I have been re editing my book, Blood of the Dragon, to catch the multitude of sins, misspellings, plot line deficiencies, etc. so that I can produce a better and more improved version. I also hope to include some illustrations in the next version. I have also put the name Draculya in the title so people will know better what the book is about.
My friend at work Kyle, graciously read the book from cover to cover and made notes about it. Another friend at Macy's who calls himself "Alucard" (guess what that spells backwards?) is reading it as well and seems to be enthralled at this point. from what I understand the first part of the story is a little hard to get through, but once indoctrinated into Vlad's world it gets addictive.
I am hoping to finally put up my new video document about Vlad the Impaler on You tube soon. It is a fairly long piece so I had to break it into three parts. I would be pleased if you would watch it. I'll post the URL here when I get it ready.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Dracula's Bats?
This is from an article published in "Dark Nights: Official Journal of the Vampyre ConneXion" Issue #21 Deep Midwinter Edition 2008-2009. I have added some revision.
Vampires and bats are related in several different ways. The Etruscans, a group of Eastern European people who brought civilization to Greece, painted some of the first images of "demons" that is, men with bat like wings and (barbed) tails on tomb walls in Italy. the bat has always been associated with both the dead and evil. (The ancient Sumerians said the Land of Death, under the earth, was inhabited by "bat-like souls who ate only dust). Most gargoyles, dragons and devils in the European tradition, bear bat-wings when they are representative of evil. The bat was considered a "night bird" (since most people in ancient times did not have categories and distinctions between birds, reptiles and mammals. Hence reptilian dragons with bird like beaks, lion's paws and bat's wings, and other mammalian accouterments like horns). Bat's were in the same unfavorable position as crows, ravens, vultures, owls and other "evil-birds" which either feasted off the dead, or like bats, lived in tombs and catacombs and which flew only by night, which of course is when the dead arise to bother the living. (In her book No Go The BogeyMan by Marina Warner, it is said that the Dutch invoked the BogeyMan as a bat. And a 14th Century writer quoted in her book says that witches and vampires can indeed transformed into bats). Bats were harbingers of bad ghosts because they often lived in tombs.
Bats were not considered "bloodsuckers" but then neither were most vampires at first. Only some of them drank blood. Most lived by spreading plagues or instilling a killing fear into their victims. (Some sucked the breath out of babies, sucked out a nursing mother's milk, some stole and ate people, and some were more like sexual predators living off the sexual energy of others, which is where the mixture of sex and bloodshed came from in Stoker's seminal work {pun intended}All vampires are really forms of Bogeymen). The Eastern European vampires were more like super poltergeists, evil souls which being so full of anger and hate could not rest without destroying other's lives, on which they fed.
Bats, like mice and rats were considered "vermin" which spread disease. And since a bat bite could cause rabies, they were strictly a forbidden and unclean animal. Such animals were always associated with witchcraft and witch's familiars. Bat's blood was put in potions to either create a poison or to give the person imbibing the potion the power of a bat, to see in the dark and to fly swiftly from one place to another in order to observe others. Owls and bats of course can see in places which humans cannot. (Again ancient people did not recognize that bats were using echo-location in the dark).
Vampires were "created" when men or women became witches, were born witches (i.e. the children of those convicted or accused of witchcraft), or were excommunicated for practicing witchcraft, spells and charms. It was witches that people were afraid of not bats or owls. And witches that died badly (were murdered), or who were not buried properly (nailed into their coffin, having their head lopped off, mouth stuffed with garlic or a brick, etc.), would become fearsome vampires which would rise at night and seek victims to kill, usually close family members first. They would then, as witches did in real life, cause plagues and panic in a community. And yes in some Eastern European traditions witches, warlocks, sorcerers and vampires would take on the form of a bat, a rat, a large dog or wolf,a raven or a crow,owl or cat. Let's face it, these ancient people feared a lot because they did not understand the world they lived in. But they knew rats, wolves and bats could cause trouble in their communities.
