'Soulless' Victorian Dress-Up Doll

If you're a fan of Gail Carriger's debut novel 'Soulless' (and of Victorian fasion) - you should visit this page: http://www.orbitbooks.net/soulless/
It's really fun...





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A HISTORY OF THE FANGED ONE

Vampire 101: A history of the fanged one

Source: Life/Jacksonville.com / by Tom Szaroleta, Kyzandrha Zarate / Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009
Link: http://jacksonville.com/lifestyles/2009-10-27/story/vampire_101_a_history_of_the_fanged_one

VAMPIRE 101

DEFINITION OF A VAMPIRE
A vampire is a reanimated, soulless, dead human who must drink the blood of others to remain “alive.”

VAMPIRES THEN AND NOW (DIFFERENCES)

Then: Vampires were things of fear and disgust. They could shape-shift to gain access to their prey. Sunlight was painful, debilitating and resulted in death if exposed long enough. Their goal was simply survival.

Now: Vampires possess unearthly physical beauty. Shape-shifting may be alluded to but isn’t common. Sunlight causes pain but can be endured as they now try to blend into human civilization.

VAMPIRES THEN AND NOW (SIMILARITIES)

Both possess more than human strength and speed and appear to have telepathic abilities. They, for all their strengths, remain vulnerable to humans.

MODERN VAMPIRES BREAK THE RULES

What we were always told

We’ve been told countless times ways to identify and possibly even kill a vampire, but those “rules” don’t hold true anymore. Vampires are not supposed to cast reflections in mirrors. Holy symbols such as crosses, crucifixes and holy water would debilitate a vampire. Garlic was a cure-all and was believed to repel all types of evil. Above all, a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation and burning were guaranteed ways to kill a vampire. Here are a few ways these rules have been broken:

"Twilight"

These vampires do not sleep in coffins. According to Edward, the main character and Bella’s love interest, they cannot sleep at all. Sunlight? They avoid it. Not because it will kill them, rather, their skin sparkles like a diamond in the sunlight and would draw too much attention.

"True Blood"

These vampires cast reflections in mirrors. They sleep, but not always in coffins. For example, Bill, the main character, sleeps in the space under the hall closet with a trap door under his house. Another interesting feature is they cry tears of blood. Holy water? “It’s just water.” How about garlic? “It’s irritating, but that’s pretty much it,” says Bill.

ERAS IN VAMPIRE HISTORY

Vampires as bloodthirsty killers

1746: Benedictine monk Antoine Augustin Calmet writes “Treatise on Vampires and Revenants.”

1872: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu releases “Carmilla,” a vampire tale with lesbian overtones.

1897: “Dracula” by Bram Stoker is published.

1897: Philip Burne-Jones’ painting, “The Vampire,” inspires Rudyard Kipling to write a poem with the same title.

1909: “Vampire of the Coast” is one of the first silent vampire movies.

1922: “Nosferatu,” a German vampire film based on Stoker’s book, is released.

1931: Universal releases “Dracula,” starring Bela Lugosi.

1954: Richard Matheson publishes “I Am Legend.” The vampire tale is filmed as “The Last Man on Earth” (1964), “The Omega Man” (1971) and “I Am Legend” (2007).

1958: Christopher Lee stars as the count in “Dracula”

Vampires become family friendly

1962: Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s novelty song, “The Monster Mash” reaches No. 1.

1964: “The Munsters” debuts on CBS, featuring vampire Grandpa Munster, runs through 1966.

1966: Vampire soap opera “Dark Shadows” debuts on ABC, runs through 1971.

1966: The Count Five, a California band that dressed in vampire capes, hits the Top 10 with “Psychotic Reaction.”

1967: Roman Polanski directs “The Fearless Vampire Killers.”

1971: A cartoon vampire starts selling Count Chocula cereal for General Mills.

1972: William Marshall stars in “Blacula.” He reprises the role in 1973’s “Scream, Blacula, Scream.”

1972: The Count, a friendly Muppet vampire, begins teaching counting skills to children on “Sesame Street.”

1975: “'Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King is published.

Vampires as sex symbols

1976: The first of the vampire chronicles, “Interview with the Vampire,” by Anne Rice is published.

1979: George Hamilton stars in “Love at First Bite.”

1987: Kiefer Sutherland stars as a suburban vampire in "The Lost Boys."

1992: Kristy Swanson stars in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Sarah Michelle Gellar takes over the role of the high school vampire killer in a TV series that runs from 1997-2003.

1994: Fox Mulder meets a sultry vampire on “The X-Files.”

1995: Leslie Nielsen stars in Mel Brooks’ “Dracula: Dead and Loving It.”

1998: Wesley Snipes stars in “Blade,” based on a Marvel Comics vampire hunter.

2004: Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale hunt vampires in “Van Helsing.”

