Secret Life Of A Vampire

There have never been vampires, only tortured human beings. This is the provocative premise of this chilling novel in which Anscombe creates the memoirs of Laszlo, Count Dracula -- aristocrat, doctor, and helpless killer of young women. Set in the 19th century, Laszlo's story begins at medical school in Paris with a deadly attraction to a mental patient that leads him away from aristocratic society into the city's dark underworld. Laszlo returns to Transylvania to accede his dead brother's title. There he cultivates his image as a saintly doctor and trusted nationalist agent by day -- while the savage stalks the night with increasing cunning and ferocity. Evil, madness and sexuality!

An inside view of the provocative man who created the Church of Satan and wrote The Satanic Bible.

Stories and science surrounding the beloved bat, from an ecologist who has dedicated his life to the curious creature. Few people realize how sophisticated and intelligent bats are. Merlin Tuttle knows, and he has stopped at nothing to find and protect them on every continent they inhabit. Sharing highlights from a lifetime of adventure and discovery, Tuttle takes us to the frontiers of bat research to show that frog-eating bats can identify frogs by their calls, that some bats have social sophistication similar to that of higher primates, and that bats have remarkable memories. Bats also provide enormous benefits by eating crop pests, pollinating plants, and carrying seeds needed for reforestation. They save farmers billions of dollars annually and are essential to a healthy planet. Tuttle’s account forever changes the way we see these poorly understood yet fascinating creatures. “Grips and doesn't let go.”—Wall Street Journal “It’s a terrific read.”—Huffington Post “A whirlwind adventure story and a top-shelf natural history page-turner.”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus “One of the best, most interesting books I’ve ever read.”—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

Nothing's sexier than an man who can keep a secret. A typical bachelor party is all about beers and beautiful women. A vampire bachelor party is no different -- except the men are drinking Blissky (whiskey-flavored synthetic blood). And no one can throw a party quite like Jack, the illegitimate son of the legendary Casanova. But when the party gets out of hand and the cops show up, Jack has some explaining to do . . . if only he wasn't struck speechless by the beauty of Officer Lara Boucher. Lara is sure there's something more than a bachelor party going on. What is Jack hiding? And why is he so interested in the recent disappearance of young women all over town? Her investigation uncovers more than she wants to know, especially about this modern-day Casanova. But if she's ever to make detective, she'll need to expose all his secrets . . . if only her heart wasn't on the line.

Film blurs the line between myth and reality better than any other artistic medium, one could argue. Using movies to explore the unconscious realms of society in order to reach a better understanding of what drives it, this book examines filmmakers and films that center on schizophrenic themes of alienation, paranoia, breakdown, fantasy, dreams, dementia and violence, and that address—as entertainment—the schizophrenic experience. The loss of individual identity as reflected in the films is investigated, as well as the shamanic potential inherent in the broader theme.

This Pivot traces the rise of the so-called “vegetarian” vampire in popular culture and contemporary vampire fiction, while also exploring how the shift in the diet of (some) vampires, from human to animal or synthetic blood, responds to a growing ecological awareness that is rapidly reshaping our understanding of relations with others species. The book introduces the trope of the vegetarian vampire, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion: the Anthropocene, food studies, and the modern practice, politics and ideologies of vegetarianism. Drawing on references to recent historical contexts and developments in the genre more broadly, the book investigates the vegetarian vampire’s relationship to other more violent and monstrous forms of the vampire in popular twenty-first century horror cinema and television. Texts discussed include Interview with the Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. Reading the Vegetarian Vampire examines a new aspect of contemporary interest in considering vampire fiction.

Reading Vampire Gothic Through Blood examines the manifestations of blood and vampires in various texts and contexts. It seeks to connect, through blood, fictional to real-life vampires to trace similarities, differences and discontinuities. These movements will be seen to parallel changing notions about embodiment and identity in culture.

Race in the Vampire Narrative unpacks the vampire through a collection of classroom ready original essays that explicitly connect this archetypal outsider to studies in race, ethnicity, and identity. Through essays about the first recorded vampire craze, television shows True Blood, and Being Human, movies like Blade: Trinity and Underworld, to the presentation of vampires of colour in romance novels, graphic novels, on stage and beyond, this text will open doorways to discussions about Otherness in any setting, serving as an alternative way to explore marginality through a framework that welcomes all students into the conversation.