#blood of Dracula font

[glittergroovy]

[see-arcane]

The Vampyres--The Bones and Blood of the Book

Good news! I’m not dead and the book isn’t either! Just shambling slowly through the wasteland of the publication process. It’s been a bit since I last waved this bloody morsel around. So, consider this a progress report on the state of the novella, the prospective publishing options, and a few other questions that have been bouncing around in the inbox.

EDIT:

I have a website now! For some reason.

It's See Arcane Scribbles.

Smaller Edit:

Got a Spotify too for story soundtrack goodness:

COVERS

First things first—and the first part of a finished book is the cover. Here are some mockups I’ve been juggling, starting with the original placeholder. They’re far from perfect, but I’m proud of what I managed with a fairly skinny graphic art skill set.

FINISHING, FORMAT, AND FINANCE*

*(OR, THE HEADACHENING)

Copyright: Technically speaking, you have the copyright to your own writing once you put it to paper or screen. But this is somehow a different thing from a legally-binding registered copyright, which everyone declares is a must-have if you want your work to be protected with more than a non-textual trust-fall exercise, hoping nobody steals your work and runs.

That said, electronic registration with the copyright office is $65, or $45 to register one work by one author.

ISBN: I only recently learned the words behind this acronym. ‘International Standard Book Number.’ It’s the ID on a book that marks it as unique and helps commercial booksellers and libraries circulate it. Each iteration of a book—paperback, digital, hardcover, new editions, et cetera—has its own ISBN. When you’re publishing on your own, you purchase ISBNs through a service called Bowker.

One book/version’s ISBN costs $125.

There are better bargains the higher the number of books and/or versions you go, starting at a bulk of 10 books for $295. But as I only have the one (1) skinny novella on the table, that’s a no-go. Which begs the question of how many ISBNs are in store for this little monster. It depends on how many formats I go with.

eBook: The quickest and most cost-efficient option across the board for any self-publication service. Short, sweet, no printing pains of trim sizes or distribution costs or formatting, oh my. Nice.

Paperback VS Hardcover: …But I am now and forever a sucker for physical media. Even though it’s a teeny brochure of a thing, I want to hold a physical copy of The Vampyres in my hands! So bad! And every service I’ve looked through has stated the obvious: Hardcover costs more than paperback. My heart won’t break if I have to stick with paperback to spare everyone’s wallets—hardcovers are pricy in both directions!—but I am a little torn. Especially as physical size might affect the price too.

Here we have two of my favorite quick reads, an anthology of Poe stories and Clive Barker’s novella, The Hellbound Heart.

The Poe book is a clothbound hardcover. 6.5 x 4.5 inches, a bit over 120 pages.

The Hellbound Heart is roughly 8 x 5 inches (about standard for a novella), at 164 pages. But unlike Poe, it looks like Barker took some liberties with the spacing and font size.

Standard size dimensions cost less than unique cuts, which means that whether paperback or hardcover, I sadly have to say goodbye to the petite palm-sized edition I was hoping for. On the upside, good news to us crap-vision readers—the font’s going to get H U G E in order to make the book more than a pamphlet with delusions of grandeur.

Audiobook: The fact is, my voice is not up to the task of reciting anything with appropriate gravitas and I think we’ve all been spoiled by @re-dracula and assorted other podcasts’ skill in orating. I don’t have the cash to hire a professional and I’m not about to accept anyone’s freebie offers. I won’t pickpocket friends for their talent. If an audio version ever comes along for any story of mine it’ll be down the road when it proves worth the format’s effort and cost.

REVIEWS (and a Foreword!)

It was the best of times (People reading the thing! Commenting on the thing! Good good good—), it was the worst of times (The Mortifying Ordeal of People Reading and Commenting on the Thing). Time for what every advice site declares a book absolutely must have the moment it’s thrust into the wild.

Reviews, reviews, reviews.

I’ve already bitten several bullets and passed copies out to a handful of fellow scribblers to scrutinize, their reviews destined to be hung up like literary gold stars on their bookselling site of choice, my own included. Now comes my preliminary grovel to readers en masse to please drop a review, a comment, a blurb of any shape or size where you can once The Vampyres drops. I’ve already gotten some early comments that have consisted mostly of screaming. Screams also count as a review.

As an aside, there are two folks in particular who I reached out to who exist in the stratosphere of Coolest People in the Vampiric Lit scene. They promptly exploded me into disbelieving giblets when they told me, yes, they’d be happy to read my little story and offer up a review and a foreword for the book respectively.