2005: Stephenie Meyer releases “Twilight,” which spawns a series of vampire-centric books and films.

2008: HBO debuts “True Blood,” a dramatic series about vampires in a small Louisiana town. The show is loosely based on Charlaine Harris’ “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” series.

2009: The CW debuts “The Vampire Diaries,” a series based on the novels of L.J. Smith.

* Note: this is not a complete list of all vampire events. If we left out your favorite vampire book, movie or TV show ... bite me.

Maggie Stiefvater 'SHIVER'

Exclusive Interview: Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER May Turn Out to Be Another Twilight or Harry Potter Franchise

Source: iesb.net / by Christina Radish / Monday, 26 October 2009
Link: http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7666:exclusive-interview-maggie-stiefvaters-shiver-may-turn-out-to-be-another-twilight-or-harry-potter-franchise&catid=43:exclusive-features&Itemid=73


Maggie Stiefvater always knew that she was going to be a professional author, but she never could have imagined the level of success that she's already experiencing in her career.

Her debut novel, Lament, is about a 16-year-old girl who falls in love with a boy that turns out to be a soulless faerie assassin that's supposed to kill her. Her second best-selling novel, Shiver, is a Young Adult love story about Grace, who has always loved the wolves behind her house, and Sam, a boy who has to become a wolf, every winter. Her most recent novel, Ballad, is a stand-alone sequel about deadly faerie muses, in the same world as Lament. And, she is contractually booked to keep writing novels through 2013.

With the popularity of such book-to-film adaptations as Harry Potter and the Twilight series, it's no surprise that Unique Features, headed by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, have already acquired the rights to her werewolf story Shiver, and its two sequels, Linger (August 2010) and Forever, which they will bring to Warner Bros. under their first-look deal with the studio.

In this exclusive interview, Maggie Stiefvater talked to IESB about what it's like to have everything she ever dreamed of, as a kid, coming true.

IESB: Could you ever have imagined how successful you'd become with Shiver? Does that success help you feel more confident, as a writer, or does it just create more pressure?

Maggie: I really believe that confidence is something that you have to have inside yourself, apart from what it is that you do. Confidence means that you think that you can find the solution to the problem, not that you already have all of the solutions. So, I'd like to think that nothing that's happened along the way has actually changed my level of confidence, especially since you can always get a bad review, but I will say that about 50 pages into Shiver, I thought, "This is the best thing I have ever written." And then, when I got to the end of it and finished it up, and wrote the last line, I thought, "This could be way bigger than Lament. It's way more commercial." I was really hopeful.

My first novel, Lament, sold for $2,000 to a small publisher. I bought a mattress, and it was great. So, for me, the idea of bigger was a five-figure advance. I was thinking that my book might actually appear on bookstore shelves. I was not thinking it would be a six-figure auction, followed by it being a Borders Original Voices pick, followed by 20 foreign rights sales, followed by best-seller lists. I keep on waiting for the axe to fall. Everything that I ever thought as a kid has happened, and I just keep on waiting for a tree to fall on my car, to somehow karmically work out the inequality that I have going on.

IESB: Now that you've signed a deal to bring Shiver to the big screen, what's that like?

Maggie: Truthfully, as an author, the most exciting thing for me is that there are 20 foreign editions out there. Books excite me, so more books in different languages with different covers really excites me. A movie would be awesome, but it's not something that was a dream to have, otherwise I think I would have been a scriptwriter because, when I have a goal, I try to take the most direct route to get there.

The one thing that motivates me about a movie is that, back when I was first dating my husband, he asked me what I was going to do when I got out of college and I told him, "Well, I'm going to become an author, and I'm going to be rich and famous, and I'm going to support you in the manner to which you are accustomed." And, he believed me. Now that it's coming true, nothing surprises him. And so, I said, "Okay, what's it going to take to actually surprise you and make you go, ‘I didn't think Maggie would do that?'" And, he thought for a moment and said, "When I'm sitting in the movie seat and it says Shiver across the big screen, then I will be surprised." I was like, "Okay, goal!"

IESB: Can you talk about the process you went through, in signing the deal and deciding to sign the rights to Unique Features? Were there a lot of companies interested, and was there something specific about that company that made you choose them over the others?

Maggie: We actually had a ton of interest, which, they tell me, because this sure as shingles is new to me, is unusual for a novel that's just come out. We ended up with four offers, two of which were good enough to give me ulcers and make me really excited. They both had really compelling bits to the offers, but in the end, Unique Features' close association with Warner Brothers won me over.

IESB: Had you been familiar with the work that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne have done in the past? How did you know they were the right people to sign your work over to?

Maggie: I think New Line, which they founded, did a good job under their guidance, and I can't see why that wouldn't continue with Unique Features. There are so many other elements that go into the character of a movie, from this point to finished product, that I really made my decision based upon picking the folks most likely to pursue it to the final movie.

