Author Chat: Emily A. Weedon on "Hemo Sapiens"
Hemo Sapiens by Emily A. Weedon
Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2025
I read Canadian author Emily Weedon's debut novel Autokrator in the spring and found it original and inventive, with a twist towards horror at the end. Her new novel Hemo Sapiens is very different, but pings off her previous work into horror territory. I reviewed it on my Instagram page here. It was good reading!One of Weedon’s talents is to write books that defy easy description, because trying to classify Hemo Sapiens into a neat category just doesn’t work. It’s part horror, with an insatiable vampire in the first pages and an ongoing blood-soaked narrative; it’s part police procedural, one that had me turning the pages to see what clues would guide lead detective Luke Stockton to find a mysterious killer; and also part erotic feminist tale that had me thinking about female appetites and the suppression of the same.
From the blurb:
"Detective Luke Stockton is preparing for his first child with his wife, Beatrice, but balancing work and home is a challenge as she is behaving with increasing strangeness. Beatrice begins to frequent a medspa offering mysterious prenatal checkups, leech treatments, and vampire facials. And, against his will, Luke finds himself irresistibly drawn to the spa’s sophisticated owner, Cleo, who has a deadly secret to keep.
The pressure builds for Luke as he investigates a series of murders involving exsanguinated runaway boys. Trailing a perplexing killer, and bent on protecting his wife and their child, Luke is thrust into a shadowy, erotic world of wealth, subterfuge, and danger. And the closer he gets to the truth, the more danger he courts for himself and his family.
Hemo Sapiens is an audacious and bloodthirsty fairy tale, pitting one man against a community beyond good and evil, in a modern tale of intrigue and female sexuality."
Toronto-based Wheedon is an award-winning screenwriter and author, and I was pleased when she agreed to chat with me about Hemo Sapiens, because I had lots of questions as I read and I wanted to find out more. We talk about the psyche of her characters, pregnancy and female sexuality, the slight weirdness of med spas, and more.
***
 |
| Author Emily Weedon (photo: David Leyes) |
Trish: Let's talk about the characters! I liked Luke Stockton, the good-hearted police detective, on the page. He’s a nice guy, one of the good ones, right? But his character has a job to do in this novel, as he stands in as an everyman, and as the foil to Cleo’s female power. Cleo is the head of the Medspa, and leader of the vampire faction. What role did you see Luke playing in the novel? Did you like him?
Emily: I love Luke! And you nailed exactly what I hoped to get across with him: an everyman, and a flawed one. Just a really regular guy. Some readers have found that Luke is perhaps not as evolved as they would like to see a man in a relationship be… but it was necessary to the plot, and to further plans I have for the world of Hemo Sapiens, that he be a rube - someone who is not in the know. He is a device through which we get some of our exposition for the fantastical elements free. He goes through a fair bit of growth and realization in the novel as he delves deeper in the world of Cleo and her kind.
Trish: And how about Cleo? I confess, I liked her too. You write characters that are complex, not black and white. I get the feeling she’s playing the long game. She’s got a lot of responsibility, as she attempts to create a social system to manage the Sanguins (vampire race). Early on, Heloise, one of the vampires is frustrated: “She was done with being socialized out of her true nature. She was through with tidy, clean, quiet, invisible.” Do you think Cleo can ever succeed in organizing the chaos?
Emily: Is Cleo ever playing the ‘long game’ based on perhaps 100,000 years of history, give or take. Although the Sanguin themselves are not immortal like some vampires are. She is without question amoral. Although your question makes me realize, her morals cross against what is human - but are perfectly aligned with the morals and needs of HER people!
Cleo is indeed balancing things to serve her people but is doing a fair bit of social engineering to do so. She is attempting to tame the feral, wild nature of the Sanguin, mostly so she can help them succeed into the future. She is a conservator of the species of a sort. And to do this, she’s had to train or guide them to do things that might be against their nature.
Trish: I love that you elevate the Medspa to cult status, as the lair/corporate centre of the vampires. Med spas are kind of weird anyway, to me, so this had me nodding my head. Are you a fan of the vampire facial?
Emily: I have yet to try a vampire facial, though I have done PRP - platelet rich plasma for my hip, which was phenomenally helpful. It’s a procedure that draws your own blood and then uses a centrifuge to separate out the plasma. The plasma injected into trouble spots can spur healing. It’s such a sci-fi medical advancement! I am scared of medical procedures. As a disabled person, I’ve been a frequent flyer and had lots of interventions, so I wanted to play in the realm of medical horror a little. I also wanted to use a med spa first because it’s a great cover for Cleo, and because it intersects the beauty industrial complex with medicine. There’s a nod in there to the fact that a country with socialized medicine like Canada is inching towards private clinics ever more. And there is a love/hate relationship with the beauty industry, those temples that feel like spas where youth can be stalled for those with the cash and the will.
Trish: There’s so much to parse out there, and the med spa does feel at the intersection of so many fascinating issues. Sex is fraught in this novel. It is passion and play; it’s power for sure; and it’s procreation. Women have the upper hand here, sort of. How intentional was this approach to sexuality, and what did you hope the reader might take from it?
Emily: This is some of the jet fuel behind the novel for me. Women owning sexuality, driving it, owning their procreative process…Women my age were kind of told via health class that the very worst thing they could do was get pregnant. Don’t do drugs, don’t drop out of school, don’t murder anyone, but most of all (I’m exaggerating for comedy here a little) most of all, do not ever get pregnant. Kidding aside, some of that messaging shaped my life as a human and choices I made. I found, after having had a kid, I wanted to reclaim pregnancy and procreation and make it intentional through a character. I found it pretty empowering to flip some scripts on the subject.
