Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies... Oh, my!

I tried. I did. Honestly.
I really tried to listen to the sermon in church last Sunday, but the priest had such a heavy accent that he lost me when he was trying to relate a parable to tigers in India. I don't know why he used this comparison.
So, I went to my happy place to figure out how to kill a zombie.
Yeah, when I told hubby. He responded that I'm going to fry. But I already knew that considering I'm writing a story involving demons.

Zombies: Hubby flipped the TV to Resident Evil the other night. I don't usually watch horror flicks, but this one had me wondering how you would go about killing a zombie. He informed me that these creatures weren't zombies, rather humans infected by 'something' making them undead. Okay, so what? It's all semantics. They are rotting corpses with chunks falling off as they groan and moan walking stiff-legged toward healthy human food. Uh, zombies.

He told me that a bullet in the head kills these things. This got me to thinking. Their brains are rotting as fast as their bodies, why are they still moving? What or who is the power behind the zombie? Wouldn't a zombie keep heading toward its target against all odds? I'm thinking along the lines of the first Mummy movie here in the tomb scene at the end.

So, wouldn't a zombie collapse if its animator dies? But if you don't know who the animator is or if you can't get him, how do you kill the zombie? Personally, I don't think shooting it would work, and it's too simple. Drown it? No, zombie would walk out--no need to breath. Chemicals? only if they can immobilize it, like hardened cement. Acid/bases would take too long to dissolve it. Fire? It gets my vote. Incinerate the thing until it's a crispy critter and crumbles when it walks.
But be sure to hold your nose, 'cause there's nuthin' worse than the stench of burning flesh.
--uh, don't ask. Which leads me to the next header. . .

Weres: I don't really have as strong of opinions about weres. I'm lumping all sorts of were's in this group. If you call it a were make sure it changes with the full moon, pleeze! Don't have a were shape-shifting when ever he feels like it UNLESS you set it up that way. Jim Butcher did this in FOOL MOON as Bob, Dresden's air element, tells him the difference between shape shifter weres, true weres, and a loup-garou. Remember, readers will believe anything as long as it is presented in a logical manner.

Vamps: I was weaned on reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is the gold standard for vamps. Personally, I think vamps are evil blood suckers. If they are nice, then they want something from you, usually your blood. So, if you make you vamp a day walker, you better have a damn good reason he can do this. The movie Blade is a good example of this. Blade has to inject serum daily to allow him to walk outside in the sunlight. Butcher writes his vamps very well also. When he intros his vamps, he pays tribute to Stoker by keeping his Red Court and Black Court vamps true to Stoker. He even mentions how the book, Dracula, almost killed out the entire Black Court at the turn of the century. By using what most people know as 'true', he sets up his own world by drawing upon the reader's knowledge base.

Wrapping up: Use the knowledge most readers consider to be true and manipulate it to fit your story, but you better have a good reason for your were to survive a silver bullet to the head, or a vamp bleeding to death or seeing himself in the mirror.

Because if you don't write it well, readers won't believe you. I know, I've judged more than my share of contests where the writer didn't provide enough information for their character. Don't make this mistake.

What is your pet peeve when writers get it wrong?

Write on!