Tarot Interviews

Demons, Detectives and Doppelgängers: Chase McPherson on Rewriting The Vampire Rulebook

• Finbarre Snarey | Tarot Interviews • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Chase McPherson is a queer speculative fiction writer whose stories blend the gothic with the emotional, exploring themes of grief, identity, and the resilience of love. His Bloodbound series reimagines vampire lore - a place where rules are meant to be broken and relationships rarely follow the expected path.

Influenced by a childhood filled with cult classics and dark comedy, Chase’s writing is rich with emotional texture, sharp humor, and a deep curiosity about what it means to survive, and thrive, through transformation. His work is a testament to the power of storytelling as both rebellion and refuge.

Learn more and find his books at: https://www.bychasemcp.com

NEXT EPISODE: Lindz McLeod, author of The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet. If you're intrigued by reimagined classics, sapphic romance, and the complexities of societal expectations, this episode is not to be missed!​ 

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Disclaimer: The Tarot Interviews podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not constitute professional, legal, financial, medical, or psychological advice. Listeners are encouraged to seek guidance from qualified professionals where appropriate.

Fin:

Tarot Interviews.

Fin:

Welcome to Tarot Interviews, the podcast where we explore creativity, storytelling and the unexpected, one card at a time. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Chase McPherson, the imaginative author behind the Bloodbound fantasy series. The imaginative author behind the Bloodbound fantasy series, chase's work delves into the intricate lives of vampire detectives, weaving narratives that explore profound themes of loss, regret and mental health. His storytelling transports readers into worlds filled with vampires and demons and complex characters. Born in New Mexico and having lived across Texas, florida and Alabama, chase's diverse experience have undoubtedly influenced his rich storytelling. He believes passionately that anyone who can read is also a writer, so there's hope for us all. In this episode, we'll draw three tarot cards to guide our conversation, looking into Chase's creative journey, the inspirations behind his compelling characters and the personal experiences that have shaped his narratives. What insights will the cards reveal about his path and the stories yet to come? Let's shuffle the deck and find out. Good evening, thank you so much for being here. What time is it there?

Chase McPherson:

It has just. It's just about two o'clock in the afternoon.

Fin:

Two o'clock in the afternoon, so what have you done today?

Chase McPherson:

Not much. My husband and I are actually getting caught up on EastEnders. We get a BritBox subscription, so we're getting caught up with all that business.

Fin:

Sorry, did you say EastEnders? I've not seen EastEnders since about 1995, when my parents would videotape it religiously and just have banks upon banks of cassettes yeah.

Chase McPherson:

I've known about it for a while. Um, brick box. Um is a BBC and ITV subscription service. Um, so we get the best of both both those networks, and they're about to hit their 40th anniversary, so of course they're bringing a ton of drama.

Fin:

My absolute word. I mean I have seen the same actors in and out of EastEnders. They seem to be almost like serving some kind of prison sentence. They just can't go. They're somehow jinxed to be on the show.

Chase McPherson:

You can't even die on this show because they will bring you back. They've got another actor playing Peggy Mitchell in Hallucination and they're actually bringing a clip of Arthurthur fowler and pauline fowler and they're actually going to be credited in tonight's today's episode.

Fin:

so that is insane. I mean we're talking my era. I mean people like you know dirty dan and angie. These are the people I know.

Chase McPherson:

Yeah and I'm probably one of only a handful of people in america who know those names either, so super and

Fin:

just before we begin, can I ask what your husband does?

Chase McPherson:

He and I actually both work at the same television station. We've we've tried to work in the same place for as long as we've been living together, a few years where that hasn't panned out. But yeah, we, we currently work. I work at the digital desk, I help run the website and the streaming app for our television station and he is a sometimes video editor, sometimes director. He's got his hands in a bunch of pies, excellent.

Fin:

Can I ask how you met?

Chase McPherson:

Xbox.

Fin:

What.

Chase McPherson:

Yes, I was living in North Texas for a while and sometimes you just have to live with people who can afford to help pay the rent, and this roommate of mine was really, really overtaking everything. He was using my television all the time, he was using my Xbox all the time, and one day I just said you know what, if you're going to be using my Xbox to talk to your friends, give me one of your friends so I can talk to them.

Fin:

Swapsies!

Chase McPherson:

Yeah, and he picked Tyler and we got on like a house on fire. We spent the first night talking for almost nine consecutive hours and I knew right then and there, this was the one, and that was almost 15 years ago.

Fin:

Wow, 15 years. So have you got any? No, don't tell me about any kind of anniversary plans that you have. Obviously, your partner may hear but yeah, 15 years, well done, oh, okay, thank you. Yeah, good to know, right, I've got the cards in my hand now, okay I would say no whammies, no whammies.

Chase McPherson:

But I don't think press for luck aired in that in the uk, so stop and what do you see?