IESB: Do you think you'll be able to just step away from it and leave it in the hands of the filmmakers, or would you like to be more involved, in some way?

Maggie: I'm generally the sort of person where I prefer to either have pretty much complete control and final say over a project, i.e. writing a novel, or I don't really want to have any input at all. It's less stressful to sit quietly with my hands in my lap than to be a quiet voice in a crowd.

That said, movie adaptations of popular teen books, like Twilight and Harry Potter, have increasingly paved the way for fan input. Look at Taylor Lautner in New Moon -- he's there because fans of the books really supported his continued part in the Twilight series. I tend to think a movie adaptation, at its best, is a totally separate animal from the book, filled with all kinds of divergent creative decisions, so at the moment, I'm not fussed about it.

IESB: Will you be allowed to give any input into the casting, look or mood?

Maggie: If I could have input into just one thing, I would pick mood. The bittersweet, earnest mood is really crucial to Shiver.

IESB: How long have you been a writer? Did you have any formal training, or was it something you just always did?

Maggie: I can't remember there ever being a time when I wasn't writing. I just always knew that I wanted to write professionally, so in the back of my head, it was always there. I actually went through a history degree at Mary Washington College, and my advisor was grooming me to go into PhD afterwards. I went in and said, "I'm sorry that you've been making all these appointments for me to see all these advisors of yours, but I'm not going to get a PhD. I'm going to become a writer," and he just put his head down on his desk. So, it was nice to go back and say, "Look, I'm #3 on the best-seller list."

But, no, I never had any formal training. I made a couple attempts to try to get into creative writing programs in college, but I really loved being a history major. There wasn't anything open to non-majors, and I just wasn't motivated enough to do anything other than just work on it, on my own.

IESB: What made you decide to sit down and try writing your first novel, and how much more difficult was that experience than you expected it to be?

Maggie: What really motivated me was that I was one of those girls who always had my nose stuck in a book. I've always been a person that, if I really love experiencing something, I have to try to do it too. So, reading was such a big part of my life that I had to sit down and try it. I had probably 30 unfinished novels, before the age of 20. I loved the idea of writing a novel. I would just write the idea out and then go, "I guess the aliens have to come and kill everyone now ‘cause there's no way anybody is getting out of this."

It wasn't until I actually got to college that I came up with the brilliant idea of knowing the end of my novels, before I started writing them, and it revolutionalized my entire experience. Suddenly, I was finishing novels. I think my first novel that I really finished was when I was 16, and then I didn't finish a single other one until I was 23, just because I didn't come up with the ends first.

IESB: When did you decide that you'd written something you thought was good enough to submit?

Maggie: Unfortunately for the editors, I started sending out work when I as 16, for that first finished novel. I was pretty good at writing query letters. I was much better at that than I was at writing novels, so I got quite a few requests from who, I'm sure, were shocked and horrified editors. But, when I finally wrote what eventually became Lament, my debut, I knew it was better than the rest and that it hung together more coherently. Plus, I started getting better responses back from editors. I started getting, "Dear Maggie, this shows a lot of promise. Could you tighten this up, and maybe we'll take a look at it again."

IESB: By the time Lament was published, how much had it changed from what you originally wrote?

Maggie: When I first wrote it, it was very much like a very juvenile, middle grade novel. It was called The Queen's Bidding, which was the title it had since I was 16. My editor, who I call Yoda because he taught me everything I know, said, "This sucks, but the idea is really good. What do you think about rewriting the whole thing from scratch, but making it edgier, tighter and younger?"

The main character was 18, even though she acted like she was 12. And so, I went through and changed it to 16, put the whole thing in first person, and basically rewrote it from scratch and stripped off all of the extremely melodramatic, idealistic, very wishy-washy, Enya-related stuff. It's a really different novel. You could change the names in the first version and publish it as a totally different novel.

IESB: Did you get an agent before you published?

Maggie: I rewrote the first three chapters for that editor and he said, "That's it! Let me make an offer, right now." I tried to get an agent with those three chapters, but he was very clever because I couldn't get an agent or any other publishers interested because it was only three chapters. No one was going to bid on three chapters, except for him. And so, I did the first one without an agent, but once he asked for a sequel, I was able to go through with the completed manuscript and got an agent. Plus, I'd had 50 pages written of Shiver, at that point, so I had something else to show them to sell, as well.

IESB: Have you always written for the Young Adult market, or have you experimented in other genres as well?

Maggie: The only time I ever tried to write adult novels was when I wasn't one. I have these hilariously bad IRA thrillers that I wrote when I was 15, which have completely embarrassing sex scenes in them from someone who had never even been kissed. I read them and just go, "Wow, that's painful."

