Good Ol' Dracula

This year marks the 8th anniversary of the first printing of my first book, Dracula's Secret! As a result, I'm revisiting some early blog posts about my process.

Even the most cursory look at the secondary and tertiary sources on Vlad Dracula shows a stunning (or tedious, depending on your personality) number of resources on how bloodthirsty and cruel this particular historical figure was.

To find out where they got their information, I did what every self-respecting historian does. I checked their bibliographies for their primary sources. This is what I found.

Vlad Dracul II lived from 1431-1476.

No sources survive from Vlad himself (despite it being commonly reported that he was highly educated and literate). This includes any of his legislative acts.

No sources survive from his brothers, father, wives, other relatives, or even friends.

The only primary source that is contemporary to Vlad's life is in the Monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland. It was written by an unknown author in 1462. The manuscript gives a number of anecdotes about Vlad (thirty-two, according to the translation I read). The translator claims that six of those thirty-two stories are confirmed by other sources, but does not name those sources.

The stories discussing Vlad's crimes against humanity were not verified by other contemporary sources.

The Russian and German documents that discuss Vlad's preference for disemboweling animals, etc., etc., etc., date from 1490 at the earliest.

The woodcut portraits of Vlad date from 1488 and 1491. The famous oil portrait comes from the second half of the 17th century. Which, I might point out, is nearly 200 years after Vlad died.

Many scholars make much of the oral transmissions of the folk tales of Romania. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any analysis of these stories by anthropologists or historians that would confirm the accuracy. Folk tales often are multipurpose stories - they could be cautionary tales or money makers to fleece the unsuspecting. I've not seen any studies done of where the folktales agree with the primary sources.

For example, contemplate the relationship people in the United States have with George Washington. The old cherry tree tale has been discredited, but how many of us still remember it and tell it?

What all this boils down to is very simple:

We don't know that much about this historical figure.


So as a result, I felt like I could play with this person, bring my own interpretation to the story of Dracula. After all, my outrageous ideas seem to fit right in with the rest. :)

I'm sure that I've missed a lot of information on the historical Dracula. I look forward to hearing from others who want to share their research with me.

Poetry break.

I have been feeling despair over the currently political environment. Who better to describe despair than Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

Last Toast by Anna Akhmatova

Translated from the Russian by Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky

---

I drink to our ruined house
To the evil of my life
To our loneliness together
And I drink to you—
To the lying lips that have betrayed us,
To the dead-cold eyes,
To the fact that the world is brutal and coarse
To the fact that God did not save us.

Don't Surf in Sewage.

Hello, wonderful people!
 

Over the past month, the Romance Writers of America national organization has been imploding under the weight of hidden (and not so hidden) racism. I'm appalled on so many levels, I can't even. How could so many feminists screw up so many things? How could we betray our authors of color?

I needed a way to explain how this could happen. And it came to me.

In the 1950s and 1960s in California, businesses poured their waste into the ocean. The surfers said the waste was warm, so they would surf there instead of the colder but cleaner water. Their comfort was more important than their health.

Living in the patriarchy is like swimming in a wide river being filled with fecal matter all the time. Instead of actual feces, though, the disgusting elements include ideas of who is more important, whose experiences matter more, and the concept that “I got mine and I don’t care about you.”

The center of the river, where these ideas are the thickest, is deep, fast, and warm. The people there move quickly through society due to the current pushing them. They like being there because they are warm and ahead of everyone else. However, they are neck deep in raw sewage. The illnesses manifest as defensiveness, nasty jokes, cruel behavior to others, and refusal to contemplate anything beyond the status quo.

Some people there never notice, simply enjoying the delights of moving faster and having accumulated more than everyone else. To them, their behavior is normal. Occasionally, a friend points out that they are moving through a foul brew of disease. That perhaps, these behaviors and attitudes hurt other people.

This is what story-tellers know as the Call to Adventure.  People dig in their toes, at first, not wanting to leave the familiar warmth. But one cannot un-learn what one has learned. They take a step sidewise, toward the cleaner, colder water toward the shores. On those shores, people are playing Frisbee, having a picnic, laughing, dancing, and having more fun than everyone else.

It is difficult to move out of the river.  The cold is unsettling and frightening. There is always further to go.

But their health improves with every sideways step. Things smell better. The people there are ever so much nicer. And the view? Amazing.

Sometimes, the river takes a sudden drop or turn. People who thought they were out of the river discover that they have fallen back in. These slips are painful and embarrassing. All a person can do is stand up, apologize, and work their slow way back towards the shore.

