Dracula's Women Given Agency...

Author Emma Carroll may not have realised she was writing in one of Armadillo Editor Louise's favourite genres when she created Dracula & Daughters but it allowed Louise an opportunity so ask some questions about Dracula stories, creating new incarnations of old & consistently popular stories and why grown-ups don't always have the best answers! I hope you enjoy this Q&A, learning more about the creation of Dracula & Daughters and why names are so important in stories...

My thanks to Emma for a wonderful Q&A as well as to Sarah Doyle at Faber Children's for helping me to share this Blog and the wonderful books.

Firstly, I would love to know, I’m sure my readers would too, why create a new series of books with a vampiric theme? Hello Louise, thanks for having me on the blog! Like you, I’m a huge fan of vampire stories, especially the older tales that have their roots in European folklore. My golden rule for pursuing any story idea is that it has to really intrigue me – and vampires certainly do!

 

Many readers will likely consider any story with vampires is going to be gory and filled with horror. Your stories are anything but. Do you like the idea that you can flip expectations? I think the idea of vampire healing does this, yes, because it helps make the monster someone worth saving. In these stories, strength comes through teamwork and knowledge, not violence, though I appreciate the whole ‘healing’ concept can be read in many different ways!

Of course it follows I must ask: Why the daughters of Dracula? Where did the idea come from and why did you want them to be detectives? I’ve always loved the novel Dracula - it’s an incredibly atmospheric and captivating story but… there are aspects haven’t aged that well, namely its representation of women. In the book, Dracula’s first victim is a young woman, Lucy Westenra. Her best friend Mina- sensible, level-headed- acts a foil to the bumbling, so-called vampire expert brought in to solve the case. In my version I wanted to give these two young women agency. So Lucy Westenra becomes a professor, and is the name behind the ground-breaking Vampire Healer’s Handbook, and Mina is our narrator, the cleverest and most ambitious of our three main characters.

 

I love your principal characters - Mina, Buffy and Bella. To some young readers those names might not mean much, to older readers and adults the reference will be clear. Was this intentional? Yes, it was intentional. Vampire stories quite literally ‘bleed’ into each other (pardon the pun!), sharing tropes and ideas as well as changing them into something original and new. My characters’ names are drawn from the rich pool of vampire stories in print and on screen, and if Dracula & Daughters encourages readers to further explore the genre, then that’s a good thing, right?

 

On that note, names - people, places, events - how do you find unique names for all these? Do the names have to hold significance and relation to the story? Yes! I absolutely love naming people and places. It’s one of my favourite parts of the writing process. In Dracula & Daughters every character’s name is linked to gothic literature in some way. Same too for the place names and street names. I wanted to do this partly to test my own knowledge- would I have enough to stretch to four books?!- and partly to throw in some easter eggs for the reader.

 

There are now two books in the series featuring the young daughters of Dracula, with their detective agency vs the grown-ups. What about this type of plot device do you like, what do you think readers like best about it? As a grown-up, I’m very aware that adults don’t always know best, and exploring how that can be challenged brings great tension to a story. For a reader, the child characters need to be the driving force behind the plot. We want to see young people facing their fears, solving problems, working towards a goal and above all, thinking and acting independently. It’s empowering, inspirational stuff!

 

Dracula is, without doubt, a classic gothic Victorian story with many incarnations. Yours is one of those incarnations, how does it feel to take a well-established story and flip it? Fun! Count Dracula is probably the world’s most famous vampire. I’m amazed at how every young person I speak to seems to know who he is. As you say, the story has seen many incarnations over the years: mine, I hope, adds something new to the mix.

 

Do you have plans to flip readers' conceptions of other classic stories or does your writing very much lean on where the muse decides it wants to take you? As a reader I enjoy re-tellings of classic tales, which undoubtedly feeds into my writing. My 2022 story The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, takes a similar approach to Dracula & Daughters by giving the origin story’s underdog a voice. When it comes to future writing projects I tend to have at least 3 or 4 book ideas floating around and am always on the lookout for anything that captures my imagination. As for more retellings…never say never!

 

When reimagining a story is it important to you to know the original? Personally, I do like to know the original, yes, because it’s usually the springboard from which I’ll create my own version of the story.

 

What do you hope readers will take from Dracula and Daughters, can we expect more books in the series or will you be moving on to other projects? I hope readers will enjoy a good gothic romp of a story. They can expect intuitive female characters, unlikely friendships, shocking family secrets and plenty of vampire lore. Two more books in the series are still to come, then it’s onto a sequel for one of my biggest books to date… stay tuned!

• 

• 

• 

• 

•