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Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: Blade

Interview: Jessica Cage

20 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Interview

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Blade, characters of colour in fantasy, Dracula, Eric Northman, Gerard Butler, Jessica Cage, L.A Banks, Lestat, Selene, Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire, Vampire Month


For our third special October Vampire month interview to support the release of Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire, we have Jessica Cage.

Jessica Cage is an International  Award Winning, and USA Today Best Selling Headshot of Jessica Cage, AuthorAuthor. Born and raised in Chicago, IL, writing has always been a passion for her. As a girl, Jessica enjoyed reading tales of fantasy and mystery but she always hoped to find characters that looked like her. Those characters came few and far in between. When they did appear they often played a minor role and were background figures. This is the inspiration for her writing today and the reason why she focuses on writing Characters of Color in Fantasy.  Representation matters in all mediums and Jessica is determined to give the young girl who looks like her, a story full of characters that she can relate to.

What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

My earliest memory of writing is my grandmother handing me a pen and paper and telling me to write down the story I was dying to tell her. She was a total book nerd and I was interrupting what I can only imagine was a steamy Harlequin novel. From that moment on, I would write her tall tales that only she would read.

When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

I chose to become a professional writer when I was pregnant. I wanted to set an example for my son. How could I encourage him to go after his dreams while being too afraid to chase my own?

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

My greatest strength is my ability to give the reader an almost cinematic experience. I love for the reader to feel like they are not only reading the book but as if they are a part of it. Its one of the most common compliments I receive about my work. My weakness… commas. Darn those commas. No, I’m still not over it. I struggle with understanding where they go. They will either be all over the place or nowhere to be found. Thank the stars for my editors!

Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I live in the Windy City, Chicago and yes. I have absolutely put pieces of my home in nearly every story I’ve written. I’ll take you into the nightlife or describe one of my favorite spots to eat. Chicago is more than just the downtown most tourist see so I try to weave in my personal experiences with the city in the stories.

Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

Can I just say L.A. Banks? Is that an option. I love her books. It was one of my first experiences with a woman of color witing the kind of high energy fantasy stories I wanted that also had a POC cast. I felt so empowered to do the same. Outside of her works, I find myself falling in love with any book that dares to test the limits of what has already been written. I love pushing boundaries and creating new concepts.

What drove you to write about Vampires?

A childhood obsession with Lestat and a questioning mind. I LOVED vampires but it didn’t feel right that they were human evolved (or devolved depending on who is writing the story). The first book I ever wrote depicted vampires as alien lifeforms who fled their home world to escape a darkness that was taking over. It was a blend of vampires and sci-fi and it was my dream come true.

What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

Immortality. At least that what it is for me. Its the question of what would you do, who would you be if you knew you could live forever? For humans, life is fleeting. Its not promised to us. Through these stories we get to take risks and life a life that is uninhibited by the constructs of time and that is exciting and intoxicating.

In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Akasha. I choose her because she is a badass woman and ruthless. Even Dracula had a soft spot and she would have exploited that to no end. Second to her, Selene. Women rule.

What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

I’d have to say for sexiness Eric Northman or Gerad Butler’s Dracula 2000. For dress, I’m going with Blade! I loved his gear!

High Arc Vampires Series by Jessica Cage In Order — Monster Complex

How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

Alexa (my first vampire) could kick some ass. Not only is she a vampire, but she has magical powers. Kyla (my vampire in the Slay Anthology) would compete for style. Mara (vampire in The Alpha’s) would take the gold for dress hands down!

Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

My latest novel is about Sierra Grey who is a conjurn (or witch) who was chosen for darkness. In her world that means she will never know love or any of the joys of a human relationship. However, she is special, marked at birth as someone would change her world. After a chance encounter with a yummy guy, she starts experiencing emotions and powers that she shouldn’t have. The powers that be thinks that she is an anomaly that must be eradicated. She is forced to flee her home and find a way to save not only herself but her people.

You can learn more about Jessica on the following links:

  • Webpage- www.jessicacage.com
  • Twitter- https://twitter.com/jcageauthor
  • Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/jcageauthor/
  • Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/jcageauthor

You can buy Jessica’s books at the following links:

Website – www.jessicacage.com/shop

Amazon- https://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Cage/e/B00CNTUBGO/

What Do You Do With Forever On Your Hands? by Victoria L. Szulc

24 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Vampire Month

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Being Human, Blade, Eternal life, Twilight, Vampire, Victoria L. Szulc, What we do in the Shadows


For her guest post, Victoria is looking at eternal life – the problems that come with it. She comes up with some interesting thoughts, though in all her discussion of stories where ‘vampires living normal lives’, she seems to have forgotten Being Human 🙂

A Wry Look a Living an Undead Life

In my own vamp series, one of my characters asks his hundreds year old friend a similar question. What do you do with too much time on your hands? Vampires, if managing to avoid the standard stake in the heart, incredible sunburn, or beheading, can live incredibly long lives. These situations make good storylines for writers of the undead.Victoria L. Szulc

Holding on to History

Can you imagine how much history a vampire has witnessed, let’s say, since the Dark Ages? Perhaps since 1200? The rise and fall of kingdoms, eras, and nations could be daunting. Is there temptation to get to involved in changing the natural course of evolution? To start or stop wars?

Witnessing the advances in energy, from horse power to steam, electricity, gas, and solar power, which they probably wouldn’t want to use, has to be challenging. Accidentally leaving a window open and having sunlight reflect off a mirror could be a last day on earth for an undead.

What about technology? Transportation for one, having to adapt from riding horses to driving cars, or heaven forbid having to use public transit? How do you not want to eat your fellow passengers? Booking only night flights could be a real challenge.

And communications? Maybe you’d pine for the days of the telegram, where if someone wanted to reach you, they’d have to go a few miles into the largest town to send you a message. Now you dread your phone blowing up from telemarketers. Would smart phones be able to read your fingerprints?

How would one handle the basic needs? How do you feed? How do you eat? In the old days, if you were wealthy, you could sleep in your castle all day, have one of your servants pick out a lovely farm girl or fat peasant for dinner. I suppose in today’s world, you could do it gangsta style and just pick off random people at night. Or be the ultimate undead superhero like Blade, and only take out the bad guys.

Just running a flat with undead roommates could be too much to bear. In the comedy “What We Do in the Shadows”, the vampires have a bit of a scuffle which causes the police to arrive. You can see them sweating it out, quite humorously, as the officers check the apartment for a “funny smell” and noise disturbances.

And just how do the kids of Twilight just keep changing schools? Eternal education has to suck.

thumbnail3Making a Living at Being Undead

Let’s say you’re a phenomenally good looking vampire. Changed at a young age and hotter than hell. It’s certain to bring you lots of opportunities, but also recognition. Perhaps a little too much attention?

In the indie film “Only Lovers Left Alive”, Adam is a hip vampire musician hiding out in the worst neighborhood in Detroit. When his music is released in an underground club without permission, word leaks out where he leaves, and fans start showing up and ringing his bell. You can see his panic as he realizes he might have to move.

So what kind of profession would best suit a vampire? Anything in a medicinal environment with easy access to blood would be ideal. If you worked in a hospice facility, you could be an angel of death and not feel so guilty about sending someone home a little early, especially if they were suffering. You’d probably want to steer clear of saw mills and any woodworking facilities.

Then again, you could be a nightclub owner, just making sure to keep the patrons from becoming too rowdy and getting everyone out before dawn so you could make it home before sunrise.

Which brings us to…

Eternally Yours

Or not? The amount of exes for a vampire could be massive. The world is a smaller place now and the chances of running into an undead former flame are pretty good unless you agreed to divide up the world into territories.

What about permanently partnered? How do you keep those home fires burning without killing each other?

And what about new love? Heaven forbid, you’re a really lovely lady that has been fancied for centuries. There’s a steady stream of blood daddies perhaps, put under fantastic spells while you feed. But won’t they eventually go to their physician and get diagnosed with a mysterious anemia?

