David Lee Summers's Blog, page 2

A Matter for Men

As a kid, I loved Star Trek. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the beginning of each episode prominently featured the name of the writer and I soon realized that I could find books by those writers at the local library. One of those writers was David Gerrold whose first sale was the Star Trek episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles.” One of the first library books I found was Gerrold’s book about writing and selling that episode. It’s the book that made me want to be a writer too. I eventua...

Poe’s Vampires

As I noted a week ago, I’ve been curious about Edgar Allan Poe’s knowledge of vampire fiction and whether those stories might have influenced his writing. When looking at the body of Poe’s work, you certainly don’t find any stories about pointy-toothed fiends sneaking around and drinking people’s blood. That said, the tropes in the vampire fiction of the early 1800s were somewhat different than they are today. In reading three novellas that existed prior to Poe’s earliest stories – John Polidori...

Morgana Pendragon

Back in college, I remember watching the movie Excalibur with some friends. There were debates about how close the movie adhered to the “true” legend of King Arthur. This actually made me to wonder exactly how the legend of King Arthur came about. A couple of weeks later, I was in a very nice used bookstore in Albuquerque and found a book that collected the few historical writings that might have inspired the legend alongside a collection of Arthurian fiction from the middle ages. It opened my e...

Wake Not the Dead

Having learned recently that I’m likely related to one of the most famous early writers of dark fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, I grew curious about whether he’d encountered vampire legends and how they might have influenced him. While it’s true that Poe wrote no overt vampire tales, there is an arc of stories that have vampire-like themes and would require only minor changes to make them fit easily into the genre. I’ll discuss that story arc a week from now, but today, I’m focused on influences, whic...

Cousin Edgar’s Novel

My great grandmother was born Sarah Elizabeth Poe. What’s more, my dad once told me that, as far as he knew, most of his family originally settled around Virginia and Maryland in colonial America. Taken together, those two facts have long made me wonder if I could somehow be related to Edgar Allan Poe. Recently, I’ve come across three separate genealogies that, in fact, show Sarah Elizabeth Poe to be a direct descendant of Edgar Allan Poe’s grandfather, David Poe, Sr. If true, this would make me...

Queen of the Damned, the Movie

Given that I recently reread Anne Rice’s novel, Queen of the Damned, I thought it would be fun to revisit the 2002 film. I didn’t see the film until I purchased the DVD from a discount rack a couple of years after release, largely because it came out between the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and the birth of my second child in the spring of 2002. That said, rewatching the film this year brought home how big a tragedy the loss of the star, Aaliyah, was since my youngest daughter is now olde...

Stranger in a Strange Land

Today finds me in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Bubonicon. We’re at the Albuquerque Marriott Uptown and when I’m not on panels, you can find me in the dealer’s room. I have all my books plus some great books by other authors, so be sure to stop by. I am neither a stranger to Albuquerque nor is it a strange land to me. I have lived and worked in Albuquerque and my children live there now. However, back in the early 1990s when I lived there, I began my first real forays into the works of Robert A. He...

Bubonicon 56

Bubonicon 56 will be held this weekend from August 22 through 24 at the Albuquerque Marriott Uptown near the intersection of Louisiana Boulevard and I-10. Bubonicon is New Mexico’s longest-running Sci-Fi & Fantasy literary and arts convention, started in 1969. Join me in Albuquerque for a great weekend of fun! There will be panels and presentations featuring great authors, artists, and scientists, a costume contest, art show, dealer’s room, charity auctions, fan programming, and much more! This ...

Amazonia

Tom Hutchison, the owner and principal writer for the indie comic company Big Dog Ink has been a great source for recommending interesting comic book and graphic novel reads. One of the comics he’s recommended multiple times is Amazonia written by William Messner-Loebs with artwork by Phil Winslade and Patricia Mulvihill. The graphic novel is part of DC Comics’ Elseworlds line where they imagine their heroes existing in alternate realities. In this case, we’re treated to Wonder Woman in an alter...

Beasts in Velvet

After an enjoyable time in New Orleans and a pleasant time signing my Scarlet Order Vampire novels at the Boutique du Vampyre Apothecary in the French Quarter, I thought it might be a good time to return to the third novel in the Vampire Genevieve Warhammer saga by Kim Newman. Before I proceed, I should explain that I purchased the Vampire Genevieve novels in a collected edition and the novel Beasts in Velvet is, indeed, the third novel in the collection. That said, it soon became apparent that ...