My (bio) cousin makes video games for a living, plays and makes guitars, and is a massive video game and roleplaying nerd. So little me went all spiral-eyed whenever he did anything for me.
He bought me two very important books for my 12th birthday. The Vampire: the Requiem rulebook (the red book), and IWTV. Naturally, I devoured both.
I read IWTV and everything was wonderful pretty much instantly. There wasn’t a single part of that book I didn’t adore. It was through my rapid and all-consuming obsession with vampirism that I actually started to bloom; creatively, socially, mentally, everything just started to resolve and I started to become a person I like. Yes, I read Twilight during this initial discovery stage. Yes, I was in the fandom briefly. But it was so hollow compared to what I had already read that I was perplexed that others seemed to not want to branch out into real, monstrous vampirism.
Essentially IWTV is what sparked me going from awkward pubescent to actually pretty great 20-something. I now LARP with the MES (VtR, of course) and write urban fantasy and am generally completely in love with vampires.
But now a confession: I’ve only ever read IWTV. I haven’t read all of the VC, despite owning literally all of it (sometimes multiple covers per book!) So which should I finally read next?!
#I love stories like these, how we got into this mess series.
It’s heartwarming to see how the Ricean vampires have had such a positive effect on ppl in their formative years. They are dysfunctional hipster vampires, all kinds of flaws and existential crises, they try to resolve them, they try to find the answers to questions big and small, and in general promote a trust in one’s self, an inner confidence and an ability to draw pleasure from even simple things. These are good things for anyone, of any age, to absorb.
YOU SHOULD READ THE VAMPIRE LESTAT NEXT you’re going to love it!
I could write a thesis on this. DON’T WORRY I WON’T DO THAT.
(BTW, if you’re just looking for music reccs, I have a VC fanmix, fanmix, and music tag for that)
First of all, you have to consider when are they listening to music? It can be solitary or social…
Armand ~
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Enjoys gathering a small audience and hiring live musicians to play complicated classical pieces. Or asking that vampires who can play things come and entertain them. He still loves Sybelle at the piano, even better that her repertoire has expanded beyond the Appassionata. Antoine has played lively duets with her.
Otherwise, Armand throws on huge wireless headsets while perusing art galleries. He’ll listen to anything others recommend to him, he shares a Spotify account so that anyone can try out his playlist, which has a broad spectrum of musical styles.
Armand is drawn to works that are used in ice skating competitions, oddly. It is a recent obsession.
David ~
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Musicals, anything upbeat. Has a love for Spanish culture, Flamenco, like the Gypsy Kings. Without much urging, Lestat will put on makeup and dress up in a Flamenco gown and dance with David in public!
David’s rainy-day guilty pleasure are artists like Michael Bolton, for when he’s home alone, feeling left out of the coven activities.
He also loves Sting; the song that hooked him was Desert Rose, which Marius sent him on a mix-CD because of the Arabic singer, Cheb Mami.
Louis ~
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It takes a long time for Louis to warm up to new bands, and he likes a few pieces by Hozier which Lestat added to Louis’ outdated iPod. It’s an older gen model but it still works fine, so Louis doesn’t see a need to replace it.
He prefers pieces without lyrics, ambient works that he can melt into while reading.
The Blade Runner movie that Armand got him to watch the first time made Louis a Vangelis fan and a fan of film soundtracks. He often plays the Gone Girl soundtrack.
Marius ~
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Daniel and Lestat have introduced him to alot of modern music. Marius will listen while he paints. Marius is the biggest Hozier fan of the four discussed.
As we near publication time for “Prince Lestat,” I’m often asked: what about the Wolf Gift characters? When will Reuben and Felix of Nideck Point return? Answer: I want to get back to Reuben and his fellow Morphenkinder as soon as I can. I see many novels ahead with the Wolf Gift cast of characters. But right now I am focused on a follow up to “Prince Lestat,” entitled “Blood Paradise” that continues thestory of Lestat and the vampire tribe in the second decade of the Twenty-first Century. I hope and pray the Wolf Gift Chronicles will be better for the delay. It helps sometimes to wait a year or more before continuing a series. But I am eager to return to Nideck Point; and I haven’t forgotten at all about Toby O’Dare of the Songs of the Seraphim. A third novel with Toby has been developing in my mind for years, a big novel in which Toby and his angel mentor, Malchiah meet many unique challenges. You could say I have a very crowded mind, a restless mind, a mind of conflicting story threads. I can’t claim credit for it; I was born with it. And I hope I will have the time to tell many more tales…. Thanks so much for your many questions. I appreciate them very much.
I-want-my-IWTV 