COLLINS, Nancy A(verill) 1959-

(Nanzi Regalia)

PERSONAL: Born 1959, in AR; married Joe Christ (a filmmaker).

ADDRESSES: Agent—Donald Mass Literary Agency, 160 W. 95th St., Suite 1B, New York, NY 10025.

CAREER: Author of horror novels, short stories, comic books, and screenplays. Founder of the International Horror Critics Guild (now the International Horror Guild).

AWARDS, HONORS: Nominated for the Campbell Award, 1989 and 1990, the Eisner Award, 1992, and the Bram Stoker Award for best novelette, Horror Writers of America, 1996, for The Thing from Lover's Lane; Bram Stoker Award for best first novel, Horror Writers of America, and the Icarus Award, British Fantasy Society, both 1990, both for Sunglasses after Dark; Deathrealm Award for Best Anthology, 1996.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Sunglasses after Dark (novel), New American Library (New York, NY) 1989.

Tempter, Onyx Press (New York, NY), 1990, revised edition, Gauntlet Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

(Under pseudonym Nanzi Regalia) Love Throbbing Bob (chapbook), Dark Carnival Press (Berkeley, CA), 1990.

In the Blood, Kinnell (London, England), 1991, Roc (New York, NY), 1992.

The Tortuga Hill Gang's Last Ride: The True Story (chapbook), illustrated by Timothy Standish, Roadkill Press (Arvada, CO), 1991.

Wild Blood, New English Library (London, England), 1993.

Paint It Black, New English Library (London, England), 1995.

Walking Wolf: A Weird Western, Zeising (Shingletown, CA), 1995.

The Fantastic Four: To Free Atlantis, Boulevard (New York, NY), 1995.

A Dozen Black Roses, White Wolf (Stone Mountain, GA), 1996.

Dark Destiny: Proprietors of Fate, White Wolf (Stone Mountain, GA), 1996.

(With artist, Paul Lee) Dhampire: Stillborn (based on a work by Ted Naifeh), edited by L. Stathis, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1996.

Angels on Fire, White Wolf (Stone Mountain, GA), 1998.

Lynch: A Gothik Western, Cemetery Dance Publications (Forest Hill, MD), 1998.

Voodoo Chile (chapbook), Gauntlet Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

Person(s) Unknown (chapbook), Crossroads Press (Honolulu, HI), 2002.

Darkest Heart, White Wolf (Stone Mountain, GA), 2002.

COLLECTIONS

Cold Turkey (chapbook), Crossroads Press (Honolulu, HI), 1992.

Nameless Sins, Gauntlet Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 1994.

Midnight Blue: The Sonja Blue Collection (contains Sunglasses after Dark, In the Blood, and Paint It Black), White Wolf (Stone Mountain, GA), 1995.

Avenue X and Other Dark Streets, Xlibris (Philadelphia, PA), 2000.

Dead Roses for a Blue Lady, Crossroad Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Knuckles and Tales, illustrated by Bonnie Jacobs, Biting Dog Press (Duluth, GA), 2003.

EDITOR

(With Martin H. Greenberg and Edward E. Kramer; and contributor) Dark Love, Roc (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Martin H. Greenberg and Edward E. Kramer; and contributor) Forbidden Acts, Avon (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Gahan Wilson; and contributor) Gahan Wilson's the Ultimate Haunted House, HarperPrism (New York, NY), 1996.

Writer for the DC Comics series Swamp Thing, 1991-93, Vertigo Jam, 1993, Dhampire: Stillborn, 1996, and The Big Book of Losers, 1997. Writer for the Dark Horse comics Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, 1995-96, Aliens Special, 1997, and Predator, 1998. Also writer for the comics Jason vs. Leatherface, Topps Comics, 1995-96, 2099 Unlimited, Marvel, 1995, Sunglasses after Dark, Verotik Publications, 1995-96, Verotika, Verotik Publications, 1995-96, Those Annoying Post Brothers Annual, MU/Aeon, 1995, Weird Business, Mojo Press, 1995, and Legend of the Fallen Angel on the World of Magic, Acclaim/Accadia, 1996.

