Kristin Battestella - Goddess of Vampires, Shares her Fate & Fangs

Kristin Battestella – Goddess of Vampire Lore

Hello Kristin – what a pleasure to have the Goddess of Vampire Lore on my doorstep. I’m thrilled you’re here and looking forward to our interview…so many questions. (LOL)

Before we get started, let me tell you all a little about Kristin Battestella.

She writes for her hometown newspaper The Cumberland County Reminder in New Jersey and has been writing non-fiction, speculative fiction, dark fantasy, paranormal, and horror for fifteen years. She enjoys being at home with her family, collecting records, and creating web pages in her spare time.

Along with numerous sports articles, online reviews (Her review of the film 300 earned 11,000 hits and crashed the Fire Fox News server!), the South Jersey Books Column at Examiner, and fiction work; Kristin's first eBook was published in 2005.

She is a member of EPIC, the Friends of the Mount Laurel Library, and has her eyes set on joining the Online Film Critics Society. Kristin's first full-length work The Vampire Family has been re-released with Eternal Press; and in addition to numerous reviews, interviews, chats, and blog appearances, Kristin recently attended the Philadelphia and Collingswood Book Festivals.

Whew! Kristin, you’re a busy woman, definitely a heaping full plate of activity.

*Big Smile here* Okay…now let’s get some answers about what’s created such a big stir in your busy life – Your Vampire Family…

Fate & Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family are Professor A. James interpretations of journals he found in a vault buried beneath a mansion ~ true accounts of a family of vampires. So tell us, Kristin, how did the idea for this book come to you?

FATE and FANGS is the follow up to my 2008 novel The Vampire Family, but some of the stories in the series are some of the earliest material written in the vamp fam universe.  These are the first hand accounts, vampire makings, and personal torment tales of the Welshire clan that I wrote to meet and explore what makes these vamps- both good and bad- tick. 

At the time- late nineties and early 2000s- there wasn’t the slew of glittery vampire material like there is today.  I wanted to write a vampire world that was both scary and compelling in design and looked to a lot of the older myths and legends for inspiration, to bring some of the older motifs back in modern edgy ways. 

FATE and FANGS follows that same mix of old and new.  Some of the tales are medieval, ancient in account while others are contemporary.  Due to their first person viewpoints, the older FATE and FANGS stories didn’t fit in the framework of The Vampire Family novel, so they were excised when the book was first published. 

The newer material here sets up what is to come in the next full-length sequel as well, so I wanted to have these personal vignettes and the time to get to know our fiendish friends before we continue with the hot and heavy to come. 

I like the idea of old and new – that in itself is different than most of what’s out there today. You’ve got my curiosity peaked.

Do we hear the narrative voice of Professor A. James in the retelling of the Vampire Family’s stories? Tell us about the Professor’s ageless assistant Theodore Plunkett.

Theodore’s tale is largely told in The Vampire Family. His meeting of his vampire maker Victoria- whose own tale is FATE and FANGS 4: Debauchery-was one of the vignettes retained in the novel.  It is probably one of my favorite parts of the book, in fact. 

His character becomes even more critical in the next full-length sequel, tentatively titled Requiem for the Vampire Family, in which he marries a witch.  Hee.

As a human working alongside the Welshires, The Professor, however, has a quirky dynamic all his own.  He also seems to have taken up a romance with the kinky vampire Pamela, and though he claims to be unbiased in presenting his documentation, he clearly narrates with too close a view to his vampires.  He introduces each tale with hyperbole and scientific fluff and sometimes explains errors or speculations on his material- particularly the character index included with the tales- but we can’t really be too sure about his intentions. 

Is he stretching the truth to make money? Can we take anything he says at face value? I don’t consider Professor James a bad guy- he seems quite loveable in his delight of this dark fantastic.  However, he is just scholarly unaware of how neck deep he is in it all.  At one point, I was tempted to not have my name appear on the covers for FATE and FANGS, just credit the Professor.

