Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Mon, 25 Jan 1993 22:16:34 EST
Reply-To:     Cathy Krusberg <CKBERG@UGA.BITNET>
Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was VAMPYRES@GUVM
From:         Cathy Krusberg <CKBERG@UGA.BITNET>
Subject:      Elves, books, seredipity....

First, the vampiric elf.  Offhand I know of one out there.  His name
is Jander, and he appears in

     Christie Golden.  _Vampire of the Mists_ (TSR, 1991)

First of an open-ended series of novels set in the Ravenloft universe.
I understand this is a tie-in with AD&D, perhaps RPG folks among you
can help/clarify on this.  Anyway, _Vampire of the Mists_ is a novel,
not a game module or anything like that, and tells how Jander became
a vampire and then got transported to Barovia, which is in the
Ravenloft universe, and met a more traditional sort of vampire,
Count Strahd von Zarovich.  And how he learned about Count Strahd's
dark past.

This is where the serendipity part comes in.  Yesterday the owner
of a local comics store let me peek at his 1993 TSR catalog, and
what should I discover but that in September 1993 TSR plans to
publish

     P. N. Elrod.  _I, Strahd_.  ISBN 1-56076-670-0
     hardcover, perfect bound (in case anybody cares)
     320 pp, projected price $16.95/$20.50 (TSR #8062)

This is apparently going to be a proper telling of Strahd's background,
rather than the hasty summary it got in _Vampire of the Mists._
TSR will simultaneously release a "game product" (module?) called
_House of Strahd_ (TSR #9418), which somehow is a tie-in to this novel.

P. N. Elrod, bless her, is the author of the series The Vampire Files,
a charming series of books set in Depression-era Chicago (mostly)
and featuring semi-reluctant vampire Jack Fleming.  They are
hard-boiled but light-hearted detective novels, and I highly recommend
them.  They are published by Ace.  Titles:

          Bloodlist
          Lifeblood
          Bloodcircle
          Art in the Blood
          Fire in the Blood
          Blood on the Water

With all the excitement that's come down recently about a vampiric
_Quantum Leap_ episode -- well, it's been done.  Sort of.  Yes, by
P. N. Elrod, more serendipity.  (*Love* that word!)  Elrod has
written a Quantum Leap-Vampire Files crossover that appears in
_Good Guys Wear Fangs_ #1, a fan publication that features both
original and media-based fiction, poetry, and artwork.  You have
to see GGWF to believe it.  281 numbered pages, plus ads.
There is fiction with Nick Knight, Barnabas Collins, Starsky &
Hutch ... and even a bit of *the* "Catching Cat."

The copy that I have is rather coy about price (like, I can't find
it anywhere), so I recommend that interested parties query the
editor-publisher (self-addressed, stamped envelope or IRC *highly*
recommended) about cost; also about guidelines and deadlines if
you might want to contribute to subsequent numbers.  Address:

     Mary Ann B. McKinnon
     254 Blunk Ave.
     Plymouth, MI  48170

In Elrod's story, "Partners in Time," Sam leaps into Fleming's
non-vampire partner Charles.  I enjoyed it.  Quality of the stories in
GGWF #1 varies, ditto the artwork.  Truth to tell, I haven't read all
of it yet, gee, wonder why ....

The bibliographer is getting groggy again or she would give full
details on one of her favorite reference books, _The Road to Hel_
(that's Hel with one l, folks) by H. R. Ellis, I think written
before she became H. R. Ellis Davidson.  It concerns North Germanic
beliefs about the dead, the afterlife, that sort of thing.  Elves
aside (no offense, Saum), Viking culture believed in corporeal
revenants called _draugar_ (Old Icelandic singular _draugr_;
Modern Icelandic singular _draugur_).  They didn't drink blood,
but they resembled folkloric vampires in many respects.  A number
of Icelandic sagas feature encounters with these walking dead.
(This bibliographer confesses to a mild obsession with both
Icelandic sagas and _draugar_, although lately she has not had time
to indulge it.)

In a separate posting I am going to ask whether anybody out there
knows where I can get my hands on a *subtitled* (not dubbed) version
of _Vampire Hunter D_.  (*Love* the thing!)  But it's too late at
night for something so purposeful, so I shall post this and quietly
crumple, breather-style, into bed....

Cathy Krusberg
ckberg@uga
ckberg@uga.cc.uga.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU