Interview with the Vintage Vampires
Alex Severin Interviews Vampires Vivant & Belladonna
(from the Vampire Vintage Novel Series)
ALEX : Good evening, Vivant and Belladonna. Thank you for taking the time to come and have a chat with me tonight.
VIVANT : You're very fortunate, you realize.
BELLADONNA : There he goes already. I apologize for Vivant's rudeness. I'm always having to do that. Thank you, Alex. We're happy to be here.
Belladonna side-glances at Vivant and gives him the look. I decide to jump right in and ask Belladonna the first question.
ALEX : Belladonna, your childhood was very rural and decidedly non-Hollywood, growing up in the wilds of Oregon. Can you tell us a little about your early years?
BELLADONNA : Oh, sure. I love talking about the old days. I had a wonderful childhood. We were pretty poor a lot of the time but but there was always plenty love in our house. My mom spoiled us any way she could. It wouldn't be what kids these days would think of as being spoiled, but it was to us.
ALEX : What sort of things would she do to spoil you?
BELLADONNA : Doesn't seem like much in this day and age, but little things like making me and my sister new dresses, or my brother, Cal a new shirt to go to the Barn Dance at the weekend, or even baking homemade cookies.
ALEX : And you Vivant? What sort of a childhood did you have?
VIVANT : I don't remember. It was a very long time ago. Next question.
Sensing the possibility of a touchy subject, I take the hint and move on.
ALEX : I understand you were a silent movie star many moons ago, and witnessed the birth of Hollywood. Can you tell us a little about what it was like to witness The Golden Age?
A light turns on in Vivant's eyes. I know I have asked the question.
Belladonna gives me a slow smile, leans forward and whispers -
BELLADONNA : He'll go on and on for hours if you don't stop him.
Vivant sits straight up and wipes off his jacket lapel as if cleaning it of dust from days gone by. He lets the slowest smile slide across his full mouth and that hypnotic glint in his eyes draws me in as our gazes lock. I am captivated before he even speaks, awaiting his story.
VIVANT : It was the most wonderful time in history. The most incredible age I have lived in. It was...
He pauses, as if searching for the right word.
ALEX : Magic.
He smiles at me again.
VIVANT : Yes. It was magic. I was so in love with everything about that day and age and I know there will never, ever be one like it again. Everybody nowadays is so jaded. Ten year olds are jaded. It makes me sad, actually. At least it took me centuries to become that way. No one born after about 1950 has ever known the magic that I have, that we did, back then. There will never be another era like the Golden Age. And it wasn't just Hollywood's Golden Age, or even America's. It was the world's. It belonged to us all.
But before all that, I remember being in Paris. 1894, it was. Another wonderful time and place. I was among a crowd of fascinated and frightened people watching moving pictures at the unveiling of the Cinematographe.
He laughs, delighted at the memory.
VIVANT : I remember an elderly lady in the audience fainting, muttering about witchcraft, wondering if this was some sort of magic, and if the gentleman running the projection machine was a Wizard. But the old woman was right - it was magic. It will always be magic. At least to me, anyway. I'm old enough to remember being fascinated by the advent of paper!
Vivant laughs uproariously and Belladonna and I both laugh with him.
VIVANT : A little more than twenty years later, I boarded a ship to come to America, after I heard about wonderful places on the eastern coast called New York and New Jersey where they made moving pictures. I had to be a part of it. I was just born for the drama and the tensions of the movie industry where everybody is on the brink, everybody is controlling or controlled, where everybody seeks to exert their power over everyone else. Born for it, I tell you. I have lived so long and seen so much, I've seen history, I've seen things that became myths and legends. I've been part of the rise and fall of empires. And yet nothing I have witnessed, nothing I have ever experienced thrilled me or captivated me they way that Hollywood and all that it encompasses does.
Belladonna grins.
BELLADONNA : Well, that's the truth!
VIVANT : And just a few years after that, we all moved to the west, to a better climate and more daylight to make our motion pictures. Oh, and to escape that blasted Edison. He held our entire industry to ransom, you know? Controlled everything from the technology patents, right down to the film stock. But when we all fled to California to avoid his lawsuits against everybody, that was when the magic really happened. There's something about that place, about that time. And once that icon was erected in 1923 – the sign - even although it had nothing to do with pictures in the beginning, it became an international symbol of glitz and glamor and of movie magic.
Belladonna smiles as Vivant talks about her beloved Hollywood sign.
VIVANT : Pretty soon after the move to the west coast, I became a genuine movie star.
He grins at me, a one-sided sexy smile.
VIVANT : I had the time of my life. Men and women threw themselves at me night and day. I had Queens, princesses, world leaders, other movie stars, falling at my feet and begging me to fuck them all.
BELLADONNA : Language, Vivant.
VIVANT : You're a fine one to talk. You have a mouth like a Russian sailor most of the time.
BELLADONNA : Not in polite company I don't!
VIVANT : Bells, have you ever read Alex's writing? I sincerely doubt she's offended by me saying fuck.
I laugh, mostly from surprise that he's read my writing.