You get to take the time to heal from the river’s poison. You get to scrub yourself off and learn new ways of moving, learning, and playing. The only thing you don’t get to do is stop trying.

My darlings, let's help each other clean up the sewage.  Let's share our best practices for combating racism and sexism. Let's help each other out.

Much love,
Linda

Jayne Ann Krentz is the writer we all want to be.

Jayne Ann Krentz is one of the coolest people in the whole publishing industry. First of all, there is her sheer love of writing - the woman has written more than 120 books, with 32 placing on the NYT Bestseller List!

Then there is her sheer determination - she's had to reinvent her career several times over her career, ending up with writing under three nom de plumes (Amanda Quick, Jayne Castle, Jayne Ann Krentz) to showcase her different writing interests (historical novels, futuristic/fantasy, and contemporary).

There is her intelligence - as a former librarian myself, I am always in awe of her excellent research. Her non-fiction book, Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, has become the basis of intellectual discussion on the romance genre. She's generous to both readers and writers.

But most of all, she writes fiction that changes your life. I will always, always be grateful for this passage in Lost and Found. The heroine, Cady, spent the night at Mack's (the hero) house. His daughter catches them over breakfast. She's not too thrilled with the scenario.

Garbriella raised on shoulder in a jerky little shrug. "You think you're special"

"Uh-huh."

Gabriella spun around. "Why?"

Cady went back to the counter to get the English muffins. "Probably because I don't suffer from low self-esteem." (emphasis mine)

The first time I read that, I stood up involuntarily. I had never seen a heroine declare that she was special. I had never thought what it could be like to live with real self-esteem and not the crippling self-doubt I carried.

Heroes show you how to be what you want to be. By reading her books, I learned what it was like to have confidence.

And it feels amazing.

Awesome Updates!

Hello, dolls!

All sorts of great things are happening over here.

• I don't know if I told you all, but I am part of a collection of short stories Called Itty Bitty Writing Space, edited by my friend Jason Brick. It's 104 short stories by 104 authors. My story is my homage to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 450. Buy it here!

• Speaking of Jason Brick - he is offering a special deal on his Write Like Hell class. WLH is a one year course to get your writing (and writing life) where you want it to be. If you mention that you heard about it from me, you get $100/month off on the price. Jason is both generous and a smarty-pants who loves to see people write all they want. If you want to check it out, here is the link.

•  I have an Instagram! I will be using to let the world see my campaign of tiny love notes. I will be hiding these little pieces of art wherever I go. If you'd like to play, let me know. I will send you some small art and you can set the love free in the world too. Come visit me at: www.Instagram.com/linda_mercury    

• On Saturday, October 12, 2019, I will be part of the Self Publishing Divas panel at the Rose City Romance Writers meeting. Join me, Shea MacLeod, Jessa Slade, and Jasmine Silvara  at 11am at Portland Community College -Sylvania. Email me if you need directions. :)

 

• AND. From October 18-20, I will be in ATLANTA, GEORGIA! I will be part of the first Multiverse Con. I'll be doing improv (bites nails) and doing panels on plotting, writing female characters, sex-positive  gaming, and how to survive burnout. If you want to join me, register here.

 

• I'm planning my 2020 travel. If you want me to come to you for readings, book tours, or panels, email me! I love to visit my lovely people.

Melbourne, Australia, 2019

We saw the Terra Cotta Warriors.

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we have gathered on today. I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the nation.

Source: Welcome to Country & Acknowledgement of Country - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/welcome-to-country-acknowledgement-of-country

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we have gathered on today. I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the nation.

Source: Welcome to Country & Acknowledgement of Country - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/welcome-to-country-acknowledgement-of-country

 I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we have gathered on today. I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the nation.

Source: Welcome to Country & Acknowledgement of Country - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/welcome-to-country-acknowledgement-of-country

Before every event in Australia, they acknowledge the indigenous people of the country. I was nearly in tears after I heard it the first time. I find it appropriate for me to do this when I am showing things from Melbourne.

We visited the National Gallery of Victoria. Intertwined with the traditional art and grave goods, modern Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang's beautiful, gunpowder-painted pieces brought an even greater sense of wonder.

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we have gathered on today. I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the nation.

Source: Welcome to Country & Acknowledgement of Country - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/welcome-to-country-acknowledgement-of-country

Cai Guo-Qiang's enormous silks, painted with exploded gunpowder.

Grave Guardian.

A Horse Lamp from the exhibit, Designing Women.

The laneways and arcades of Melbourne are *amazing*.

Inside one of the laneways.

How could I not take this store's picture?

Speaks for itself.

The Great Ocean Road.

And another brilliant costume from RWAus.