On Conversations: #vampire #author #JesseKimmel-Freeman

Please welcome the multi-talented, Jesse Kimmel-Freeman! She's here to talk about writing, memorable moments, and vampire culture. Check it out!

Lisa ~
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Greetings all you ghouls out there. I’d like to take a moment to thank Lisa for having me. Thank you, Lisa! I know just how hard it is to keep up with blogs! Anyways, what I wanted to talk to you guys about today are vampires! You heard me right! The “V” word having nothing to do with girly bits.

Here’s why I want to talk to you about them… I know them. When you start out writing, everyone always tells you to write what you know. So that’s what I’ve been doing and will keep doing. But what most people don’t actually know is that Vampires really exist today. They walk among us, they’re at our schools, churches, and grocery stores. I’m not sure how many of you just took a moment to look over at your loved ones in concern, but believe me- there’s no reason for it. I promise!

My education is in cultural anthropology, so I took my lifetime obsession and was working on my Masters’ thesis using Modern Vampire Culture. I’m sure you are still a little leery. But don’t be. I spent months studying one particular group. Wanna know what we did? We sat around at a local restaurant and ate pizza. Yep, you heard me. We ate pizza. Yes, there was one incident where blood was consumed- no I didn’t take part (not my cup of tea). Yes, they did have other places of meeting (a sex club was one of them), but I’m serious when I tell you that these people who believed themselves to be Vampires, were just as normal as you or I am. Okay, well, I’m a writer, I might not fall into the realm of “normal.” They just had a specific diet- either blood or energy, depending on the vamp.

Let me take a minute to explain the differences in Vampires in their subculture (a term I truly dislike, but that is a rant for another day). Sanguinarian vampires require a certain amount of blood intake. This is typically taken from a consenting donor. It is so highly looked down upon in the Vampire community to take blood or energy from a non-consenting donor (is donor even the right word then?). Anyways, There are two other types of vamps as well. There are Psychic vampires that use energy in place of blood. Then there is the hybrid that can survive off of a mixture of blood and energy. Sometimes a Sang vamp might be forced to become a hybrid if they aren’t getting enough blood. I’ve been told this is similar to “sucking tofu through a straw.”

There is a huge rift here though. There might be three different types of vamps, but the Sangs and Psi vamps look at the hybrids as sellouts and the Sangs feel that they are the only “true” vamps because they actually drink blood and the Psi vamps don’t. It’s all really a game of politics (sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it?).

I bet you’re wondering how this relates at all to writing? I know I probably would be at this point. But it made you stop and think, right? Well, for me, I took elements of the different aspects of the culture and was able to apply it to my own works. The vampires I have in any of my books are completely different from what’s out there, but also from each other. For my Bella Vampires Series (YA Paranormal), I listed all of the characteristics that you think of when you think “vampire” and picked out the ones I liked best, then I built a new way to think about them. For my Kat Purrowells Series (Adult Paranormal), I played with the idea of stereotypes but also threw in some of things I had experienced or heard about. For my Network Deserted Series (YA Dystopia) I took the ideas of the a chemical apocalypse and vampires as a creation of that- but I again used things I had encountered, and different elements from myths and things that I thought fit my image of the vampire.

That is one of the great things about writing, you can take the things that you love, you obsess over, the things from your life and turn them into fantastic character elements! So find that thing that you truly know about, that makes your heart sing and seriously interests you and write about it if you’ve always wanted to write about something and could never find the right topic. My flavor of choice is vampire, what’s yours?

Feel free to stop by my website (www.jessekimmelfreeman.com) or my blog (www.jessekimmelfreeman.com/blog.html). I’m also on facebook (www.facebook.com/j.kimmelfreeman) and I love hearing from people. I also make custom swag and jewelry and stuff, check it out if it interests you (www.skypirateproductions.com or say HI on facebook www.facebook.com/skypirateproductions).

Once again, I’d like to thank my hostess for having me. It was fun thinking about some of my most memorable moments in my education.

You can get buy links to any of the books mentioned in this post at: www.jessekimmelfreeman.com/my-books.html

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Jesse now lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere. She moved from the chaos of Los Angeles. Yes, she misses it. It is not uncommon for her to be asked why she moved from such a busy place to the one horse town- the answer is simply to allow her kids to grow up with their grandparents.

Jesse has studied anthropology and used her “education” as an excuse to hang out with vampires- her masters' thesis was going to be modern vampire culture. They really do exist. Vampires have been her obsession since she was about five years old when she swears she was bitten by one.

She enjoys reading and writing. But most importantly being a crazy mom to her son, new daughter, and ever growing pet family. Singing silly songs at the top of her lungs and embarrassing her son is one of her favorite activities. She considers herself to be an odd duck.
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