Playing Vampires for Laughs

PW Talks with Christopher Moore

by Jonathan Segura -- Publishers Weekly, 11/20/2006

Christopher Moore serves up a raucous vampire love affair in his latest, You Suck (Reviews, Nov. 6).

You've done sea monsters, vampires and the grim reaper. What's the deal with the supernatural?

I get bored in the real world. I've attempted to write books where I didn't think anything supernatural would happen. And I get a few pages into it, and I think, "That's boring. You need someone to be eaten by a monster," just to keep myself amused. I think it's fascinating to take normal people and put them into supernormal situation. To have them react in a humorous way is even more fun. If something fun and over the top doesn't happen, I lose interest.

You're a writer who has an active and dedicated fan base. Is that intimidating when you sit down to write?

I'm abundantly aware of my audience when I'm writing. I think if you write comedy, you have to think, "Okay, is this funny, will this work for someone else?" You can't be self-serving. I want as many people to laugh at it that can, but I won't back off because of worrying about the appropriateness of the material, either.

Like bloodsucking and wild vampire sex?

You've got to put that in.

Vampires and the undead are ingrained in pop culture, so is there a research element to your writing? Are you worried about getting the minutiae of vampiredom correct?

The research I did for this book, mostly, was to get the voice right. A lot of the book is narrated by a 16-year-old goth girl, and I am not a 16-year-old goth girl.

You've also written a Christmas novel.

It was kind of fun. It was no easier to write than any other novel. A Christmas book or a vampire book or something that isn't really recasting the mold is fun because you're not under any obligation to do anything thematic or have any big message. You're just there to entertain.

So, you actually have fun writing?

That's my litmus test. You also get this great advantage when you're writing that I wish we had in real life, where you have three days to think of the perfect instant retort to what somebody says. You can be very witty if you have three days to think. If we could time warp out, we could all be Oscar Wilde.