Markus Redmond on Blood Rising

On a bustling Friday night in San Francisco's North Beach, amid young bar-goers and the busy revelers of the workweek, you could find yourself at the beautiful, quaint corner of Telegraph Books. And if you are even luckier, the nonprofit Telegraph Hill Arts & Literature could be hosting one of its signature literary events. After all, Telegraph Books serves as more than a bookstore; it is also a community gathering place where people come together through curiosity and a passion for literature.

On this past September 5, Telegraph Hill Arts & Literature hosted Markus Redmond for an author talk in support of his recent release, Blood Rising. Blood Rising is his second book in The Blood Saga, following the first book, Blood Slaves. This rising sequel follows the raging, audacious, and complex story of a vampire assemblage of formerly enslaved Africans. In the 1700s, they waged a vengeful war on the Southern colonies. With freedom, vampire infighting, and multitudes of compelling characters, Blood Rising is more than a bloodbath with racial themes; it is also profound commentary on racial inequality in the United States, and a true secret passageway to Redmond’s playful, creative, and intelligent internal world.

If you are not familiar with Markus Redmond, by the end of the author talk, he had a way of feeling like a completely approachable friend, rather than the renowned, intimidating actor and screenwriter. Equally pivotal, the wonderful Ayize Jama-Everett guided the questioning and conversation very elegantly and effectively. As an Afrofuturist novelist and graphic storyteller, Jama-Everett was perfectly equipped to tackle and confront every concept within Blood Rising, as well as the mind and experience of Redmond.

This author talk had the ability to summon very serious discussion on race, ancestral memory, the '80s ambiance of the blockbuster horror The Lost Boys, and classic themes of Dracula — blood, desire, and power. Poignantly, an older woman in the audience commented that the interesting thing about vampires is not just the craving for immortality and indestructibility, but that, as a fetus, we all begin by surviving off blood and that there is something attractive about slurping it in order to survive forever.

Redmond began his talk by commenting about the terrible parking situation in downtown San Francisco, spoken like someone who had just made the commute from Los Angeles. Jama-Everett began by pointing out that Redmond’s writing tends to divert from traditional vampire rules, perhaps superhero rules. He continued to ask if his characters are traditional horror vampires or Black superheroes, to which Redmond divulged that it does not matter because it is his own alternate universe.

The European “thousand-year-old dudes walking around in trench coats” idea of a vampire was not something Redmond was particularly interested in. In fact, he wanted to take the idea of a vampire, take all the things that he loved, and make vampires better. By making them better, his goal was to instead make them mythical creatures in the seat of power, rather than beings that slink around in the dark. And what if these creatures abolished slavery in 1710? Redmond mused, “And what else could happen instead of it?”

Jama-Everett introduced the term “plantation horror” to Redmond, which he insisted was what his books were. Redmond was delighted by this subgenre, let alone the acceptance of his series in the horror genre. Redmond seemed as if he never wrote for any reason but the pure notion of having something to say. As if something channeled and flowed out of him, bursting through a dam. He never wrote to fit a certain genre, align with optimal advertising or reach a specific audience, but because he had to.

In fact, although Blood Rising is historical, Redmond was not strict on accuracy, despite it being rooted in real events and the lingering emotions and societal effects of slavery. Whenever Jama-Everett inquired about genres, Redmond responded in a manner that proved he had no intention to fit in a box.

Both books in the Blood Saga were written back to back. Redmond’s aim is for the vampire series to run until the present day in order to “rewrite history.” The type of horror that Redmond is scratching at is one that The Lost Boys hovers over. Redmond spoke of the movie with such fond nostalgia, yearning to revisit the boardwalk from the film. Additionally, he said that his line “immortality does not mean invincibility” is inspired by the movie.

Redmond delved into the subject of “if they cry they buy” and the importance of having genuine emotion while writing in order to sell books. Being authentic is extremely paramount to Redmond, especially with the mindset that he wrote the saga in. Redmond wrote the first book in the 44 days after George Floyd was murdered. Without notes or an outline or the idea that there was an audience waiting for it, all Redmond did was write. He said that he began with a rage and a vampire book in mind. Sweetly, it was his wife that said to him “that it would be great if there was a way to go back in time and fix everything from the start” and it wielded the idea of blood splattering, all powerful vampires that rewrite history and comment on the racial inequality of today.

He laughed that after Blood Slaves was finished, he “maybe played Grand Theft Auto for a day” and then got started on Blood Rising. There is something quite magnetic about how little Redmond knew about publishing, and it adds to the natural brilliance of his writing process and the freedom of imagination. He did admit that he had to learn to “kill his darlings” due to writing too much. At the end of the day, audience or no audience, Redmond expressed that he “just wants to do cool stuff” and “to write a book that felt like a movie.”

As Redmond is a screenwriter and has the most experience with screenplays, he loves how his novel writing is used as more than just a framework for some larger thing. The process of escaping the romantic comedy genre that he had been pigeonholed in for years was a big step, despite not growing up drawn to horror. Jama-Everett inserted that, “you're not just a screenwriter, you're a Black screenwriter.” And Redmond admitted that his best reviews of his book are from Black people who did not like his books. He refers to it as an “ancestral response that is either very triumphant or angry.” Redmond continued to say that reviews like that have only been insightful, while he does not allow them to inform his writing.

Redmond discussed the power of blood, how, in order to turn into a vampire, all you have to do is consume a type of blood, and it pulls out the most powerful version of us, greatness that has always been inside. And that it is a metaphor for life, that you can say, “you can’t or you don’t or you won’t,” or you can say, “I want.” That is what Redmond wants his readers to take away from vampire books: like blood to the fetus, like living forever.

Blood Rising is available now at TelHiBooks.com