Of Death & Dying (Corey Haim)... Angels... & Bite Bits!

Of Death and Dying

"Death by Stereo!"

This past Wednesday 10th of March 2010, we vampire fans, and more over Lost Boys lovers were hit with the news of the passing of actor Corey Haim.
Genre bloggers across the bloggersphere expressed sentiment and sorrow at this news. From Marta Acosta on Vampire Wire  to Nicole Hadaway on All things Smart and Scary, who credits the movie's influence on the writing of some of her characters.   
It was a tragic end to one of the better known icons of the 80's.

I'm an almost '80's baby, thus I was only about seven years old when the Lost Boys first came out, and Corey would have been about what, fourteen? I know I must have been still way too young when I finally saw the movie (as I do recall seeing it before I had ever even read Anne Rice or Dracula and I was initiated to those authors between the ages of 11 and 13).
But that's what you get, I guess when you grow up in a cinephile family.

I can't tell you how many times I've watched the Lost Boys. Every time it comes on television I watch it, and mind you, I already own the special edition DVD. I've watched it so many times that I know practically every line of dialogue by heart!

And although Corey was not "my crush" (neither Corey was for that matter... I was always a Jason Patric girl, even though he was waaay older, like 13 yrs older!), I still enjoyed the chemistry between the cast, esp. the two Corey's.

With Corey's passing and given what we have heard about the demons (in the form of drugs) which had possessed him over the years, one can only hope that this former Lost Boy, has now found peace in Angels arms.

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And Angels

And speaking of Angels, just some three months ago I speculated in a blog post that Angels may be the new Vampires, after reading all the hype surrounding Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush, and seems perhaps I was on the right "wing" of thought.
There has been a heavenly reign of releases recently (and blog posts to match).

- Over at VampChix there's a post on Dark Angels: the Fallen and the Nephilim , as they celebrate(d) Angel Week.

- Fang-tastic Books has an Angelology Excerpt and Giveaway.

- While the VampBoyz featured Paul Bettany in Legion as their Boy of the week!

- A little before that (a few weeks ago) author Nicole Hadaway wrote a review of Anne Rice's Angel Time, which Anne also mentioned about on her FaceBook page.

- And soon (next week), yours truly will have a review of author Skyler White's provocative new novel of fallen angels, now vampires in, and Falling,Fly. As well as an interview with the author.

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Bite Bits

 And speaking of vampires (don't you just love a good segue? :). Aforementioned author Nicole Hadaway is having a Giveaway Contest to win season 1 DVD of Blood Ties. The contest runs 'til next Friday 19th and is open to US & CND residents.

Also, a reminder (for all of us North of the American border) Canada's Space Channel still airs /re-airs episodes of Blood Ties, Fridays at 10am and Saturdays at 11am.
As well they (said Space channel) will be premiering season 1 of True Blood this Sunday 14th March @ 10pm.
I already saw and own the S1 DVD, but I'm such a "sucker" for the show (and vamps in general...but ex-nay on the "ilight Tway") that I'll most be watching it all again.

And info to the end - I just learned from self same Canada's Space Channel, that they will be airing The Lost Boys on Sunday 14th.

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And in memory of dear Corey, here is the music video of G Tom Mac's  Cry Little Sister

And the Winner is....

CONGRATULATIONS go  to CheriS33 who has WON the random draw (done by Nicole) from last weeks contest, for an e-copy of Nicole Hadaway's Release!

Please send your email address to me, so I can forward to Nicole, @ VampirePhile@Gmail.com

And THANK YOU ALL who participated. 

It was great to read all the comments about Henry and to know that he is a vampire who still (and always will) hold(s) a special place in all our hearts!

Author Nicole Hadaway guest post w/ Contest: "Why I Love Henry Fitzroy".

Today VampirePhile welcomes and has the pleasure of hosting author Nicole Hadaway as guest, along with a contest (from Nicole).

Nicole is the author of Release, which recently got four fangs via Fang-tastic Books blog review. And today, Nicole's post relates to one of the subjects which (to quote Nicole) was: " one of the the catalysts that spurred me on to write my own vampire novel."

Of course, Nicole was referring to one of her/my/our favourite vampire Tv shows: Blood Ties, which is still missed to this day by many (if not all) fans of the series.

So it is in that vein, (pardon the obvious pun), in which she writes today, one of the quintessential fave vampires of our time - as perfectly embodied by Kyle Schmid - none other, than, Henry Fitzroy.

Why I Love Henry Fitzroy

by Nicole Hadaway

I lived in Europe for a year and therefore missed out on an entire season of American television. (This wasn’t always a bad thing ;-), but I did miss out on Moonlight. However, our cable system was wise enough to show Blood Ties, and that was when I fell in love.