ALEX : No, I'm not offended at all.
BELLADONNA : I was always fascinated by Hollywood too. I would do chores around town to make enough money to buy the latest movie magazines, like Photoplay – that was my favorite. I would lie on my bed looking at all the glamorous, beautiful movie stars and dream about being like them one day. It was always my dream to be an actress. And I achieved my dream, even although nobody ever saw the damn movie, thanks to that psychotic bitch Rose.
VIVANT : Now who's using bad language?
BELLADONNA : Well, I'm still mad at her. She stole my hopes and dreams, Vivant. Her jealously destroyed my life. I actually lived my dream and made a movie with Bela Lugosi, the reason I came to Hollywood in the first place. But nobody ever saw it because of the stupid scandal she engineered that made the studio bury the movie. Nowadays, it wouldn't even merit as gossip on Perez Hilton! And she destroyed wonderful, kind men in the process too.
ALEX : What did it feel like, finally stepping on to a movie set and acting, after dreaming about it your whole life?
BELLADONNA : It was...magic. There's that word again. But it's so true. It just felt like you were part of something that was so special, you know? And I always felt the magic, even as a little girl watching the silent stars on the screen. We didn't have an actual movie theater when I was a child, in Independence, Oregon where I was born. We had to wait for the traveling picture show to come to town. It felt like we were the very last stop in the whole country, but I didn't care as long as I got to see the pictures sometime. Some of them had tents they put up to show the movies, and sometimes they would use an old abandoned train car or somebody's barn. But the surroundings disappeared for me when I heard that snap and whir of celluloid and the movie flickered to life on the screen. Actually, a lot of them didn't even have a screen – some of them used a big white bedsheet. I would just get completely caught up in the story, totally lost in the world I was watching. And I wanted to make other people feel that way, make them forget their troubles and take them out of their daily grind for a little while and bring them some joy.
Vivant rolls his eyes and Belladonna throws him a look.
BELLADONNA : What?
VIVANT : That's really why you wanted to be an actress?
BELLADONNA : You know it is.
VIVANT : Really? Personally I rather liked the idea of the money, the fame and the endless supply of blood and sex.
BELLADONNA : No, you didn't! You're such a tool, Viv. You know it was for the magic. You can't fool me. I can read your mind, remember?
VIVANT : Yeah, well, read this.
Belladonna wears a shocked look on her face, glances at me then looks away.
ALEX : Did I miss something?
BELLADONNA : It's nothing. Never mind.
She casts her eyes downward, a slight blush on her cheeks. She mumbles under her breath at Vivant.
BELLADONNA : Dirty bastard.
I shift uncomfortably in my chair and wonder what he just said, pretty certain it was about me. And Belladonna. I can feel my face start to burn and I know he's looking at me. I can feel him feeding off my reaction. He's a vampire in more ways than one, a vampire that consumes more than just blood. He thrives on reaction, on attention, on energy and he feasts on me.
VIVANT : Oh, Bells, don't be shy now. I can read your mind too. I know you want to...
BELLADONNA : Vivant! Don't say another word. You'd think as old as you are you would have learned some social graces by now. You're such a pill.
Vivant laughs.
VIVANT : Why do you slip back into that ridiculous depression vernacular when you're mad at me?
BELLADONNA : I don't know. I just do. Probably because I spent most of the 30s pissed at you!
My eyes widen and I can see a major spat developing. And I know what their fights usually end in – either a shooting or steamy sex. I decide that it may be time to beat a hasty retreat before I get myself in trouble with these two fascinating vampires.
ALEX : Well, thank you both very much for spending time with me tonight. I appreciate it. I'll e-mail you when the interview is up on Bitten by Paranormal Romance, Belladonna.
BELLADONNA : Yes, do that. And keep in touch.
I reach out to shake her hand and she thanks me too. I offer my hand to Vivant; he takes it in his and places a soft kiss on the back, looks into my eyes with that stare like sparks in darkness.
I close the door behind and pause before I walk away. I smile. I smile because I know that I will see these two enchanting creatures again someday.
ALEX SEVERIN GIVEAWAY!
Contents -
A signed paperback of Alex's vampire erotica short story collection, Make the Streets Run Vampire Red
4 signed Vampire Vintage Book One : Belladonna in Hollywood Bookmarks
Instant Vampire Bitch Kit (Vampire Teeth & Plastic Spider Ring)
1 pair Art Deco inspired faceted glass earrings, handmade by Alex Severin.
1 Vampire Fang pendant, handmade by Alex Severin
1 x eBook copy of Alex's paranormal horror romance novel, Vampire Vintage Book One : Belladonna in Hollywood
+ other cool Halloween goodies!
ALEX SEVERIN BIO -
Alex Severin is a writer of Paranormal Romance and Erotic Horror. She is a full-time, independent author and also writes filthy smut under various noms de plume, none of which she's prepared to admit to at the moment. Vivant and Belladonna are the main characters in her debut novel and first installment of the series, Vampire Vintage Book One : Belladonna in Hollywood.
ALEX SEVERIN ONLINE -
