Guest Blogger: Jeaniene Frost

The winner of Jeaniene's book is: Night Huntress. Congratulations! I will send Jeaniene her contact information when I receive it (and after I get back from being out of town on Monday). Thanks so much to everyone who participated!

To believe or not to believe?

One of the things I get asked a lot as a vampire writer is, do you believe vampires exist? My standard response is that I haven’t seen anything to believe that they do, but I’d never say never to the possibility. Is that a cop-out? Maybe, but it’s true. I’ve never seen anything strange or inexplicable in my life, but that doesn’t mean I’ve slammed the door shut on the possibility that paranormal things might exist. Hey, I watch Ghost Hunters, and occasionally there are some weird things caught on tape or audio. But does that prove ghosts exist? I can’t say. There’s that big “what if” factor to the paranormal question, and it plays both ways. What if the hazy thing on the video is just a trick of the light, instead of an apparition trying to manifest itself? Or what if that voice on the recorder was picked up from crossing signals with another TV or radio station, instead of a spirit trying to communicate?

So, what if all those legends about vampires, werewolves, zombies, or other creatures truly are nothing more than the imaginings of our ancestors, or the playing out of cultural taboos in monster form? Would I still want to read books or watch movies about them, knowing they’re 100% fantasy and such things have never existed in reality? Yes. As I said, I don’t have any basis to believe in vampires, but I write about them because they’re fun to imagine and to create fictional worlds around. Before I wrote about them, I loved to read about vampires, and I still watch almost every new vampire movie that comes out.

What about you and your favorite paranormal creature? If it were possible to completely slam the door shut – no room for questioning – that such a creature existed now or ever, would it make a difference in your enjoyment of them in book or movie form? Does the possibility, however faint, that something more might exist than what we know, spur you to delve deeper into your fictional creature of choice? Why or why not?

And especially at this time of year, when things that go bump in the night feel a little more real than our sophistication normally makes them, here’s another question – if it were possible to prove, beyond a shadow of scientific doubt, that supernatural creatures did exist, would you want to know? *wink* Would you really want to know if your creature of choice might be sitting next you, even now?

Everyone who tells me what their favorite paranormal creature is, and whether you’d want to know if that creature’s existence was proved/disproved beyond all doubt, will be entered to win an advanced reading copy of AT GRAVE’S END, book three in the Night Huntress series.

I look forward to reading what everyone has to say!

www.jeanienefrost.com

The winner of Jeaniene's ARC will be selected and posted Friday morning (I have to go out of town on Friday, so will need to pick Jeaniene's winner earlier than usual). Good luck!