Contributor to periodicals, including SF Eye, Cemetery Dance, The Horror Show, Reflex, Midnight Graffiti, and Pulphouse.

Contributor to anthologies, including Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror, edited by Paul M. Sammon, St. Martin's Press, 1990; Splatterpunks 2: Over the Edge, edited by Paul M. Sammon, St. Martin's Press, 1990; The Best of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, St. Martin's Press, 1991; The Ultimate Werewolf, edited by Byron Preiss, Dell, 1991; The Fantastic Adventures of Robin Hood, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, New American Library, 1991; Year's Best Fantasy and Horror #4, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, St. Martin's Press, 1991; Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Kruger's Seven Sweetest Dreams, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, St. Martin's Press, 1991; There Won't Be War, edited by Harry Harrison and Bruce McAllister, Tor, 1991; Cold Blood, edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Zeising, 1991; Solved! edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, Carroll & Graff, 1991; Hotter Blood: More Tales of Erotic Horror, edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett, Pocket Books, 1991; Under the Fang: Horror Writers of America I, edited by Robert R. McCammon, Pocket Books, 1991; Shock Rock, edited by Jeff Gelb, Pocket Books, 1992; Quick Chills II, edited by Robert Morrish and Peter Enfantino, Deadline Press, 1992; Narrow Houses, edited by Peter Crowther and Douglas E. Winter, Little, Brown, 1992; Still Dead: The Book of the Dead 2, edited by John M. Skipp and Craig Spector, Bantam, 1992; The Definitive Best of the Horror Show, edited by David B. Silva, Cemetery Dance Publications, 1992; The Further Adventures of Batman: Volume 2, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Bantam, 1992; Best of New Horror #3, edited by Ramsey Campbell and Stephen Jones, Carroll & Graff, 1992; After the Darkness, edited by Stanley Waiter, Maclay Press, 1993; Confederacy of the Dead, edited by Richard Gilliam, New American Library, 1993; Thrillers, edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Cemetery Dance Publications, 1993; Shudder Again: Twenty-two Tales of Sex and Horror, edited by Michele Slung, New American Library, 1993; Dark Destiny: Proprietors of Fate, The World of Darkness, edited by Edward E. Kramer, White Wolf, 1994; Elric: Tales of the White Wolf, edited by Edward E. Kramer and Michael Moorcock, White Wolf, 1994; The King Is Dead!: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem, edited by Paul M. Sammon, Delta, 1994; Phobias: Stories of Your Deepest Fears, edited by Richard Gilliam, Edward E. Kramer, Wendy Webb, and Martin H. Greenberg, New American Library, 1994; The Earth Strikes Back: New Tales of Ecological Horror, edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Zeising, 1994; Year's Best Fantasy and Horror #7, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, St. Martin's Press, 1994; Adventures of the Batman, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, MJP Books, 1995; Fear Itself, edited by Jeff Gelb, Warner/Aspect, 1995; Dark Destiny II: Proprietors of Fate, edited by Edward E. Kramer, White Wolf, 1995; Tombs, edited by Edward E. Kramer and Peter Crowther, White Wolf, 1995; Killing Me Softly: Erotic Tales of Unearthly Love, edited by Gardner Dozois, Harper Prism, 1995; Love Bites, edited by Amarantha Knight, Masquerade, 1995; Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, St. Martin's Press, 1995; More Phobias, edited by Wendy Webb, Pocket Books, 1995; One Hundred Tiny Tales of Terror, edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Martin H. Greenberg, and Robert E. Weinberg, Barnes & Noble, 1996; Noirotica: An Anthology of Erotic Crime Stories, edited by Thomas S. Roche, Masquerade, 1996; It Came from the Drive-In, edited by Norman Partridge and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW, 1996; Sandman: Book of Dreams, edited by Edward E. Kramer and Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins, 1996; Shades of Noir, edited by Lisa Manns, Archon Gaming, 1996; Pawns of Chaos, edited by Edward E. Kramer, White Wolf, 1997; Wild Women, edited by Melissa Mia Hall, Carroll & Graff, 1997; One Hundred Twisted Little Tales of Torment, edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Martin H. Greenberg, and Robert E. Weinberg, Barnes & Noble, 1998; Best of Cemetery Dance, edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Cemetery Dance Publications, 1998; The Crow: Broken Lives and Shattered Dreams, edited by Edward E. Kramer and James O'Barr, Berkley/Doubleday, 1998; Eternal Lovecraft: The Persistence of HPL in Popular Culture, edited by H. P. Lovecraft and Jim Turner, Golden Gryphon, 1998; 999, edited by Al Sarrantino, Avon, 1999; Hellboy: Odd Jobs (graphic novel edition), edited by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, illustrated by Mike Mignola, Dark Horse Comics, 2000; Skull Full of Spurs, edited by Jason Bovberg and Kirk Whitham, Dark Highways Press, 2000; Strange Attractions, edited by Edward E. Kramer, Shadowlands Press, 2000; Vampire Sextette, edited by Marvin Kaye, Doubleday, 2000; Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women, edited by Stephen Jones, Carroll & Graff, 2001; Trick or Treat, edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2001; and Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters, edited by Michele Slung, Perennial, 2002.