I’m not sure what the decorum here is, but for safety (and surprise’s) sake, I’ll not name names. But they are names I’ve been happy to come across for the past two years while neck deep in the undead book club. I’m infinitely grateful to both of them and am waiting on pins, needles, stakes and kukri blades by my inbox so I can pin their words up inside the book itself.

FUTURE SCRIBBLING

To get one of the biggest questions out of the way, let’s talk about Barking Harker.

My very own object lesson on sunk cost fallacy.

I wrote my way through a goddamn cinderblock of text without even grazing the finish line of the first section of the story. A story made of so many convoluted triple-decker layers of subplots and side characters that it had the structural integrity of a monolithic Nature Valley granola bar, just waiting to fall apart under its own weight. Such is the hubris and curse of too-many-words-itis. The Vampyres remains a miraculous fluke, jotted down during an overdue break from BH’s slog. Not just because I tripped and fell into finishing the story, but because it’s comparatively compact! Brevity at last!

For those still craving the assorted gothic and ghoulish promises of the initial novel idea, don’t worry, those aren’t going anywhere. I’ve just crumbled the metaphorical bloodstained granola by my own hand and have done the sane thing of parsing out the various subplots to become the foundations of their own stories. Which they really should have been from the get-go. Insert 100+ clown emojis here.

On that note, I am turning into WIPs Georg over here. Good god.

I hesitate to throw myself all-in again and make promises of X Story that may leave me spinning my mental wheels or ballooning the plot out into a behemoth that can’t be steered back on course. Even so, here’s a peek at a few ideas I currently have on the brain.

So.

Not exactly lacking for stories. It’s just a matter of seeing which of them breaks ahead of the herd and squeezes out into the publication ether first.

LAST BIT  

Blah, blah, requisite reminder that I have a Ko-Fi where you can donate a buck or commission my best attempt at art, blah. Any pennies are a help.

But I’m betting very few of you came around here for my doodles. Somehow, a good amount of people tripped into this pit with me because you enjoy the rambles and horrors I’ve written over the years. Maybe some of you will even buy my book once it’s out. And you, there, on the other side of the screen—you’re reading this right now. You made it all the way to the bottom of this pile of exposition just because you wanted to. So, thank you.

Thank you for reading this far. Thank you for reading before and reading what’s to come. Thank you for giving me the confidence to even consider shouldering my own work out into the wider world.

Thank you.

P.S. If you want to re-read the preview, go here!

[gaykarstaagforever]

The oversized skulls are a bit much, and I'm distracted by whether that hood shape makes sense with the size of a human head. And there is weird artifacting or lighting on the cape. But it has a cool vibe. And they went with the classic Dracula R in the font.

Penguin once again, with a Universal Monsters movie poster style. Unfortunately, Dracula looks like he's irritated that a tourist took his picture without asking.

Obviously an old one, from a time before the novel was so culturally ubiquitous. They're selling it with a funky drawing of one of the book's weirder moments. Dracula and vampires weren't suave and sexy yet, they were just creepy monsters who ate babies. This shows that. I respect it. Love the batwing arm cape.

Good color contrast, simple but still ominous, and I like the flocks of bats. One of the older and better castle / moon ones.

This feels like a new one, trying to look old. That bat costume lady feels like you Googled "vampire public domain," then took an early lunch.

Why are the As upside-down? To be like fangs? Fine, I guess, but then format the word to be shaped like a mouth. Which would also be weird, but if you're going to bother...

This is the first legit crap one. What is with the same bug image, mirrored? At least use bats. I don't understand the point of cursive fonts in the first place, and this proves why. Who is this for? What is the point? Bad is better than mediocre, and this is dreadfully mediocre. Blegh.

Castle Bran and the moon yet again, but now the moon is a gooey blood puddle. With some flying foxes sprinkled in. It's fine, for a boilerplate inoffensive edition for a Walmart shelf. At least there aren't inexplicable insects.

Bela Lugosi in front of Cinderella's Castle, during a hurricane. Meh. The screaming face in the red part of the cape is a nice touch for what is otherwise kind of whatever.

I mean, it's a tie-in reprint. I like the title font.

Weird choice of photo. He looks confused. But I'm not familiar with this show, so maybe it means more to you if you are.

Odd to go with a sensual romance novel-style for an illustrated educational version, since those are usually for children. And this isn't even a scene in the book. But I like the garish colors and "Hammer Horror meets Goosebumps" vibe. It's fun, at least.

