Guest post by Rebeka Harrington

“Leave behind your preconceived ideas, forget the horror stories and disregard everything you think you know about vampires.
For centuries the debate has raged; are vampires real?  There has been plenty of myth and superstition regarding vampires but not a lot of truth or answers.  In a unique piece of work, Bektamun a 3000 year old vampire, puts to rest all the myth and finally reveals the truth about the legendary creatures known across the globe as vampires.
Vampires Revealed is a journey of discovery. Never before have humans had and an opportunity such as this.  To know the unadulterated truth, for every question you may have ever had about vampires to be answered”

Rebeka visited us earlier in the week and today we get a little more behind the scenes info.  So over to Rebeka.

Recently I did an interview with Chrizette and she, like many others, asked what inspired me to write Vampires Revealed. The short answer is; to rather self-indulgently answer my own questions. Given that is the brief response, when Chriz asked me to return and do a guest post, I decided I wanted to talk more about how Vampires Revealed came to be written.

Don’t ask me when it started, but for as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with vampires. I remember when I first discovered Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, I was in Heaven. Lestat, so good at being bad. Louis desperately trying to come to grips with the ‘dark gift’. Claudia, Armand, Marius, Pandora, Akasha and more… a host of vampires came flying at me from the pages and embraced me in their world. There was something enigmatic and intriguing about vampires and I loved them.

Then when I got my first taste of vampire movies I fell in love with them all over again. To see the danger, brutality, charm and intelligence was almost magical. To witness vampires come to life, right before my eyes on the big screen… Wow!

As you can imagine I’ve consumed my fair share of vampire fiction after since I first discovered them.
While often now vampires are portrayed with a more ‘human’ quality, it wasn’t always the case. Mostly vampires were the monsters of nightmares, superstars of horror. Forever cast in the role of evil demons. I adamantly believed there had to be more to these creatures of intelligence besides being killers.
Some time ago, I found myself with an unusual amount of free time on my hands and was obsessing over every little detail I could think of about vampires. The most critical was ‘where did vampires come from? ’ Generally they are accepted as supernatural creatures, but where exactly did they come, How did it all start? Who was the first?

Was it some sort of religious ceremony gone wrong? Did someone summon the wrong God and vampires were sent as a plague on mankind? Or was it the product of a God/human coupling gone wrong? Or something else entirely?

Once I got started asking questions I couldn’t stop.


They drink A LOT of blood. Do they ever need to use the toilet?


If they’re capable of physical intimacy with human beings (think True Blood) then do their bodies perform and function in the same way as humans? If not, then how the heck does that work?


Are vampires heterosexual, homosexual, cross-dressing transvestites? Do they even think about these things?


Are they single-minded killers or are they a nation of complex individuals all with different personalities?


Do vampires live in harmony with each other? Do they fight among themselves over stupid stuff like humans?


Seriously I just couldn’t stop. For every question I was able to answer another three would spring to mind. This is where Bektamun stepped in to save me.


Having lived for more than 3000 years, Bektamun is supremely confident of her own abilities. One might say she is downright arrogant, even a bossy-boots at times. But her knowledge and experience is unquestionable.


Some people might think I’m crazy, because I ‘talk’ to my characters. Tucked away in my home office I sit and talk at length with my characters. In particular Bektamun while I was writing Vampires Revealed. Here’s a sample of a conversation between myself and Bektamun.


Bektamun: “Vampires cannot feed from a human suffering leukemia?”


Rebeka: “Why?”


Bektamun: “It reacts with metabolic chemicals.”


Rebeka: “What happens then?”


Bektamun: “The infected vampire goes crazy.”


Rebeka: “Really? What sort of behavior do they display?”


Almost without fail my opening to question to Bektamun regarding anything is ‘why’. It's like trying to explain to a three year old why the sky is blue…”Why?”, “Because it is.”, “Why?”, “Just because.”


The combination of applied logic, research, character questioning and input helped me to create my very own vampire mythology. My vampires remain familiar enough to be recognized by fans of the genre, however strike out on their own in a unique way.


Writing Vampires Revealed was at times headache inducing, but overall it was extremely fun. And who wouldn’t want to hang out with Bektamun? She’s a pretty groovy chick, even for a vampire.





Author bio:
Raised in country Victoria, Rebeka started her writing career working for the local newspaper as a teenager. While she decided not to pursue this as a career, she has always enjoyed writing and being creative


With so many varied interests and eccletic taste in most things, Rebeka enjoys incorporating all of them in her writing. She particularly enjoys writing about vampires.


Rebeka seeks to define and explain vampires in a way not done before. This has been achieved with her debut title "Vampires Revealed". Following titles will revolve around exploring the world and characters created in her first release.


Currently Rebeka lives in Melbourne with her “demented” but lovable cat, dividing her time between writing and managing a small boutique entertainment agency.