Also author of the stage play "Freakababies" based on Gauntlet #3, 1992; the radio play The Thing from Lover's Lane; and the specs All the Young Dudes (with Joe Christ) and Blood Town.

ADAPTATIONS: Both Sunglasses after Dark and the short story "Rant" were adapted for film. "Walking Wolf" was optioned by New Line Television (1998-2001) and the character Sonja Blue was optioned by Palomar Pictures (beginning in 2001).

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel, Absalom's Wake, for Biting Dog Press.

SIDELIGHTS: Nancy A. Collins has earned kudos for her combination of fantasy and gothic-tinged horror. Her character Sonja Blue, a female part-vampire/vampire huntress who appears in several of Collins's novels, is, according to David Mathew in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers, one of the few recurring characters in horror fiction. "Where other genres (detective fiction, for example) often have long-running characters that are forces for good," Mathew points out, "one of the important points about horror fiction is that it celebrates the dark side—the forbidden, the taboo—and the book-to-book characters tend to be forces for darkness, or at the very least, unconventionality." Sonja's character is certainly unconventional, and apparently addictive, as devoted Collins fans continue to devour Sonja's stories. John C. Snider, on the Sci Fi Dimensions Web site, wrote that "Sonja is sexy, smart, and not to be messed with."

Collins's first novel, Sunglasses after Dark, won a Bram Stoker Award and an Icarus Award, and was described as "an energetic, highly inventive, entertaining set of new changes rung on the anything-but-silver bell of vampirism" by Edward Bryant of Locus. In the novel, Collins relates the tale of Denise, a wealthy young woman who was attacked by the vampire Lord Morgan, but was found, rushed to the hospital, and given a blood transfusion before her transformation into a creature of the night could fully take place. Instead, Denise, who is now called Sonja Blue, becomes a denizen of a netherworld populated by vampires, shapeshifters, ogres, succubi, werewolves, and other such characters. Known as the Pretenders, this population takes human shape and is represented by characters that are indigent, disabled, or work as exotic dancers or prostitutes. Sonja's quest is to rid the world of the evil Pretenders, who prey on the naivety of humans. Mathew notes that "Collins excels at ripe descriptions of downtown, rundown areas—the sorts of places that a vampire such as Sonja likes to frequent. As Sonja herself puts it, 'The porn shops, titty bars, and adult cinemas are all very busy, like maggots in a corpse. . . . It'smy element.'"