Maybe you’d mastered the art of getting a lady out of a corset long ago, using your fangs no less. And you are absolutely thrilled that they are back in style. You are way better in the sack than Lestat and Louie combined. But now you have no clue how to remove one of those new criss-cross halter leather brassieres. Or being asked to wear a condom? You hadn’t gotten anyone in the “family way” since 1220, when you were still human. Is vampire sperm still viable?

Perhaps love isn’t for the undead. Or maybe, like Dracula, you’re able to find that one human that “you’ve crossed oceans of time to find”. Now that’s someone you could really sink your teeth into.

Victoria L. Szulc is a multi-media sci-fi/steampunk artist/writer who regularly displays her work at 1900 Park Creative Space in the historic Victorian neighborhood of Lafayette Square in St. Louis, MO. Her first Steampunk art installation was there in June 2014. She spearheaded and curated the first Steampunk Broken Hearts Ball Masquerade and Art Show in St. Louis and directed the first Steampunk Fashion Show at the Big River Steampunk Festival Masquerade in Hannibal, MO in 2017. Victoria’s third steampunk novel, “A Long Reign” was in competition for the 2017 Amazon UK Storytellers contest and was an Amazon/kindle bestseller, reaching number 7 in Time Travel and number 9 in Steampunk on the Amazon bestsellers lists. Volume 11 of the Vampire’s Little Black Book Series is set for release March 31, 2018. Victoria is currently working on the third part of the Society Trilogy, “Lafayette to London”. This new book and related visual works are scheduled for release in June 2018.

[Vampire Month] Victoria L. Szulc interview

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Vampire Month

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Blade, C.S Lewis, Dracula, Lestat, Selene, St Louis, Steampunk, Underworld, Vampire, Victoria L. Szulc


Victoria L. SzulcSo, as we move into the third week of March, we get to our third Vampire month victim. This week we have Victoria L. Szulc, author of The First Ten Bites. After her interview today, she will tell us all about her hints and tips for how to live forever…

  • What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

 

I remember telling a lot of stories, when I was about five or six years old, about a girl (who later became a princess) and her animals to my best neighborhood friends. I had a pretty wild imagination. I starting cartooning them, all over my school folders, scraps of paper, and whatever else I could find.

  • When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

 

In my twenties, I started writing professionally as part of advertising, marketing, and creative jobs. I was already an artist and writing became another tool in my arsenal of creativity. By the time I reached forty, I realized I had a lot of stories to share that weren’t covered in my visual art.

  • What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

 

The greatest strength, without a doubt is imagination. I have some crazy storylines and plot twists that I just rejoice over. I love hearing readers’ reactions to them. Weakness? I swear I have ADD creativity. Sometimes I’m working on a project and the wrong muse comes calling, like the need to draw, or other stories in the planning stages. I almost hate when I’ve got a storyline ready for a character and realize that it belongs in a totally different story.

  • Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

 

I’m from St. Louis, Missouri, USA which is almost dead center of the U.S. I write a lot of Steampunk as well, and during the Victorian/American Guilded Age, St. Louis was the third largest city in the country. Fortunately, unlike a lot of American cities, many of those historic homes, parks, and areas remain here. I’m definitely inspired by the architecture and my hometown history.

  • Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

 

I’d have to say, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. I started reading the series when I about ten years old. I was captivated by these children and their adventures. Oh and Turkish Delight. I always wondered what the heck it was and wanted to try it.

  • What drove you to write about Vampires?

 

I was working for a Halloween/costume shop part-time to make extra money. Steampunk was just beginning to take hold as a genre and I used to chat with one of my coworkers about characters I was developing. I thought about bringing in a vampire. An undead who, despite living a long time, was struggling with human realities. “What do you do when you have forever on your hands?” William, the vampire, eventually became his own series of short stories.

  • What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

 

I think the idea of living forever, having great strength, and power is very appealing. Sometimes in a negative light. So much so that people that “suck away” anything from you, emotionally, physically, are called “vampires” in modern slang.

