Vampire Nation

Analyzes how the rhetoric of Yugoslav intellectuals and politicians and the U.S.-led Western media and political leadership framed the serbs as metaphorical vampires in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Do vampires exist among us? Of course. For centuries, an underground society of vampires has thrived in darkness, hidden from the public gaze and forever shrouded in secrecy--until now. Plunge deep into the heart of vampirism as renowned vampire expert Arlene Russo dispels centuries-old myths and unearths shocking revelations, from the startling discovery that Prince Charles is a direct descendant of Vlad the Impaler to the fascinating evidence that Robin Hood was a vampire. Be entranced by dozens of true accounts, real-life stories, and candid interviews with actual vampires who reveal their strange rituals and intriguing practices. Sink your teeth into the truth as you learn how modern-day vampires feed on blood and psychic energy, how they awaken to their true nature, where they live, and a horde of other chilling facts that will leave you beguiled and begging for more. "We vampires are here. And we have been watching you humans for quite some time . . ."

December 1999 marks the 10th anniversary of the overthrow and execution of Rumanian strong man Nicolae Ceausescu--the only Communist dictator to be violently overthrown during the 1989-91 fall of East European Communism. Controversy persists to this day as to whether it was a spontaneous revolution or a coup engineered by his own Securitate (secret police). Vampire Nation is set three years before le Déluge, amid the societal degeneration that led to Ceausescu's downfall. The year is 1986. A young American, Henry Willoughby, flies to Communist Rumania on business. While in flight he is inadvertently served vampire blood, sensitizing his eyes and revealing a nation of vampires. And contrary to their darkly romantic image, these vampires are ugly, slothful, paranoid, and vicious. Henry only wants to return home on the next flight, but when he unwittingly espies two classified maps, he has no choice but to run. Soon he is buttonholed by the Countess Anya Amasovich, a deadly Russian beauty who might be an unreconstructed tsarist, or a CIA assassin, or a KGB vampire. She agrees to help him escape Rumania, for a price: she intends to his blood memory of the maps to locate and assassinate Rumanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Pursued by Militia and Securitate vampires, Henry and Anya's quest takes the reader on a surreal tour of Ceausescu's Rumania. From the rubble of historic buildings razed to make way for Ceausescu's Boulevard Of The Victory Of Socialism, through the secret Securitate tunnels beneath the city, past trees painted green to reflect the bounty of Communism and vampire sycophants who insist Ceausescu invented sliced bread, through hospitals where healthy legs are amputated in error, past angry ghosts and beggar ghouls, past playboy First Son Nicu Ceausescu's Presidential Palace blood orgies, to the Snagov Lake tomb of the historic Dracula bordering the lakefront estate of Nicolae Ceausescu himself. Vampire Nation is extensively researched, drawing from both the author's historical readings and his childhood visits to Communist Transylvania, where he still has relatives. The author's short story, "Vampire Nation," was published in Horrors! 365 Scary Stories (Barnes & Noble Books, 1998). That story now serves as prologue to the novel. Vampire Nation, the novel, was a Finalist in the 1998-99 Writer's Foundation/America's Best contest.

Les vampires ont été réduits en esclavage... Nicole Martin n'avait que huit ans quand les esclaves vampires se sont rebellés. À présent, elle consacre sa vie à débarrasser la planète de leur engeance maudite. Riker, un vampire renégat, brûle de venger les siens asservis par la famille de Nicole. Pourtant enlever la jeune femme ne tourne pas exactement comme il l'avait prévu. Les deux ennemis jurés se découvrent une attirance mutuelle. La haine devient obsession, désir... peut-être même rédemption. Mais Riker pourra-t-il dompter cette fougueuse jeune femme qui pourrait l'anéantir ainsi que toute son espèce ?