Later when European Conquistadors from Spain entered the New World and found bats sucking the blood out of their cattle and themselves they of course named them Vampire Bats.(Recently a giant vampire bat has just been discovered). And the bat, especially to the Aztecs represented a very bloodthirsty "god." I could go on with some very interesting digressions concerning vampires and bats. But just think: Vampires, rats, bats = plague bearing vermin. If a bat got into your home, you killed it immediately. It was a bad omen and very few people would keep such night flying critters as pets. Such a person would be considered to be a witch.
If a plague came into town and no one could find a source or a cure, someone dug up a person they considered to be a "witch" or someone evil or accursed, or even just a unlikeable person who had recently died. Then they would be accused post mortem of being a vampire and they then disposed of the corpse in some traditional manner to prevent vampirism. By the time all the rites and rituals were accomplished the plague usually played itself out. So the idea that destroying the vampiric corpse stopped the plague gained legitimacy. (You have to remember how slowly the wheels of thought and action ground back in the olden days).
Bram Stoker did extensive research on Eastern European vampire, witchcraft and superstition traditions that state evil beings could become bats. this was a "natural" transformation for supernatural beings. the idea that "turning into a bat" was some Hollywood myth created by modern writers begins to make sense when one realizes the Hollywood community at the time Dracula was first made, was composed of many Eastern and Western European men and women who still had cultural ties to the old country and would have known that vampires could turn into bats. It is the confusion between European bats and the New World Vampire bats that have made people think that a vampire becoming a bat is a post-modern addition to the Dracula story.
Vampires and bats are related in several different ways. The Etruscans, a group of Eastern European people who brought civilization to Greece, painted some of the first images of "demons" that is, men with bat like wings and (barbed) tails on tomb walls in Italy. the bat has always been associated with both the dead and evil. (The ancient Sumerians said the Land of Death, under the earth, was inhabited by "bat-like souls who ate only dust). Most gargoyles, dragons and devils in the European tradition, bear bat-wings when they are representative of evil. The bat was considered a "night bird" (since most people in ancient times did not have categories and distinctions between birds, reptiles and mammals. Hence reptilian dragons with bird like beaks, lion's paws and bat's wings, and other mammalian accouterments like horns). Bat's were in the same unfavorable position as crows, ravens, vultures, owls and other "evil-birds" which either feasted off the dead, or like bats, lived in tombs and catacombs and which flew only by night, which of course is when the dead arise to bother the living. (In her book No Go The BogeyMan by Marina Warner, it is said that the Dutch invoked the BogeyMan as a bat. And a 14th Century writer quoted in her book says that witches and vampires can indeed transformed into bats). Bats were harbingers of bad ghosts because they often lived in tombs.
Bats were not considered "bloodsuckers" but then neither were most vampires at first. Only some of them drank blood. Most lived by spreading plagues or instilling a killing fear into their victims. (Some sucked the breath out of babies, sucked out a nursing mother's milk, some stole and ate people, and some were more like sexual predators living off the sexual energy of others, which is where the mixture of sex and bloodshed came from in Stoker's seminal work {pun intended}All vampires are really forms of Bogeymen). The Eastern European vampires were more like super poltergeists, evil souls which being so full of anger and hate could not rest without destroying other's lives, on which they fed.
Bats, like mice and rats were considered "vermin" which spread disease. And since a bat bite could cause rabies, they were strictly a forbidden and unclean animal. Such animals were always associated with witchcraft and witch's familiars. Bat's blood was put in potions to either create a poison or to give the person imbibing the potion the power of a bat, to see in the dark and to fly swiftly from one place to another in order to observe others. Owls and bats of course can see in places which humans cannot. (Again ancient people did not recognize that bats were using echo-location in the dark).
Vampires were "created" when men or women became witches, were born witches (i.e. the children of those convicted or accused of witchcraft), or were excommunicated for practicing witchcraft, spells and charms. It was witches that people were afraid of not bats or owls. And witches that died badly (were murdered), or who were not buried properly (nailed into their coffin, having their head lopped off, mouth stuffed with garlic or a brick, etc.), would become fearsome vampires which would rise at night and seek victims to kill, usually close family members first. They would then, as witches did in real life, cause plagues and panic in a community. And yes in some Eastern European traditions witches, warlocks, sorcerers and vampires would take on the form of a bat, a rat, a large dog or wolf,a raven or a crow,owl or cat. Let's face it, these ancient people feared a lot because they did not understand the world they lived in. But they knew rats, wolves and bats could cause trouble in their communities.
