Exploring Porphyria

How do you write a story about a vampire when you don’t really believe vampires exist? How in the world could you make that believable to a reader?

Yeah.

Those were the very questions I had to wrestle with when I sat down to write Man of Shadow and Mist, my newest release.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about hypotheticals to the point of entertaining the idea that Sasquatch is real, but there’s something just so wrong from a Christian point of view to pen a tale about a hero who drinks blood. That’s just a bit too weird even for me. So I had to come up with something plausible in which my hero would be accused of being a vampire—and yet he really wasn’t. A tall order to fill. 

And porphyria met every requirement.

Historically, porphyria was called the vampyre disease, and no wonder. Check out this list of symptoms:

·      sensitivity to sunlight

·      receding gums that make it look as if you have fangs

·      urine that is blood red

·      an aversion to garlic because the sulfur content could lead to acute pain

·      facial disfigurement which naturally would lead one to avoid mirrors

Definite Dracula vibes, eh? Actually, there are several different strains of porphyria so not every sufferer experiences all those symptoms. All, however, are hereditary.

A hero who drinks blood isn’t very sympathetic, but a hero who valiantly fights against a potentially debilitating disease? Bingo. We have a winner. And guess what? You could be a winner too. I’m giving away 10 signed copies of Man of Shadow and Mist. Just enter the Rafflecopter drawing. Here’s a blurb about the story:

“The world seems full of good men—even if there are monsters in it.”
–Bram Stoker, Dracula

England, 1890
 
Vampires are alive and well in North Yorkshire, leastwise in the minds of the uneducated. Librarian Rosa Edwards intends to drive a stake through the heart of such superstitions. But gossip flies when the mysterious Sir James Morgan returns to his shadowy manor. The townsfolk say he is cursed.
 
James hates everything about England. The weather. The rumours. The scorn. Yet he must stay. His mother is dying of a disease for which he’s desperately trying to find a cure—an illness that will eventually take his own life.
 
When Rosa sets out to prove the dark gossip about James is wrong, she discovers more questions than answers. How can she accept what she can’t explain—especially the strong allure of the enigmatic man? James must battle a town steeped in fear as well as the unsettling attraction he feels for the no-nonsense librarian.
 
Can love prevail in a town filled with fear and doubt?