Monthly Archives: November 2014

Pre-sales for “Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes”

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Castle Annaghs outside Waterford, Ireland is the location of the actual grave identified in local legend as that of the dearg-due ("red blood sucker").

Castle Annaghs outside Waterford, Ireland is the location of the actual grave identified in local legend as that of the dearg-due (“red blood sucker”).

For everyone waiting for the next adventure of the Evil Conference professors, I am working on Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes and hope to have it finished in time to release next November. It will follow the professors back to Ireland and they will once again confront both Elizabeth, the dearg-due (Irish female vampire), and Eva (the witch who created the dearg-due in 1700s Ireland).

As you recall from the Come Hell or High Water trilogy, the dearg-due was a young girl from 1700s Waterford (southeast Ireland). She was in love with a local shepherd but her father insisted that she marry the local landlord, a much older and wealthier man. (Clearly, her father hoped to profit from the marriage.) But the husband was a cruel and abusive man who beat his young wife to death. She was raised from the grave beneath the famous Strongbow’s Oak, however, and transformed into the DEARG-DUE (“red blood sucker”). She first killed and lapped up the blood of her abusive husband and then her uncaring father and now she continues to seduce and kill men. She is unharmed by sunlight, holy water, or garlic. She cannot be destroyed. But she can be pinned beneath the earth if a small tower of stones is built atop her grave. She will then be trapped in her grave until the stones are dispersed, allowing her to rise from the grave beneath the oak tree and begin the cycle of seduction and murder all over again. Incorporating local Irish history, mythology, and folklore, Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes will be a stand-alone novel (not another trilogy).

You can pre-order your copy now thru the Pubslush website here. By donating the cost of the book in advance, you help cover the cost of editing and research and will get an autographed copy of the paperback mailed to you as soon as the novel is available. Even if you can’t support the book financially yet, please click on the link and become a FAN of the project to show your support.

I will keep you up-to-date with my progress on the book by occasional posts here — but NO SPOILERS will be revealed! 🙂

Radio Prague

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I was given this souvenir Radio Prague cup -- complete with a spoon for stirring hot chocolate! -- when I was there for my interview in March 2014.

I was given this souvenir Radio Prague cup — complete with a spoon for stirring hot chocolate! — when I was there for my interview in March 2014.

When I was in Prague last March for the annual Evil and Human Wickedness conference, I was invited to the Radio Prague studios for an interview by Jan Velinger. He has a daily half-hour program and includes a “cultural” or “artistic” interview once a week. The interview was recently reposted on the Radio Prague site here.

Almost all of Radio Prague’s programming is online, rather than traditional radio waves; you can read the text of my interview or listen to actual interview by clicking on the link above. It was a LOT of fun to meet Jan and to see the inside of the studio from the vantage point of the interviewee’s chair on the “other” side of the microphones.

Happy birthday, Mr. Stoker!

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Bram Stoker, an Irish author-actor-playwright, is best known for his novel Dracula.

Bram Stoker, an Irish author-actor-playwright, is best known for his novel Dracula.

Abraham “Bram” Stoker (born November 8, 1847 – died April 20, 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned. (Stoker’s residence and parish church can still be visited in Dublin.)

Although Stoker himself never visited Romania or the Carpathian Mountains, he spent several years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires. He also met Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian writer and traveler, whose dark stories of the Carpathian mountains may have also contributed to Stoker’s inspiration.

Stoker’s most infamous character, the vampire Dracula, has gone on to appear in many “incarnations” or guises. In the Dresden Files series, Stoker’s novel is said to be a hunter’s manual for the Black Court vampires, now all but extinct as a result. Bela Lugosi played the vampire in both stage and film versions of the story. A new study, just published in early April, Who was Dracula? explores and uncovers the wide range of source material – from folklore and history, to personas including Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman – behind Bram Stoker’s bloody creation.