By preying on the Pretenders, Sonja tries to avenge what had been done to her by Morgan. Another nemesis of hers in Sunglasses after Dark is televangelist Catherine Wheele, who has captured Sonja and immobilized her in a psychiatric ward at the novel's opening. "The whole point of Sonja Blue is, she would really rather be human. She really hates being a vampire. It's self-loathing, but also self-realization, because it's not gonna change," Collins told Locus. The novel also incorporates many elements of contemporary culture, including Sonja's visit to the Paris gravesite of rock star Jim Morrison. Bryant called Sonja "deftly characterized" and commended Collins's "seemingly endless fountain of imaginative delights, sometimes grim, mostly perversely funny."

Collins's next book, Tempter, started as a voodoo novel, but after the success of Sunglasses After Dark,Collins's editor convinced her to turn it into a vampire novel. The result was not entirely successful, and the author next attempted a true sequel to Sunglasses after Dark. In the Blood tracks Sonja and a new companion named Palmer, who has been hired by a doctor to find her. Their adventures are set in New Orleans, a city with a reportedly large population of Pretenders. Sonja and Palmer search for Lord Morgan in order to extract revenge. Bryant remarked, "Collins is developing a hip, romantic style that keeps a honed edge of sardonic humor. It's a killer combination." The critic termed In the Blood "crowd-satisfying storytelling with color, movement, excitement, some erotic content, and just enough adroitly twisted violence."

Paint It Black finds Collins writing the most experimental novel in the "Sonja Blue" series and, as Mathew points out, "as is the nature of experiments, some of it works, and some of it does not. Arguably, in fact, Paint It Black does not qualify for the term 'novel' in the traditional sense at all; it is a scrapbook of interconnecting diary snippets and vignettes. Multiple voices, cross-indexed and occasionally overlapping, tell the story ostensibly of Sonja's . . . continuing struggles . . . while also providing a curt and ugly parable of Love at the end of the twentieth century. Maybe 'warning' is a better word, for this is Collins's bleakest yet: this is the Dark Age of Love."

Collins has also penned other tales outside of the "Sonja Blue" stories. Among the most praised is the novel Wild Blood. The plot involves a young teenager named Skinner who is troubled by dreams that seem to suggest he might be a werewolf. Eventually Skinner encounters a nefarious underworld, similar to the one inhabited by the Pretenders in Collins's "Sonja Blue" tales, and becomes involved with a speed-metal band named Vargr. The musicians are werewolves as well as actual vargr—beings who are able to alter their physical form. In Locus, Bryant termed Collins's Wild Blood "neither as tight nor as sharp as we readers have become accustomed to in her work. But that doesn't diminish the novel's entertainment value."

In Walking Wolf: A Weird Western, Collins crosses the werewolf story with the Western in a tale of a young werewolf boy living in nineteenth-century Texas. Werewolf Billy Skillet works as a bartender, as a musician in a medicine show, and as the assistant to a gunslinger as he makes his way through the American West. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised "Billy's irreverent portrait of the Wild West and his wry reflections on human nature."

Collins has also edited several collections of stories, including Dark Love, an anthology of erotic horror literature, which revolves around "the psychological horror that can arise when relationships, natural or otherwise, go sour," as Roland Green noted in Booklist. According to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, Dark Love is "one of the finest horror collections of the year."