Professor James sounds like a real character, maybe simple in some respects and complex in others. It sounds like he has a definite passion for ‘dark fantastic’, sort of like you. (*grins*)

Each story inside Fate & Fangs is like an event in the family through the years ~ starting with Antonio and Ann. Was Antonio the first vampire? How did it happen?

Antonio is the first Welshire vampire, yes, made by the mysterious and perhaps devilish or demonic magician Mestiphles.  Though they are mostly the stars of the FATE and FANGS precursor The Vampire Family, they make unscheduled appearances in the tales here.

Each book here highlights a vampire in a specific time, ranging from Vikings, colonial America, speakeasies, and modern Philadelphia.  The first tale Love: Ann and the Viking, chronicles Ann leaving Antonio and turning her back on their vampire ways for love on the high seas.

Give us a little insight on a few of the characters/vampires in the Welshire Coven ~ like Antonio, Ann, Lilith, Mestiphles, Elizabeth (to name a few).

Ann and Elizabeth are oppositely styled sisters who have spent a thousand years-give or take a few centuries- fighting over Antonio.  Where Ann sought love and adventure in the first book, in FATE and FANGS 3, Elizabeth searches for solitude and struggles when confronted with her vampirism during an American Indian hot house experience. 

Mestiphles seems to play both sides of the coven wars between Antonio and his beautiful but deadly rival Lilith.  Unfortunately, she learns the consequences of disobeying Mestiphles in FATE and FANGS. 

I’m thinking your books should be televised – an awesome Vampire series. (Could happen.)

Is the Welshire Coven still around today? Explain.

Yes- but not entirely in the same format as it was a few centuries ago.  Humanity and vampirism, dark magic, mutiny, and real life torment have come and gone for several members of The Vampire Family.  The two concluding FATE and FANGS tales, Humanity and Resurrection due out in 2012, directly deal with the Welshires’ difficult transition into the 21^st Century. 

Some vampires, like siblings Samantha and Gaston, are happy to leave the twisted family ways behind. 

Others, like their sister Victoria and the Lilithan vampire Stephanie, thrive on the demented vigor and zest that the dusk till dawn nightlife brings.

Obviously, the two ideologies are odds, making life in The Vampire Family difficult, to say the least.  But that is the core of the telling for me here.  Can one be a good creature of the night- a creature of light?  Can those born with the root of evil be right? 

I much prefer the familial, social, and mirror examinations that a good vampire story provides- as compared to teen dream vamps.  Yawn!

Kristin, I love the depth you give in your responses. Your passion for ‘the family lineage’ runs high and deep. *smile*

Is Professor A. James still around? What’s he up to? How about Theodore Plunkett?

Oh, I suspect the Professor is hard at work editing his next manuscript and chronicling the lives of the current Welshire vampires and their ongoing battles with themselves and Lilith’s cohorts.  Perhaps he is attending Theodore’s wedding, too.  Or chasing after troublesome Victoria for the latest scoop. 

Oh, my, Theodore is getting married. Interesting news.

What or who inspired/influenced you to write paranormal romance?

Not in a boasting manner, but I would have to say I myself am largely the inspiration for what I write when it comes to paranormal.  I write what I would like to read.  I can’t really say I am outright horror- I don’t believe in gore and scares for the sake of scares, but I like the demented examinations of fear, light and dark, love.

But by contrast, I also don’t like lovey dovey light glitter love taking over the fear. Therefore, I suppose I’m in the middle of the paranormal and the romance, taking the good of both. I don’t think the romance angles of The Vampire Family are super overt- the relationships are more measures of who each is as a person or a vampire and how that relationship affects positively or negatively. 

When a vampire makes another- takes a person’s life- can good come out of that degradation?  How can vampires love those who do such horrible things to them?  How is it different when it is not a stranger, but family?

However, in FATE and FANGS, some of the tales are indeed more romantic in nature, as they deal with individuals and personal experiences on the subject.  Book 5 Lust: James at the Sundowner, is in a way, an anti-romance.  James is having trouble in his vampire relationship, and the cost of evil longevity is examined in comparison to the loneliness of living forever.  