[pinkiepiebones]

Renfield prompt: Rebecca helps Robert celebrate his first post-Dracula Halloween

The day before Halloween, Robert is home. He's finally mending the damaged arm of his arm chair, affixing a fabric sunflower he had cobbled together from remnant scraps to the torn upholstery like a cheery bandage. Rebecca texts "yo open up" and as Robert crosses the living room to get to the door she's already knocking.

Rebecca gestures to his door. "You're really not decorating for Halloween? Not even a little ghost or somethin'?" Robert shrugs and steps aside so she can come in and sit on the sofa in what was unofficially her spot. He moves back to keep working on his chair.

"I just don't see the appeal of Halloween, Beck," he explains. "I've seen enough in my lifetime that nothing can scare me, which I have gathered is the big draw of this holiday for adults." He pauses to thread his needled onto a new piece of embroidery floss. "That and dressing up in, um. Not much."

Rebecca purses her lips in thought. "Really? None of that appeals to you?"

"Not really, no."

"What if I tell you that part of being human is doing stupid shit like dressing up and getting wasted with your friends while 'Monster Mash' and 'Thriller' get played on repeat?"

Robert stops to admire his mending work. And to think.

"I spent the last week at work decorating cakes for Halloween parties, and my free time's been here, sewing patches for my furniture." He looks at her, then, a kind of mischief lighting his eyes. "What sort of costume can one find at the last minute?"

Rebecca grins.

--

The Spirt Halloween Store is a strange thing, Robert thinks. Rebecca had told him how the stores set up inside the decayed husks of former businesses. "Much like a real spirit," Robert had commented without further elaboration. Robert is unphased by the animatronics and the sacks of bones and body parts. He mentions something about the offering of zombie costumes being 'bad stereotypes,' whatever that means, and expresses genuine perplexion over whatever the fuck a Fortnight is.

Rebecca hesitates when she sees Robert stop at a display of vampire costumes and accessories. The display featured capes ranging from cheap polyester to high collared velvet lined silk, red and black suits and gowns, fake fangs from saliva-pooling plastic dentures to unnervingly realistic enamels, chewable blood capsules, contact lenses, press-on claws and black nail polish, gaudy bat-themed jewelry, walking sticks and parasols, top hats, wigs with pronounced widows peaks, red-tinted glasses, pallid face powder, latex appliqués of bite wounds, and a stack of black T-shirts with the slogan I VANT TO SUCK YOUR DICK printed on them in a dripping red font. Rebecca is about to touch Robert's arm, ground him, see if he's okay, when he laughs. He picks up one of the shirts and holds it against his chest and turns for Rebecca to see.

"This is so, so crass, but I kind of want one? Maybe for a sleep shirt. It's just- fuck it, I'm getting it."

Rebecca chuckles. "So you don't want a vampire costume?" Robert makes a face.

"Fuck, no. Vampires are pricks, the lot of 'em." He starts to head towards a wall of masks when something else catches his eye and he wanders over like a moth to a flame.

"That. I want that one."

Rebecca looks up to see what he's been transfixed by and blinks in disbelief.

"Rob. You're a fucking weirdo" Rebecca teases.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm in similar company, isn't it" Robert teases back. He reaches up and starts looking for something in his size.

Rebecca sighs and and goes to find herself a costume that will not look like it's associated with Robert's at all.

--

Halloween night, a flapper girl and a tiger walk into a bar. Rebecca stops to adjust her wig and motions for Robert to bend so she can adjust his ear headband.

"How're my whiskers?"

"Purr-fect. How's my dress?"

"It's the bee's knees."

Rebecca nods and gestures with her cigarette holder.

"Happy Halloween, Rob. Let's go get drunk."

[sidhewrites]

21! Who even knows! but we're having fun! Also i forgot to establish that only kaz can read the fancy spell book so just kind of accept it for now.

Project Info

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

[Action and rising tension. Make the next scene shorter]

From our hiding place, Josie opens the book, and turns it towards me. "You're the one who bled on it, so you get to read it. What does it say?"

"I don't know -- I can't--" I fumble, looking everywhere but the book.

"You have to," Josie insists.

"You can do it," Lucy says gently. She reaches out, putting a hand near my shoulder. Not close enough to touch, but enough that I feel a certain coolness prickling on my skin. My heart flutters, and I'm grateful she doesn't say the quiet part out loud. Because if I can't do this, the entire town is doomed to be sucked off into the afterlife to be tormented by ghosts for the rest of eternity.

I swallow hard, squeezing my eyes shut, and let out a long, steadying breath. When I open them again, the page is exactly the same as before, but I understand the symbols on it now, as easily as if it were written in English. Ending the visitation of unwelcome Guests, it reads, which, I suppose, is the polite way of putting it.

