Dead Roses for a Blue Lady
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) Dead Roses For A Blue Lady
This first edition of
Dead Roses For A Blue Lady
is signed by the author and is limited to 432 copies (400 numbered clothbound hardcovers, 26 leatherbound lettered hardcovers, and 8 specially bound hardcovers reserved for private distribution).
This is copy ___
of
400
Dead Roses For A Blue Lady
Nancy A. Collins
CROSSROADS PRESS HOLYOKE, MA
Dead Roses For A Blue Lady Copyright © 2002 Nancy A. Collins Book Design © 2002 Thomas & Anne Crouss/Crossroads Press All Artwork © 2002
Stephen R. Bissette
All rights reserved
First Edition
May 2002
Crossroads Press
POBox 10433
Holyoke, MA. 01041
Nancy Collins on Sonja Blue An Interview © 2001 Shadowind Inc. Original to this edition.
"Knifepoint" © 2001 Nancy A. Collins. Original to this edition.
"Cold Turkey" © 1992 Nancy A. Collins. Originally appeared as a limited edition chapbook from Crossroads Press.
"Tender Tigers" © 2001 Nancy A. Collins. Original to this edition.
"Vampire King Of The Goth Chicks" © 1998 Nancy A. Collins. Originally appeared in
Cemetary Dance Vol 8 #3.
"Variation On A Theme" © 1998 Nancy A. Collins. Originally published in the
The Crow:
Broken Lives, Shattered Dreams.
"Some Velvet Morning" © 2000 Nancy A. Collins. Originally published in the
Vampire
Sextette.
"The Nonesuch Horror" © 2001 Nancy A. Collins. Original to this edition. Printed in the United States of America 10 987654321
ISBN: 1-892300-07-9 (Numbered Edition) 1-892300-08-7 (Lettered Edition) This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Nancy Collins on Sonja Blue: An Interview
Knifepoint
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) Cold Turkey
Tender Tigers
Vampire King Of The Goth Chicks
Variations On A Theme
Some Velvet Morning
The Nonesuch Horror
NANCY COLLINS ON SONJA BLUE
An Interview
By Stanley Wiater
Stanley Wiater:
What are your earliest memories of Sonja Blue? And did she come after you, or did your imagination hunt her down?
Nancy Collins:
Sonja Blue dates back at least to my sophomore year of high school. That would be 1975. Her actual origins are cloaked in fuzzy memory, but I remember that she was one of several female characters I created around that time. I was attempting to come up with intelligent, strong women who could dish it out with the best of 'em, but who didn't read like dozer dykes or adolescent male sex fantasies. Two of those other characters have since seen the light of fictive day: Machina Jones, a cyborg bounty hunter appeared in Marvel's 2099 Unlimited #10; and Tanoch, a bat-winged heroic fantasy character, is central to my Elric story
The Heart of the Dragon.
But it was Sonja who seemed to have the most "life" to her—the one determined to have her story told.
SW:
Is it true that the very first Sonja Blue story appeared in an obscure fanzine, and is it the case that over the years you have since lost the only manuscript of the first story you wrote about her?
NC:
Yes—it's lost. Actually, there were several short stories I wrote about her, but only one was ever printed in a fanzine. That was my own fanzine, called
Razed Consciousness,
probably #2 or #3. That was either in 1978 or 1979, but I do remember that it was produced using twiltone & mimeo reproduction processes (this was before photocopying became so commonplace). There was accompanying artwork by Clel Jones, my then-roommate while I was attending Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. The story was called
Growing Colder
and was about Sonja struggling against the desire to prey on humans. The Pretenders weren't called Pretenders yet. Vampires were referred to as
"colds" and humans as "warms." I do remember passages such as "a cold face looking back from a sea of warmth." Sonja's perception was more thermal than occult, but except for those minor differences, she was almost identical as to how she appeared in Sunglasses After Dark.
SW:
Why do you think she has become your most popular character?
NC:
There is no telling what makes a character resonate with some readers and not with others. I suspect some readers can identify with Sonja as an outsider; others sympathize with her struggle to do the right thing. A lot of women enjoy the fact that she's strong, intelligent, and capable. Men seem to dig that too, although there's obviously a sexual fantasy element connected there as well. But I think most readers consider her someone they'd want to happen across their mugging.
SW
: Just as vital, as her creator is she your favorite character?
NC:
This is like asking a mother which of her children is her favorite! She's definitely one
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) of my favorite characters, and certainly the one I know the best. I'm also fond of Billy Skillet from Walking Wolf and Johnny Pearl from Lynch. I also have a soft spot for some of the villains and supporting characters I've created over the years, such as Pangloss and Chaz from the Sonja Blue series; The Iscariot from Dhampire:Stillborn; Witchfinder Jones from Walking Wolf; Mirablis & Sasquatch from Lynch; and Changing Woman and Fella from Wild Blood.
SW:
There are other novels and stories that deal with vampires/vampire hunters as the protagonists. What makes the world of Sonja Blue so special by comparison?
NC:
I think one of the things that has made Sonja Blue's world so unique is the fact the readers got to see it through her eyes—a universe of dark miracles and divine monsters.
The punk underground ethos woven throughout the series also provides a unique spin not readily available in other books. Sonja Blue dwells on the fringes of mainstream society, and is more a part of that shadowy underculture than the world of nine-to-five, two-car garage, house-in-the-suburbs America. Kind of like myself, actually.