Later when European Conquistadors from Spain entered the New World and found bats sucking the blood out of their cattle and themselves they of course named them Vampire Bats.(Recently a giant vampire bat has just been discovered). And the bat, especially to the Aztecs represented a very bloodthirsty "god." I could go on with some very interesting digressions concerning vampires and bats. But just think: Vampires, rats, bats = plague bearing vermin. If a bat got into your home, you killed it immediately. It was a bad omen and very few people would keep such night flying critters as pets. Such a person would be considered to be a witch.
If a plague came into town and no one could find a source or a cure, someone dug up a person they considered to be a "witch" or someone evil or accursed, or even just a unlikeable person who had recently died. Then they would be accused post mortem of being a vampire and they then disposed of the corpse in some traditional manner to prevent vampirism. By the time all the rites and rituals were accomplished the plague usually played itself out. So the idea that destroying the vampiric corpse stopped the plague gained legitimacy. (You have to remember how slowly the wheels of thought and action ground back in the olden days).
Bram Stoker did extensive research on Eastern European vampire, witchcraft and superstition traditions that state evil beings could become bats. this was a "natural" transformation for supernatural beings. the idea that "turning into a bat" was some Hollywood myth created by modern writers begins to make sense when one realizes the Hollywood community at the time Dracula was first made, was composed of many Eastern and Western European men and women who still had cultural ties to the old country and would have known that vampires could turn into bats. It is the confusion between European bats and the New World Vampire bats that have made people think that a vampire becoming a bat is a post-modern addition to the Dracula story.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Ye Boke of Draculya
I have created a seven hundred and sixty page novel about the life, death and reanimation of Vlad Draculya. It is entitled, Blood of the Dragon, the journals of Vlad Draculya the Impaler. Right now it can be had from iuniverse.com in either hard cover or paperback. the price I believe is $24.00 for hardcover and $18.00 for paper. It is a "Print On Demand" self-published effort. Fair warning it has a good deal of small mistakes throughout as it is self-edited. I am in the process now of putting out a revised version. I did the cover design and artwork inside. Though I say it is written by Professor David Telefoe Pudlevitcz PhD, this is actually a version of my family name, Pudelwitts. David St. Albans is my nom de plume. You can google all of my names and get literally reams of info on me. You can also visit my website at http://www.saintalbanstudio,com. My other artwork can be seen at MyArtSpace.com and at Facebook.com under Saint Albans.
It took me fifteen long years to write and publish this massive effort. If you are a fan of vampires, Dracula, dark magic, H.P. Lovecraft, Carlos Castaneda, Witchcraft, Sorcery, Heresy, or even torture and impalement,then this is the book for you! It mixes the true life of the true Prince of Wallachia in the 15th Century, Vlad Bassarab Draculya, with the monster Dracula, created in the 1890's by Bram Stoker. The purpose of writing the book was to recreate Dracula as a true monster, rather than a cardboard cut-out or cereal box poster boy. it all started with a horrid dream I had now seventeen years ago wherein I discovered that all vampires were simply "masks" for the original vampire! They were not human beings anymore, but shells inhabited by a Master Vampire! The feeling I had during the dream was so oppressive and sickening I had to write it down and exorcise it. it meant that all the people who, as in most vampire novels, were infected by a vampire, were not going to have endlessly fascinating eternal lives staling the night. Only the ORIGINAL vampire got that! The others were nothing, throw-away toys at the command of the Master. There was no "bonus" in becoming a vampire. This was a completely disturbing opposing viewpoint to the Vampire Lestat myth. And it added a real cutting edge to the Dracula myth. So I decided to buck the mythos and reinvent Dracula from the ground up.
