Mashups!

Mashups are all the rage these days. Take a famous literary or historical character/person, add a paranormal twist, and you've got the beginnings of a mashup. Thanks to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, they're everywhere, invading every fibre of literature. Every historical figure is fair game. Every piece of our pasts is open to reimagining. It's pure, unadulterated entertainment.

One of the latest landed in my lap just recently (thanks to a Shelf Awareness post). The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor Vampire Slayer as told by Lucy Weston.

So this is a triple play mashup -- it's Queen Elizabeth I, supposedly descended from Morgaine (aka Morgan le Fey, amongst others), born into a line of Slayers (yep, slighly Buffyish). Her nemesis is Mordred, King Arthur's son, who has been waiting for a queen to stand by his side, a worthy opponent whose strength can compete with his own. And then you have the pseudonymous author, Lucy Weston. It's kind of implied that there may be more to the story -- Lucy Weston is not even a true narrator in that she only has an afterword talking about the secret diaries that came into her possession after the 1992 fire at Windsor Castle, but what's Lucy's story?

The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor Vampire Slayer is an amusing read. All the major players are there, and I had a hard time not imagining Cate Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth (not helped by the fact that I caught the tale end of Elizabeth: The Golden Age on tv last week). I think it's time for me to read Queen Victoria Demon Hunter by A.E. Moorat next (that one will no doubt be helped along by Doctor Who!) and Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

For more on Lucy Weston and the book, visit www.lucywestonvampire.com