But, once I got over that, by the time I was 18, I pretty much knew that I wanted to write for young adults, and part of it was because that's what I loved to read and part of it was because these books that I read when I was a teen shaped my entire life. I thought it would be just the coolest thing ever if, at the end of my career, someone could say, "I remember going through school and what really got me through was reading those Maggie Stiefvater books."

IESB: For readers who might not be familiar with your work yet, what can someone expect from reading Shiver?

Maggie: Werewolf nookie. No, I'm kidding. It's a bittersweet love story about Grace, who has always loved the wolves behind her house, and Sam, a boy who has to become a wolf, every winter. He gets fewer and fewer months as a human, every single summer, until eventually he'll be a wolf forever. Once they fall in love, the countdown is on. My goal for all readers who read the book is to cry. You can cry out of being happy, or cry out of being sad. I don't care which. But, I would very much like for you to cry while reading that book.

IESB: As if falling in love and being a teenager is difficult enough, what was it about werewolves that you thought would help add to that?

Maggie: I love urban fantasy because you can play with metaphor, and one of my big things is losing your identity in this really homogenized world that we live in. So, when Sam becomes a werewolf, he loses himself. He can't remember. He has no grasp of who he was, as a human. He just becomes a wolf.

The peril is not that you're going to go out and ravage the countryside. The peril is that Sam will stop being Sam. I think that's something that a lot of teens struggle with, and that was a way to play with that. It's subtle. I love fantasy because of that little hint of Otherworld. I like them to be 90% percent realistic and 10% magical. It's the idea that anybody could walk around the corner and there would be something unexpected.

IESB: Was there a specific inspiration for the story or any of the characters?

Maggie: Definitely. First, there was that desire to make people cry. And then, I was trying to work on a project for a short story contest about werewolves. I was thinking all day and I couldn't think of anything because traditional werewolves really don't turn me on. They have that whole shedding, flea and tick collar thing. Then, I had this dream about a winter wood and wolves living in it. I got the idea that they were werewolves, even though they were definitely wolves, and there was a girl who had been bitten, but never changed. There were no other plot details, but when I woke up, the mood of it just stuck with me and I thought, "I could combine that with my bawling idea."

IESB: Is there a significance for the title of the book?

Maggie: The original title was Still Wolf Watching, which I thought, in my infinite wisdom, was the best title ever invented. Scholastic looked at it and said, "We really like what you're doing with that, but we don't know what you mean. Could you make it shorter?"

They wanted something that was a little less genre sounding because they were trying to pull in people who weren't necessarily die-hard fantasy readers. The packaging is all very non-genre too, where you can almost not see the wolf on the front of it. That is combined with a title that is definitely dancing around the idea that it's not a fantasy. That's where the title came from. They said, "Come up with something new," and I gave them a list of 10, and Shiver was chosen.

IESB: You really create a mood with the book, with the style of writing, the descriptions, the environment and the title. Was all of that intentional, or is that just how you saw the story?

Maggie: I really hoped to be cohesive with the mood. Even though I'm a big reader, I often think cinematically while I'm writing and, when I get stuck, I'll often watch movies other than read books, just to get an idea. My favorite movies are things like Chocolat or The Englishmen Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain because, more than plot and characters, they have this pervasive mood that just gets under your skin. So, I wanted to do that with Shiver and have this mood where, even after you put the book down, you couldn't stop thinking about it, where it wasn't even a specific scene, but more of an idea that was stuck in your head.

Music is really important to me while I'm writing, and I found a playlist and songs that perfectly fit that mood. I would just listen to them on continuous loop with the headphones, so that my husband wouldn't kill me, and I would try to catch that mood in the book.

IESB: The end of Shiver leaves a lot of open questions, like why Grace isn't a wolf and what has happened to Sam. Will those questions be answered in the next book, Linger?

Maggie: I cannot say too much about Linger, but I can say that Grace is still a narrator. Those who have already read Shiver obviously know that Sam has made it. There are two more points of view introduced. Yes, the questions that were brought up in Shiver, like the new wolves in the back of the Tahoe that Beck changed, why Grace doesn't change and if Sam is really cured, are all addressed. And then, of course, there's the third book that ties it all up.

IESB: Will you end that story with three books then?

Maggie: Yes. It is really a trilogy.

IESB: For people who might not be familiar with your other work, can you talk about your faerie books?

Maggie: They're lighter fair about homicidal faeries with slight kissing. Lament is about a girl who falls in love with a boy, who just happens to turn out to be a soulless faerie assassin, and he's supposed to kill her. And, Ballad is a stand-alone sequel to that, which involves Kings of the Dead, deadly faerie muses and bagpiping.

IESB: Would fans of Shiver enjoy those books as well, or are they directed at a different type of audience?

