Tuesday 28 August 2012

Why Hyblood Was Written - Part 2: The Portrayal of Vampires/Werewolves


I know it has been a very long time since Part 1 of 'Why Hyblood Was Written' was posted. Things have been very busy on my end - though I know that is a poor excuse and I am sorry to keep you waiting! - with writing, managing all the accounts of The Wolva Trilogy and speaking with fans, etc. But, finally, here is the 2nd installment to the 2 part entry of why The Wolva Trilogy was written.

If you are unaware of part ones existance, click the link here to read up before you continue reading this entry:

Now that we are all caught up with the first reasoning behind The Wolva Trilogy, I can explain the second: the portrayal of vampire and werewolves in YA novels. Now, you may be wondering just what exactly I mean when I say this, and I will happily explain.

Both myself and the co-author of The Wolva Trilogy are avid YA readers. For those of you that don't know, YA stands for 'Young Adult', one of the most popular book genres presently. Now, being readers of the genre, we started to notice (at the point of developing the story of our Trilogy) that more and more Paranormal YA novels were portraying Vampires (and Werewolves, though far less popular than the pale, fanged, blood-drinking immortals) in a way that we were not too pleased with. A vast majority of YA novels are placed in the present day, inside of school - typical teen settings. Now, while the setting is fine, as it is the YA Genre and the reader must have ways to relate to the plot, the specific ways the Vampires were/are portrayed is very unlike the Immortals that we had grown up reading. (see: Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, etc.) Every author has the right to create any story they want, any way they want, with whatever wording and style that suits them. But when more and more writers start to follow the exact same setting, the exact same mentality for their immortals as well, the readers of the Genre begin to expect this. The readers begin to think that this is the way, the only way, these creatures are and will ever be.

Those of you that have read the classic Paranormal novels will know just what I mean, and many people that read present Paranormal YA have never read or are even aware of Anne Rice's vampires - the classic way vampires were seen, how people used to remember them. You may be asking yourself, "Just what is the difference between present YA immortals and past ones?", here are a few examples:
Classic Vampires that are punished in some form from being in contact with the Sun versus Present YA Vampires who most often feel no pain of any kind from the Sun.

Classic Werewolves who, at the time of the full moon, have no control what-so-ever over changing into their Lycan forms versus Present YA Werewolves who often are never forced to change forms, or do not even change into Lycans at all, but just pure wolves.

The differences can go on to explore the time and settings of present day (schools, etc) versus the classic settings of New Orleans, France (both classic settings for Vampires) or Romania (a much loved classic scene for Werewolves) with the time periods being in the 1800s to very early 1900s.

Our hearts bled for the Vampires of past books, Lestat, the renown Dracula, who are not only forgotten about but are sometimes now seen as incorrect due to these new YA Immortals. This is where our second goal for The Wolva Trilogy was drawn from. We wanted to take readers back to the past for a while, to remind them that Vampire and Werewolves are not always 100 year old Highschool students. That not all Immortals are kind, human-hearted undead creatures, but are in fact blood-drinking, superhuman-strength bearing, immortal creatures of the night.

But, do not think we look down upon other paranormal YA's for their choice of setting or characteristics. As was stated before, every story has the right to be told the way the writer wants, and some readers like that. At the same time, some readers don't, and that's what makes books such a wonderful experience both for readers and writers: choice. That is why myself and the co-author of The Wolva Trilogy decided to write this series. We wanted to not only try to show people what Vampire and Werewolves used to be seen as (while still maintaining the feel of a YA genre), but to also give others the choice between what they want in a YA series/book.

If you have any questions or comments upon the reasoning behind the series or of the first book, feel free to comment and we'll check them out!

Until next time.