Bertram: What is your story?
Paul: I was straight out of high school. I had an okay job as a bank teller. Then I visited a disco one night and became one of the undead. I got revenge on some people who had wronged me but I have made a lot of enemies. I once wanted to believe in superheroes. I once believed with all my soul in make love, not war. The disco destroyed that belief and I want it back. I know now I cannot get it back. I will continue to fight those who took it away from me. I will also fight those who will strand against me and defend those against make love, not war.
Bertram: Who are you??
Paul: I am a vampire.
Bertram: Where do you live?
Paul: I do not live. I unlive where I can. I am neither alive nor dead. I must find shelter during the day or be destroyed by the rays of the sun.
Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?
Paul: I am the tragic hero of my own story. Others may not agree with this. I must have blood. I try to only kill those I see as undeserving of life. In this way I try to make the world a better place.
Bertram: What is your problem in the story?
Paul: My problem is that I am always being hunted. Members of the Secret Compass, an outfit out to destroy all vampires, are after me. I am also being pursued by the Rising Sun Group, an Asian concern also out to do me in.
Bertram: Do you have a problem that wasn’t mentioned in the story?
Paul: No problem I can think of off hand. Maybe I need love and I need to move away from violence but both are impossible for me to achieve.
Bertram: Do you embrace conflict?
Paul: I didn’t embrace conflict at first but now I have developed a death wish and want to take as many of the enemy with me as possible. I will die my second death with some sense of honor.
Bertram: How do you see yourself?
Paul: I am the victim of circumstance suddenly given the opportunity to right the wrongs I was afflicted with when I was human. I have destroyed many who would spit upon make love, not war.
Bertram: How do your friends see you?
Paul: My only friend was Lilith. She sired me. She was given her second death in New York. She went out in a blaze of glory. I miss her. I know she saw me as the ally she needed. She wanted to destroy brutish men who could have been Nazi thugs in another life. She destroyed men such men. She also realized brutish women were to blame for there being brutish men in this world. She needed me to take out the brutish women.
Bertram: How do your enemies see you?
Paul: My enemies should see me as the great avenger of wrongs but they don’t. One sees me as the killer of his niece. Most see me as simply another vampire that has to be slain.
Bertram: How does your author see you?
Paul: I think the author sees me as a troubled soul…maybe a reflection in some ways of his own troubled soul. He doesn’t agree at all with my methods but he understands where I am coming from.
Bertram: Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?
Paul: The author did his best. If he was undead he might have done a slightly better job.
Bertram: What do you think of yourself?
Paul: I am an avenger! I right wrongs! I try to only hurt those who deserve it. The thoughtless savage woman dies at my hands and I lift the thoughtful angels among women up onto my shoulders to where they can see and experience the beauty of our world. I destroy their enemies…Well, some of their enemies…I wish Lilith was still around to take out the male trash.
Bertram: Do you have a hero?
Paul: Lilith was my hero. She’s gone now.
Bertram: Do you have a goal?
Paul: I will make those who spat upon the Hippy ideal of make love, not war very sorry.
Bertram: What are your achievements?
Paul: I have taken much blood from women who, in my opinion, did not deserve to live. I have also recruited, sired women over into vampirism so they might join me in my quest to make the world a better place. I have not been entirely successful in this last regard but one does one’s best.
Bertram: Do you keep your achievements to yourself?
Paul: I do hide dead bodies so the vampire hunters don’t catch up with me if that is what you mean.
Bertram: Do you have any special strengths or weaknesses?
Paul: I am much stronger than a human and my senses are far more developed. I can change form and also summon vermin to my aid when I am under attack. I have the usual vampire weaknesses. Not to be discussed with you. Now if you were not human…
Bertram: Do you have any skills?
Paul: In bat form I can fly. I can also mesmerize my victims.
Bertram: What do you want?
Paul: I want the Hippy paradise promised to me that was taken away by the Disco scene and the people undeserving of life!
Bertram: What do you want to be?
Paul: I want to be cared for, I want to feel like a superhero.
Bertram: What makes you sad?
Paul: I am saddened by the fact that I have never experience human sex and, being now undead, never will. I gain whatever sexual pleasure I can from the taking of blood.
Bertram: What do you regret?
Paul: I regret not being able to save Lilith.
Bertram: What is your biggest disappointment?
Paul: I am disappointed by the Disco. Promises were made but not kept.
Bertram: What was your childhood like?
Paul: It was a quiet childhood. I grew up in a good household. I miss my family.
Bertram: What in your past had the most profound affect on you?
Paul: My first visit to a disco. Also the night at a disco Lilith came into my existence and took my life. Three nights later I was undead and the avenger you see before you.
Bertram: What in your past would you like to forget?
Paul: My family. in my present condition I cannot be with them. Also the night Lilith died her second death. It was horrible!
Bertram: Who was your first love?
Paul: I would like to say Lilith but it’s not true. She was more like another sister to me. I suppose I have never had a first love.
Bertram: What is your most closely guarded secret?
Paul: The fact that I cannot really turn back the tide of time and mend what the Disco has broken.
Bertram: What is your most prized possession?
Paul: My honor. I need it to continue my work.
Bertram: What is your favorite music?
Paul: Goth nowadays. I grew up on the Beatles.
Bertram: What are the last three books you read?
Paul: They were vampire novels written by women I had sired into vampirism.
Bertram: If you had the power to change one thing in the world that did not affect you personally, what would it be?
Paul: Kill Disco completely and create a world where women are beautiful, happy and have flowers in their hair and they are not cruel to men because men in this world would never, ever be cruel to them.
Bertram: What makes you think that change would be for the better?
Paul: Everyone would be happy and those that wouldn’t…well, I could dance on their graves!
Bertram: If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you rather be stranded with, a man or a woman?
Paul: A woman. I only drink blood from a woman unless it is bottled blood or plasma.
Bertram: How do you envision your future?
Paul: I will soon die my second death. It will be glorious!
Pat Bertram Introduces . . . 