Maggie: I think that they will, though I always warn people because Lament is definitely more genre. Shiver is the gateway drug into fantasy, and Lament leads you farther down the path. But, I have actually been surprised by readers that have told me that they've found Lament to be less fantastic than Shiver, which I suppose is possible, if you encounter homicidal faeries on a regular basis.

IESB: When you're writing for a younger readership, is there anything that you're more aware of or that you try to steer away from, or do you just not worry about that?

Maggie: People make a huge deal about how much responsibility Young Adult writers have for keeping things neat and tidy. A lot of people have said Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a trigger for anorexics and bulemics because it describes them. And, my feeling is that I'm not the world's parent. I was reading Jurassic Park when I was 11, and my dad would sit down and say, "Okay, you wanna talk about anything?," and I'd be like, "That evisceration was awesome, dad!"

I just try to stay as true to my characters as possible, otherwise I feel like you're being condescending to your readers. But, the one thing I did in Shiver was take out all of the F-bombs. That wasn't because I don't think that teens haven't heard the F-word before, but for people who don't use it all the time, it might jar them out of the narrative, so those all came out. Otherwise, the content stayed exactly the same.

IESB: What sort of feedback do you get from readers?

Maggie: At one event that I did for Shiver, there was a 12-year-old girl there who had read the book. In my head, I always think of the target age as being 14-and-up because, as an adult, you forget what you were like at 12, 13 or 14. She was with her mom and they'd both read the book and were like, "Oh, we love it!"

She was the youngest reader I had met, and my eyes bugged and I was like, "Were you okay with the sex scene?," because there is sex in Shiver. And, her mom just smiled enthusiastically and was like, "Yeah, we had a great talk about it. It was great for starting a talk because it's behind closed doors, and I thought it was a great way to get into the topic." To me, it seems like, if you just deal with your audience respectfully, then they'll deal with it respectfully themselves.

IESB: Do you have any specific writing habits? Is there anything that you have to have to get your work done?

Maggie: I have to have music, otherwise my mind goes off in a million different locations. I'll start Googling myself and checking Amazon rankings, I'll make cookie dough, I'll vacuum or I'll run around the house and do everything except writing. But, if I put the music on, instantly I can be calm and peaceful and do my writing.

IESB: Is there something you'd like to write that you haven't gotten the chance to write yet?

Maggie: I always have this tremendous backlog of ideas, but I'm actually contractually booked through 2013 now. I don't think I could ever do a long-running series because my attention span is too short. I think a trilogy is probably the best that I could manage.

IESB: Are you currently working on anything right now?

Maggie: I'm writing the third and final book in the Shiver series now, called Forever. But, after that, I have this idea which involves more homicidal faeries, in a totally unrecognizable way. You can't tell that they're faeries. There's blood and love and beaches, and it's going to be awesome.

Wicked series (Nancy Holder)

Witch-Centric 'Wicked' Adds To The Ever-Growing List Of Creature Crush Features

Source: MTV Movies Blog / posted 10/23/2009/ by Josh Wigler in News
Link: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/10/23/witch-centric-wicked-adds-to-the-ever-growing-list-of-creature-crush-features/

Vampires, fairies and werewolves can all take a hike, as there's a new beast coming to Hollywood with much more in common with Harry Potter than any of those other creatures — except for its appeal to the teenage romance crowd, of course.

Variety reports that DreamWorks has acquired the rights to "Wicked," a young adult novel series written by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie. Aaron and Matthew Benay will write the adaptation for The Gotham Group, which will produce the film.

"Wicked" focuses on a young woman who — much like the aforementioned Potter — discovers that she is descended from a powerful lineage of witches. Things get even more complicated for the newly discovered witch when she falls in love with a boy from a rival coven of wizardry.

The Holder and Viguie-penned novel series consists of five books — "Witch," "Curse," "Legacy," "Spellbound" and "Resurrection" — meaning that the success of one movie could yield at least four sequels based on previously published material.

This seems to be a trend in Hollywood these days, for better or for worse. Obviously, the "Harry Potter" franchise kicked things off, but "Twilight" quickly followed with the first sequel "New Moon" headed to theaters in a few short weeks.

But others have hoped for the same success of those properties — Unique Features is developing "Shiver" based on Maggie Stiefvater's werewolf romance novels, while teenage faerie tale "Wings" is coming out courtesy of Disney and Miley Cyrus.

That's not even mentioning "Wicked Lovely," already similar in title to the just-announced "Wicked," or "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," which hits theaters today.

Have a great weekend!

Dracula - The Undead

A bloodier Dracula rises again
Move over, Edward Cullen.

Source: CNN.com / by Doug Gross / October 31, 2009
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/10/31/dracula.sequel/


Tell those bayou bloodsuckers from "True Blood" to step aside, too.

More than 112 years after he first climbed out of the coffin, the world's most famous vampire is back -- and he's bloodier than ever.

