By Hildy Silverman

Why did I choose a story for the upcoming Love, Murder & Mayhem anthology with characters more often associated with horror/urban fantasy for a science fiction story?

In part because I’ve wanted to revisit Frederic Dravyn, the beleaguered vampire lord of a bloodline in suburban New Jersey, ever since I wrote the first story featuring him for a previous anthology. The original story took a humorous look at a serious subject — how suburbs divided along racial, religious, economic, or similar lines can take the first steps toward integration despite those differences. If you’re familiar at all with very diverse towns like Piscataway (yes, that’s the real name of a real place), you’ll get the idea.

This time, I saw the chance to introduce aliens to a town full of vampires, werewolves, witches, and humans as a way of taking this exploration to the next level. When the species inhabiting Piscataway are faced with hostile outsiders, they’re motivated to unite their town beyond fundamental tolerance. They’ve been co-existing up until now by keeping to their own enclaves – separate, but equal – but many still maintain prejudices against one another. But that’s no longer good enough if they want their community as a whole to survive, thanks to the aliens. Continue reading