The reflections that are bubbling under the surface of the characters we read, the stories we tell, the books we write- that inspires me.

I like that last statement of yours, it could be a reader’s or a writer’s quote, very nicely said.

What are you currently working on…please share.

I’m editing an epic erotic medieval fantasy with another New Jersey author Leigh Wood.  Erotica with dragons and unicorns is not normally something I would read, but Leigh is putting a serious and deadly sexy spin on the topic and it has been quite a joy working on the manuscript. 

It has great flawed hero knights in a love triangle over a princess trapped in a land under a curse thanks to the mistreatment of unicorns.  I know it sounds all fluff, but Leigh has things totally high brow in the concept yet nasty in the execution.  I can’t wait to see when this one is all polished to shine. 

For me, I’m finishing up Requiem for The Vampire Family.  I never really expected to have so many readers eager to know these folks as I do.  I’ve lived with them for so long, it will be tough to finish their tale. 

I alternate some of my work so that I can have a break and come back to the material fresh, and sometimes you edit and edit over and over again and become sick of a book by the time it comes out!  Then, however, you miss these dang vampires and want to visit with them again for a little while.

LOL – I know exactly what you’re talking about – getting sick to death of the same thing over again and then missing it like crazy days after it’s completed.

Do you have a tip or advice for a fledgling paranormal author? Something you wish someone would have shared with you.

I wish folks would stop telling new writers to ‘strike while the iron is hot’ or to ‘write to trend’ because that is where the business or sales are. Maybe that isn’t overtly said, but that is how manuscripts are accepted- by what’s ‘in now’. 

I liked writing vampires much more when the genre was obscure, now everyone has flooded the market and as a reader, it is tough to tell the good from all the trendy material pushed out by the publisher purely for the bandwagon.  I don’t think anyone should write what’s hot. 

My advice to fledgling authors is to write for yourself first and foremost.  Don’t worry about what viewpoint is best, whether you need a happy ever after ending.  Get the story told, get it down on paper and revise and expand or tighten the tale as closely to your vision as possible for what you want to tell. 

Then do your research on publishing, marketing, or whom your audience may be.  The right time and place will find your book. If your tale is well written and completely told, it will speak for itself, find its place and readership. 

I know in this social media technological age anyone can simply put anything on a blog and market, market, market till one is blue in the face.  But remember you are a storyteller first and foremost.  Enjoy your work and be true to it.

Where can people find you? FB, Twitter, Website, Blog, Book Buy Link, etc.

I refuse to twitter, and I do still have a myspace page, though I suspect it is mostly useless nowadays.  I prefer blogger and we have a facebook page, and I also share a livejournal page with Leigh Wood. The Vampire Family is available in ebook formats and paperback with Eternal Press. The FATE and FANGS sequel series debuts this August with Muse It Up.

http://vampfam.blogspot.com/

http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9780980473995

http://museituppublishing.com/musepub/

http://jsnouff.com/kristin

http://www.facebook.com/kristin.battestella

http://kristin724.livejournal.com/

“FAVORITES” Quickie Quiz – Getting to know you…

Mode of travel –

I love to walk places but don’t as often as I used to or should.  I love my car, 2002 Mazda Protégé, and driving- just hate traffic!

Beverage –

Iced Tea, green tea of all flavors and varieties.  Hate it hot- save that for when I’m sick.  I don’t drink soda hardly at all, but when I do, I love Root Beer.

Place you’ve never been and have always wanted to go –

Italy.  Both sides of my family come from different parts of the country, and I talk to distant cousins from there online.  Otherwise, probably Jerusalem. 

Pets –

None currently.  We can’t have dogs in our complex, and not having a pet takes a lot of getting used to after growing up with so many.  Several of my stubborn cats remain at my parent’s house. 

A place you love to write –

My recliner with my laptop, or in my bed under the sheets with a flashlight.  When the inspiration hits, go with it!

