Schiefelbein, Michael E. 1958(?)-

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SCHIEFELBEIN, Michael E. 1958(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1958, in Kansas. Education: Catholic University, B.A., M.A.; University of Maryland, M.A., Ph.D. (English). Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Memphis, TN. Office—Department of Languages and Literature, Christian Brothers University, 650 East Parkway S., Memphis, TN 38104. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and novelist. Christian Brothers University, Memphis, TN, assistant professor, then professor of writing and literature.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lambda Literary Award nomination, 2001, for Vampire Vow.

WRITINGS:

The Lure of Babylon: Seven Protestant Novelists and Britain's Roman Catholic Revival, Mercer University Press (Macon, GA), 2001.

Vampire Vow, Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2001.

Vampire Thrall, Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Dickens Quarterly, Victorian Newsletter, Religion and Literature, and Christianity and Literature.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael E. Schiefelbein is a professor of English and an author whose second published book "almost cost him his job," according to Advocate contributor Adam B. Vary. The reason: Schiefelbein mixes together history, vampirism, a gay love story, and horror, and then adds a dash of religion in the form of a young Jesus Christ, casting this venerable figure as the love interest of a sadistic homosexual Roman officer in the novel Vampire Vow. When Vampire Vow appeared in 2001, so did angry crowds, protesting Schiefelbein's novel at book signings and sending the professor hate mail. However, Schiefelbein has weathered the initial storm, and his book proved so popular that he has already penned a sequel, Vampire Thrall. As he told Vary, "It was really so obviously a matter of homophobia, that I would have the nerve to have Jesus associate with a gay character, let alone maybe be gay."

In Vampire Vow Roman officer Victor Decimus serves under Pontius Pilate, and when he meets a young Jew from Nazareth named Jesus he falls in love with him. Although Victor's love is returned, Jesus is destined by God for higher things than earthly love, and the Roman finds himself rejected. Angered, he takes out his frustrations in the traditional centurion pastimes—deception, seduction, rape, and pillaging—until a witch gives him an alternative: power over humans and eternal life, if Victor agrees to bind his soul to a dark power and become a vampire. For centuries after the death of his beloved Jesus, Victor secretes himself in rural monasteries, disguised as a monk, and creeps around at night to do what vampires do, albeit with a sexual element added. With the vampire life growing tiresome, Victor's only option is to earn a place in the Dark Kingdom, and his search to find someone to share eternity with ends in Appalachia, when he meets Brother Michael. While a Kirkus Reviews critic dubbed Vampire Vow "largely vacuous," Lambda Book Report contributor Thomas L. Long found Schiefelbein's book an "intelligent" work of fiction that is well-plotted, "conversant with Christian history and theology without being pedantic, [and] erotic without being pornographic."

Victor's story continues in Vampire Thrall, as artist Paul Lewis arrives in Rome to help illustrate a handwritten gospel. Missing his former lover, he attempts to seduce Victor, not realizing that the handsome Roman is a vampire. While Victor at first rejects Paul, he begins to have feelings for him and eventually transforms the American artist into a thrall—not living but not yet altogether undead. Noting that "sex is not the main impetus" for the action in Vampire Thrall, N. A. Hayes explained in a review for PopMatters.com that Schiefelbein's use of the vampire mythos "is a convenient and marketable delivery device for the philosophical questions the book raises." In addition to drawing parallels between Catholic ritual and sadomasochism, the author also weaves within his plot questions about morality, the role of an earth-bound deity such as Jesus, and the proper balance between spiritual matters and human needs and desires.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Advocate, June 10, 2003, Adam B. Vary, "Still out for Blood."

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, January, 2003, Edward Norman, review of The Lure of Babylon: Seven Protestant Novelists and Britain's Roman Catholic Revival, p. 183.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2003, review of Vampire Thrall, p. 565.

Lambda Book Report, October, 2001, Thomas L. Long, review of Vampire Vow, p. 19.