Trish: Pregnancy itself is such an organic, fleshy thing. Throughout history it's been something a female can choose or have chosen for her; that can bring life but also can result in death. I agree, it’s ripe for exploration in a novel like Hemo Sapiens.
On a more practical level, can you describe what your writing life is like? How has it been to launch a writing career in Canada?
Emily: Getting the time to write is very very hard. Getting support to write is next to non-existent. Writing itself, for me, is as easy as breathing. I know it’s what I am here to do. But I, like all Can Lit authors, and perhaps writers everywhere, face a deep existential struggle to get to do what I am built to do. The disappearing media climate means fewer reviews, and the dire struggle to afford to live anywhere, the relentless march of AI and many other threats facing publishing make getting a novel written, published and marketed ever more difficult.
But when I do get the time, I am never happier than when in my writing chair, especially if fuelled by some big what if idea that keeps me literally awake at night, asking questions, researching, delving deeper.
Trish: Do you see yourself writing in the horror sphere in the future? (This is my way of asking if you’ve got another book planned).
Emily: I already have a manuscript for Hemophage completed. Early readers were already saying they wanted more about the Sanguin world, but I was already writing the next part two years ago. "Hemophage" means blood eater and Luke is back, but I would say Beatrice gets equal billing, and we learn more about the Sanguin and get into some interesting power plays. Most of it is set in Budapest and Europe, so it is a love letter to the time I lived there.
I am planning other works too and I could see myself staying in dark, weird and horror fiction with a literary bent for the foreseeable future!
Trish: I’ve really enjoyed our conversation, and here’s to more dark and fascinating stories in the future. I look forward to them.
Emily: Thank you for what you are doing for authors. This is life blood to the future of a book. And a conversation I can sink my teeth into is one of my very favourite things.
Cleo is indeed balancing things to serve her people but is doing a fair bit of social engineering to do so. She is attempting to tame the feral, wild nature of the Sanguin, mostly so she can help them succeed into the future. She is a conservator of the species of a sort. And to do this, she’s had to train or guide them to do things that might be against their nature.
Trish: I love that you elevate the Medspa to cult status, as the lair/corporate centre of the vampires. Med spas are kind of weird anyway, to me, so this had me nodding my head. Are you a fan of the vampire facial?
Emily: I have yet to try a vampire facial, though I have done PRP - platelet rich plasma for my hip, which was phenomenally helpful. It’s a procedure that draws your own blood and then uses a centrifuge to separate out the plasma. The plasma injected into trouble spots can spur healing. It’s such a sci-fi medical advancement! I am scared of medical procedures. As a disabled person, I’ve been a frequent flyer and had lots of interventions, so I wanted to play in the realm of medical horror a little. I also wanted to use a med spa first because it’s a great cover for Cleo, and because it intersects the beauty industrial complex with medicine. There’s a nod in there to the fact that a country with socialized medicine like Canada is inching towards private clinics ever more. And there is a love/hate relationship with the beauty industry, those temples that feel like spas where youth can be stalled for those with the cash and the will.
Trish: There’s so much to parse out there, and the med spa does feel at the intersection of so many fascinating issues. Sex is fraught in this novel. It is passion and play; it’s power for sure; and it’s procreation. Women have the upper hand here, sort of. How intentional was this approach to sexuality, and what did you hope the reader might take from it?
 |
| Emily Weedon (photo: Barbara Radecki) |
Emily: This is some of the jet fuel behind the novel for me. Women owning sexuality, driving it, owning their procreative process…Women my age were kind of told via health class that the very worst thing they could do was get pregnant. Don’t do drugs, don’t drop out of school, don’t murder anyone, but most of all (I’m exaggerating for comedy here a little) most of all, do not ever get pregnant. Kidding aside, some of that messaging shaped my life as a human and choices I made. I found, after having had a kid, I wanted to reclaim pregnancy and procreation and make it intentional through a character. I found it pretty empowering to flip some scripts on the subject.
Trish: Pregnancy itself is such an organic, fleshy thing. Throughout history it's been something a female can choose or have chosen for her; that can bring life but also can result in death. I agree, it’s ripe for exploration in a novel like Hemo Sapiens.
On a more practical level, can you describe what your writing life is like? How has it been to launch a writing career in Canada?
Emily: Getting the time to write is very very hard. Getting support to write is next to non-existent. Writing itself, for me, is as easy as breathing. I know it’s what I am here to do. But I, like all Can Lit authors, and perhaps writers everywhere, face a deep existential struggle to get to do what I am built to do. The disappearing media climate means fewer reviews, and the dire struggle to afford to live anywhere, the relentless march of AI and many other threats facing publishing make getting a novel written, published and marketed ever more difficult.
But when I do get the time, I am never happier than when in my writing chair, especially if fuelled by some big what if idea that keeps me literally awake at night, asking questions, researching, delving deeper.
Trish: Do you see yourself writing in the horror sphere in the future? (This is my way of asking if you’ve got another book planned).
Emily: I already have a manuscript for Hemophage completed. Early readers were already saying they wanted more about the Sanguin world, but I was already writing the next part two years ago. "Hemophage" means blood eater and Luke is back, but I would say Beatrice gets equal billing, and we learn more about the Sanguin and get into some interesting power plays. Most of it is set in Budapest and Europe, so it is a love letter to the time I lived there.
I am planning other works too and I could see myself staying in dark, weird and horror fiction with a literary bent for the foreseeable future!
Trish: I’ve really enjoyed our conversation, and here’s to more dark and fascinating stories in the future. I look forward to them.
Emily: Thank you for what you are doing for authors. This is life blood to the future of a book. And a conversation I can sink my teeth into is one of my very favourite things.
***
A big thanks to Emily Weedon for joining me in conversation. You can find Emily online at her website EmilyWeedon.com and on Instagram @emily.weedon.creates.
Comments
Post a Comment