After reworking 1990's Tempter, Collins re-released the novel in 2001, receiving a much better reception from the critical community and fans of Collins alike. This version of the book focuses on Alex Rossiter, a failed rock star looking for a comeback, which he finds during a descent into the dark world of New Orleans voudou magic. In Tempter, Alex starts a new band and is initiated into the voudou community, where he meets Ti, a beautiful dancer, Mad Aggie, a voudou paraphernalia dealer, and other mysterious characters. From Ti, Alex procures an ancient grimoire—a book of voudou spells, some requiring bloody sacrifice—called the Aegrosomnia. While Alex tries out different spells for success, he is unknowingly sucked into something much darker as the original owner of the book—the evil spirit of former plantation owner Donatien Legendre, now called Il-Qui-Tente or the Tempter—tries to free himself from self-inflicted, spell-induced centuries of torturous limbo and regain mortality through Alex. As the story progresses, the musician slowly begins to realize that no one is who he or she appears to be. "Although it was not rated very highly at the time, Tempter was in its initial form a pretty fair novel," stated reviewer John Grant on the Infinity Plus Web site. "It is now much better than that. . . . This is a novel that merits attention." Similarly, SF Site reviewer Lisa DuMond called the reworked version of Tempter "a whole new ballgame. Gone are the distracting and superfluous vampire plots . . . and the attention is back on the dark voudou dealings that made it a collector's item." DuMond praised the author's ability to "captur[e] the flaws and subtle defects in her characters," and considered the book "another testament to her mastery of dark fantasy." Books 'n' Bytes critic Harriet Klausner also commented on Collins's mastery of her characters, calling them "fully developed, making them seem authentic, though pawns in a cosmic chess game played by essences much older than mankind."

Sonja Blue returns in Collins's 2002 novel Darkest Heart. After thirty years of hunting vampires, Sonja has her first encounter with a fellow vampire hunter. The human Jack Estes hunts Sonja with the intent of killing her until she reveals her duplicitous nature and her inner battles with "The Other," her internal vampire with whom she struggles, sometimes even injuring herself to keep "The Other" from performing evil acts. Once Jack trusts Sonja, he asks her to help him in a plot of personal vengeance, which he intends to enact on his parents' killer. Jack seeks Noir, a vampire who has been around for countless centuries and is shunned by the vampire community because he is a "strega," a vampire who was created not by "birth" (the traditional bite on the neck), but by a magic spell, and is said to have the darkest heart of all vampires. As Sonja and Jack search for Noir, Sonja must try to help Jack see the hidden, dangerous, and omnipresent "Real World" of the Pretenders, who are visible only to human poets, drunks, and the insane.

"The world Collins gives us is one of uncompromising cruelty," wrote Cindy Lynn Speer on SF Site. "She says, in the context, that humans cannot take the reality of the situation, the reality of Sonja's predator-infested world. . . . It is almost as if humans chose not to see." The author, in an interview with Snider, commented on this aspect of her "Sonja Blue" novels: "The 'Real World' is a metaphor for our ability to deceive ourselves. It addresses our unwillingness to deal with the evils we see every day and choose to ignore—whether it's the wife-beater who lives next door, the sexual predator up the street, or the white-collar criminal at work." Speer concluded her review by saying, "Filled with seductive darkness and the brightest lights of hope, Darkest Heart may well be, according to the author, the last serving of Sonja Blue we ever get to read." Collins admitted to Snider, "I really don't feel like I have any further novel-length Sonja stories in me. I would rather quit now than grow increasingly tired of the character. I don't want to end up like Arthur Conan Doyle, who came to positively loathe Sherlock Holmes." However, the author teased, "That's not to say I won't write the occasional Sonja Blue short story or novelette." In his own review of the book, Snider commented on the popularity of the "Sonja" series, reporting that "her readers never cease to be excited by the mix of gothic eroticism, the snappy dialogue of an old detective flick, and ass-kicking post-punk attitude."

Collins next published two collections of previously released and new stories: Dead Roses for a Blue Lady and Knuckles and Tales. Dead Roses for a Blue Lady features a variety of "Sonja Blue" stories, three of which are new. "Knifepoint" is actually the story of Sonja's mentor, Erich Ghilardi, and takes place long before Sonja was created. In "Cold Turkey," which was originally part of the third "Sonja Blue" novel, Paint It Black, readers see Sonja's first battles with love as she tries to understand how Judd, the first human to ever romantically pursue Sonja, can have feelings for her. Meanwhile, Sonja must constantly battle "The Other" in an attempt to save Judd. In "Tender Tigers," Sonja tries to save a little girl and her brother from their evil ogress stepmother. "Vampire King of the Goth Chicks" sees Sonja uncover the identity of a pseudo-vampire, whom she loathes for his desire to be part of the world she works to destroy. "Dead Roses for a Blue Lady is filled with many different types of stories, and many different moods," wrote Speer in a review of the book. "Sonja Blue is extremely well done, likeable, earthy, and hard out of necessity. . . . It makes me feel better, knowing that if vampires do happen to haunt the night, there might be someone like Sonja standing between us and them," surmised Speer. Booklist reviewer Kristine Huntley called the stories in the book "absorbing . . . dark and introspective," observing that they "show just why Sonja Blue is popular."

