Dancing Vampires by Cornelia Amiri #HauntedHalloweenSpooktacular

Draculaand His Creator

You can never go wrong with a vampire costume for Halloween. It’s an all-timefavorite. And the popular ones are always Draculaesque versions.

As writers and readers, let’s think about that for a moment. Bram Stoker diedin April 1912, so, over a hundred years ago and his fictionalizedcharacter—Dracula—is still the most famous vampire in history. And there hasbeen a lot of competition, especially in the 21st century—Wrath, Lestat, BillCompton, Edward, the brothers: Stefan and Damon, as well as others.

So, why does this character, written over 100 years ago, still stand strong? Hewas villainous to the core, but we are still drawn to him. Why is that? Whatdid Bram Stoker put into Dracula’s character work to make this monster tick?Did Bram put some of himself into Dracula? Do we see some of ourselves in themonster as well?

Let’s do a few comparisons between Bram and Drac.

Many Stoker biographers reported he died of syphilis. It’s easy to see thesimilarities between vampirism and a disease like syphilis and imagine theguilt and concern Bram was burdened with over possibly infecting his wife.

Bram Stoker married actress Florence Balcombe in 1878. She was previouslyengaged to Oscar Wilde. From all accounts, she and Bram shared a deep love foreach other. We see those intense emotions written into Jonathan’s feelings forMina.

Also, Bram Stoker tied his own Irish heritage into his character and the story.Since Dracula is Eastern European, you may not have noticed the author’s Celticroots in the story, but I assure you they are there. Stoker actually wrote hisfirst draft of Dracula while he was a guest at Slains. The Slain castle inAberdeenshire Scotland, is often considered an inspiration for Dracula’s castlein the book.

On his mother’s side, Bram Stoker was a direct descendent of ’Manus O’Donnell(Manus ‘the Magnificent), the Irish clan chief, who led a rebellion againstHenry VIII in the 16th century.

So, Dracula’s backstory of a man with a great past as a warrior and ruler, nowdisplaced by the passage of history, living in the shadows, is also thebackstory of Bram Stoker’s ancestry.

It has been said that as a little boy in Ireland, Bram Stoker’s mother oftentold him stories, including scary tales. They must have included Irish folklore. There are many tales of dark vampiric fey in Celtic mythology. These darkfey are often extremely beautiful and seductive. The vampiric fey, the baobhansith, always roamed together as sisters. In Dracula, Bram Stoker’s descriptionof the three sisters in the vampire’s castle seems similar to dark Celtic fey.
Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark,piercing eyes that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale yellowmoon. The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great wavy masses of goldenhair and eyes like pale sapphires. I seemed somehow to know her face, and toknow it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at themoment how or where. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearlsagainst the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them thatmade me uneasy, some longing and, at the same time, some deadly fear. I felt inmy heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina’s eyes andcause her pain; but it is the truth. They whispered together, and then they allthree laughed—such a silvery, musical laugh, but as hard as though the soundnever could have come through the softness of human lips. It was like theintolerable, tingling sweetness of water-glasses when played on by a cunninghand. The fair girl shook her head coquettishly, and the other two urged heron. One said:“Go on! You are first, and we shall follow; yours is the right tobegin.” The other added:“He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all.”

Because Bram Stoker pulled deep from within his own history and wrote emotionand human pain into his book, Dracula, we connect with the horrors he created.We can see bits of ourselves in the monster …and that is what makes Dracula thescariest of all.

Maybe this Halloween, I’ll go as a female version of Bram Stoker. I’ll have toget a fake beard and mustache and a short-straight-hair wig. The 1900s-styleman’s suit and tie won’t be hard to find. No one will know who I’m supposed tobe, but that might be the funnest part. I can take pictures with all the peopledressed like vampires.

All the while, I’ll be quietly thinking, Bram, wherever your spirit is, I justwant you to know your best written character is still alive and well. You didit. You achieved what all authors dream of. May he live on in our minds forcenturies to come.

Have a fang-tastic Halloween everyone.