Fin:

that would be the star. Okay, so what are your impressions of that card if it's not one that you've seen before?

Chase McPherson:

I hope it's something that speaks to luck. Obviously I've. I've got this book series that I've put a lot of work and heart and time into, and my one wish with that is that people see it, people read it, people connect with it, engage with it. However, that may translate into success, I hope that's. That's a guiding clue yeah, absolutely.

Fin:

I mean traditionally. It's a card of hope, inspiration, renewal. The card that arrives just before that one, if you go on the fool's journey and you go through the major arcana, is the tower. So it represents after destruction of the tower, you have a sense of calmness and direction. So it's that beacon of light after great turmoil. So what inspires hope and optimism in your writing?

Chase McPherson:

I need to put that down to my husband, tyler.

Chase McPherson:

A few years ago he was actually diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer and that was a quite literal body blow to the both of us.

Chase McPherson:

He'd barely just started his 30s whole life ahead of him and you get this diagnosis and I put all of my effort and energy into supporting him, making sure he goes. It's a it's a survivable disease. It's one of the most survivable forms of cancer out there. So, with that as a foundation, I just put all of my energy into making sure that he was calm, he was focused and we would get through this all right, and he did. He's been cancer-free now for a little over three years now. So I look to him as a source of inspiration. He's had as much trauma in his life as I have and I think now is about time for the karmatic circle to come around and we start start reaping the benefits of all the the negative that that we've endured this is one of those times that I wish that this wasn't just an audio only, only podcast, because I'm looking at your face right now you are glowing with pride.

Fin:

It seems like you've been through a tricky time yeah, I.

Chase McPherson:

I call him my warrior, because it takes a warrior to fight that disease, and when you win you ought to feel like a warrior.

Fin:

I'm speechless. But I'm amazed how you're taking this in your stride. You're taking all the best bits from this. Obviously, there must be so much to process and so much hurt to kind of let go of. But, wow, I am astonished.

Chase McPherson:

And look at that, look at that big smile on your face there I, I always, I always wonder about how I would react in a crisis or in some sort of emergency, and it has happened in the past and I, I tend to be calm, cool, collected, because I figured cooler heads, rain, yeah, um, so, yeah, uh, that's, that's, that's how I have to approach any obstacle that we, that we encounter right, but yeah, that takes us to card number two.

Fin:

Well, I've been shuffling these here, all right, let's see what this one brings out okay, what do you see there, it appearing at the screen age of pentacles page of pentacles. So what your impressions of this card?

Chase McPherson:

it's a cute drawing. That's about all I can tell you um I. I am not.

Fin:

I am not ofe in the meanings of all the cards, so but in terms of vibes, I mean talking the colors, the positioning, the form, just first. I mean say, for example, if you just happen to open your front door and there is this person standing there, what would you be thinking?

Chase McPherson:

what a short start. The first word that comes to my mind is neutral. The colors are kind of neutral, except for I can't tell if that's hair or if that's a scarf, but it's a little pop of red there, but everything else is kind of muted and neutral else is kind of muted and neutral.

Fin:

Okay, well, the page of pentacles. It's a symbol of curiosity, ambition, ambition seems to be a bit of a theme of these cards. Okay, and of course you've got the, the young figure, standing in a field, um examining a pentacle in their hands. You've got the lush landscape behind them indicating growth. This card would traditionally appear where you've got opportunities for growth, whether that be financial, educational, personal, all of that on the horizon. So, okay, my question for you is what new skills or ventures are you currently learning about?

Chase McPherson:

I, hmm, at my day job at the tv station, I'm having to learn adobe after effects. If you've ever tinkered in graphic design and motion graphics, that is a bearer of a program. It it's. It's a mammoth undertaking. It's. It's helping me, uh, get a little bit of a leg up in keeping my job. Um, because they're they're doing the downsizing our, our company I'm not going to mention it um is being uh run at the moment by an ai bro and he, he's, he, slash the company. Have actually eliminated my husband's department of production in exchange for bringing in automation and computers and robotics to take the place of two or three people at the company in a different role. But he's going to need as many skills as he can muster to keep his toes in the ground, as am I, I think, professionally. That's what I think that means. Is that we're on the right track there For this side job.

Chase McPherson:

I am hoping that Backtrack a little bit. This version of Bloodbound is actually a reboot. Um, I I tried a three novel series with the same name uh, a little over 10 years ago, and I hit a major writer's block while doing the third one and I couldn't continue past that. So in the intervening years, I've been wondering how could I refresh the concept, reboot the idea, make it stronger, and the result is what I have now. I'm about to release the fourth book in the series and I'm starting to branch out into maybe short stories, body horror, short story collection.