"Dracula the Un-Dead," released this month in the United States, is a sequel to Bram Stoker's 1897 classic written by Dacre Stoker, the original author's great-grandnephew.

The book, co-written by Dracula historian Ian Holt, picks up 25 years after the Victorian-era monster is supposedly killed in the original and is based in part on 125 pages of handwritten notes that Bram Stoker left behind.

But while many of the original characters are here -- troubled couple Jonathan and Mina Harker and vampire hunter Van Helsing among them -- the horror has gotten a 21st-century update. The sex and violence that Stoker deftly alluded to in the original are, at times, front and center in his descendant's sequel.

"You've got to keep in mind the perspective," said Dacre Stoker, a native of Montreal, Quebec, now living in Aiken, South Carolina. "The degree of sex and violence he had, in this very stuffy and conservative Victorian society, was cutting edge at the time. Even the exposure of a woman's flesh, the piercing of the flesh, was a metaphor for the sex act."

And with authors from Anne Rice and Charlaine Harris to Stephen King and Poppy Z. Brite having crafted their own, sometimes lurid, reworkings of the vampire legend, Stoker said he knew that the new book couldn't just be a straight continuation of the first.

"We've got to keep up with what other people are doing," he said. "Otherwise, our story would be toast."

Of all the books, movies and other tales to use Dracula's name throughout the decades, the novel is the first since the 1931 Bela Lugosi movie to have the Stoker family's endorsement and input.

After Bram's death, his widow, Florence, sold the story's rights, and eventually, the most iconic character in the history of horror slipped into the public domain.

Dacre said that before now, the only thing he'd ever received for his ancestor's work was the occasional Halloween wisecrack.

"We knew of the legacy of Bram Stoker, but as kids growing up in Montreal, it wasn't that big a deal," he said. "Every now and then at Halloween you'd get joked: 'Is it safe to come to the Stoker house? Are we going to get candy or bitten in the neck?' "

It was a college writing project that revived his interest in his novelist ancestor, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who'd moved to London, England, by the time the book was written.

Then, he was contacted by Holt in 2003. The historian said he wanted to work on a sequel and wanted to have a member of Stoker's family involved.

Along the way, they uncovered a rare find at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Bram's own notes.

It wasn't a plot outline, Dacre said, "but what I did was find information, characters, little ideas -- plot threads that he had in mind 112 years ago that didn't make it into his story."

Among the seeds for new plotlines was Bram's mention of a police investigator who plays prominently in "Dracula the Un-Dead." Dacre said he'd always wondered at how the first book was full of murder but no police were involved.

The notes also prompted the inclusion of Jack the Ripper, whose gruesome exploits gripped London around the time the elder Stoker was writing his novel and who is believed by some historians to have helped shape its plot.

True fans of the vampire genre will find another historical figure they're likely familiar with gracing the book's pages and an even more unlikely appearance: Bram Stoker himself.

"Part of our plan was to paint a realistic picture of Bram Stoker," Dacre said of the author, who spent time as a reporter, theater critic and manager of London's Lyceum Theater. "Everybody knows Dracula. Not many people know Bram Stoker."

Response to and reviews of the book have been largely positive.

"This daring sequel captures the essence and gothic glory of the original," USA Today's Carroll Memmott wrote.

Dacre, who is touring the United States in support of the release, said he was prepared for the inevitable backlash from pure-blood purists who don't think the original should be sullied with a follow-up.

"I have heard just a bit of it," he said. "People say it's better to leave some of these mysteries alone; let's not solve them all. Believe me, when you read our story, you'll know we don't solve them all."

And he has some other advice for those diehards: Lighten up.

"This is entertainment. Go with it," he said. "If you don't want to read it, you don't have to."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

* "Dracula the Un-Dead" written by Bram Stoker's descendant Dacre
* Vampire tale is more overtly violent, sexy than the 1897 original
* Book has prompted good reviews, handful of bitter purists
* Jack the Ripper, Bram himself incorporated into new story


Dacre Stoker and Dracula historian Ian Holt teamed to revive the iconic vampire

National Cat Day...

Have a great weekend!

Your favorite Vampires?

What is your favorite Vampire character in movies / books? And why?