On a positive side, it’s very erotic. The idea of being with a lover for eternity. There’s a ton of psychological sexual nuances. Being “punctured”, feeding off someone, the ability to change forms to please and attract someone else. That’s a lot of fodder for fantasy and stories!

  • In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

 

Good question and hard to answer. I know that Blade is more of a comic than literary character, but he is bad ass. Then again, you have Dracula, the oldest and the one who started it all.

  • What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

 

I’m going to separate male and female if that’s okay? Lestat (Ann Rice) has just been incredible. Fragile but classically handsome. I think it’s his human qualities that make him sexy. And again, not from literature, but Selene from the Underworld series is incredibly beautiful and deadly. Strong and smart is very sexy to me.

  • How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

 

I have vampire who is a trained assassin in the undead world, Anna. She knows vampire history and is fully educated on living in the modern world. She has a reputation, but is brilliant at disguising herself. She could be a housewife, a CEO, or a club kid. I think she could be the last man (woman) standing.

  • Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

 

“I Died Here”, v.11 from my “Vampire’s Little Black Book” short series is about William, my main character, and how he finally handles an old enemy, Stephen. But in this conflict, he is both in love with a human woman, Caroline, and Anna, a vampire assassin he’d sired long ago. Everyone is caught in the crossfire, as Stephen is bent on revenge in any form he can get against Will. Will is torn between his new love and Anna, who has since moved on to a human lover of her own. There’s underlying themes of death, resurrection, and how we handle or don’t come to terms with life events. The first ten shorts of this series were about Will’s naughty and turbulent past and how he’s tried to change. These were compiled into “The First Ten Bites”. Without giving too much away, the next ten stories continue to explore that past but focus on Will’s rediscovered anger after losing so much. I haven’t set the release date, but it should be before the end of March. It’s been fun to write about Will again. It’s been almost three years since I’ve had a chance to put out new vampire material.

Social Media Links:

Blog: https://mysteampunkproject.wordpress.com

Amazon author page: www.amazon.com/author/victorial.szulc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MySteampunkProject

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/thecountesssp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steampunkcountess/

Tumblr: https://thesteampunkcountess.tumblr.com

Etsy Store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheHauteHen

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC98VXA1LQVGE-_rqLV6XLdQ?view_as=subscriber

[Vampire Month] Richard Writhen interview

13 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Vampire Month

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Angel of the Grave, Blade, Dracula, Fantasy, Gothdark, Grimdark, Hiss of the Blade, Lina Romay, Lost Boys, Lovecraft, Richard Writhen, Twilight saga, Underworld, Vampire, Vampire Month, Vampirella


 

Richard Writhen selfieOur second Vampire month victim is Richard Writhen, the author of three novellas on Amazon KDP: A Kicked Cur, A Host of Ills and The Hiss Of The Blade. His fourth novella, Angel of the Grave, is currently being written.  Richard comes to us all the way from New England and will be talking to us about his world building in his blog post later this week.

1)     What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

I had read a lot of early Stephen King and Clive Barker, Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, The Lord of the Rings, as well as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, in the late eighties and when I was about twelve I tried writing a few cute little stories and comics which are thankfully lost in the abysses of time or whatever. I also had two letters published in the Gladstone / EC Comics reprints of the early nineties.

 

2)      When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

In truly characteristic fashion, I had always toyed with the idea yet procrastinated, but a confluence of events made me become serious after I turned thirty-six. I had been working as a copy-editor for about four years, I was reading the King James Version of the Bible, and I came across an ad looking for blog contributions. And I was like, sure let’s give it a go. A couple months later I felt that I wanted to segue into fiction, so I pitched the idea of a serial to the website’s owner and he was interested. The work later became my first novella and I’ve been serious about writing ever since.

 

3)      What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

My greatest strength as of now is the internal continuity. I have some pretty detailed notes, though as I get older it may become harder to keep it straight; however, they have specific assistants and editors for that nowadays if I ever find success. My greatest weakness is world building / exposition, but that’s the thorn in the side of every writer, really. It can only be overcome through constant practice, as far as I know; writing more books. It’s very difficult to avoid the info dumps and have unobtrusive exposition, one of the most difficult writing skills. The greatest authors make it either fun somehow or almost invisible, seamless; simply part of the prose that the reader almost sub-consciously absorbs.

