Brokeula: What’s a Poor Vampire to Do? Q&A w Michael J. Seidlinger
In the new horror comedy novel Brokeula, what’s scarier—the monster or the marketing scheme?
“Horror demands of the author and reader a sort of fiction-reflected-reality,” the author tells Monster Complex®. “Casted against zombies or vampires.”
In his new novel Brokeula, author Michael J. Seidlinger explores a broke vampire’s struggles to escape the blood-sucking monster of capitalism through an ill-conceived multi-level marketing scheme. In our interview with the author, Seidlinger explains to Monster Complex® how much his horror / comedy book is inspired by real social issues, whether Brokeula is actually a philosophical debate, and how horror fiction helps us discuss darker concepts…
About the book
Brokeula
by Michael J. Seidlinger
CLASH Books
Horror | Humor & Satire | Sci Fi & Fantasy
Bookshop.orgJames Sugre has never been this broke before in his centuries of living. Down and out, he’s had a terrible string of luck investing in companies crippled by fraud and always late to the next crypto-fad. He spends most of his time in his coffin, too broke to go out in public.
As the video game industry reaches record-breaking heights, Sugre tries his luck one more time with his own game studio. When he encounters a game developer and self-professed fan of vampire lore named Lauren, Sugre becomes hopeful that his luck might finally be on the up-and-up.
But the market is rocky, and nothing is as stable as “un-death.” Sugre learns the hard way that a dollar is worth more than a drop of blood. Trading immortality for cash, Sugre and Lauren create a not-entirely-legal business: turning humans into vampires—for a fee.
The business expands, but Vampire Nation has to protect their own investments. And Sugre learns the hard truth of the system he can’t escape….
“CLASH Books is proud to present a chilling, hilarious, and heartbreaking trip into the bowels of late capitalism. And bloodlust.” 💰
About the author
Michael J. Seidlinger is the author of horror books like The Body Harvest (“a transgressive horror novel for the TikTok Generation”) and Anybody Home? (one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2022). He’s also written for a number of media outlets, including Wired, Buzzfeed, Polygon, and Publishers Weekly. He teaches at Portland State University and has led workshops at Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference and Sarah Lawrence College. You can find him online at michaeljseidlinger.com and Instagram.
Brokeula: Interview with author Michael J. Seidlinger
Looking at your other writings, I see a lot of real-life stuff and cultural observations—both separate from, as well as sometimes mixing with—your horror fiction. How much is BROKEULA actually inspired by your other work as a writer… and how much of this flip-the-script idea was just your imagination at work?
It does seem like everything I write comes from a sociological perspective, with more than a few splashes of the absurd too. It has everything to do with my natural interest in society and the people that inhabit it.
Brokeula is no different. I’ve always found it so very fascinating, the intersection of personal and public, with regards to society’s norms. Seeing how the individual shifts and changes when in a social setting, the “whole actor and the stage” analogy in effect, it gets the mind racing, thinking about the nuances of society itself.
We all see those darker shades poking through the pristine veneer of a brand, an organization, a community, and that tends to be where I draw a lot of influence. Much of what I write starts out with a spark, an idea of some sort.
From there, the idea is fueled by these sociological fascinations. It’s kind of like a puzzle where the only way to solve it is by imbedding those observations, using the narrative as a combination of seeing the story through its natural conclusion while also doubling as a sociological study. So yeah, it goes hand-in-hand, but I need a hefty dose of the sociological and the hyperactive imagination to see any story through.
Was BROKEULA a challenge for you to write? Or once you hit on the angle, was it just you exploring this (presumably) fun new territory?
Oh yeah, it was. I feel like every book I manage to complete and not immediately file it away as a manuscript just for me—one that nobody else will read (I got a bunch of those)—ends up being one that has challenged me to learn something new. It always starts with some narrative idea that hypes me up, only to then become increasingly a problem (or puzzle as I mentioned earlier) in desperate need of solving.
