One of my personal traditions is that, every October, I re-read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s such a rich novel that I usually find at least one detail I’d never noticed before. This year, though, in addition to reading the actual novel, I’ve been reading a children’s version to my daughter (after all, what else can follow Frankenstein?). It’s easy to … Read More
Interview: the writers of Carmilla
Carmilla, J. Sheridan LeFanu’s 1871 novella that predates Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is a seminal work of genre fiction. It introduces the idea of the lesbian vampire, something that later writers would expand into its own genre (check out Hammer’s The Vampire Lovers for a fairly faithful, if overtly sexed-up, version). It’s also surprisingly contemporary in its writing style. So … Read More
The First Drop of Blood: A Dream of Dracula
It’s now possible to find gazillions of non-fiction books on Dracula, novel or historical character or cultural figure. I recommend anything by Elizabeth Miller. But in the early 70s, there was really only one: A Dream of Dracula: In Search of the Living Dead, by Leonard Wolf. It’s a long-form meditation on what vampires and Dracula mean to people in the … Read More
Ain’t No Cure: vampirism as disease
(October, the month of Halloween, conjures one name in our household: Dracula! This is the third of a series of posts on various aspects of Dracula and vampires in general. I’ll be giving away a two-pack of my own vampire novels Blood Groove and The Girls with Games of Blood to one lucky commenter per post, so comment early, comment often!) Richard Matheson, among … Read More
Did Orson Welles make Dracula romantic?
(October, the month of Halloween, conjures one name in our household: Dracula! This is the second of a series of posts on various aspects of Dracula and vampires in general. I’ll be giving away a two-pack of my own vampire novels Blood Groove and The Girls with Games of Blood to one lucky commenter per post, so comment early, comment … Read More
The loss of the epic vampire
(October, the month of Halloween, conjures one name in our household: Dracula! This is the first of a series of posts on various aspects of Dracula and vampires in general. I’ll be giving away a two-pack of my own vampire novels Blood Groove and The Girls with Games of Blood to one lucky commenter per post, so comment early, comment often!) Recently I came … Read More
The return of Sir Francis Colby
For Halloween, I thought I’d tell you the story behind my latest foray in the horror genre. When I decided to write my first vampire novel, Blood Groove, I had a problem. Its name was Count Dracula. As the gold standard of vampires, his cape cast a very long shadow. Every literary vampire, from Lestat to Edward Cullen, is measured … Read More
"I’ve got a lot of patience, baby": the story behind the dedication of The Girls with Games of Blood
My first Memphis vampire novel, Blood Groove, was dedicated to the memory of Duncan Browne (read why here). Browne remains a fairly obscure musical figure, although I hope I’ve nudged a few people toward seeking out his work. But The Girls with Games of Blood is dedicated to one much better known, whose songs helped define the Sixties, even if … Read More
Release day for THE GIRLS WITH GAMES OF BLOOD!
It’s release day for The Girls with Games of Blood, the follow-up to my first Memphis vampire book, Blood Groove. When Blood Groove came out last year, I of course checked at my local Barnes and Noble to see if they carried it. I was disappointed at first not to see it among the other vampire novels in the Sci … Read More
Exclusive new Memphis Vampires short story
As a thank-you to all the folks who enjoyed Blood Groove, and in anticipation of the release tomorrow of The Girls with Games of Blood, here’s the first part of a short story that takes place between the two books. You can read the whole thing on my website here. J’OUBLIE (c) 2010 Alex Bledsoe Memphis State University, late summer, … Read More