Fin:

I've got a couple of other books that I've written two or three chapters of, uh, so the creative juices are are continuing to flow, whereas 10 years ago I hit a wall and just stopped I once heard, and I I don't know if this is true at all, but um, apparently the zombie genre flourishes under a democratic or democrat, um uh government, but the, the vampire genre flourishes under a republican one. I don't know if that is true, it's just a peculiar quirk that people have noticed it. It makes sense, it makes sense to me. And have you ever thought of um uh, venturing off into I don't know, uh like interactive fiction or computer game writing or anything like that, centering off into I don't know, uh like interactive fiction or computer game writing or anything like that.

Chase McPherson:

No, uh, but tyler has, he is, he's had a an interest in um voice acting, um he's, he's. I don't know if he's actually submitted any auditions uh lately, but he he really likes um video games with lots of cutscenes and story and drama and he has gotten into running a tabletop RPG game through Discord. Which game in particular? This game is based in the Fallout 76 universe, okay, and he is weaving in Call of Cthulhu type of macabre and supernatural elements into it and rather than doing the game live like we're speaking in person right now, this is all by post. Speaking in person right now, this is all by post. When people have time to respond, they will respond and the story just flows. When people have time to tap out a few lines and sentences.

Fin:

That's incredible. So to read back over that it must look something like out of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Chase McPherson:

It really does. It really does. You can read this game from beginning to end, and I think that's a fascinating way to. I'm not a player in this game, I'm actually an observer, so from my vantage point, this is a really compelling read and this is a game that they are playing. I just think that he's really brilliant for running this, this game, the way he is, and he's really coming into his own as a storyteller wow, okay, right, so that's card number two.

Fin:

Let's see what card number three has in store now. I have not seen this card for a long time the Six of Cups. What do you say there?

Chase McPherson:

It's hard to describe. I really don't know what I'm seeing. It looks like an elder person, maybe been down towards a younger person.

Fin:

Yeah, so Six of Cups is the card of nostalgia, innocence and emotional connection. So you've got the two kids in a garden, one offering a cup filled with flowers to the other. I think that is, and the imagery evokes memories of childhood and past relationships the comfort of simpler times. So, okay, which books or films from your childhood influence your current work?

Chase McPherson:

actually things I watched as a child. Most children didn't, and I can thank my mom for that, because my mom had a dark sense of humor. So there's, there's. She's the one who introduced me to the movie clue uh, which is seen it which? Was your recommender absolutely um. Tim curry, for once, is not playing a sadistic psychopath.

Fin:

But he doesn't have demon horns or he's not looking fabulous.

Chase McPherson:

He looks fabulous, just no demon horns. He's very smart and dapper. He's the butler in this movie. But yeah, absolutely. I recommend Clued anybody. She also caught me onto a John john waters movie called serial mom. Uh, kathleen turner plays this suburban housewife who goes on a murderous rampage every time her family is slightly inconvenienced, like her daughter is stood up for a date and she kills the boy. Her son's teacher thinks he watches too many violent movies, she runs him down with her car and it escalates from there. But it's such a hilarious movie and it's a very good statement about the American culture of turning serial killers into pop culture icons. Can I ask how old were you when you watched this? I was in third grade, which would mean I had just turned 10. Okay, and this was definitely an r-rated movie. My mom didn't have much of the filter when it came to uh, comedy, dark, dark comedy movies like that yeah, I think um age 10 I was rushing home to watch uh, ulysses 31, if you remember that at all wow, yeah, that's.

Chase McPherson:

That's a stark contrast so yeah, um.

Fin:

So what inspirations did you take from these films?

Chase McPherson:

the thing that these taught me is that I can find humor in just about everything, even situations that in reality should be very serious and somber. There is humor that can be found in it, and I think I've used that as a coping mechanism Every time in my life things have turned bad and I try to infuse that a little bit, especially in my writing, and I try to infuse that a little bit in, especially in my writing.

Fin:

Now, those, those two films, are ones that I've I've never crossed my orbit. I have to say that when I was a kid, most of the things that I was watching were either in space or with dragons, or possibly. You know, I'd have the three pounds in my pocket, I would go to Blockbuster and I'll be getting all the touchstone picture films and, um, it sounds really rather different. But okay, so you've got those, those two very interesting films there. Um, how about, uh, books, comics? I just want to get a kind of a picture of childhood you books books.

Chase McPherson:

More traditionally I was sticking to stuff in my own age range. I grew up with the the beverly Cleary series of books about Ramona Quimby a very, very popular series here in America. When I was getting into junior high and high school, getting into my preteen years RL Stine, first Goosebumps and then moving up to the more mature Fear Street series that's when I started to get introduced to horror and fantasy elements.

Fin:

Okay, and obviously vampires being something of a love. What early vampire fiction were you experimenting with, reading, thinking about, or is this something that you came to later?

