the vampire novel in which vampires are not atop the food chain

Loving this idea So. Much.

And wow on everyone's drabbles; this theme has produced some doozies.

I still want to learn to write a mystery, once I've written the fictionalized and (barely) sanitized story of my life...

Loving this idea So. Much.

Dani, it takes Roger Zelazny's short story about it and runs with it, basically; I'm postulating the POV mostly of these two vampires, a couple, who've learned over the years to be cautious. Basically, take as much as you need, never take it all, don't leave anyone dead, slip 'em a little herbal (or chemical) form of rohypnol so they don't remember how their wrists got so bruised, you get your blood, the vic is dizzy for a few days, all is well.

Until a generation of children - that is, a specific very small subset of a generation - is born with a protein-triggered deficiency which is hormonally linked, and kick in at puberty, a kind of anemia. They need human blood to stay healthy, and in its raw form, it can kill them. They aren't vampires. But the human blood they need, has to first be filtered, and the perfect filter is the vampire. Also, because nature rarely saddles a living creature with a need without providing some way of filling it, this nice normal human protein-triggered subset - who are shoe salesmen and waittresses and, of course, a few heartless wealthy "want take have" types - can literally smell a vampire.

And the story, with the big ethical questions attached, goes from there.

Roger Zelazny's short story

t perks up Zelazny? The god of all things odd and twisted, who died too freaking young because, dammit, there were more Amber stories to tell?

Yes. Roger. A damned good friend, who was there for me when I needed him, at a very dark time.

I miss the living hell out of him. The fact that he's gone and Dick Cheney isn't is yet one more reason I can't ever fully believe in a just and loving deity.

Thank god he got "Lonesome October" out before he left. That may just be my favorite of his books.

maybe it's not God...maybe it's animatronics...Disney was One Of Theirs, after all.

I was all about Rog's short stories; Nic adores the novels, but for me, he had the short form down like nobody else.

Everything from "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" to "This Moment of the Storm" to (my favourite, usually) "This Mortal Mountain".

His blurb for "Plainsong" came in a letter that I have locked away. It came on one of the single worst days of my life. I've never been quite as close to walking out into the ocean and not stopping as I was that day. And I got home and there was a letter from New Mexico and a note from Roger and it said "Hey Deb, I just finished Plainsong. Here's a blurb for it - from the heart."

And the blurb made me cry like an idiot for about three hours. It was so lovely, it was such perfect timing.

Roger was also the reason "The Eden Tree" (in progress) is a novel, and not the novella I'd planned. He read it, two-thirds done, and said, why in hell are you wasting your time trying to straightjacket this many Big Big Big Questions in a novella? Spread it out, damn it!"

He was wonderful.

GodDAMNit.

Deb, that's a pretty cool idea. Giving vampires human predators who predate for survival, not sport. Hmm.

Unfortunately, I'd never heard of Roger Zelazny.

P-C, your petticoat is showing.