- Bill Compton (Sookie novels / True Blood TV-show)
- Eric Northman (Sookie novels / True Blood TV-show)
- Lestat de Lioncourt (Interview with the Vampire, book & movie)
- Louis de Pointe du Lac (Interview with the Vampire, book & movie)
- Armand (Interview with the Vampire, book & movie)
- Edward Cullen (Twilight series, books & movie)
- Spike (Buffy - the Vampire Slayer, TV-show)
- Angel (Buffy - the Vampire Slayer, TV-show)
- Betsy, Queen of Vampires (Mary-Janice Davidson novels)
- Selene (Underworld movies)
- Henry Fitzroy (Blood Ties, TV-show & books by Tanya Huff)
- Mick St. John (Moonlight, TV-Show)
- Nosferatu (movie)
- Dracula (movie & book)
- David (Lost Boys, movie)
- The Count (Sesame Street, TV)
- Damon Salvatore (Vampire Diaries, books & TV-show)
- Jean-Claude (Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton)

- Your nominations:

- Sonja Blue (books by Nancy Collins)
- Jerry Dandrige (Fright Night, movie)

Dacre Stoker (Dracula - Die Wiederkehr)

Interview mit Dacre Stoker
Frisches Blut für den Grafen

Quelle: Frankfurter Rundschau Online / von Petra Hallmayer / 25. Oktober 2009
Link: http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/panorama/2032634_Interview-mit-Dacre-Stoker-Frisches-Blut-fuer-den-Grafen.html

Dacre Stoker, der Nachfahre des Dracula-Autors Bram Stoker, holt den Ober-Vampir zurück. Im FR-Interview spricht er über den Hype und die Auferstehung des "wahren Draculas".

Mr. Stoker, Sie sind der Urgroßneffe von Bram Stoker, dem "Dracula"-Autor. Mussten Sie sich aufgrund dieser Verwandtschaft in der Schule oft Witze anhören?

Oh, ja. Vor allem an Halloween hieß es immer: "Huhu, wer traut sich in das Haus der Stokers?" Aber alle kannten Dracula nur aus Filmen. Keiner hatte das Buch von Bram Stoker gelesen. Ich habe es selbst erst im College gelesen für eine Arbeit über seine Motive, den Roman zu schreiben.

Was waren seine Motive?

Dazu gibt es viele Theorien. Nach einer verarbeitete er Kindheitsfantasien. Er war jahrelang krank, wurde zur Ader gelassen und seine Mutter erzählte ihm furchtbare Geschichten über die Choleraepidemie, die in Irland wütete, als sie jung war. Von lebendig begrabenen Menschen und wieder geöffneten Gräbern. Einige glauben, sein Chef am Theater, Henry Irving, ein Ausbeuter und Blutsauger, habe ihn inspiriert. Dabei haben die beiden nächtelang zusammen Whiskey getrunken. Nun meint ein Psychologe, er könne anhand des Textes nachweisen, dass Bram als Kind sexuell missbraucht wurde.

Wie erklären Sie sich die Popularität von Vampiren heute?

Es gibt ja die wildesten Thesen dazu, über den blutsaugerischen Kapitalismus etwa. Ich denke einfach: Erfolg gebiert Erfolgssucher. Und: Vampire können sich wunderbar verwandeln. Dracula passt sich jeder Zeit an, zieht Männer wie Frauen in seinen Bann.

Frauen begehren und Männer beneiden ihn heimlich?

Dracula ist das unsterbliche Alphamännchen. Männer hassen ihn - und wollen doch so sein wie er. Er hat etwas Animalisches, Wildes, das Frauen unheimlich anzieht. Zugleich ist er ein Romantiker. Er sehnt sich nach Verständnis und Liebe. Er erweckt Horror und Begierde.

Stephenie Meyer feiert in ihren Vampirromanzen die Enthaltsamkeit. Treffen ihre "Bis(s)"-Bestseller den Nerv der US-amerikanischen Gegenwartsgesellschaft?

Ihr Vampirbild ist nicht meines, aber sie schreibt gute Unterhaltungsromane und zeigt die Verwirrungen amerikanischer Teenager zwischen ihrem Liebesideal und der bedrohlichen Macht des Sexus. Der Vampirismus bietet dafür ein fantastisches Bilderreservoir.

Sie wollten den "wahren Dracula" auferstehen lassen. Ist das noch möglich, nachdem all die Kopien der letzten Jahrzehnte in Umlauf sind?

Das Problem ist, dass kaum einer noch das Original kennt. Die Familie Stoker hat schon vor langem die Rechte daran und damit jede Kontrolle verloren, was literarisch mit Dracula passiert. Drehbuchautor Ian Holt und ich haben Brams handschriftliche Aufzeichnungen, gestrichene Handlungsstränge und Charaktere verwendet, ebenso wie Fakten über den historischen Vlad III. Draculea. Mit einem Teil meiner Einnahmen soll Bram endlich ein Denkmal in Irland errichtet werden. Ich als Nachfahre sehe den Roman, in dem Bram Stoker auch als Figur erscheint, als eine Hommage an ihn.

Haben Sie beide etwas gemeinsam?

