There’s no end to the variety when it comes to vampires. Some are horrific, some are comedic; some are sexy and some are sparkly; still others are suave while others are feral.
But they usually share one common trait: an aversion to the sun.
Usually.
In Lindz McLeod’s new erotic horror novella Sunbathers (paperback, Kindle), she gives us vampires who thrive in the sun, while humans are forced to live underground, away from the light.
In the following email interview, McLeod discusses what inspired and influenced this story, how sexy and scary it gets, and how it connects to her short story of the same name.
To start, what is Sunbathers about, and when and where is it set?
Okay, so Sunbathers is about a queer woman called Soph, who lives in a near-future hellscape. Climate change has created solar flares strong enough to damage the humans who go outside during the day, and those who did underwent a kind of change, turning them into culty sun-vampires who call themselves Sunbathers. The humans who were left retreated into burrows and became nocturnal in an effort to hide from the Sunbathers, but Soph, who is a bit of a trainwreck and makes terrible decisions, has started to wonder whether she might be better off joining the Sunbathers than running from them forever.
Now, you previously had a short story called “Sunbathers” published in Cosmic Horror Monthly magazine. Is the novella Sunbathers an expanded version of that story, or a different story set in the same fictional world? Or something else?
It’s an expanded version of that story; the piece in C.H.M. stops after the first twist, whereas the novella continues on.
So, where did you get the original idea for the story version of “Sunbathers?”
I feel like I’ve mostly seen vampires portrayed as creatures of the night, sleeping in coffins and so on. I thought it would be funny if they slept in tanning beds instead, and were these awful Jersey Shore-esque, tanned monsters. Something about that idea just really tickled me.
A lot of the horror I write is the kind that gets under your skin, rather than the sort of jump-scares you see in films, and for me there’s an obvious horror in scary things happening at night or in the darkness. But what if the horrible, scary things are happening in broad daylight? And what if the people doing those things are beautiful, influencer-types, who believe they’re doing those things for the greater good? To me, that’s the worst kind of horror: the kind of suffering that people openly enact on others, especially when they’re convinced they’re ideologically right.
What then made you realize the short story “Sunbathers” would work just as well, or maybe even better, when expanded into a novella?
Honestly, I didn’t know for sure. In the short story, I’d already set up the idea that the Sunbathers were creating a kind of Lamp (Soph overhears two of them talking about it) which would enable them to be outside safely at night — and therefore be able to hunt the humans in burrows — and I thought it was a plot thread I wanted to follow a bit more. I never know whether something is going to work or not in a story, but that’s never stopped me from trying.
And why a novella and not a novel?
Hedone Books were looking for novellas specifically, and when I started to write Sunbathers, I felt like it came to a natural stopping point about 30k in. There’s definitely subplots and secondary characters that could be developed for a sequel, if there’s an audience for it. If it was a novel, I’d have elongated the Lamp plot and had Soph infiltrate the group, which would require her to grow as a character a bit — in the novella, she’s so selfish she doesn’t even care enough to investigate the Lamp until it impacts her interests directly.
On your website you say Sunbathers is “an erotic horror” novella. But how erotic are we talking about? Like, is it super sexy, is it filthy…?
I think mine is probably a lot less sexy than the others Hedone are putting out; it definitely has a couple of graphic scenes, but it also reads as a bit tongue-in-cheek. The Sunbathers are these perfect, WASP-y types and Soph is queer and kind of a bitch. She doesn’t really enjoy the straight, vanilla sex she has, and she finds the whole cult aspect to be incredibly stifling. For her, it all feels a bit performative rather than actually satisfying, at least until she meets the worm.
In a similar vein, how scary is it, and what kind of scary is it?
There’s a couple of “uh oh” scary moments, and a couple of graphic scenes, but on the whole, I’d say it’s more existential dread and regret. Like, what do you do when you’ve made terrible choices that have hurt you and the people you love? Can you ever forgive yourself, or do you keep trying to justify your choices forever?