I didn’t really read paranormal mysteries, preferring instead the more human kind, like Agatha Christie, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. Yet I always enjoyed watching vampires on TV or in the movies – Fright Night, The Lost Boys, Angel and Buffy are among my faves, and my two all-time favorite television shows, Charmed and Xena:Warrior Princess certainly don’t skimp on the paranormal fantasy!

Now look, I’m a little old here – I actually saw The Lost Boys in the movie theater when it played back in 1987! I also saw Fright Night the year before, and the vampire in that movie was everything I thought a vampire should be: smooth, suave, handsome, cultured, well-mannered and confident.

Very much like Henry Fitzroy. I was so happy to see Henry as a well-mannered, cultured vampire who had a conscience but didn’t overdo it – he still played with his food, and made no apologies about preferring female humans (like -- where can I sign up to be on his dinner guest list? ;-). He didn’t abuse his feeding, though, and he was a great mix of a nice bad-boy.

Plus, Kyle Schmid did an amazing, just awesomely wonderful job as Henry. He is a really great actor and should really be in more movies. 

I know Soni is a member of Kyle Schmid Central so I can confess here that I rented and watched Joy Ride 2 and The Thaw just to see Kyle!
In recent years I’ve been a fan of historical fiction, so I really liked the idea that Henry was tied to the actual illegitimate son of Henry VIII, who supposedly died of tuberculosis. Very, very clever of Tanya Huff to have taken the tuberculosis symptoms (paleness, tiredness, shortness of breath and death) and put a vampiric spin on them!

After Blood Ties was mercilessly canceled, I had to get my Henry fix by reading the books (though admittedly I only read two of the Blood Series but all three of the Smoke Series which are really good and I highly recommend them). The books gave more details about Henry’s history, which got me thinking about my own vampire, Miranda.

Miranda had been in my mind for nearly 20 years at that point, but I never could come up with an original story for her. Not until I started thinking about her own history, and where she was during important historical events such as World War II. The more I thought about her during that time period, well, that was how Release was born.

So that’s why I love Henry: because he’s a great incarnation of the cultured, civilized vampire who’s got a bit of a bad-boy edge. Thinking about his own history was one of the catalysts that spurred me on to write my own vampire story, and I hope he would approve of Miranda as much as she admires him ;-)

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About the Author:

Nicole Hadaway used to work as a lawyer, but now she only writes about such things as bloodsuckers and deals with the devil (sorry! she couldn't resist a lawyer joke there!). After having lived in such varied places as Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Louisiana and even Monaco, she now makes her home in Texas.  Her first novel, Release, was published in September 2009 and features vampires in a World War II setting. She’s currently working on the sequel, Return, which takes place during September 2001.  If you'd like to read more about her, you can go to her blog here: http://nicole-hadaway@blogspot.com.

!!!Contest Time!!!

Nicole has offered to give a free e-copy of her book Release (sorry, it's not out in paper-back as yet) to one lucky person who names what they like most about Henry. Contest is open until Monday, January 25th, 10am eastern. So leave your comment replies below to enter!

Names will be drawn at random and Winner announced later in the week, so be sure to check back to see if you've won or you can be sure to provide an email address to which Nicole can contact you to send the e-copy of Release.

And here's an added special treat, by request from Nicole, and which may help in reminding you all what is liked most about Henry. It's a fan made Blood Ties vid set to Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster.  Enjoy!

Announce: Author Nicole Hadaway as Guest this Thursday w/ Contest.

This coming Thursday January 21st, VampirePhile will have the pleasure of hosting Nicole Hadaway author and blog owner of All Things Smart and Scary as Guest. Nicole will be guest blogging on a specific subject (that will be of particular interest to you Blood Ties fans) and there will also be a contest involved (the 1st ever for VampirePhile). 

So stay tuned!

HAPPY NEW YEAR: Kyle Schmid WINS Sexiest man in Vampire Realm!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2010 (or 20 Zen) my Fang-tastic Followers!

Well Henry Fitzroy Fans, yup you've read it right (re: title)!

Updating on that vote poll I told about only 4 days ago, being done by The Memphis Vampire Examiner, it was a close race to the sunset, but ultimately Kyle Schmid's fans rallied en mass, and in only two days, staked a win over Twilight's Robert Pattinson.

Blood Ties, Vampire Henry Fitzroy himself, a.k.a Kyle Schmid has won "fangs" down as the Sexiest Man in the Vampire Realm!

Kyle won with 2,706 votes (beating R. Pat's 2,571).

Here's looking at you, Kid!

 Image Courtesy of KyleSchmidCentral:

And info to the end, over at Nicole Hadaway's blog, All Things Smart and Scary, she has posted a treat entitled: Little Bit of Blood Ties!

Also, on Marta Costa's Vampire Wire blog, for her Gratuitous New Year's day videos, she posted "Videos set to...", with Blood Ties, Henry Fitzroy as the 1st (scroll dwon page to find, after enjoying the Supernatural badges of course).