Er war wie ich ein penibler Mensch. Er fühlte sich unverstanden. Er verhalf eher anderen zu Ruhm, als selbst im Rampenlicht zu stehen. Er hatte oft Pech im Leben. Ich sollte als Sportler 1980 an den Olympischen Spielen in Moskau teilnehmen, aber dann kam der Boykott, später wurde ich Trainer der Fünfkampf-Mannschaft. Ich empfinde ihn als Seelenverwandten.

Sie haben nie zuvor geschrieben. Wie kamen Sie dazu, sich an so einen großen Roman zu wagen?

Er floss mir ja nicht aus der Feder. Wir haben sechs Jahre daran gearbeitet und die Kapitel und Figuren aufgeteilt. Ich musste also nicht einen ganzen Roman schreiben. Die Idee zu dem Buch stammt von Ian Holt, der sich seit Jahrzehnten mit Dracula beschäftigt. Er wusste, er brauchte einen Stoker für sein Projekt, um Aufmerksamkeit zu erregen.

In dem Roman von 1897, in dem die Welt der Wissenschaft, Rationalität und bürgerlichen Selbstdisziplin gegen die dunklen Mächte der Vergangenheit kämpft, ist die Sexualität verschlüsselt. Ihre sexuellen Bilder sind eindeutig. Verlangt das der Markt heute?

Der Original-"Dracula" ist voller Metaphern für den Geschlechtsakt. Er war damals eine heiße, hocherotische Lektüre. Er enthüllt die Verdrängungen, die Untoten der viktorianischen Gesellschaft, die mit den Modernisierungsprozessen verbundenen Ambivalenzen. Um heute einen ähnlichen Effekt zu erzielen, braucht man andere Bilder. So tritt bei uns die Blutgräfin Erzsébet Báthory auf als eine beängstigend starke lesbische Frau.

Sie planen langfristig eine "Dracula"-Trilogie. Haben Sie keine Angst, dass der Hype abebbt?

Sicher wird es irgendwann eine Übersättigung geben. Aber Vampire werden nie verschwinden. Eros und Thanatos sind unsere ewigen Begleiter. Der Vampirismus ist ein ideales Gefäß für die Ängste und Wunschfantasien der Menschen. Darum ist Dracula unsterblich. Er wird immer wieder aus seinem Grab auferstehen.

Zur Person - Dacre Stoker, 50, ist der Urgroßneffe von Bram Stoker, dem Autor des Romans "Dracula". Der ehemalige Olympia-Trainer der kanadischen Fünfkampf-Mannschaft lebt heute in South Dakota und arbeitet als Geschäftsführer eines Naturreservats. Gemeinsam mit dem Drehbuchautor Ian Holt, einem passionierten Dracula-Forscher, schrieb Dacre Stoker eine Fortsetzung des Horrorklassikers.

Das Buch "Dracula – die Wiederkehr" führt nach London im Jahr 1912. Dort entdeckt Jonathan Harkers Sohn Quincey anlässlich einer "Dracula"-Theaterproduktion die finsteren Geheimnisse seiner Eltern, als sein Vater ermordet aufgefunden wird. Der 600 Seiten starke Roman ist jetzt auf Deutsch erschienen. In den USA wurde er überwiegend positiv aufgenommen: "Ein spannender Fantasy-Thriller ... und eine Frischzellenkur für den Dracula-Mythos", schrieb etwa Publisher’s Weekly. (fr)



Mit einem Teil seiner Einnahmen, will Dacre Stoker, dem Dracula-Autoren Bram ein Denkmal in Irland errichten lassen. (Bild: afp)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Danke an die FR für dieses Interview!

TV Shows - Crime / Cops / Private Investigation

My favorite TV-Show s 'Crime / Cops / Private Investigation'

• Bones
• Cagney & Lacey
• CSI - Crime Scene Investigation
• CSI - Miami
• Cold Case
  
• Columbo
  
• Dexter
• Due South
  
• Law & Order - Criminal Intent
• Life
• Magnum, P.I.
  
• Monk
• Remington Steele
  
• The Menalist
• Twin Peaks
  
• Veronica Mars

MySpace Comments - MySpace Layouts - Photobucket

Fall 2009

The Mentalist - Trailer

Trailer - The Mentalist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc8Ay1XLMu0

The Mentalist - Season 1 DVD

Today in my mailbox...

The Mentalist - DVD - Season 1

"A mentalist is a master manipulator of thought and behavior." The mentalist is Patrick Jane (Simon Baker in an acclaimed performance), a celebrity psychic whose wife and child are viciously murdered by an elusive serial killer called Red John. Devastated, Patrick admits his paranormal act is fake, renounces his earlier life and uses his astonishing skills of observation and analysis – talents that made him appear psychically gifted – to bring killers to justice. At crime scenes across California, Patrick now helps an elite team of detectives break their toughest cases. But no matter how many criminals he catches, Patrick never forgets his central goal: Find Red John. And bring him down.

Dilbert & Coffee

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cozy bookstores (3)