I read aloud, desperate for Josie to understand the directions better than I do. Lucy's presence is a reassuring balm, keeping me as focused as I ever could be under potential-apocalypse-induced stress. And I think I do pretty well, since Josie's face goes from fear to confusion to bemused acceptance as I read. Once I'm done, I turn to her and say, "What's the SparkNotes version, teach?"

"We need to create a cage," she says. "Something made of this world to trick him into thinking we've given him a new bodily host, one stronger than the skeleton he's haunting now."

"Cool," I say, and then say it a few more times for good luck. "So the locks of hair or pieces of ourselves? Just -- you know, making sure I understand."

"That's to create the body."

"Cool," I say again, because I am a font of eloquence in even the most trying of times. "So what goes into a body?"

"Uh...The spell didn't clarify. Usually, though, it's kind of just..." She mimes cutting her hand open.

"If you say blood sacrifice out loud I'm going to go join the ghosts."

"It's just that it's the most powerful! You know, the blood is the life and all that. It contains an intrinsic piece of you."

"Don't use my love of Bram Stoker's Dracula against me." I hug Renfield closer. He's still unconcious, but his breathing is even, and getting stronger by the minute. If she even thinks of getting close to him with a knife, I'll -- okay, I won't kill her, but I'd do something drastic.

"We could do other things. Saliva, a personal valuable, a hair clipping."

"That one. We do that one."

Josie sighs, but ultimately agrees. "Okay. A lock of hair from all of us with a physical body.

"Aw, no witchcraft for Lucy," I say, and pull the multi-tool out of my pocket and pulling out the tiny scissors while Josie looks around for something to use. She settles on a nearby metal urn meant to hold flowers, long-since rusted over and dented. "How much hair do we need?" [Establish a bit earlier in the story kaz always has a multi-tool on her in one of her pockets, and also that she wears cargo shorts. ]

Josie shakes her head, expression tight. "Some. I don't know." I wonder if this is the first time she's ever done real witchcraft like this. I know she's done chaos magic in the past -- rituals coupled with intent that help you with things you're already doing, like study for a test or get the job she wants. But I have a feeling this is more than even she ever imagined doing.

Rather than sitting around in discomfort, I let Renfield go just long enough to cut off a three-inch-long piece of my hair, faded pink and sad-looking. My side-shave is growing in unevenly as well, but I don't know if I've ever cared less about my hair than right now.

Josie takes it from me, and places it carefully in the urn. I snip off a bit of Renfield's fur as well, and do the same. Then I hand the tool over to Josie, who adds her own hair to the urn. She pauses, looks at me, and doesn't even give me a chance to say please no before switching the scissors for the multi-tool's tiny knife and drawing it along her hand, just enough to draw a bit of blood. She hisses, but holds her hand out, letting a few drops fall into the urn before flexing her fingers and handing the tool back to me.

"Thank you for the biohazard," I say, stashing it in my pocket.

"I'm sorry."

I pause, fighting every urge to be sarcastic at her about apologizing, and nod at the spell book. "What's next?"

"We have to perform an invocation. A chant," she adds, glancing at me pointedly. I don't like that she knows I don't know the meaning of the word invocation, but whatever. "I'll write it down. Kaz, can you read it again?"

As I reread the magic words (invocation, ugh), Josie transcribes it into her notes app, much to Lucy's fascination. She leans over Josie's shoulder, watching Josie's hands fly across a digital keyboard, barely holding in her questions about how the touch-screen works.

"Okay. We have to say it together," Josie says. "Power of three. Just trust me."

I do. We both do. Josie puts one hand over her heart, and the other on the urn. Our chanting is uncertain and unsteady, and we have to pause when Josie's phone times out and goes dark.

She fumbles with the settings so it won't do that again, and we start over. It's clumsy, and I feel like this would work better if we were speaking in perfect unison, but Josie had always told me magic was as much about intent as it was the ritual itself. I don't know how this works, and I have to fight to stay focused on reading the words, rather than whether or not my intentions are strong enough or whatever. I picture a psychic beam of make this work at the urn.

After long enough, it works. A faint blue light spreads out from our hands, lighting up the old rusted metal until it glows.

I stop chanting for a second, looking around to cheer on our success, but Lucy and Josie keep going, shooting glances my way. I fumble and rejoin them, going over the last few lines and desperately hoping that I didn't fuck up everything. But the glowing doesn't fade, and we finish more or less confidently.

