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| Nancy Kilpatrick, Canada's Literary Queen of the Undead |
(Interview by Liz Worth)
NANCY KILPATRICK is about to introduce you to the “new undead.”
The award-winning writer based in Montreal, Canada, has authored an immense body of work, much of focused on vampires, including 19 published books, over 200 short stories, and five short story collections. She’s received accolades from horror luminaries the likes of Brian Lumley and Poppy Z. Brite, to name but two, and is often cited as Canada’s “literary queen of the undead.”
Kilpatrick has also edited 10 anthologies, the newest of which is due out in March 2010. Evolve, published by Edge, features writing from 22 Canadian horror and dark fantasy writers, including Kelley Armstrong and Tanya Huff. The anthology focuses on a fresh approach to the vampire as a character.
When you were editing Evolve, what kind of end result did you want for this anthology?
I was looking to take the vampire as we see him/her now up a notch and into the future. This is always hard to do in writing, to figure out what’s going to happen next.
But because I’ve collected a lot of vampire books over many years and I’ve been involved with the vampire in my own writing, I have a pretty good sense of how things have come about in the past up to now and I could kind of see a pattern, a shift in things. Not that I was trying to force my vision onto anyone, but I wanted to see how other people envisioned it and see where this seems to be naturally leading to or evolving to.
Does Evolve have any writers in it who are new to vampire fiction?
It has quite a few. There are the known writers, like Kelley Armstrong and Tanya Huff, of course. Kelley’s known not for vampires but she’s written vampires, and Tanya of course has written quite a few vampire novels and a TV series based on her books. Other people have written vampire things, like Gemma Files. But there are quite a few people who weren’t familiar with vampires and I had to send them out and say, “Okay, go read this book, go watch this TV show, and put this together from what you know in the past and try to get some overview of what has been done.”
You’ve edited several anthologies before this one. What first interested you in taking on the role of being an editor on top of being an author?
I first started editing books in the early ‘90s. It’s a different way of being. It doesn’t come from the same place as writing, but it is creative and it is interesting to have a concept that you’re working with and to see how people will show that concept with their writing.
Have your goals as an editor changed over the years?
I’m always trying to get the best stories for the concept. I’ve learned things, of course. I think my ideas have matured and evolved over time as I’ve learned more about editing, as I’ve done more of it.
There always seems to be a strong interest in vampire, but the vampire’s popularity seems to come in waves. It seems to be at a peak now with Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and True Blood, as a few examples. Do you see this wave of popularity lasting for a while yet?
I do, because Twilight has a huge fan base and they’re planning more movies…so that’s ongoing. And there are a lot of vampire books out there. Many of them seem to fit into the half-romance, half-horror. The vampires in them are the not-so-threatening-creature.
Some of this stuff is young adult that older women I guess are getting into, too, but the young adults who are reading the books and watching the movies will grow up. Who knows if they’ll continue with vampires, but if they do they’ll probably want something more than this.
So where does the vampire go from here?
Hopefully people will read Evolve to see (laughs). Evolve is not young adult. It’s not of the Twilight ilk, although there are elements of Twilight that come into play. But this is not a young adult anthology. It’s meant for anybody, which could be younger people, but it’s a regular vampire book if you know what I mean, as opposed to something that’s focusing totally on love.
So it’s something horror fans will be more drawn to.
Yes (laughs).
What are aspiring horror writers up against these days?
Books in general are facing a crisis right now because the economy is so bad, especially in the United States where most books are published. Consumers are not buying as much of anything as they were, especially with something like books. And there is also this tendency to go towards e-books with all the e-book readers that are coming out and people buying books electronically instead of in book form. So this industry is in a period of change and upheaval.
I don’t think actual books will disappear; too many people like them. And reading an e-book reader, we all know the benefits of having one, but at the same time curling up with an e-book reader isn’t the same as curling up with a book, and we all know that, too. Fifty years down the road this won’t even be a question, but right now it is and we’ll have to see what happens. But these things all play into what the market is looking for and what is possible in terms of what can be sold.
I would never say to someone don’t write a book because the economy’s bad. I would never say don’t write a book because we’re kind of changing from print to e-books in some ways. I would always say if you have something that you feel passionate about that you need to write, write it.
Looking back to when you started writing, is there anything you wished you knew then that you know now?
Everybody that starts out is naïve. I was naïve. You hear all sorts of things, but there’s a part of your brain that says it doesn’t apply to you. You have all kinds of hope, especially when you’re young. The industry is so business-oriented and so callous in ways that you can’t imagine until you’ve gone through some of these things. I’m not sure that there’s anything I would have done differently because I was a different back then, but it’s not the way I envisioned it, that’s for sure (laughs). And I don’t think it is ever that way for anyone.
When do you know you’ve got a good idea that’s worth bringing to life?
I go by feelings. I’ve always gone by my feelings. We all have lots of ideas all the time and some of them seem more interesting than others.
But when you find yourself thinking about an idea and getting excited about it that’s usually a good indication that it’s something that you could and should work on, because that excitement is going to carry you through. This is work we’re talking about, and sometimes there’s not the compensation you would like for it so you still have to earn a living while you’re at it.
So to carry you through it has to be the thing you eat, sleep, drink, and live with. You have to have something that you want to do.
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