to have finished in a few months.
Last but not least I just agreed to do a new novel for Alyson Books, called
Me2, which is about identity and individuality, which I hope will be as engaging
as it is unusual.
Between all these I also have a fourth collection coming out—a gay erotic
collection called Filthy, also from Alyson—and a few other anthologies
and other interesting projects. Folks can always check out my site and
blog at
www.mchristian.com for more info, or write me at zobop@aol.com.
Read an excerpt from Running
Dry
For more information
on Running Dry or M. Christian, visit: www.mchristian.com
Tom considers himself the reincarnation of Gary Numan (with Gary still
being alive, this is somtehing of a retroactive-thingy). He's 35, lives
in NYC, and
has a skull full of novels.
Visit Tom Cardamone online at: www.pumpkinteeth.net