"Okay," Jose says. "Let's go get this guy." But when she glances up, any hint of confidence fades. "Well. Um. Hm."

Lucy and I follow her gaze, though we don't have to look up very far. Our work has attracted the attention of other ghosts around the cemetery -- half-formed specters, shapeless auras. The dead stand around us in a circle. And above us, the sky has turned a sickly green, reflecting off the clouds and giving the world an evil look.

Tag List

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@halfbloodlycan

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[argocitycosplay]

Dracula 2000

I’ve spent way too much time trying to figure out why this film is so hated. I’ll admit, the font used on the titles is a little over the top and the use of classic Dracula protagonists names for modern characters is a little irritating, but honestly – look at that opening shot of the Demetre… The blue cast that contrasts with the red blood on the people and on the sails. It’s amazing. The…

[noahsbookhoard]

📚 Hi! I'm Noah avid reader since age 6 and always happy to discuss books! 📚

I read almost all genre with sweet tooth for fantasy and sci-fi. I also have a growing interest in murder mystery and horror. Lots of queer fiction. I'm also catching up on my classics.

Mostly adult and some young adult but I have enjoy middle grade from time to time.

I especially love Terry Pratchett, Victor Hugo, Agatha Christie and T J Klune.

I read in both english and french, english not being my first language but I'm close to fluent.

Yearly book count : 123

Last finished reading

Une belle vie by Virginie Grimaldi

Reading in progress

La Dame du manoir de Wildfell Hall (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) by Anne Brontë

The Restaurang at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #2) by Douglas Adams

Already read this year (in reverse chronological order)

If We Were Villains by M L Rio

(The lines in pink are book crushes)

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Wintersmith (Discworld #34) by Terry Pratchett

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson

What Feast at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T Kingfisher

Le Bastion des Larmes by Abdellah Taïa

War and Peace by Leon Tolstoi

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Rule of Two (Darth Bane Trilogy #2) by Drew Karpyshyn

Les Dragons by Jérôme Colin

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J Taylor

Le dieu d'automne et d'hiver by Pauline Sidre

Les Possibles by Virginie Grimaldi

A Close and Common Orbit (Wayfarer #2) by Becky Chambers

The Outsider by Stephen King

Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow

Tous les silence ne font pas le même bruit by Baptiste Beaulieu

Trois battements un silence by Anne Fakhouri

Kiss Kiss by Roal Dahl

Assassin's Apprentice (Realm of the Elderlings #1) by Robin Hobb

Halloween Party by Agatha Christie

Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diary #2) by Martha Wells

The Light Throught the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah

Et que ne durent que les moments doux by Virginie Grimaldi

The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim

Ring Shout by P Djeli Clark

The Rest of the Robots (Robots #2) by Isaac Asimov

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

On the Way to the Wedding (Bridgerton #8) by Julia Quinn

Our Missing Heart by Celeste Ng

Book of Blood I by Clive Barker

Ilos by Marion Brunet

Babel by R F Kuang

Rosemary and Rue (October Daye #1) by Seanan McGuire

Thud! (Discworld #34) by Terry Pratchett

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

Les aventures de Billy et du Pyrobarbare : la forteresse du chaudron noir by Bob Lennon

Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente

Magie et Sentiments : les secrets de Longdawn by Ariel Holzl

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

It's in His Kiss (Brigerton #7) by Julia Quinn

Les Cinq by Matthieu Rochelle

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Paul Smith

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #1) by C S Lewis

How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub by P Djeli Clark

An Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

The Oleander Sword (The Burning Kingdoms #2) by Tasha Suri

Time to Orbit : Unknown by Derin Edala

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane

Under the Whispering Door by T J Klune

The Moth Keeper by Kay O'Neill

Cain's Jawbone by E Powys Mathers

Darth Bane : Path of Destruction (Darth Bane #1) by Drew Karpyshyn

Du thé pour les fantômes by Chris Vuklisevic

Labyrinthes (Caleb Tracksman #3) by Franck Thiliez

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers

Le dernier des siens by Sibylle Grimbert

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

Going Postal (Discworld #33) by Terry Pratchett

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Blanche-Neige et les lances-missiles (Du temps où les dieux buvaient #1) by Catherine Dufour

When He Was Wicked (Bridgerton #6) by Julia Quinn

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Celle qu'il attendait by Baptiste Beaulieu

Jusqu'à ce que mort s'ensuive by Olivier Rolin

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Umbrella Academy Vol 1-3 by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bà