As is often the case, I’ll go in with a narrative structure and a set of skills that I “think” will be enough to see it through, only to hit all kinds of hurdles that cause me to doubt my ability to write at all. It’s almost like every new book is a demon in need of being exorcised. One that initially showed itself as something fun and fascinating, only to demand that I doubt my entire purpose as a writer.
To be honest, I don’t know why any of us does it… except that maybe I do: Solving the puzzle, exorcising the demon, getting to the end of the book, it’s one of the best, most euphoric feelings of all. It’s also incredibly addictive.
Given the mashup of ideas, how much is BROKEULA a comedy vs a philosophical challenge for readers?
I’d leave it up to the reader to decide. Comedy is incredibly tough to pull off and I certainly don’t know if I have the chops to do it. Brokeula was, indeed, an attempt, but I leaned more on the sociological and the philosophical to save myself from further battles with self-doubt.
I hope people find aspects of the book funny! The idea was to use some concept of comedy or humor to cut through what is on its own a really darkly philosophical concept. To think: being broke and immortal… talk about a real bummer.
As a vampire story, what are the other vampire stories you were remembering? Writing BROKEULA, were you embracing them as a fan, or fighting those examples with your own story?
I’ve never really been into vampires. Most of the big-brand examples just never really caught my interest. I get the hype, and more so the allure, of the quintessential vampire tale. But yeah, in terms of the trope, it was always towards the bottom of the list.
I was always more of the dystopian, post-apocalyptic, maybe some zombies, but almost always directly sociological and transgressive sort of reader (and I guess writer).
The one touchstone though, during the early stages of planning and prewriting, was Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive. I just love the thick atmosphere of the film, including how both protagonist vampires are humanized, their immortality and “powers” deflated in favor of the endless plight and struggle of immortality itself. It really makes you think about the true reality, the actual burden, of living forever. It’s never as glamorous as you’d think.
How much did BROKEULA being “horror” give you an open door to discuss these ideas? Or as you were writing it, was it just a story—and you were as surprised as anybody how it turned out?
It was just a story. I approach every concept as-is, and I “live through” the writing of it accordingly. Horror does help though with some of the darker concepts, notably because readers of the genre are used to suspending disbelief.
Horror demands of the author and reader a sort of fiction-reflected-reality that calls to real issues casted against the absurdity of tropes like zombies, serial killers, or, in the case of Brokeula, vampires.
Surprised? Yeah. I’m always surprised, and incredibly relieved, when I make it to the end of a manuscript. Then I get completely intimidated by the editing process, which is its own dire battle with self-doubt.
By the time it’s done and ready for anyone to read, I’m already on to the next project. So yeah, what I said about this all being addictive? You just can’t stop once you get that feeling of euphoria.
“To think: being broke and immortal… talk about a real bummer.”
Find Brokeula online:
Bookshop.org (which also supports your local bookstore!)
More from Monster Complex®
![[Flashback] Dracula by Bram Stoker—“the events really took place…”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e613d28fefad366b93ece35/1672758367957-L2T5WIIZLPIF6YE0P4GS/Stoker-Dracula-books-editions.jpg)
X-Files: 17 Comedy Episodes—which ones made YOU laugh the most?
Reading (most of) Robert Sheckley’s classic sci-fi series AAA online free
Celebrating the classic TV show ‘The Munsters’ (with lots of links)
Terry Pratchett: When Death Came to Discworld—and Never Left
Talking about ‘Real Ghostbusters’—including the show’s history and impact
Hilarious Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series by Kevin J. Anderson
When ‘Outer Limits’ did that comedy episode with a time travel / murder mystery / love story
Exploring LOST BOYS: The History Behind the Beloved Vampire Horror Comedy
Ryan North on Squirrel Girl: “She’s always gonna be laughing with you—not at you.”
In the new horror comedy novel Brokeula, what’s scarier—the monster or the marketing scheme? “Horror demands a sort of fiction-reflected-reality. Casted against zombies or vampires.”