Guest post written by Black River author Ruby Jean Cottle
Ruby Jean Cottle is a writer from Sydney, Australia. Growing up, Ruby spent childhood summers in upstate New York, where her passion for writing blossomed as her imagination ran wild in the mountains and forests far from her home. After studying art history at university, Ruby found herself on a winding career path in fashion, digital media and creative direction. After becoming a mother, she decided to return to her first love: writing stories.
About Black River (out now): A mystical new YA series that blends fantasy, sci-fi and romance. All seventeen-year-old Dusty wants is to escape into books and the wilderness that surrounds her mountain home. What she doesn’t know is that there’s something waiting for her in the shadows of the forest. One morning, Dusty wakes up with dirt on her feet. Then she realises that her body and senses are changing. And after a chance encounter with quiet and mysterious Will, she feels an attraction unlike anything she’s experienced before. It isn’t just an emotional connection making her heart beat faster—it’s a thirst. But Dusty isn’t the only person experiencing strange events in Black River. Darker forces are at play, and Dusty must uncover the mystery—or risk losing everything and everyone she loves…
Zombies? Yucky. Cannibalism? No thanks. An intense thirst for human blood? I’m so in.
As someone who has consumed any and every bit of vampire fiction they have come across, when I sat down to write my debut novel, Black River, it was only natural for it to feature bloodlust.
Unlike many other popular vampire tales we’ve come to know and love, in my book there is no mysterious, ageless man preying on innocents. It’s actually my heroine, 17 year old Dusty, who suddenly starts to crave the blood running through her crush’s veins. She’s completely in the dark as to what’s happening to her, with no guidance or context, and the ‘V’ word isn’t even used in this paranormal tale. But even with a new take on the genre, there are certain themes that come along with the concept of vampirism that as both a reader and an author I’m fascinated with. It seems that in an ever-changing world, our obsession with vampires is as timeless as the beings themselves.
Forbidden Attraction
The first and arguably most alluring of the themes. No matter which side of the attraction you’re on, lusting after someone’s blood or knowing that the person you’re falling for wants that from you, is inherently taboo. It brings an edge of danger and secrecy to a relationship that isolates the pair from their peers and keeps them in a constant state of “I shouldn’t but I want to.” While in the real world this is an inherently toxic dynamic, when the paranormal exception is thrown in there, it harbours a deep romantic connection built on complete and utter trust – something that’s only natural to crave.
Primitive Need
Hunger. Thirst. Connection. Self-preservation. Fundamental needs that we seek to fulfil above all else. But when it’s human blood that keeps you alive, these primitive urges are all bound into one intense driving force that would have you walking a constant line between the control and chaos. I think we can all relate to this idea of being who society expects us to be, while having an awareness of these instincts deep inside us threatening to burst forth at any moment. Although the reality of drinking blood might repel us, we can all empathise with the idea of it as a primitive need, and the deeply intimate act of biting into someone, of literally needing them to survive, is profoundly alluring in its intensity. It reminds us that below all else, we are animals, and that once we were wild and free.
Self-Discovery
In the face of bloodlust, it’s impossible to avoid a journey of self-discovery. Confronted with questions of morality while your body explodes with sensations and need, exploring new or hidden parts of yourself is a given. In a world where much of our time is consumed by work, social media, school, entertainment, I think the idea of drastic transformation to snap us out of our reality is one of the core appeals of vampire fiction.
Love (or Hate) That Transcends Time
Maybe it’s just because I’m a Scorpio who never forgets, or maybe because we as humans are deeply aware of our mortality – either way, the concept of feelings that transcend time is intoxicatingly poetic. As a mother, I have no doubt that love is undying, even if I have no idea what will happen after I shed my mortal coil. We all have so many questions surrounding this theme, and I think that as readers there is something incredibly satisfying in the foreverness of vampire fiction. Our intense emotions are such a beautiful, scary part of what makes us human, and tapping into that through storytelling scratches an itch we barely allow ourselves to acknowledge in our day to day lives.