Il était deux fois (Caleb Tracksman #2) by Franck Thilliez

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

To Sir Phillip With Love (Bridgerton #5) by Julia Quinn

Le papillon des étoiles by Bernard Werber

Beren and Luthien by J R R Tolkien

A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld #32) by Terry Pratchett

Le manuscrit inachevé (Caleb Tracksman #1) by Frnaxk Thiliez

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Akata Witch (Akata Witch #1) by Nnedi Okorafor

Romancing Mr Bridgerton (Bridgerton #4) by Julia Quinn

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

An Offer from a Gentleman (Bridgerton #3) by Julia Quinn

Delicious in Dungeon vol 1-14 by Ryoko Kui

Doctor Who : the Star Beast by Gary Russell

La promesse de l'aube by Romain Gary

The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adam

The Illiad by Homer (trad Emily Wilson)

The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgerton #2) by Julia Quinn

The Me You Love in the Dark by Scotty Young and

The Duke and I (Bridgerton #1) by Julia Quinn

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

Nona the Ninth (Locked Tomb #3) by Tamsyn Muir

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune

I, Robot (Robot #1) by Isaac Asimov

Monstrous Regiment (Discworld #31) by Terry Pratchett

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in your Home by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink

Fullmetal Alchemist Vol 1-27 by Hiromu Arakawa

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fischer by E M Anderson

All System Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

Veiller sur elle by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Segurant le chevalier au dragon by Emanuele Arioli

Chanson Douce by Leila Sleimane

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

He Who Drowned The World (The Radiant Emperor #2) by Shelley Parker Chan

Et à la fin ils meurent by Lou Lubie

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

The Wee Free Men (Discworld #30) by Terry Pratchett

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Harrow the Ninth (Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir

Histoire de coming out by Baptiste Beaulieu and Sophie Nanteuil

Heartstopper Vol 1-4 by Alice Oseman

The Old Guard by Greg Rucka

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

La Cicatrice by Bruce Lowrey

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Us by Sara Soler

Gideon the Ninth (Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir

[vertoludum]

im always thinking about how bram stoker did everything but write in gigantic font BLOOD = SEX. the way lucy needs blood transfusions from three different men other than her fiancée/husband and they all decide to keep it a secret from him or else he'd be consumed by jealousy, the way dracula was obviously seducing everyone and drinking their blood (or trying to) the way he shoos his brides when they're scaring the hoe (johnathan) and yells "this man is mine" (🤨) it's like okay you get me. tell me more.

[badkatdesigns]

Dropping today at 12:30 GMT!

This month’s theme was Vampire Beach Party, inspired by Dracula Daily and the fact that it’s hot as balls already and I would love to be at the beach. I went all fucking out on these rewards, so I hope you guys like them! :)

We’ve got 4 rigged and skinned 3D models: a dilfy man-bun aristocratic Dracula, a bratty and emo-inspired fruity bitch Lestat de Lioncourt, a sultry Vampirella and an athletic but still on-theme Karmilla Karnstein! Available for my £15 patrons, you can get them in OBJ and FBX formats to import into your own projects, or print the STLs for your desk (the images above are of their posed STLs)!

I truly went so hard on the props this month! The drop includes the vampire beach set itself, just a spooky island with 2D emissive moon and stars, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff! There’s vampire-themed pool floaties, drinks, and patio furniture (the table is rigged, and has bones for any drink, simply parent the objects to said bones), and some ground plants and trees. Available for my £10 and up patrons in both FBX and OBJ formats for importing! 

This month’s Clip Studio brushes are more classically vampiric in energy; we’ve got a blood drip brush (11 brush tips, grey colorspace), a bat spray brush (7 brush tips, grey colorspace, my personal fave), and a spooky coffin brush (3 brush tips, grey colorspace, color jitter on the interiors)! Available for my £7 and up Patrons :) They can be used with any drawing program that uses the SRT format for brushes!

For fonts this month we have Pina CoBlooda, a drippier take on the classic tropical font, with skull and batwing flourishes, and Vampire Party, a ding-style illustrative font that centres vampires, skeletons and lots of beach party iconography with trad tattoo energy. These are available for everyone from the £5 tier and up; they’re TTFs and can be installed on any system! 

