You think you know vampires? Well think again! Debbie Viguie takes
vampire lore to a new realm—one that collides with Christianity head-on. Her Kiss
Trilogy just concluded and Debbie took a few minutes to tells us about her characters
and inspiration.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT WHERE YOU GOT THE ORIGINAL INSPIRATION FOR THE KISS TRILOGY?
In college I was upset about the fact that there weren’t strong
Christian characters showing up in horror stories. I enjoyed reading vampire
novels at the time and I kept thinking it would be wonderful if the protagonist
was someone I could relate to. Vampire lore is very heavily based on religious
ideas and symbolism (crosses, holy water, etc.) so it seemed a natural fit to
me to have a Christian character pulled into this world they never dreamed of.
I decided that since no one was writing the story I wanted to read that I
should write it myself.
FROM INCEPTION TO COMPLETION, HOW LONG DID THIS SERIES TAKE?
20 years. It was definitely a labor of love and it took a lot of
patience and persistence to see it through to the end.
WHAT ARE SOME TOPICS YOU APPROACH IN THE SERIES?
The main theme of the trilogy is redemption. Namely, can anyone
truly be redeemed and what does that mean? Other themes that run heavily
through the series are faith, the power of love, and standing up for what’s
right. Another thing I did was to give each book a topic and to head each
chapter with a verse on that topic. They are: blood, death, and the cross.
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT MAKES THIS SERIES UNIQUE?
I have vampires who are vicious, dangerous creatures who also have
been touched by the grace of God and become Christians. I created my own
vampire mythology for the series. In it, vampirism is a curse that is passed on
to someone who is so evil that it is unlikely they will ever repent and find
God in the span of an average human life. Crosses only burn those vampires who
still struggle against God instead of siding with him. Another great thing
about the series is how the past and the present are woven together and the
deeper the heroines delve into their own family history the more they realize
that what happened hundreds of years ago has a direct impact on them today. I
get to tell two different stories, essentially. One happens in the present and
the other happens in the middle-ages.
WHO ARE SOME OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE SERIES?
The three hero vampires are Raphael, Gabriel, and Paul who is
actually a monk. Raphael is the one struggling with the idea of redemption and
the love of God in the modern day whereas Gabriel accepted it during the dark
ages and Paul long before that. The human heroes in the present day are Susan,
a young woman who has come to Prague for the funeral of her grandmother, her
cousin Wendy, and David, a bystander who got pulled into everything along with
them. Susan and Wendy soon discover that their ancestors have had dealings with
vampires dating all the way back to a woman named Carissa who was falsely
accused of a crime in the middle ages and escaped death with the help of
Gabriel.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS GET OUT OF THE SERIES?
First and foremost I hope readers enjoy the story. I’d also love it
if it made them think a bit more deeply about some aspects of Christian life
that we just take for granted.