Marta Acosta is the author of the successful, darkly humorous Casa Dracula series, featuring smart, sexy, Hispanic heroine Milagros, an outsider in the world of vampires. Marta also keeps a blog, Vampire Wire, offering the latest news about paranormal and urban fantasy books.
Thanks for this interview, Marta. It's a pleasure having you here today to talk about your books. Tell us about your Casa Dracula novels and your inspiration for this series.
My Casa Dracula books follow the adventures of a smart, funny, sexy young woman, Milagro, who becomes infected by a condition some would call vampirism. She’s an outsider in a family of vampires and has to deal with their secretive and dangerous world and their enemies. Milagro always attracts lunatics and extremists, so new problems continually arise. She has eccentric methods of resolving them, as well as a tendency to get distracted by parties, degenerates, and her own curiosity.
She’s continually in conflict with the powerful Vampire Council, who would be pretty happy if she disappeared forever.
I was inspired to write this story when I was watching a sci-fi movie with a bunch of guys running around in lycra jumpsuits. In the future, I’m pretty sure everyone will be wearing t-shirts, jeans, and flip-flops, not gray uniforms. Anyway, I was thinking about the clichés of some genre stories, and I decided to spoof them.
What compelled you to use vampires in your stories?
I’ve always been a fan of paranormal stories that have a strong humorous component as well as a quasi-scientific explanation for oddities – like the great seasons of “The X-Files.” But I don’t like angsty, whiney vampires, especially the rich ones. I think rich, sophisticated vampires would probably be pretty pleased with themselves, so I came up with my snobby, accomplished vamps.
What is it about vampires? Why do you think they're such die-hard, fascinating fiends?
Many people find the combination of blood, sex, and eternal life to be very exciting. As part of my research for a young adult gothic, I read vampire poems and stories that go back hundreds of years – and they’re still really marvelously creepy.
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