I am excited about my latest work in progress "Transylvania". There is an over abundance and devout hunger for the vampire scene thanks to Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyers. Alas my composition has nothing to do with Dracula being a vampire or any of the other stereotypical romance that I feel has been exhausted. In another setting I have managed to implement the same elements in a story that contrives the use of werewolfs and rabies infected prisoners as well as apocolyptic figures in the realm of Dracula's dreams. It is a story about a Wallachian family that has been forced to evacuate their village after Dracula's soldiers burn them. The soldiers also poison the wells to opress an advancing Turkish army which forces the family to move closer to Transylvania. They are thrust into an unexpected confrontation and adventure that eventually leads them into the bowels of Draculas Castle. The eight-year-old baby sister Ramona is forced to hide in Dracula's room for an evening, and the family makes an attempt to rescue her.
I have been doing avid research on Romania and the actual life of Prince Vlad III the impaler, "Dracula". He had quite an extraordinary life as a Voivod ruler of Wallachia. I have no doubt that he was slightly insane, but I think that it was due to the exposure he was given from his families hardship with the Turkish opposition at a very young age. He was held hostage for a number of years with his brother and witnessed unspeakable horrors done to prisoners. Later his father and brother were buried alive by the Boyars of Wallachia. So cruelty was an accepted trademark of the dark ages. None-the-less I feel that Dracula out-did everyone in his time period. I'm sure you have all seen or possibly read Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is the famous version of Vlad's story actually written in the late 19th century. Contrary to this popular novel, there was never any historical evidence that people believed Dracula to be vampire. In putting this piece together I have found that some of the facts about dracula's life and lust for torture prove to be alot scarrier than your comic book vampire. For one thing, these atrocities actually occurred, so in a sense I'm not making a lot of it up. I refrain from glorifying Dracula's sedistic deeds in anyway, however they do happen throughout the novel. Some of the research I did was quite revealing, and there were things far too grotesque and disturbing for me to implement.
For those of you that are not in favor of horror novels, I have tried to accomodate your reading pleasure as well. I try to infuse as much comedy as I can into my books. I find that it actually complements the drama of a story. When there are characters that have a real human side to them, you seem to fall into the fiction easier and it makes for a great story. I think it is important to create characters that people you actually care about, and I feel that is a missing element to most vampire novels. I just never really care enough about the main characters, so when they end up in trouble I kind of think, "Well they sort of deserve it!" You know what I mean? I promise you that this upcoming publication will keep you on your toes, but it has warmth and human regard built into characters that try to successfully prevail. I have no qualms about sharing excerpts from the story also, if you are interested.
Jay Agnello
Author: "Transylvania"
I have been doing avid research on Romania and the actual life of Prince Vlad III the impaler, "Dracula". He had quite an extraordinary life as a Voivod ruler of Wallachia. I have no doubt that he was slightly insane, but I think that it was due to the exposure he was given from his families hardship with the Turkish opposition at a very young age. He was held hostage for a number of years with his brother and witnessed unspeakable horrors done to prisoners. Later his father and brother were buried alive by the Boyars of Wallachia. So cruelty was an accepted trademark of the dark ages. None-the-less I feel that Dracula out-did everyone in his time period. I'm sure you have all seen or possibly read Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is the famous version of Vlad's story actually written in the late 19th century. Contrary to this popular novel, there was never any historical evidence that people believed Dracula to be vampire. In putting this piece together I have found that some of the facts about dracula's life and lust for torture prove to be alot scarrier than your comic book vampire. For one thing, these atrocities actually occurred, so in a sense I'm not making a lot of it up. I refrain from glorifying Dracula's sedistic deeds in anyway, however they do happen throughout the novel. Some of the research I did was quite revealing, and there were things far too grotesque and disturbing for me to implement.
For those of you that are not in favor of horror novels, I have tried to accomodate your reading pleasure as well. I try to infuse as much comedy as I can into my books. I find that it actually complements the drama of a story. When there are characters that have a real human side to them, you seem to fall into the fiction easier and it makes for a great story. I think it is important to create characters that people you actually care about, and I feel that is a missing element to most vampire novels. I just never really care enough about the main characters, so when they end up in trouble I kind of think, "Well they sort of deserve it!" You know what I mean? I promise you that this upcoming publication will keep you on your toes, but it has warmth and human regard built into characters that try to successfully prevail. I have no qualms about sharing excerpts from the story also, if you are interested.
Jay Agnello
Author: "Transylvania"
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