Read our exclusive interview with author Trevor Munson, who’s set to publish his never-before-released novel “Angel of Vengeance”. The book first received attention when it served as the inspiration for the CBS cult-classic vampire series ‘Moonlight,’ which Munson helped create, write and produce. “Angel of Vengeance” provides a twist to the vampire genre, as it combines the world of the undead with detective work; it follows vampire-P.I. Mick Angel who has been hired by a dancer to help find her sister amongst the drug world. Munson discusses with us, among other things, where he got the inspiration for the story and why he decided to work on ‘Moonlight.’
Written by: Karen Benardello
Shockya (SY): Your upcoming novel, “Angel of Vengeance”, provides a unique twist to the horror genre, as it mixes vampires with P.I. detective work. It follows L.A.-based P.I.-vampire Mick Angel who was hired by a dancer to find her missing sister. Where did you get the idea for the story?
Trevor Munson (TM): I came up with the idea for “Angel of Vengeance” and the character Mick Angel sometime in 2005. At that point, I had already had a long love affair with vampires, but I’d never written anything in the genre. To me it was only worth doing if I had a new and fresh way in to the vampire mythos. The idea for a hard-boiled, noir vampire story came to me after rereading Dracula and following it up with a Raymond Chandler novel, and right away it seemed like it held a lot of potential to be that story.
The novel that came about is a much darker tale than that depicted in ‘Moonlight,’ the show that eventually evolved from it, but many of the themes that motivate Mick, and the way he views the world remain much the same. The end result is a sort of blood-sucking Philip Marlowe who was turned in the forties and who now finds himself unwilling or unable to get in step with the modern world in which he now lives.
SY: You have said that you’ve had a “long love affair with vampires,” but with Angel of Vengeance, you wanted to add new elements to the vampire mythos. Why did you feel it was time to include new ideas in the genre?
TM: I do love vampires and the whole mythology that surrounds them, but if I was going to throw my hat into the ring, I wanted to try to put my own spin on things. I didn’t see the point of writing anything if I was just going to do what others before me had already done. As a result, my basic approach in redefining classic vampire lore was to attempt to “noirify” (not a word) the vampire mythology. I wanted recreate the rules to reflect the themes you see repeated over and over in noir storytelling. This is why I had Mick take his blood with a needle, and sleep in a freezer to stave off his slow decay.
Other changes came from just wanting to make more sense of classic rules, such as the idea that vampires are unable to see their reflections. It didn’t make sense to me that a body with mass wouldn’t cast a shadow, or reflection, so I altered it so that Mick can see his reflection, but when he does, he always sees the inner monster inside. Thematically this worked for a story where the main character views himself as a monster and generally hates what he is.
Finally, I also departed from the general mythology by having my vampires actually have to die in order to turn. In many current vampire tales, (’Moonlight’ included) vampires are turned by being taken to the brink of death and then being fed the blood of their sire. In my novel, however, I wanted a more defined death process. As a result, I came up with the idea that the vampire bite transmits the infection, turning the bitten person into a carrier until the time of their death whenever that may be. Then, after a period of incubation, the vampire rises again as a member of the undead.
To read the rest of this post, please visit:
http://www.shockya.com/news/2011/02/01/exclusive-trevor-munson-interview-on-angel-of-vengeance/
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