Hobby or past time –

I get in sewing streaks or bake a lot.  I collect lots of things- crosses, records, movies, pens, books.  Is pack rat a hobby? Otherwise I travel or go to museums and the like with my husband- or we take pictures at cemeteries.

Writing tool –

The laptop in practicality, but I still cling to the pen and paper.  The goofier the pen, the better, and I still use the same binder I started with in high school.  My need to work long hand probably puts me behind other quick typing authors, but I have at least retired my typewriter.

 

Click Cover to Learn More

Fate and Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family

Revel in the vampire lust and long lasting torment. In this haunting world, two things bind a vampire: FATE and FANGS!

The Vampire Family has a long and torrid past, present, and future. In FATE and FANGS, the family's Occult scholar Professor A. James shares vampire vignettes of love, punishment, struggle, debauchery, lust, humanity, and resurrection.

In FATE and FANGS, the family's Occult scholar Professor A. James shares vampire vignettes of lore, love, punishment, struggle, debauchery, lust, humanity, and resurrection. From Ann's earliest vampire loves to Elizabeth's colonial travels and Victoria's devastating errors in judgment- and even a good does of punishment for Lilith- fans of the Welshire coven can revel in the vampire lust and long lasting torment. In this haunting world, two things bind a vampire: FATE and FANGS!

Love: Ann and The Viking, circa 1

Scorned vampire mistress Ann leaves vampire family patriarch Antonio behind and travels across Britain. She encounters a wayward Viking named Eric, and though they are impressed with each other, she does not reveal her vampire gifts to him. The couple travels the North Seas for several years before Ann is able to accept her true vampiric nature. Should she turn her Nordic lover into a vampire?

 

Punishment: Lilith’s Trials, time and place unknown

Though seemingly anonymous, this detailed punishment of the Welshire vampires arch nemesis Lilith was mostly likely penned by the mysterious and demonic Mestiphles. The narrator joyously recounts Lilith’s beauty, submission, and suffering from a dark location known simply as The Void.

Struggle: Elizabeth in America, circa 1770

Seeking solace and solitude from her unhappy home life as the unloved wife of Antonio, Elizabeth travels to colonial America. She remains on the outskirts of civilization until she encounters Rain, a young Kiowa warrior unafraid of Elizabeth’s vampiric transformations into a werewolf. He invites Elizabeth to share his gripping hothouse experience. Is the vision quest too close to Elizabeth’s vampire truths for her to face?

Debauchery: Victoria’s Burning, 1866

Victoria uses the fallout from the American Civil War to her advantage-or so she hopes. After killing her plantation owner husband, Victoria continues blockade running with her brother Stephen-along with using, abusing, and feeding from the remaining slaves in her possession. Will a slave rebellion force Victoria to face her mortality?

Lust: James at the Sundowner, 1955

Victoria’s twin brother James is content with his gig as piano player at The Sundowner- a club is owned by his brother Stephen employing the likes of steamy Welshire vampires Jessica, Pamela, and Slava for underground vampire sex and biting fetishes. James’ own love Catrina is the alluring singer at the club. When she meets the young and wild Eddie, James is forced to confront the nature of his vampire relationships.

Humanity: Arrivederci from Gaston, 21^st Century

Gaston is trying to move on with his life now that The Vampire Family has been punished by Mestiphles-he’s made them human again. Unfortunately, Gaston’s sister Victoria cannot cope with the change and succumbs to drugs, depression, and sex binges with her former fledgling Caine. Gaston looses his job over Victoria, and the heavily pregnant Samantha comes to London to help her siblings.

Resurrection: Stephanie After the Lilithan

Former Lilithan vampire and newly divorced scientist Stephanie can’t get over how much she misses being a vampire. After a harrowing car accident, Stephanie meets the vampiricly charming and seductive Mestiphles-the giver and taker of vampire power on both sides of the coven wars.