 

4)      Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I am from Newport, RI, USA. I also lived in NYC for several years. Everywhere I go influences how I depict fictional locations, be it Providence, RI, Long Island, NY, even places where I spent a lot of time in my youth such as Seekonk, MA affect my sense of place and I try to convey that in my fantasy settings. Street names, names on historical buildings … as a matter of fact, I got many names for the first two books in the Celestial Ways Saga from local gravestones, I would just change a few letters.

 

5)      Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

My greatest? The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. H.P. Lovecraft’s masterpiece, unpublished in his lifetime and left to turn yellow in a drawer somewhere. His depiction of magic is exactly what I’m trying to convey. Its sense of history and antiquity and the manner in which it gives the city of Providence, RI its own personality. That’s another one of my goals with the novellas, to assign a real sense of place to the dark fantasy settings.

 

6)      What drove you to write about Vampires?

I’ve always been a fan of vampire lore. I was quite taken with the Interview with the Vampire Movie, I saw it when I was in college. My first love was Lost Boys, though. I wanted to see it original run but I was still well underage, so when I finally caught it a few years later on HBO or whatever, I was floored. I also like Underworld saga, Let The Right One In, Twilight Saga, Vampire Academy Series, Blade Trilogy and more.

 

7)      What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?

My theory for the past several years has been that the werewolf legends represent man’s struggle with his own animality, and the vampire legends represent mankind’s self-victimization, i.e. man victimizing his fellow man. A lot of what is successful as art and / or entertainment has subconscious roots in age-old social and psychological rhetorical or unanswered questions about the human condition. That’s why it’s never-ending …

 

8)      In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Well, Lestat and Dracula are two of the most powerful vampires of fiction. I’d be hard pressed to figure out which one of them is stronger. David from Lost Boys is pretty awesome; Eli from Let the Right One In as well. A lot of the vampires from Blade trilogy are also very epic.

 

9)      What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Sexiness? Fashion sense? Prolly Vampirella for both. After her, maybe the trio of female vampires in Francis Ford Coppolla’s Dracula. And of course, I must mention Lina Romay in Female Vampire by Jess Franco, may she rest in peace.

 

10)   How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?

My vampire angle is as yet undeveloped. There’s a nation of vampires, Drackhon, that has fought wars in the past with the denizens of Khlarion, on the continent of Holrud. The vampires’ society and all of that will be revealed further in books to come. So my strongest vampire as of now is probably Debarah, one of the protagonists of A Kicked Cur. He has grotesque physical strength, almost like Edward Cullen from Twilight Saga, so I think he would certainly survive a fight with the likes of Dracula and Lestat, but overcoming them …? IDK about all that.

 

11)   Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

My latest work is my third novella. It’s called The Hiss of the Blade, and it’s a bleak treatise on the manner in which those in my gothdark world called Cedron first live and then die by the sword. Mercenaries, fled slaves, agriculture and mining magnates, every man is out for himself and much like our real world, the center can’t hold and people wind up dying … or worse.

How to kill a Vampire

03 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

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Tags

Blade, Bram Stoker, Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, Ferguson, Halloween, How to Kill a Vampire, Jonathan Ferguson, lectures, Leeds Armouries, Leeds Vampire, Royal Armouries, Royal Armouries Leeds, supernatural, Ultraviolet, vampire fiction, Vampire Killing Kits, Vampires, Varney the Vampire


Jonathan Ferguson takes questions

Jonathan Ferguson takes questions

It was Halloween over the school half term break and so the Royal Armouries in Leeds were putting on some themed events. This allowed them to get out all their exhibits that were related to witchcraft or other supernatural occurrences and show them off to appreciative audiences.

One such event was a lecture by their curator of firearms, Jonathan Ferguson, entitled How to Kill a Vampire, which took place on the evening of the 30th October in the museum’s own lecture hall, the Bury Theatre.

