165 years old today! Although he died in 1912, his name lives on as the creator of Dracula, a figure that, like Frankenstein's monster, has become entrenched in our cultural memory.
I read the book as a young teenager and scared myself witless for a few weeks afterwards. Every tap at my window was a vampire intent on drinking my blood (of course it was actually a moth drawn by the glow of my nightlight). That shadowy figure staggering down an alleyway in the city where I lived was surely another blood-sucking villain (no, just a drunk on a mid-day binge).
What many people do not realise is how prolific a writer Bram Stoker was, the author of many other novels (The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Lair of the White Worm, to name but a couple), short stories and non fiction.
We see the mark of his classic vampire character in so many of our novels and films. The current trend for young adult vampire romance owes a great deal to this Irish writer.
Real life doesn't just have to provide inspiration for our characters. It can also feed into the locations we use in our writing. This is the school I attended between the ages of seven and eight years old. This photograph, and more of the interior, was kindly taken by an old school friend. I always loved this building and now it has provided the inspiration for Darkacre School in my novel. Photograph taken by Dan Howard of 500px.com York Minster (from my home town) was the inspiration for the cathedral where Rex Haven's funeral takes place in my novel. Taken from www.rightmove.co.uk The terraces of the South Bank area of York, where I lived for a time, are the streets of the old town in my novel. The details don't have to remain the same - we writers are tailors of imagination after all - but basing our story locations in reality can add a grounding element to our writing that convinces our readers. What real locations have you used in your wr
That's it. My writer website is now up and running - yay! What that means is that I won't be posting to this blog anymore. If you'd like to follow my book publishing journey, and especially if you'd like to subscribe to my newsletter, head over to my new website. You can find it here . See you over there very soon.
I only recently came across the term 'blog hop'. Am I the only one who hadn't heard of this before? In essence, it's an online event where a group of bloggers drop in on each other's blogs and leave comments. It's a way to create new connections, boost the number of visitors to your site and generally have a bit of a party. Today I signed up to take part in my first blog hop for members of the She Writes Books and Writing group. I always enjoy finding new interesting blogs and forging fresh alliances so I'd like to welcome all my fellow She Writes blog hoppers to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading my posts. I'll be dropping in on as many of you as I can. I've even created a blog button (scroll down the right hand column to find it) for any of you who are collecting them. My blogging tip is to keep a plan of future blog posts so you can look ahead to what you're going to be writing and collect necessary links, articles, images etc that you mig
Great book. I didn't read it until i was an adult, but I still have a hardcover copy on my bookshelf.
ReplyDeleteDidn't realize it was his birthday. I loved "Dracula" and so many of the incarnations, especially the Gary Oldman version. Fantastic!
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