"There's no book available on the vampire culture today with the range, depth, and diversity of Belanger's Vampires in Their Own Words."—Katherine Ramsland, author of Piercing the Darkness and The Science of Vampires "Belanger gives empathetic access to an emergent new magical-religious community...An important sourcebook for both the scholar and inquiring public."—J. Gordon Melton, Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion, and author of The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead The Code of Silence Has Been Broken For this anthology, vampire Michelle Belanger convinced nearly two dozen real-life vampires to break the code of silence that has kept their fascinating subculture shrouded in secrecy. Sometimes provocative, sometimes surprisingly down-to-earth, these candid firsthand accounts come from both psi vampires who feed on energy and sanguine vampires who drink actual blood. Their true stories shed light on a variety of topics, including awakening to vampirism, the compulsion to feed and feeding practices, donor ethics and etiquette, and vampire traditions and codes of behavior.

Immortality Has Met Its Match... Ever since the Ring of Fire, the world's vampires have seen their mortality. They won’t live forever after all — not if the angels who created them decide to snuff them like candles. What do the angels want? What did their command to “restore balance” truly mean? For most, the angels’ decrees mean mass murder and mass turnings … but the humans aren’t sheep, and won’t just lie down and take it forever. As Deacon Maurice tries to maintain order with Reginald by his side, panic consumes the Vampire Nation. The center begins to fall apart and chaos grows like cancer. But as war between vampires and humans threatens, Reginald begins to discover strange new abilities within him: to navigate through blood history like no other vampire before him. To glamour those who can’t be glamoured. And seemingly, to stop time itself. Fear has reached its tipping point. War is close. Reginald might hold the key to the angels’ mystery … but whatever could help him intervene just might be too late.

This book, about real vampires and the communities they have formed, explores the modern world of vampirism in all its amazing variety. Long before Dracula, people were fascinated by vampires. The interest has continued in more recent times with Anne Rice's Lestat novels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the HBO series True Blood, and the immensely popular Twilight. But vampires are not just the stuff of folklore and fiction. Based upon extensive interviews with members of the Atlanta Vampire Alliance and others within vampire communities throughout the United States, this fascinating book looks at the details of real vampire life and the many expressions of vampirism as it now exists. In Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism, Joseph Laycock argues that today's vampires are best understood as an identity group, and that vampirism has caused a profound change in how individuals choose to define themselves. As vampires come "out of the coffin," as followers of a "religion" or "lifestyle" or as people biologically distinct from other humans, their confrontation with mainstream society will raise questions, as it does here, about how we define "normal" and what it means to be human.

"A book to rival TWILIGHT and VAMPIRE DIARIES, and one that will have you wanting to keep reading until the very last page! If you are into adventure, love and vampires this book is the one for you!" --Vampirebooksite.com (Turned) The #1 Bestseller! A bundle of books 2 and 3 in Morgan Rice’s #1 Bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS (LOVED and BETRAYED). Here are two bestselling novels, all in one convenient file. In LOVED (Book #2 in the Vampire Journals), Caitlin and Caleb embark together on their quest to find the one object that can stop the imminent vampire and human war: the lost sword. An object of vampire lore, there is grave doubt over whether it even exists. Caitlin and Caleb’s journey takes them on a whirlwind of historic locations—from the Hudson Valley, to Salem, to the heart of historic Boston—the very spot where witches were once hung on the hill of Boston Common. Why are these locations so important to the vampire race? And what do they have to do with Caitlin’s ancestry, and with who she’s becoming? They may not even make it. Caitlin and Caleb’s love for each other is blossoming. And their forbidden romance may just destroy everything they’ve set out to achieve…. In BETRAYED (Book #3 in the Vampire Journals), Caitlin Paine awakes from a deep coma to discover she has been turned. Now a true, full-bred vampire, she marvels at her new powers, including her ability to fly, and her superhuman strength. She finds that her true love, Caleb, is still by her side, waiting patiently for her to recover. She has everything she could dream of. Until it all, suddenly, goes terribly wrong. Caitlin finds consolation in her new surroundings. She finds she has been placed on a hidden island in the Hudson River—Pollepel—amidst an elite coven of teenage vampires, boys and girls alike, 24 in all, including her. She learns that this is a place for outcasts, just like her, and as she meets her new best friend, Polly, and begins her training in elite vampire combat, she realizes that she might finally have a place to call home. “Morgan Rice proves herself again to be an extremely talented storyteller….This would appeal to a wide range of audiences, including younger fans of the vampire/fantasy genre. It ended with an unexpected cliffhanger that leaves you shocked.” –The Romance Reviews (regarding Loved)