Character Interview with Harold in FEBs Book

Yay! I did manage to meet my goal before the end of January even though this post is going up a little late. Current word count on the first draft is 60,167 words. Although I've only got two months left to meet my goal for completion of the first draft so I really need to pick up the pace.

On topic, this isn't a book blog unless there's stuff about the book. Instead of putting up a rough excerpt from the draft I thought I'd put up a character interview I did with the main character, a vampire named Harold Blank.

Interview with a Vampire

Dark and yet, simultaneously pale, Harold Blank sits before me in his sparse living room, in an apartment on the seamier side of town. Not much of a talker, he invited me into his home only after I tracked him down to where he lives, made repeated requests for interviews and finally threatened to write a rather dark and nasty version of his life story if he didn’t meet with me. He seems at once like a frustrated teenager, already bored with life, ready to or perhaps already given up the fight and yet also the enigmatic vampire who has already tracked the mystery of life and swallowed its potential…This seems a good a time as any to get started with questions.

What prompted you to get into Phlebotomy and Lab Work?

Harold picks at something on his chin and flicks it away as he speaks. “I like blood…and I needed to support myself. Not all vampires have hundreds of years worth of gold and money stashed away you know. That’s just a stupid stereotype.”

Sorry…but I take it you are rather young as vamps go. Could that also be part of the reason you don’t have ‘gold and money’ stashed away?

He shrugs, ‘prolly, I was bitten in 1956 in my mid twenties…although it took me a few years to figure out what had happened to me.’

Now we were getting to the good stuff in the interview. Harold was only in his 70s or 80s, quite young for a vampire, from what I’ve heard and researched. Many of his friends and family members from that previous life as a normal human were probably still alive. I make a note to track them down if at all possible.

You say it took you awhile to figure out that you were a vampire?

A moment of silence follows before Harold figures out that I’ve made this an open ended question rather than a statement. “Well, I didn’t really know what was going on. First, they thought I had rabies…fear of the light, food…unnatural behaviour…"

Unnatural behaviour?

Harold squirms a little in his chair, a simple straight backed one with no arms meant for the dining room. It seems I’ve hit a sore spot. “Well, I was hungry you
know…really, really hungry…I don’t think I even knew I was doing it the first
time.’

What didn’t you know you were doing Harold?

‘I…I started biting…that’s all I want to say about it…’

Afraid of Harold clamming up before the interview is over I switch tracks.

What sort of training does a career like that entail? It certainly must have been difficult for you, considering your medical condition…

‘Medical condition?’ Harold frowned as he continued to pick at his face. ‘I guess this is a ‘condition’ but no doc I ever met has been able to help me with it…,’ Harold examined his long nails and proceeded to chew on them. With a biting habit like that it’s a wonder how he’s got such long and pointy fingernails.

‘It wasn’t hard…training for phlebotomy and lab tech work. There are classes for everything on the computers. Plenty of late night classes at the college. And for the record I’m on file as having Erythropoietic protoporphyria at work so there’s no worry getting night shift work.’

Erythropoietic protoporphyria …that’s a condition where people are sensitive to sunlight right? But it’s not specifically related to vampires?

'Yeah. People it suffer from extreme sensitivity to light. They can complain of burning and irritation of the skin and even develop edema or blistering on from prolonged exposure. It’s very convenient…anyone wants me to go out during the day I just say, Erythropoietic protoporphyria…It’s like having a free pass sometimes.'

Huh…If you had a choice between drinking blood and keeping your Girlfriend, Maria, which would you go with?

‘Drinking blood.’ Harold mutters around a fingernail he’s chewing on.

Really? Even though you’re in that support group? Seems kind of hypocritical?

Harold glares at me and his eyes, honestly, go red, a chromatic bright red. For a brief moment I wonder at my own decision to come here alone tonight.

Harold said, ‘I drink blood because I have to in order to live. No fucking huggy wuggy cry all over each other cause mommy and daddy didn’t love me enough group is going to change that. I’m only there to please my…Maria and get her off my back. She’s not exactly Einstein, you know?’

How so?

Harold sighs…‘The woman thinks I can go normal…eat food, go out in the daytime…like its some choice I’ve made to be a vampire no matter how many times I tell her otherwise.’

Did you ever try to prove it to her?

Harold smiles wickedly at me, bearing his teeth and two slight prominent and very sharp looking fangs. I get the picture…

How are you getting along in this FEBs group? It’s certainly a dramatic decision for a vampire to make?

The wicked look disappears from Harold’s face to be replaced once more with his normal morose, disaffected visage. ‘It’s going…you know? I don’t know…there’s this dick therapist in charge. He’s got everyone making pictures and trying to get in touch with their families and all this normie stuff like trying to eat food and cutting back on blood.'

Have you cut back on blood?

'No.'

May I ask about your previous life before becoming a vamp?

'Definitely no.'

There have been rumours lately about Men in Black harassing some of the local bloodsucking and flesheating creatures? Have you heard anything?

Harold coughs a little, sitting on his hands and glances around the room. ‘No I haven’t heard too much about them…it...harassment you say?’

Yes, this sounds a little crazy but some people have also said they’ve seen an alien walking around with body guard types…

‘That does sound crazy. I haven’t seen any FBI or alien slugs around here.’ Harold laughs a little and continues to look around his living room.

I thought you hadn’t heard the rumors?

‘I haven’t.’

Then how did you know about the slug?

‘Good guesser I guess,’ Harold coughs again and stands up from his chair, ‘Are you done?’

Yes, I suppose.

‘Good, get out.’

What?

‘Get out.’

Feeling the need to make my exit I quickly gathered my materials and left Harold’s apartment.