Chase McPherson:

It was more of a later thing. I think the only vampire book that I got my hands on during those formative years was actually an entry in the arl stein series. It was uh. He did a trilogy called goodnight kiss and that was very vampire focused. It wasn't until the twilight years and god help me, I cannot stand the twilight series, but this was also this guilty pleasure of mine.

Fin:

I'm sorry, not the, not the books. I mean, I've I've never opened one of those books, but the films are just nonsense, and sometimes you need nonsense true, we, we all have I.

Chase McPherson:

I just I've not been able to sit. I've not been able to sit through the first one. It's just too much for me. But I'm not going to fault anybody who is a fan of them. Certainly, everybody has their vices. But around Twilight time was when HBO did the True Blood TV series based on the Charlene Harris novels, of which those books are fantastic. It translates well enough into a tv series, um, but even though, even though the show tried to do some lgbtq representation, they weren't the focus of the story. The focus of the story was this cisgender, uh, straight woman slash fey. Sorry spoiler, it's been 10 years, move on. Um. But I was like I want something focusing on my tribe, my people, and I was like, okay, roll up your sleeves, do it yourself.

Fin:

Excellent, I mean, I must say, with um, true blood felt like it almost reached into things that could have been so interesting like now. It's been a while, so I forget people's names. So you've got Sookie and the two gentle vampires that she comes downstairs to, and they're both wearing gowns. Again, this may be a spoiler and it's actually a dream sequence. It's not real, but she's imagining living with both of them as a throuple. Why didn't they go with that? It's so attainable in the vampire world.

Chase McPherson:

I know and not to spoil my own stuff, but we are talking polyamory in my series, not necessarily one person or all three people in love with the other two. We have Hunter, which is our main vampire character, who is in love first with Kai, the person who made him and then Gibson, a secondary character in the first book, becomes a main character thereafter. He has genuine loving relationships with the two of them. The other two do not reciprocate with each other. So this is not a throuple in even that context it's not. I would call it a lopsided throuple maybe.

Fin:

That sounds like something you'd go to the doctor with. Yeah, when it comes to your vampire fiction as well, what elements of vampire? Sorry, this is a complete bonus question. This is just something that I'm fascinated by. What elements of vampire lore do you draw from? For example, do the vampires burn in sunlight? Are they scared of garlic? Do they flee at crucifixes? Or do you take from like a copy and paste from various chunks of vampire lore? Or do you just make it up entirely and just redefine it and see?

Chase McPherson:

the only trope that I am absolutely sticking with is the don't go out in sunlight thing. But I am playing around with that. Uh, because in the, in the bloodbound world, there is an alternate dimension. There is an alternate universe. It's a carbon copy of our world, but everything is just slightly different, including the people in it. Hunter has an absolute doppelganger in this world who I'm still haven't really decided if he's full vampire or if he's full demon, or maybe a combination of the two, just like Hunter is Another spoiler. But please read the book. It's much more interesting when you read this. But in this other dimension the rules of vampire physics don't necessarily apply. They can eat human food, they can walk about in the sunlight. So I'm that's one of the interesting things that I'm playing around with is what rules can I tinker with in this world?

Chase McPherson:

And there's this one scene in the second book, West of Nowhere, which is my favorite. Hunter and Kai are investigating some abductions and they go to a suspect's house. Kai is able to pick the lock and go in Hunter's like I thought that vampires weren't able to go into a place without permission and Kai just points to the ground and there's a mat in front of the door that says come on in. Written permission is permission. So that's what I like to do. I like to tease with tropes, toy with tropes and, in some cases like that, break them all together Excellent.

Fin:

One of the major issues that I've had within this podcast so far isn't the expense of running an online studio or the microphones or any of that. Every time I speak to a writer like yourself and I hear the passion and the inspiration and the reasons why you write, of course, I'm going to get your book, but I don't have enough shelves. Um, yeah, I'm gonna have to get a new house, I think.

Chase McPherson:

Um possibly, but the the good thing. I'm making most of my money from these books, from the digital side. My website has links to every place that is carrying them both digitally and in print, and I have a Ko-Fi shop, coffee shop, k-o-f-i I don't know how you pronounce it, probably coffee. Buy me a coffee. That makes sense, but I have a shop there that's got drm free versions of the books in epub format.

Fin:

So space is not necessarily an issue, unless you're talking disk space, and just remind me how many, how many books are in the blood bound series um, as of the time we're recording this, there are three.

Fin:

March 11th, number four comes out and I'm in the process of writing number five okay, my to read pile is is a teetering tower already, but no, this sounds good, chase. Thank you so much, and that's a wrap on this episode of tarot interviews. Chase mcpherson took us through a storytelling masterclass, showing us how intuition, experience and maybe even a little bit of fate shapes his creative path. If you want to follow more of Chase's work, check out his profile in the show notes. And if you've enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the podcast Until next time. No-transcript.

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