An Interview With Christine Cody

A post-apocalyptic Western fantasy? Sounds like what you'd get if Clint Eastwood stumbled into Cormac McCarthy's The Road. But if you sprinkle in some vampires, then you've got Christine Cody's (official website) Bloodlands series.

The first novel in the series, Bloodlands, can now be found wandering the prairies of your favorite bookseller. The second volume, Blood Rules, drops on August 30 at High Noon, followed a month later by the third book, In Blood We Trust (September 27).

Christine generously took the time to answer a few questions about her new post-apocalyptic Western fantasy series. So strap on your plastic vamp fangs and Colt six-shooter, and grab your Geiger counter. Because it's time for the Good, the Bad, and the Irradiated.

Imagine you're a telemarketer cold-calling readers. How would you pitch your Bloodlands trilogy?

I’d use the Hollywood pitch—“Bloodlands is a paranormal Shane meets Mad Max. The series itself has also been called post-apocalyptic supernatural Western.” And here’s the Twitter plot-pitch: “They called it the New Badlands...until the vampire came, bringing danger to the settlers who took him in. Then it became the Bloodlands.”

You have a small backpack. It's filled with a few items that are essential for survival in a post-apocalyptic scenario? What would be in the backpack?

Humans would be wearing heat suits if they’re daft enough to be walking around the sweltering New Badlands during the day, and they’d have to make sure they scrounged up water and food from the desolate landscape and carried weapons to fight the dangerous mutated creatures that populate the area. But I think I’ll answer this question as Gabriel, the male protagonist of the books.

He’s a vampire, so his pack is going to differ from that of a human’s. As a creature of the night, he first and foremost needs blood, and he gets that from the animals that scurry around the New Badlands, so he doesn’t carry anything like beef jerky or normal food; however, he does have a solar battery-operated flask that keeps his extra supply of blood cool. He also has a jar of some strange “unguent” that he uses to “heal” his injuries—but that’s just a ruse to explain the reason he heals so quickly to any humans he might encounter. You’d also find a comb and a scrap of pink material that he carries so he can track the scent of the woman who left him back in the urban hubs. That’s why he’s come out to the New Badlands—because he’s trying to find her.

You find yourself in a Western-style showdown with a vampire. What time of day does this duel happen, and what would be the weapon of choice?

Since the vampires in the Bloodlands series don’t rise during the day, a good slayer would try to discover where they bed down at night…but that doesn’t make for a good showdown, now, does it? I’d opt for just before dawn, when a vampire might be worried about getting inside and away from the sunlight. And I’d use a weapon that belongs to the government-sanctioned slayers (also called Shredders)—a “chest puncher.” It’s a device that resembles a crossbow, but it punches into a vamp’s chest, tears it open to expose the heart, then burns the heart. A Shredder would then follow up with decapitation.

Sergio Leone famously made "Spaghetti Westerns". What phrase would best describe Christine Cody's Bloodland novels?

I’d call it the “Doomsday Fangslinger” genre, LOL.

You are walking down a dark alley late at night. A monster leaps from the shadows; it is the scariest creature you can imagine. What is it?

It’s a creature from the sequel to Bloodlands, the first book in the series. There’s this…thing…in Blood Rules (which comes out on Tuesday, 8/30, by the way!) that has red diamond eyes, long silver hair on its head and shorter sprinklings of it on its body. The silver hair looks like ash rubbed over its skin. It has four arms that wave around. Its mouth has long, long teeth, and its tongue darts out, splitting in two, coming at me and wrapping around me and reeling me in. Just before those teeth crush into me, I see a mindless, timeless craving in its gaze….

If you could pick one song to be the soundtrack for your Bloodland books, what would it be?

“Farewell Ride” by Beck. It’s got a bleak Western vibe, but the chorus has a hint of optimism in its chords. Bloodlands is the story of a lot of things, but part of it is about surviving, even under the worst of circumstances, no matter who you are, so the soundtrack should have some light in the darkness.

Check out Christine’s website at www.bloodlands.net. You can also follow her on Twitter http://twitter.com/ChristineCody and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Marie-Green/1051327765