So I set about studying and reading up on vampirism and vampires until fifteen years later I became an expert on the subject and the author of what I feel is the most extensive book ever written about Vlad Tspesh, Dracula and Vampires in general. the book seems to be a hit in Germany. It can be seen selling on the internet for amounts of $300.00 or more to as little as a dollar! So feel free at this point to buy a first edition copy for the least price you can. I want to say I have made very little on this endeavor. It was and remains a labor of love. I have loved Dracula and vampires since I watched them move across my black and white TV screen and in movie theaters since the early Sixties. I thrived on the books of E.A.Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I became an adept enough writer in the genre to have given several lectures on subjects like the Works of Clark Ashton Smith at various Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions. My drawings and paintings have been displayed at cons and in galleries all over the country. I feel very secure in the position I take as an expert. However one can always learn. And I am hoping this blog will be a place for vampire aficionados and authors to come together and have a sort of Vampyr Danse back and forth along the rotted ballroom floor of some secluded and corrupt mansion.
I have written several short stories I will post here which were in magazines many years ago, but which still hold up. I also hope to feature an area of ad space where persons or companies can sell items of Gothic and Vampiric interest. For now I will be posting some old stories, illustrations and poetry and excerpts from my book. I am hoping the key-word search alone will net me some interesting blog readers. So, I bid you welcome, enter of your own will and leave a little of the happiness behind which you have brought with you...
Your Ob'dt Srv't
David Pudelwitts-St. Albans
It took me fifteen long years to write and publish this massive effort. If you are a fan of vampires, Dracula, dark magic, H.P. Lovecraft, Carlos Castaneda, Witchcraft, Sorcery, Heresy, or even torture and impalement,then this is the book for you! It mixes the true life of the true Prince of Wallachia in the 15th Century, Vlad Bassarab Draculya, with the monster Dracula, created in the 1890's by Bram Stoker. The purpose of writing the book was to recreate Dracula as a true monster, rather than a cardboard cut-out or cereal box poster boy. it all started with a horrid dream I had now seventeen years ago wherein I discovered that all vampires were simply "masks" for the original vampire! They were not human beings anymore, but shells inhabited by a Master Vampire! The feeling I had during the dream was so oppressive and sickening I had to write it down and exorcise it. it meant that all the people who, as in most vampire novels, were infected by a vampire, were not going to have endlessly fascinating eternal lives staling the night. Only the ORIGINAL vampire got that! The others were nothing, throw-away toys at the command of the Master. There was no "bonus" in becoming a vampire. This was a completely disturbing opposing viewpoint to the Vampire Lestat myth. And it added a real cutting edge to the Dracula myth. So I decided to buck the mythos and reinvent Dracula from the ground up.
So I set about studying and reading up on vampirism and vampires until fifteen years later I became an expert on the subject and the author of what I feel is the most extensive book ever written about Vlad Tspesh, Dracula and Vampires in general. the book seems to be a hit in Germany. It can be seen selling on the internet for amounts of $300.00 or more to as little as a dollar! So feel free at this point to buy a first edition copy for the least price you can. I want to say I have made very little on this endeavor. It was and remains a labor of love. I have loved Dracula and vampires since I watched them move across my black and white TV screen and in movie theaters since the early Sixties. I thrived on the books of E.A.Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I became an adept enough writer in the genre to have given several lectures on subjects like the Works of Clark Ashton Smith at various Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions. My drawings and paintings have been displayed at cons and in galleries all over the country. I feel very secure in the position I take as an expert. However one can always learn. And I am hoping this blog will be a place for vampire aficionados and authors to come together and have a sort of Vampyr Danse back and forth along the rotted ballroom floor of some secluded and corrupt mansion.
I have written several short stories I will post here which were in magazines many years ago, but which still hold up. I also hope to feature an area of ad space where persons or companies can sell items of Gothic and Vampiric interest. For now I will be posting some old stories, illustrations and poetry and excerpts from my book. I am hoping the key-word search alone will net me some interesting blog readers. So, I bid you welcome, enter of your own will and leave a little of the happiness behind which you have brought with you...
Your Ob'dt Srv't
David Pudelwitts-St. Albans
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