Sue Dent - Vampire Novelist Mississippi author Sue Dent made her fiction debut with the werewolf/vampire novel NEVER CEESE in 2006.  Since its release, NEVER CEESE has been short-listed for a Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel and was voted book club choice for the month of April 2007 a

Many folklore tales about vampires originate from Eastern Europe, although scholars have found evidence of similar blood-drinking monsters in ancient myth. The Greeks and Romans had imagined entities in their mythology with vampiric traits. And yet, when we look at early Eastern European tales of blood drinking ghouls, we don't find anything like the aristocratic and elegant Count Dracula, who is the archetypal vampire in the minds of many today.

Robert Lee carefully balanced the steering wheel at the pinnacle of its arc with his left hand. He took his eyes off the road for a moment to glance at his wife, cradled in his free arm with her head on his shoulder.
God, she was still so beautiful after all these years. He felt a pang of guilt over the premature lines that crossed her face. A tell-tale sign of the hardship their life turned out to be, though when he courted her over a decade and a half ago he had much more to offer.

Exclusive Excerpt
(Printed with permission of the publisher Limelight Editions, an imprint of Hal Leonard.)
CHAPTER FOUR
Dracula A.D. 1992
It was enough to make an Old World monster go back into the earth, this stunning irrelevance to the vast scheme of things, enough to make him lie down and die.
Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

With her fifth novel, Dracula in Love, author Karen Essex has become the umpteenth author to reimagine Bram Stoker's seminal work. There have been myriad versions sometimes told from the title character's point of view, others written through the eyes of his nemesis, Dr. Van Helsing.  Ms. Essex, however, set about retelling the story from a distinctly feminine point of view, namely that of Mr. Stoker's leading lady, Mina Murray. Ms.

As many of you have probably noticed, New Orleans, and indeed Louisiana in general, has become what Transylvania is to Europe -- the vampire center of the United States. So, what is it about this locale that has people mesmerized, as if they were staring into a vampire's eyes?