Knuckles and Tales features a slew of southern gothic stories set in the backwoods fictional town of Seven Devils, Arkansas. "Sunday Go to Meeting Jaw" takes place after the Civil War and relates the sad tale of a little girl who must try to come to terms with her father's war-related disfiguration and artificial jaw. "The Pumpkin Child" takes place post-World War II, when a soldier comes home to find that his girlfriend and business have fallen prey to his arch rival, after which the soldier resorts to witchcraft for revenge. In "Raymond," a little boy undergoes a lobotomy to suppress his werewolf impulses.

In a review of Knuckles and Tales for Publishers Weekly, a contributor stated that Collins's "strategic deployment of folklore and cornpone colloquialisms gives her homegrown horrors authenticity and helps make these dark slices of southern life as chilling as a mint julep in summer." "Always borderline, always edgy, Nancy Collins is a stylist who handles psychological suspense as intelligently as she does supernatural," wrote Wes Unruh in a review of Knuckles and Tales for the Green Man Review Web site. "Nancy Collins's intrigues and private histories are as tangled as the bayous that run through her fictional Choctaw County and the town of Seven Devils," Unruh continued. "Each story . . . hits just the right blend of bizarre erotica, racial tension, and backwoods folklore without ever sacrificing narrative or character." DuMond wrote, "No one outdoes Collins on Southern Gothic; she's practically made the subgenre her very own." DuMond went on to praise the author's "fruitful and frightful imagination," remarking that the book is "well worth the trip down south . . . If you don't value your life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Collins, Nancy A., Sunglasses after Dark, New American Library (New York, NY), 1989.

St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 1995, p. 454; May 15, 2002, Kristine Huntley, review of Dead Roses for a Blue Lady, pp. 1582-1583.

Library Journal, January, 1997, p. 144.

Locus, August, 1989, pp. 21-23, 56; October, 1990, pp. 23-25, 55; February, 1992, p. 31; March, 1992, pp. 21-23, 62; October, 1992, pp. 23-25, 57; September, 1994, pp. 29-31, 70; December, 1994, pp. 4, 80-81; October, 2002, description of A Darkest Heart, p. 40.

Publishers Weekly, June 16, 1989, p. 65; April 17, 1995, p. 42; September 25, 1995, p. 44; September 17, 2001, review of Tempter, p. 60; December 3, 2001, review of Knuckles and Tales, p. 45; March 4, 2002, review of Dead Roses for a Blue Lady, p. 61.

Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 1990, p. 370.

ONLINE

Books 'n' Bytes Web site,http://www.booksnbytes.com/ (March 25, 2004), Harriet Klausner, review of Tempter.

Fantastic Fiction Web site,http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ (March 25, 2004), "Nancy A. Collins."

Green Man Review Web site,http://www.greenmanreview.com/ (March 25, 2004), Wes Unruh, review of Knuckles and Tales.

Infinity Plus Web site,http://www.infinityplus.uk.co/ (April 2, 2004), John Grant, review of Tempter.

Sci Fi Dimensions Web site,http://www.scifidimensions.com/ (March 25, 2004), John C. Snider, reviews of Knuckles and Tales and Darkest Heart, and "Interview: Nancy A. Collins."

SF Site,http://www.sfsite.com/ (March 25, 2004), Lisa DuMond, reviews of Knuckles and Tales and Tempter; Cindy Lynn Speer, reviews of Darkest Heart and Dead Roses for a Blue Lady.*