Get them here! :) 

[glittergroovy]

[azlovesem]

I have trouble believing snu movie critic oeriod yheyrexsll stupud. An old dracula mivie yyyyeeeyyyy the best a tired old tale no one cares sboyt at sll doesnt mattwr how good it is. Nobody needs to see dracula move ever again. The earth is dying atoubd yiu im glad youll sll be in caskers doon. Im happy uour hiuse is butibg fuck uour movie rat face nobidy likes uou people. Period they hate your exisrence is an insult to life sir. I csn obliterate snything sby man has ever fibe dince the first nosforooooyu orcehatever thatvatupid movues cslled. Maybe its ok great youre sll fuxon deqd as desth asz a vampire anyway. Ull never ever match me. Three more mediocre starwara movue fir fuxkn stupud eat people from north smerica. Mediorcre mediocrity is you name vompared to Azriel.

i woukdntbtry yo n as je sn epic or any remake. I dont give a fuck for yhese peipke or theur stupid ustless oarentd ill tirch thrm all and laugh inbtheyr face like i just did but way worse CB if i saw these degeneeste losers in perdon.z nobone cares snymore they font need yiurbold fusty nothing american.. what i just ssud easteood youyelliw brlky fuck smerica ili said cubt. Whats up? Fuck yiu vlint bitch. Ive snihilated yge smerican idesl and nahe. No obe guves a fuck ill bury sll yoyf baby seals. Bsby sesls i said bitch ambericsn fuckn goof. Look everyone on earth at the rat faced fuckn viwards. I had thst gire oit in csli trump whatvd up fet ass fuckn goof!!? Yiyr oen hare uou over 100 000 000 people ate on jy tesm. Im theuf keader in your iwn nation. O said fuck uou smericsbs youreceat cowardsZ look ir gitks like me better. Ahh hs the eorkd sees your true coloyrs clint eastwood yheyre rlyliw. I saud your oropke are yelliw burch and yhry like me better thsn johnnwsyybe. Ahhboyta war blood murder thruw snericsbs off a bridge type dhut. Lets go to war!!!!!

[grindhousecellar]

I like to have legit releases of Franco films but sometimes you have to settle for bootlegs of bootlegs with burnt in Asian subtitles.

Jess Franco Friday!

[gaykarstaagforever]

Considering it has been in the public domain since 1962 (and for longer in the US), anyone and everyone can publish an edition of the Dracula novel. And since everyone is already familiar with it, you really don't have to worry about marketing it.

But also, like...there are HUNDREDS of editions of this book out there. Why would someone buy yours over another one? And also, vampires are cool.

All this taken together leads us to the amazing variation of covers for this book over the last 127 years.

(Some of these may be for strictly digital editions, or fanart. People who upload to Pinterest are garbage at providing accurate descriptions. But they're all going for the same cover-art vibe, so I've included them.)

(Also I tried to avoid comic book / children's illustrated adaptations, only because those aren't literally the same Stoker novel. ...But some of those are fun, so get bent, me.)

This will be more than one post. There are a lot of these. I'll cross-link them when I'm done.

The original 1897 edition, and still probably the best. LOOK at this. Blood red, narrow, imposing font on sickening yellow, the leg of the R dropping below the line as an ominous red fang, pointing to Stoker's name. Golden Age of novels, indeed. Just goddamn perfect. This is going to be hard to top, right out the gate.

Valiant effort. Just the original with roasted edges, with a stock photo of Castle Bran and a giant full moon draped over it. This castle + moon thing comes up a lot.

Also I have no idea what this sequel by "Dacre Stoker" is the hell about. This book is public domain so anyone can publish whatever fanfic / sequels they want about it.

...Dacre Stoker is apparently legit Bram's great-grandnephew, and is a gym teacher from Quebec who used to be an Olympic athlete and coach. Now he just writes or co-writes Dracula books. Good on him, I suppose.

Obviously an edition post the Coppola movie, what with the castle that is very nearly the one from the movie, and the field of impaled people at sunset. It's fine for what it's going for, I guess.

This is the one from the hardback edition I have, in that this is on the dust jacket I threw out because fuck those things. The actual book is black with a simple red title font.

I don't know what the legal status is of whoever using this Boris Vallejo painting for this. I assume they paid to use it. Especially since they edited the expected half-naked lady out of the original:

I love Vallejo, but using a desaturated, censored version of this kick-ass painting? Either use the original and rock the vibe, or fuck off. Lame.

...Blue? Crude sketch of a random castle? White font? I mean I know the text is free so you want to keep production costs low, but this is just lazy crap.

Nice 1960s theater poster vibe with this one. Good work.

When I think Dracula, I don't think "2010s gritty emo reboot of Red Riding Hood." Don't know why anyone would. But I'm sure the original emo / goth PC wallpaper you stole from 2006 made someone's Evangelical coworker slightly annoyed.

Simple, artful, story-relevant. Font is going a bit too hard with the Steampunk signage thing, but it's inoffensive.