That's not to say Sonja was spun from whole cloth. I was very much influenced by Marv Wolfman's classic
Tomb of Dracula
comics, especially his Dracula's Diary entries and the character of Blade. The original Blade is a distinct inspiration for Sonja. Another influence came from the classic 1960s Avengers TV episodes featuring Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel.
The mid 70s version of the Black Widow, when she was hanging with Daredevil, was also influential, along with Pam Grier's in-your-face characters in exploitation movies like
Coffey
and
The Big Doll House
figured in there as well. But the most significant spiritual forefather of Sonja was Humphrey Bogart ala
The Maltese Falcon/Casablanca/The Glass
Key/The Big Sleep.
But in regard to female punk vampire/vampire-slayers—yeah, I pretty much created 99.9% of that particular sub-genre.
SW:
What was your reasoning for putting together this specific collection? Is it complete with all your short fiction about Sonja Blue? Also, do you recall why these more recent stories were written?
NC:
It's something I've been thinking about for a long time. That, and a Sonja Blue shared world anthology. And, yes, this collection holds all the (currently) existing Sonja short fiction. As to the reason these stories were created...well,
Cold Turkey
was originally commissioned by Crossroads Press for a chapbook, and went on to become a chapter in Paint It Black; The Crow's creator, James O'Barr, requested a Crow/Sonja Blue cross over, which resulted in
Variations on a Theme; Vampire King of the Goth Chicks
is a prose adaptation of the first comic book appearance of Sonja Blue, commissioned by Joe Lansdale for
Weird Business; Some Velvet Morning
was commissioned for a Doubleday SF book club original anthology;
Tender Tigers
is an expansion on the social structure of ogres, my favorite Pretender subspecies;
Knifepoint
explains the origins of Sonja's silver blade; and
The
Nonesuch Horror provides
an update on the goings on of Skinner Cade and his extended family of vargr, coyotero, and humans from Wild Blood.
SW:
What was the most difficult tale to write?
NC:
The most recent novel, Darkest Heart, has proven the most difficult to write, largely due to personal distractions and the downturn in publishing that necessitated my taking on a day job. But that's all over now. Thank god.
SW:
How do the short stories fit into the time-frame of your Sonja Blue novels?
NC:
Let's
see...Knifepoint
can be read as a prequel to the events in Sunglasses, although
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) Sonja does not make an actual appearance.
Cold Turkey
later became part of the third Sonja Blue novel, Paint It Black.
The Nonesuch Horror
takes place at least ten years after the events in
Tender Tigers.
The other stories occur sometime after the events related in Sunglasses After Dark and before Darkest Heart. The Countess from
Some Velvet
Morning
is referred to in Darkest Heart, as are the strega—a type of vampire created via necromancy, basically. They're similar to the blood wizards in A Dozen Black Roses.
Donatien Legendre of Tempter and Nicholas Gaunt of Dhampire: Stillborn are also examples of such self-damned vampires.
SW:
Do you have a complete history for Sonja already laid out—past, present, and future adventures? Or do her tales just come to you more or less at random, like Robert E.
Howard did with chronicling Conan?
NC:
I'm closer to Robert E. Howard than Tolkien when it comes to story arc generation.
Or perhaps Raymond Chandler is a better example. The stories come to me when they come to me.
SW:
Do you recall how the wonderfully distinctive and suggestive name "Sonja Blue"
originated? And we understand someone has already claimed it as a registered domain name on the Internet?
NC:
I like to play word games when naming characters. Sonja's name is derived from several sources, the most prominent being 1) Patty Hearst and 2) The Manson Family. The news coverage of Patty Hearst's kidnapping & rebirth as "Tanya" kept me riveted as a young teen. Clearly, that case is the template for Denise Thome's disappearance in Sunglasses. The Blue part comes from Squeaky Fromme & Sandra Goode of the Manson Family, who used to go by the code names "Red" and "Blue" respectively. I followed the Manson case as it unfolded in the press and read everything I could get my hands on. It was symbolic to me, at least, of the death of innocence for an entire generation. I've also since discovered that Sandra Goode has changed her name to "Blue Collins". Go figure.
There's also Robert E. Howard's original Red Sonja, of course, and a short-lived 1960's TV show I used to watch as a kid called
Coronet Blue
about a jazz musician with amnesia trying to figure out who he really is—only to discover he doesn't like the man he used to be.
Of course, once you create a neato name like Sonja Blue, that means that when the time comes to register a dot.com site, you discover you're several years late and more than a few dollars short.
SW:
What do you think your fans misunderstand about why you write—or don't write more of—these tales?
NC:
Whenever any author writes anything there's always a danger of readers missing the point or seeing something you never intended. But that's the witch-pool of fiction for you: not everyone who draws from it takes away the exact same thing. I've had readers tell me how they get into the violence or how cool my vampires are, but that's not what the books are about at all. The underlying theme of the Sonja books—and nearly all my novels, really—is the struggle to maintain one's humanity in the face of monstrosity. Or, if you want to put it in more prosaic terms: the struggle to remain true to one's self in the face of the overwhelming pressure to conform, as well as the tendency to assume complicity in our own unhappiness.
Of course, the problem with readers becoming over-invested in Sonja is that I have to be
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) extremely firm when fielding requests from fans that want to write their own Sonja Blue stories. Most of them don't seem to realize that what they're really saying is: "I love your work, please let me violate your copyrights."