The Children of the Night

'Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make.' Dracula by Bram Stoker (first published 1897)  

Let me start this post by saying that, just because I haven't included vampires in my books (yet) I have nothing against them. I like reading vampire novels. But I like my vampires as legend intended them. I want them to scare me. I want them to be proud, beautiful monsters. 

If you like your vampires sparkly, that's fine. Good luck to you. I prefer mine bloody. Each to her own. 

For me, Lestat, central character of The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, is the consummate vampire in his beauty and the way he revels in his unashamed monstrosity. Kurt Barlow, in Stephen King's Salem's Lot, is my ultimate horror novel vampire. When it comes to romance, I have a weakness for Jean-Claude, Master Vampire in the Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton. 

But my first vampire love is with the great Count Dracula himself. And I also have an enduring fascination with Bram Stoker, the Irishman whose imagination conjured up such an iconic character.

Dublin

My interest in Abraham Stoker (known to his family as Bram), began about 15 years ago when I was in Dublin. I visited a quaint, little church close to the banks of the River Liffey called St. Michan's. St Michan's looks unimpressive from the outside, but, in its vaults, there are mummified bodies.

One of these is an 800 year old mummy called 'the crusader'. When you visit St Michan's, you can go into the crypt and shake hands with the crusader. Well, you could 15 years ago. Things may have changed since! 

On the day I was there, the guide showing me around said that Bram Stoker had lived nearby and visited St Michan's regularly. Who knew, he speculated, whether the crusader might have been the inspiration for Count Dracula? 

Whitby 

I started this year by fulfilling a Dracula related ambition when I spent new year in Whitby. Whitby, a fishing port on the North Yorkshire coast, is the place where, in Stoker's novel, the Russian ship, the Demeter runs aground during a fierce storm. All of the crew are missing, presumed dead, with the exception of the captain's body which has been lashed to the ship's helm. As the ship runs aground an animal resembling a large wolf or dog is seen leaping ashore from it's deck. The ill-fated ship's only cargo is described as silver sand and boxes of mould or earth from Transylvania.

Whitby did not disappoint. 
It is an incredibly beautiful, atmospheric town. I can see why, having stayed there, Stoker chose to set so many scenes from his book in Whitby. He would have drunk in, as I did, the view through the Whalebone Arch across the harbour to the cobbled streets, dominated by the imposing ruins of Whitby Abbey which sits brooding atop the winding 199 steps rising up the cliffs from the narrow streets below. It is easy to see how this prospect would have inspired his macabre and creative imagination. 

My own imagination was fired by Whitby. As I made my way along the tiny, cobbled lanes and looked up at the imposing outline of the Abbey, I could imagine that Dracula and his descendants were still around. I was inspired to think about creating my own beautiful monster.

Watch this space...

Present your Ghosts

I had a lot of cool ideas for an article (they were cool in my mind!) but after a scintillating conversation with a fellow colleague here, I was advised to write them all (lol, one at a time) and write what I know best. The title came as a joke, but it fits.
It has come to my  attention that because I'm from Romania, I could be somewhat called "Street Wise" in the paranormal. Hahaha, Yes, no. But in a way, I guess I am. But I always thought everyone was the same, you see.
Were you expecting I'll talk about vampires after saying I'm from Romania? Huh, Bram Stoker never visited Romania and had no clue what we have around here in Eastern Europe. Though Romania apparently is close to being in Central Europe but now I'm getting into political issues...
Yes, I did say what we have around here.
As a writer of paranormal MM it came easy to me to immerse in a paranormal/ supernatural world because I saw signs of one existing from when I was a little girl growing up in rural Romania.

In the photo  you see Castelul Corvinilor. A nice place, do visit. Ring me if you do, you can maybe stay in my nearby childhood house if I'm back home.

And I'm not kidding you. My grandma knew to dodeochi spells, that cured you of the Evil Eye (I may know too...), my mother dreamt stuff before it happened (really, she knew my father had broken his leg before we got the phone call) and I accidentally did a tarot reading that predicted the death of my best friend's grandfather. Creepy stuff. Great for writing inspiration. Those are stories that I have yet to tell. Soon.

