The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 1.3 - Bonus Content - Writer Reveal

Asian Mythology

Growing up, I watched a lot of serials that all played into the idea of reincarnation being a possibility after death. Characters would often say to each other, "So this lifetime didn't quite work out, but it's okay! We'll meet again in our next lifetime!"

This is usually said to provide comfort in the face of death.

So, I'm aware in "Night the Vampires Came," I treat those ideas a bit differently. They are used as a vehicle for fear as opposed to comfort. Ailith is terrified and confused about her past lives. This fits into my general style of taking everything under the sun and turning it into a vehicle for fear. Stephen King sees fear in clowns and dead cats. I see monsters in the rain and rebirth.

This isn't any sort of commentary on culture or religion. It's simply my nature to infuse fear into everything I write. Sometimes when I talk to my Asian Fantasy Writer friends, they always say things like, "well, if you want to kill your characters, it's okay! They can be reincarnated, and they'll find each other in the next lifetime!"

Once again, I think my propensity for seeing fear in everything is completely flipping the table on this very romantic and comforting idea.

In this book, I'm approaching reincarnation with the same neurosis and nitpicky line of questioning that Anne Rice once brought to her Judeo-Christian vampires. In this book, it's not really about being reunited with the dead in another life but rather the dead trying to find their way into reliving their past lives even though they've already passed onto another lifetime.

Ailith's fear in "Night the Vampires Came" is that she keeps seeing visions from a past life. It's like that movie "The Others" where the family fights off ghosts only to realize at the end that they are the ghosts.

Ailtih sees visions of a son even though she's never had children. It's the ghost of her past life wrestling for control.

When Blake/Oslen reflects on Ailith, she absolutely terrifies him because he sees her as the prison that is keeping his mother from being able to remember her past life.

It's funny; growing up, my father used to tell me he believed he was Benjamin Franklin in his past life. Sometimes I wonder if he were a bit out of his mind. As an Asian-American immigrant, I suppose I grew up with a mindset that combined western cultural figures with Asian ideals such as reincarnation. I guess I used that as a springboard for "Night the Vampires Came."

There's always been a lot of Chinese mythology in the "Darkly Devoted" series. I think it's funny to me sometimes that my Asian readers would read these books, and we'll debate about the actions of these rich, upper-class people who don't resemble us at all for 300,000 words. Then when I finally introduced a working-class Asian MC, my readers were like, "Oh hey! Yeah! I know about that food! My parents do that too!"

It's always interesting to present bits of Chinese culture in books where the reader least expects it. I recall once I wrote about Flushing, and a reader approached me and said, "wow, I've never read a book about our little town before. It's so touching that you decided to write about it."

I was a massive fan of Anne Rice growing up, and I always, always, always wished that she would write more about vampires in Asia. I desperately wanted her to tell me a story about the vampires that lurked inside the darkest corner of the Chinese supermarkets, and behind the eyes of the movie stars, I saw looking back at me from the posters in the KBBQ restaurants. I thought to myself maybe next time she'll tell a story that will explain to me why I see vampires everywhere I look, not just in the European opera houses and in the gothic southern mansions of New Orleans— but also in the temples of Shanghai and the creeks behind Chinatown.