Sunbathers is your first novella, but you’ve previously released a short novel called Beast and a short story collection called Turducken. As if that wasn’t enough, you’ve got a queer horror novella about pirates called Queen O’Nine Tails coming out in January, a sapphic historical romance novel called The Unlikely Pursuit Of Mary Bennet and a collaborative fiction / non-fiction anthology called An Honor And A Privilege coming next year, and a sci-fi / cli-fi novella called We, The Drowning in 2026. Are there any writers, or stories, that had a big influence on Sunbathers, but not on anything else you’ve written?
I don’t think I can claim that’s true because everything kind of impacts on everything else. Everything I read or write bleeds into all my other projects inevitably, whether I’m aware of it or not.
Although, since Sunbathers follows an absolute trainwreck character, unlike most of my other work, I did have a couple of similar books in mind as influences, especially Boy Parts by Eliza Clark. That book gripped me from the start and wouldn’t let go.
You’ve also had poems published in such journals as Brown Bag, Second Chance Lit, and Impossible Archetype, to name a few. How do you think writing poetry — and, presumedly, reading it — influenced how you wrote Sunbathers?
There are some pretty lines in Sunbathers that I’m quite proud of, particularly early on, and those probably come from my poetic sensibilities. I think including those lines was especially important here because horror is not something we traditionally think of as a beautiful genre, but why not? It absolutely can be. Horror is about what we fear, it’s a pure emotion, but often what we fear is about losing something: control, love, even our very lives. And the fight to keep from losing those things is fundamentally a part of what drives us in the first place, what makes us human.
And then what about non-literary influences; was Sunbathers influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Because your Publishers Marketplace says it was “pitched as Let The Right One In meets From Dusk Til Dawn.”
Growing up, I feel like I was exposed to a lot of vampire shows and films: Buffy, Angel, Interview With The Vampire, as well as the ones you mentioned. You could ask any random passerby of any age and they would probably be able to tell you some basic facts about vampires — what kills them or what they have to do to stay alive — as they’ve become part of our cultural consciousness. And why not? They so often get portrayed as these incredible, beautiful devils, who are sexy and immortal and are sometimes misunderstood and sometimes are fighting for their own redemption. We’re human, we age, so of course we’re obsessed with the idea of staying young and beautiful forever. Sex and death are so closely intertwined, too.
Vampire stories — erotic or otherwise — can sometimes be stand-alone stories or part of a series. What is Sunbathers?
It’s a stand-alone currently, although as part of the promotion, Hedone are also offering a short story set in the same universe, which follows a character who is already dead (we think!) by the time Sunbathers the novella begins.
I asked earlier if Sunbathers was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Sunbathers could work as a movie, a show, or a game?
I think it would make an amazing film or show.
And if someone wanted to make a Sunbathers movie or show, who would you want them to cast as Soph and the other main characters?
I’d love to see [Agatha All Along‘s] Aubrey Plaza cast as Soph; she’s already known for playing these acerbic, deadpan parts, and I think she’d bring a brilliant presence to the character.
I also think it would be good to cast someone sweet and adorable as Eilidh, her girlfriend — I don’t want to spoil any readers but casting someone like [Game Of Thrones‘] Emilia Clarke or Saoirse Ronan [Lady Bird] would set up certain viewer expectations which might then be, you know, absolutely destroyed.
In terms of the Sunbathers, I pictured Jessie Buckley [Chernobyl] as Thea and John Boyega [They Cloned Tyrone] as Jacob, the handsome, authoritative leader of the Sunbathers.
Finally, if someone enjoys Sunbathers, which of your impending releases would you suggest they preorder, and then what erotic vampire novel or novella should they read while waiting for your book to come out?
Queen O’Nine Tails is a queer horror novella about pirates, [but] that one will contain more explicit horror, though, so if you’re in the mood for something a bit more tender and romantic, I’d suggest waiting until May for The Unlikely Pursuit Of Mary Bennet.
And while they wait…
If you’re looking to read another obsessive novella about control, I’d highly recommend Rae Wilde’s I Can Fix Her, which is coming out next year, or check out Hedone’s other novellas, which began with the fantastic The Flesh Of The Sea by Lor Gislason and Shelley LaVigne.