This is...a choice. I mean, this IS a scene from the book, and the art is okay. Just a weird choice for the cover, especially with the obviously lazy lasso tool selection and cropping. This doesn't really represent the overall tone of the novel, which is not about old men being irritated. I guess it is certainly distinctive...?

[kreativproject]

Chill Blood - Bloody Typeface

Chill Blood – Bloody Typeface

Download Chill Blood – Bloody Typeface

Chill Blood

Indroducing the blood dripped style typeface, Chill Blood ! Unique style, crafty and creeepy typeface, great for your creepy design!

Features: -Uppercase -Lowercase -Numeric -Symbols -Multilingual Support

Files : -Chill Blood OTF, TTF, WOFF

Thanks for your support, hope you like it!

Chill Blood – Bloody Typeface font details

Formats: OTFTTFWOFF

[cedarboughs]

I visited Forks, Washington this week, which is on a bit of land amidst reservations and logging cut blocks and national parks, a place where the local burger joint still charges $4.00 for strawberry lemonade and calls it “Vampire punch,” written on the menu in what I’m pretty sure is the font used for the title on the cover of Twilight. It’s a beautiful area, and solemnly atmospheric, gothic in its fundamental character, isolated on a peninsula in the pounding Pacific, the apex of all that makes the Pacific Northwest unique – surrounded by primordial hemlock forest, perpetually in shadow and concealing countless silent mossy hollows where who-knows-what could be lurking. A centre of deep-rooted social conflict between capitalist resource extraction, indigenous tradition, poverty-driven job seekers, and conservationists driven far from the heartland seeking out the last ancient places still worth protecting. Pretty much the perfect setting for a haunting supernatural novel populated with a cast of outcasts and subtly, allegorically exploring those conflicts and the purpose of shadows and forests to the many outcasts of America and those on the literal and euphemistic edge—

And Twilight is the fantasy novel that laid claim to it?

Im not upset, it just feels like there could have been more, like Meyer could have really dug into the place and its literary feel, or like it could have been written by an author more familiar with the region. And, er, less Mormon.

Like, imagine: the vampire mythos intentionally contrasted with the American capitalist ethos of sucking the land dry for sustenance. I know that there’s like good vampires and villainous vampires, right? And that the vampires and werewolves are at odds because reasons? Imagine that one clan of vampires stays out of the sun beneath the trees, where they can hide in humble shadows, while another stays out of the sun in boardrooms and limos and penthouses using power as a means to blood. To commit the ultimate Washington State heresy and put a Fleet Foxes lyric in a Twilight-adjacent post, the men who move only in dimly lit halls and determine my future for me. Imagine shape-changer tricksters based in the real mythology of the Northwest (there’d have to be more ravens; see Eden Robinson’s Trickster Trilogy.) Imagine our human heroine, disillusioned with her home in some flyover state where the sun glares constant and remorseless, plants shrivel in the dry air, and the sky induces borderline agoraphobia, entering into this world first through a love of the woods and the life-filled solitude of the place itself, and then realizing the solidarity she feels with one (or two? And on some level all) of the ultimate outcasts, thriving in the shadows of the cedars for almost the same reason. And imagine the ultimate conflict being a truce of solidarity between indigenous Tricksters and the one group of vampires, who are descended from colonists but have tried to minimize the blood-sucking that their economic system I mean vampiric curse requires of them, against the true vampires, who like Stoker’s Dracula being of old nobility have built everything around it, who’d take away the trees that both factions of rivals love – the spirits more ancient than any of them – because they shelter in their own trees of steel.

I should admit that I haven’t actually read any of the Twilight books in full, and it’s been more than ten years since I saw one of the movies, so for all I know, all of this might actually happen. But from everything I’ve heard, I doubt it. And I want to make it clear that I don’t hate the series or anything. It’s not 2009 anymore and I’m not in late elementary school anymore. It’s more like, I’m a bit melancholy thinking about the wasted storytelling potential of a place and concept that has so, so much potential.

[movies-tv-more]

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA 4K Blu-ray Steelbook 

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s retelling of Dracula, a steelbook will be coming home in time for Halloween on October 4, 2022. 

Special features on the 4K disc:

PREVIOUSLY RESTORED IN 4K

DOLBY VISION/HDR PERSENTATION OF THE FILM, including the original theatrical English subtitle font for texted instances

NEWLY ADDED "Love Song For A Vampire" Music Video by Annie Lennox

NEWLY ADDED Blood Lines – Dracula: The Man, The Myth, The Movies Featurette

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