Beyond the Pale
by Savannah Russe, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT SavannahRusse.Blogspot.Com, July 25, 2005

Hi, I'm Savannah Russe, author of the Darkwing Chronicles, a contemporary vampire series. Book I, Beyond the Pale, came out back on June 7, 2005 and now I'm hard at work on book 2, Past Redemption, scheduled for release next spring.

A lot of readers had questions about my vampires, and I'm hoping this blog gives us a way to communicate--for me to answer and you to ask, comment, and contribute to the story as it unfolds.

First of all, one reader asked for a more detailed description of what Daphne Urban looks like when she transforms into a vampire bat. That description is going to be in Past Redemption for sure, but to the specific question of does she have wings that are part of her arms...

No. Her arms remain free to both embrace and to attack with. The bat wings emerge from her back, like angelss wings... Her fingernails do however become longer and clawlike, making it doggone hard to dial a cellphone.

Second, one testy reader felt Daphne was too much of a pushover when it came to Darius and his treatment of her. I can only plead that Daphne may be a vampire, but she is also a woman, and she's crazy nuts in love with Darius. Her head says sure, tell him off, forget him, move on with her life. . . and her heart is breaking. She's willing to forgive and forget, as long as they can be together again. Maybe not all women are fools when it comes to the man who steals their hearts, but I sure am, Daphne is, and not just most, but I have to say all the women I know just lose their reason when it comes to love. Sure we hurt too easily and stay long past the time we should walk away...but when we fall in love, we want to love forever and with all our being.

And last, in defense of Darius, that gorgeous hunk of man-- Daphne did, after all, hide the teensy weensy little fact that she was a vampire from him. And worse, far worse, in his eyes, she took away his identity. Everything he was, she changed not only with her love . . . but with her bite. As a warrior, Darius believed that dying in battle was the honorable way to go...and instead, he became the being Daphne created, not the man he made of himself. But Daphne's not the only woman who set out to change a man (to save him, naturally) and lost him in the process...

Can he forgive her? Does he still love her? Can he accept his new identity and see it her way? I think they have a rocky future unless love, true love, conquers all.

Well, that's enough for today!

Pennsylvania

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