Today is Vincent’s birthday so in this post I want to talk about my favourite character. It is mentioned in the novel that Vincent is certain of his year of birth, 1802, but does not know his birthday and chose the date himself. As the youngest son of a large and poor working class family in London, his parents wouldn’t have paid much attention to when their children arrived in this world. In those days, they would be more concerned about whether their offspring would make it past the age of 5. Back then five-year-olds were deemed to be old enough to work and supplement the family income.
Vincent was the first character I created. For a while my favourite character was Lucretia and that heavily influenced the plot but now, when I read my own stories, it is Vincent that I empathise with the most. He’s the only one who never really came to terms with turning into a vampire, there’s something beautiful, sad and tragic about him. He’s one of those characters you want to hug and say that this too shall pass and everything’s going to be fine even though you know it’s not true.
I was at uni when I wrote his story, Tiredness, and had to do research for a study course, I can’t remember which one now. What I do remember is that it involved reading some chapters of The Capital by Karl Marx. I was so horrified to learn about the terrible living and working conditions of the workers in industrial England that I incorporated some of it in Tiredness.
Journals of the Undead 