This two hour lecture was split vaguely into two parts. In the first he talked about the traditional methods used, both in real life and fiction, to kill the undead. This was full of fascinating facts, even if the lecturer was somewhat hesitant in his delivery, and outlined the differences between mythological and fictional creatures such as zombies (reanimated corpses), Revenants (a lesser used term in the modern days for a visible ghost or animated corpse) and Vampires (which are typified by their tendency to drain lifeforce or blood). Some of it was common knowledge – stakes, garlic, sunlight – but through reference to folklore sources and archaeological evidence he quite ably linked the methods used to slay vampire in fiction (referencing everything from Varney the Vampire to Buffy and Blade) to what has been used in (mostly) eastern European villages for centuries to put an end to supposed curses – disease, ill fortune – that are attributed to vampires.

The Leeds Vampire Killing Kit

The Leeds Vampire Killing Kit

The practise of effectively scapegoating a recently deceased person is a common one in several cultures and generally arises because of anomalies in the decay process of a corpse. Maybe they do not decay fast enough because of sterile soil, for example, and this singles the corpse out as a vampire. According to Ferguson, in cases like this where villages attributed their woes to such a corpse, they generally went through several steps to ‘kill’ the vampire, trying all of the methods they could think of and only stopping if the bad things stopped happening. These methods involved a host of improvised weapons – mainly farm implements like sickles and even the traditional ‘stake’ so popular in vampire fiction is based on nothing more than a convenient fence post – and usually ended with the complete destruction of the body using fire (after which, as Ferguson states, there is usually nothing left anyway). There were some lesser known methods discussed too. For example, piercing the body with nails, which may be linked to the stake as well. One possible theory as to why this method was used might be linked to the ways corpses bloat due to trapped gases post mortem – another anomaly in the decay process that might be observed as supernatural in the uneducated. Piercing the flesh with a nail (or a stake) allows the gases to escape – restoring the corpse to normal. The ‘Vampire’ is slain. It was interesting to see the comparison between these rather morbid methods of solving a misunderstood problem by dismembering a helpless corpse and the more active methods employed in fiction, especially the evolution (and plausibility) of such esoteric devices as wooden bullets (or graphite ones as used in Ultraviolet), silver bullets and ultraviolet bombs and bullets. The ludicrous idea of using a small stake and thrusting it into the heart accurately while in combat with a Vampire (as seen multiple times in fiction but especially in Buffy) was also touched upon with reference back to Bram Stoker’d Dracula and Varney the Vampire where the protagonists use mallets to hammer the stakes through the breastbone.

The lecture then neatly segued into the second half which was more focused on the

A museum employee points out interesting features of the Vampire Killing Kit

A museum employee points out interesting features of the Vampire Killing Kit

Vampire Killing kit that the museum had acquired. Here Ferguson was clearly more in his comfort zone as his delivery was more confident and natural. A typical vampire killing kit usually comprises a number of items which are purported to be useful in dealing with vampiric threats – stakes, bottles of holy water and garlic essence, bibles or books of common prayer, crucifixes and guns loaded with silver bullets*. The controversy around these items is whether they were genuine 19th or early 20th century artefacts, created either as curios for tourists visiting eastern Europe or because someone really did think they needed protection from Vampires, or more modern fakes. Ferguson discussed in detail the evidence for and against these arguments, citing references from auction houses, folklore and even internet forums to build a convincing case that the balance of probability places the majority of these items firmly in the category of fakes. Such points as the inclusion of guns with silver bullets suggests that the earliest these items could have been made was after 1928 (rather than the late Victorian period as usually claimed) and certain facts about the methods of manufacture and the materials used are also damning. Most convincing of all, of course, is the confession of one poster on an internet forum who admitted to having produced a number of these items in the 1970s.