But I digress.
Real life experience and stories of strange experiences were my first contact with the paranormal genre. Then there were the books. Not science fiction (well, there were those too) but books about the most strange places on Earth, weirdest archaeological discoveries, weird photos and events, etc. I liked the ones with scientific facts not stories to put children to sleep. Btw, If you ever go to Romania, never visit Forest Baciu, near Cluj after dark. Trust me on that.


At first I didn't even have a TV, And this was happening in the '90 folks. Then we didn't have a lot of TV channels (Romania had been under the Iron Curtain until '89). Finally, the movies came. I watched probably all that I came across that had a hint of supernatural or mystery. I name here Roswell, Tales from the Crypt, Poltergeist;The Legacy, The Outer Limits, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Millennium, Medium, Highlander, Xena and Hercules, Twin Peaks, Twilight Zone, Doctor Who, The X-Files, Star Trek, Stargate oh my! I saw a lot. I fell in love with the bad boy of Charmed, though Leo and Chris were not that bad either. Then came the golden age. Supernatural and Ian Somerhalder. Now while I love Dean Winchester (go team Dean!) and I adore the show, Ian is hot, hot, hot too. Pity I cannot stand the show. And to repeat something Dean said, please do not remind me of Twilight!

 If I had space here I would post a lot of hotties that had come to my attention lately but the internet waves would blush and the blog taken down for inducing drool seizures. Alright two more!

Ichigo from Bleach, a Japanese Anime
(he's not even the hottest in that anime.
 And yes! I'm a geek and proud!) .
Now I want to post Keanu Reeves in
 Constantine too.
LOL. Next time.

After and during the sudden invasion of supernatural movies I stumbled across manga and anime. Great stories, amazing art, original ideas. I learned a lot and discovered new variations of local myths and legends. I wonder if every country has them- you know the same legends only told differently. For Romania there were the strigoi- troubled souls of the dead rising from the grave. Some strigoi can be living people with certain magical properties. Some of the properties of the strigoi include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss. These are our vampires one may say- vampire ghosts. I could bore you with actual facts about their existence and proofs but that is my private research, you'll need to do your own :). 

Then there are the vârcolac or pricolici- let's call them man-wolves. And the zmeii and our own leprechauns and fairies. 
There's a lot to tell, but you can read a bit about it here Wikipedia. Especially in the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article.




By the time I got into anime/manga and the latest movies,  I was writing paranormal but not publishing yet. I was writing from the age of nine but English language came a bit later. I had already a ton of material that could be used and too little time. The situation remains unchanged. I managed last year to get two books out, one this year and have currently one more finished,one sci fi story coming out next month, two WIPs half-done and a notebook full of half-planned novels. I think I'm at #78 with the ideas written there.  


What was it that attracted you to the paranormal genre? I will not talk about what attracted me to writing Gay Romance, that's a topic for another day. 
For me it was always there and I got attracted to it even more when I realised it's something special that not everyone has naturally in their lives. Plus it makes reality more interesting, doesn't it? I want to share that feeling of knowing that there is more than the eye can see or than the mind can understand. I have a lot of "ghosts" and other fantastical beings in my mind, some inspired from real life some because of too much coffee and too little sleep. What about you? Why do you read/write paranormal?

And just because I can and maybe I've made you curious (if you managed to finish reading all the verbal diarrhea until now) I'm posting here my book links. I promise to get better! I have some creepy ghost stories on the way! 

Return of Originals Series- Bookstrand
Hard to Kill, Book 1- Amazon.com
The Lost One, Book 2 - Amazon.com
His Imperfect Mate, Book 3- Amazon.com
Somewhere Out There Anthology- Pre-Order

And my try at regular romance
Good for Me, Book 1- Amazon.com

WARNING- I write Gay Erotica/Romance. Explicit, with hot guy on guy action.