Excerpt:

Lore:
Forward by Professor A. James

In 1975 I acquired a collection of antique, but damaged manuscripts after a mysterious fire beguiled the dim British authorities for four years. Somewhere along the frontier between England and Wales, in a crumbled vault beneath a burned mansion; dozens of leather bound journals, diaries, and books were rescued. Their contents were fantastical: histories, ages of vampiric accounts, coven wars, and abstract chronicles. The police, of course, uneducated in such matters of the occult or the unexplained, found the material rubbish against their modern case in need of evidence and forensics.

Fortunately, in my subsequent studies and adventures, I have found that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. You must forgive me the cliché, but my analysis and preservation of these personal antiquities has brought me to new heights of bizarrity, both on the page and in the flesh. I thought I was a wise, aware professor knowing beyond the day-to-day world before I came to read of this twisted Vampire Family. My pride was in err.

After several lengthy years of study and a very slow restoration process on the oldest documents, I succumbed to an offer of assistance from a student named Theodore Plunkett. A scholar of ancient languages, Theodore’s detailed list of degrees and credentials were too numerous for his youthful appearance. His intelligence was vast; yet he was a personal master at comprehending and restoring the fantastic tales of Antonio Welshire and his mad family’s descent into the dark world of vampirism. From patriarch Antonio’s brutal human days to the coven’s near destruction by the rival Lilithan vampires and the ambiguous Mestiphles’ meddling appearances and disappearances; this Vampire Family’s history is very well documented through some centuries and bare and bleak in others. Some journals are utterly disturbing in their tales of blood and mayhem while other diaries are strangely heartfelt, bittersweet, and uncomfortably endearing.

The fire that brought these texts into my possession was education blessing enough-the lifetime epitome of Tut and Troy to most scholars. Some library men would be content to sit behind their musky parchments and read the decades away. I, however, have had the unique privilege of authenticating these documents as truth. Of course, that wasn’t until many years later; when Theodore arrived at my office door looking as young as the day we first met. On the plane to Philadelphia, I never suspected I would arrive at the doorstep of sisters Samantha and Victoria Welshire. I had read over five hundred years of their tall tales; yet here the startling beauties were, living and breathing before me fangs and all. Only then did I begin to realize the full extent of this familial coven.

The academic community may disagree with my claims; but this dark, sensational and unbelievable underground lifestyle has afforded me considerable gains. Today I live a quiet life among the Welshires, and their vast knowledge of history and the world has blessed me intellectually as well as financially. In this simple, ignorant time obsessed with youthfulness and beauty, I’ve seen immortal creatures age, know love, feel pain-even die and regain their humanity. I myself have been able to change; embracing surgeries and procedures I would not have considered before coming to know the Welshires. With no evil or nefarious means, this vampire knowledge and power has made me a new man inside out. It’s something I could never have fathomed before these burned books first came my way.

Through the course of this manuscript, you will find my notes introducing the strange tales included in this volume. There are several more stories left to be discovered; however, those are largely damaged chronicles, with significant portions unaccounted for or degraded beyond interpretation. Those presented here are in the best condition possible and have been least corrupted through time and calamity.

You should be familiar with most of the players, as the Welshire coven’s deeds have been thoroughly documented elsewhere. These accounts from Ann, Victoria, and Stephanie, among others, are much more personal, individual, and largely first person accounts. Some are sad, a few are very enchanting and lovely, and there are some that I personally find repulsive and frightening. Living with and documenting the Vampire Family has not blinded me from their awesome powers and need for the very fringes of human society. Read of the Vampire Family, delight in their written escapades even, but nevertheless learn from the error of their ways. Not all of them are so charming and accepting of the human condition. Remember what you’ve read and will read: most of them will do anything to protect their nocturnal inclinations.

From the past to the present, from near to far and wide, you may think these tales are all fiction, born of the imagination. Unfortunately, they are indeed truth and based in a frightening reality as firm as you or I.

Kristin, it’s been an interesting day, learning all about the vampires in your life. (LOL) Congratulations on your upcoming release of, Fate and Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family. And, many, many more successes!!

Thank you to everyone who stopped in a visited with Kristin today – and a special thank you to those who left her a comment.

Until next time,

Kay Dee

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