This does not, of course, stop Vampire Killing kits being sold on ebay and in real world auction houses for thousands of dollars (indeed, Ferguson described how he acquired the museum’s kit from a local auction house after a house clearance in Yorkshire). Nor does it demean the value of them as museum pieces – even if they were made as recently as the 1970s (and there is some evidence that the one Leeds have may have been made earlier, possibly even the 1920s) they are still antiques** and a well done fake with an intriguing story about why it was made in the first place is something just as worthy of museum space as a genuine article. In this respect they are much the same as the fake suits of armour displayed in the Tower of London. These were put there by the Victorians to demonstrate ‘armour through the ages’ but later historic research shows they do not represent the armours used in those periods. However, the Tower keeps them in place as examples of historic misconceptions. Ferguson mentioned that when this kit is on display he labels it clearly to show the belief about its authenticity, allowing the visitor an insight into how such fakes can arise and why.

At the end of the lecture, the audience were allowed to ask questions and to go up on stage to view the kit. It was quite fascinating to see it close up and it was even possible to handle the items inside it under guidance from a member of the museum staff.

In all this was a very interesting way to spend an evening on the night before Halloween.

* Yes, this is normally believed to be for Werewolves but the boundary between Vampire and Werewolf is often blurred in myth, especially with a concept of shape-shifting vampires and some cases like the Greek Vrykolakas which are wolf like vampires. According to Ferguson the first movie reference to the use of silver bullets for Vampires was in 1928, though silver as protecting against and harming evil is a common theme in folklore.

** As something made in the 1970s myself, I would like to say that I now feel old…

Bram Stoker (1847 – 1912)

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

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Ann Rice, Blade, Bram Stoker, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Christopher Lee, Demeter, Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Oldman, Godfather, Hammer Horror, horror, John William Polidori, Joss Whedon, Lestat, Lost Boys, Tony Lee, Twilight, Vampires, Vietnam movies, Whitby


I was reminded by the inestimable Tony Lee that today was in fact the centenary of the death of Bram Stoker, who died following a series of strokes on the 20th April, 1912.

Though he is not credited with the creation of the literary vampire (that credit goes to John William Polidori, one time  personal physician to Lord Byron) he certainly did his bit to ensure that the Vampire became the enduring myth we know and love today. Without him there would have been no Lestat, no Lost Boys, no Blade, no Buffy the Vampire Slayer* and, of course, no Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman as Dracula. In fact, Hammer horror would have spent the entirity of the 70s having nothing good to make films about and Francis Ford Coppola would have been stuck making endless sequels to the Godfather and Vietnam war films.

Of course, there would also be no Twilight. But I feel we can forgive the old chap for that one.

I would like commemerate this occasion by talking about something else which was instrumental in the creation of Dracula and hence all of the above… the town of Whitby. Whitby is the place where Stoker may have got the inspiration for Dracula – at least the evidence suggests this to be the case. Based on the notes he left, the only mention of the name ‘Dracula’ comes from a reference to a book called  ‘An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia’by William Wilkinson (1820) which he found in Whitby library.

Whitby Abbey

Of course, Whitby is also the place where the Demeter, the ship that brings Dracula to England, lands. I suspect this was by way of crediting the contribution the town made to his work.

It is easy to see how Whitby can inspire one of the greatest horror stories of all time. While the inspiration for the character came from Wallachia, the moody and misty atmosphere of this little Northern port town must have had some influence on the feel of Stoker’s writing and, indeed, the interpretations that followed. I remember my own visit to Whitby with fondness. I was a teenager, taking a yaught trip down the north east coast with a group from college, and we stopped overnight in Whitby. We visited the Abbey, went to the Dracula Museum and spent a fun day wandering aroung the place. The Abbey alone is an imposing and grand sight and I have always had a love for dynamic coastal views.

And Whitby is not shy about crowing about its connection to Stoker. Not only is there the Dracula museum and the blue plaques commemmorating his visit but it also welcomes the many goths who congreate there twice a year for the Whitby Goth Festival. And personally, I do not see why they shouldn’t be proud of their role in creating a character who is promising to be almost as immortal in popularity as he was in actuality.

*There is absolute evidence which suggests that, had Bram Stoker not written Dracula, Joss Whedon would never have been born.

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