Dancing Vampires 
Cornelia Amiri
Genre: Fantasy RomancePublisher: Cornelia Amiri Date of Publication:  ‎April 30, 2017ISBN: 1545309116ASIN: B06ZZS5S8RNumber of pages: 422Word Count: 111,673Cover Artist: Kyra Starr
Tagline: Remember when you were having the best day ever and, in a flash, it turned into the worst one?
Book Description:
This is the complete six-book novella series of Dancing Vampires: Dance of the Vampires, Vampire Highland Fling, A Bonnie Vampire Dancer, Vampire Waltz, Valkyrie Vampire Sword Dancing, and Some Vampires Shimmy.
Remember when you were having the best day ever and, in a flash, it turned to the worse one?
Coming from the pub with your brothers, having a laugh, you see seven stunning women standing in the road. One starts dancing with you. Her sexy red fingernails turn to talons, and she shreds your back.
No? Maybe stuff like that just happens to me and my brothers… and a few other guys in the Scottish Highlands.
Ian’s right. I’m Sorcha, the one he danced with. My sisters and I are vampiric-fey. We were hunting men. But we only went after the McDuff brothers, a god, a bagpiper, an IT guy, and a steampunk musician. That’s it.
We decided to forget about drinking their blood and try loving them instead. But even with all the sizzling passion Ian and I and my sisters and their lovers have for each other… they’re obstacles to forbidden love.
Two big ones are:
The war goddess Morrigan. You do not want to make her mad.
And the Valkyries. Those you-know-what’s are bananas covered in nuts.
To find out if my sisters and I conquer them all and end up with the men we love, hit the Buy Now button above and come dance with the vampires.

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“What?” Mordak asked. Me? Love a human? Of course not. “Bythe goddess, you’ve lost your minds. I just want this one’s blood for myself.Run along, get your own. We’ll meet at the portal before dawn.”
      “See you back at the cairn.” Fuamnach tilted her chin inthe air and vanished.
      Aithbhreac disappeared as well.
      Mordak shifted her eyes back to the mortal. His merepresence commanded attention. What would be wrong with having a tryst with him?Goddess Morrigan has affairs with humans all the time.
      I thought they’d never leave. She fixed her gaze on thetall, striking man, and swinging her hips in a saucy fashion, she saunteredtoward him. As she “drew near him, she batted her eyelashes and flashed a smileto draw him in. Dancing with him would be even more fun than usual.
      A noisy, whoosh-like, shaking sound caught her attention.What now? She gasped with shock. This cannot be.
      Three women descended from the ebony sky with the wings ontheir bronze helmets flapping like a bird’s.
      What is happening? She hadn’t drunk any heather ale today.
“The vanilla-blond women landed smoothly on their feet, the wings stoppedflapping and laid back on their helmets, now totally still. All three womenglared at her with glacier blue eyes.
      Her palms were damp with sweat, she felt shaky. Theearthly realm was such a crazy place. Why did she send her sisters away? Sheneeded them now. Whoever or whatever these tall creatures in plate armorcorselets, flimsy white skirts and fur-topped boots were, they weren’t smilingat her.
      She noticed the human checking out the women from the rearand glancing at her as well. He had a huge grin on his face, as if his dreamshad come true. Mordak, however, faced a nightmare.
      The statuesque blonde in the center tilted her chin in theair. “The man is mine.”
      “Yours?” Anger pulsated through Mordak’s body. “He’s notyours.”
      People couldn’t just fly down from who knows where andclaim the man she liked. Mordak schooled her face into composure and met thewoman’s gaze. “Just who or what…are you?”
      “Randgrid.” The tallest of the blondes didn’t break her stare,not even one blink. “I am a Valkyrie.”
With a thin, tight-lipped expression, she set her hand on her hip. “Be gone,baobhan sith.”
      “Me. No, no…you’re the one in the wrong place.” Mordakshook her hand at the Valkyrie. “This is Scotland, not Denmark or Valhalla orwherever you think you are.”
      “He’s a Gunn.” Randgrid jerked her head toward the man.“So, he is ours.”
      “Of Clan Gunn?” She glared at the silly woman in thewinged helmet. “The word clan is the whole point. He’s Scottish. He’s mine.”
      Randgrid and her two sisters said together, “Gunn is thepoint. The descendant of a Viking hero is ours.”

About the Author: 
Cornelia Amiri was introduced through books to the woman who became her favorite historical character, Boudica. The Celtic Warrior Queen made her start writing professionally. Cornelia loves history and in reading a book about the dark ages, she came across the rebel queen, who inspired Cornelia so much, she started jotting down notes, but they were fiction, visions of her involved in the Boudica revolt. Before Cornelia knew it, she’d accidentally written a rough draft for a novel. And she’s been writing books on purpose ever since. Drawing on her love of a happy ending, Cornelia has written over 40 published romance books.
Now, for the more mundane stuff — Cornelia Amiri and her muse, Severus the Cat, live amid the hustle and bustle of sultry Houston, Texas. When not writing, Cornelia loves to read, watch movies, and attend comic cons. She is currently working on a sequel to Rare Finds and a sequel to The Brass Octopus, which she is renaming and republishing as The Librarian and the Rake.
Website https://corneliaamiri.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/CorneliaAmiri
Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@corneliaamiri2
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CelticRomanceQueen 
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/celticromancequeen
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/475961.Cornelia_Amiri 



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