#bluecatwriter

[vickyvicarious]

For the ask game! For Jonathan:

💔: What’s something they can’t look at or think about for too long without getting emotional?

His wife.

No, okay, as true as that is (good emotions!) I'm gonna go for something else for my actual answer. I'm going to say a small child or baby.

Right now, he doesn't fully understand or want to understand why he gets so choked up, but whenever he sees a small child who is loved and cared for it strikes him to the core. If he watches long enough he might even feel kind of weepy, it's just. They're so young. That's all he can articulate. They're so young and they deserve so much, a long life and happiness and love and snacks, he wants to buy them a snack or something, he wants to make them smile. He wants to keep them safe. Especially if he sees a mother kiss her baby or something he feels such an intense mix of sorrow and joy and sadness and melancholy but also fierce satisfaction...

He is lethally vulnerable to kids on the street too. He could catch one stealing his wallet and he would probably just give them the contents.

.

send me a heart for a headcanon

[bluecatwriter]

Happy One Year of Fic-Writing to Me!

It's hard to believe that it's only been a year since I published my first fic— and that I managed to publish 100 fics between now and then! It's been a rough year personally in a lot of ways, and being part of this fandom community has been a big bright spot even in the most difficult times. 

A huge, huge thank you to everyone who has read, kudosed, commented, and/or bookmarked my work. (And thanks to animate-mush for making fanart of me! <3 <3 <3) You all have been amazing. Here's to another year!

———

Number of fics: 100

Total word count: 334,822 (almost exactly twice the word count of Dracula. LOL!)

Number of fandoms: 6

Shortest fic: How Chapter XIII Should Have Ended (200 words, Sibyl Vane gets her revenge)

Longest fic: Love Multiplying (40,701 words, Arthur-POV sequel to Dracula)

Fic with the most kudos: Doors Everywhere (Dracula/Jonathan. I am pretty proud of this one.)

Fic with the fewest kudos: The Escape (from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Writing for this fandom keeps me humble.) ;)

My favorite wholesome fic: Think Nothing of It (a 5+1 fic about Jack's relationship with Arthur, from pre-canon to post-canon)

My favorite dark fic: The Count of Carfax Abbey (Jack Seward/Dracula/Renfield, alternate universe. Very different from my usual fare!)

My favorite smutfic: Adjustments (Suitor Squad, post-canon.)

<3

[yallemagne]

TRICK OR TREAT!

You get this tasty bat cookie I got at the Bat Festival!

[go-to-the-mirror]

For the ask game!

-How important is it to you to stay true to the original creator's vision while writing fanfiction?

While the author is dead (I killed them behind a Denny’s), I do try to stick with the canon characterization, and tend to prefer writing (and reading) non-AU things (not including canon divergence. i write a bit of canon divergence, but tbh i write way more canon compliance or canon related stuff).

I get my fic ideas mostly from canon (rarely from other fics, but it’s happening now sooo) and that just makes it so my fics usually follow canon, both in plot, characterization, and themes, a lot more than they diverge.

It really depends on the thing I’m writing for, though. With MCYT (Hermitcraft, Life SMP) I tend to get pretty far away from your family friendly minecraft series, and a lot more into “hey, what if these mcyts were GAY and then DIED.” But with The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Night Vale, there’s a lot more stuff I’m interested in there, so I’m going to follow canon more closely.

So, basically, it depends on the fandom, but with WTNV and TMA I’m a lot more focused on actual canon because there’s a lot more in actual canon to work with. On the creator’s actual vision, I mean, I guess I take it into account by virtue of what they put in canon. If they didn’t get across their vision in canon, then… I mean, I don’t use twitter, so… I mean no not really in that case, lol.

(the ask game in question)

[thebibi]

For the ship thing, to stir up the pot! :)

Mina and Van Helsing

Bramina -- I Ship it!

1) What made you ship it?

Since I first read Dracula I LOVED their relationship. The way they challenge each other is just so electrifying?? But also, I just thought about how their relationship is sort of the key to defeating Dracula. Not that they are the ones to drive a stake through his heart, but they are the antithesis of ignorance and complacency. Its an unusual friendship!

2) What are your favorite things about the ship?

Honestly I love to be able to ship it within the context of polyamory and it not being this typical age gap romance. Like, Mina is very much Van Helsing's true protege, but he's not molding her to be anything. He does project onto her but he also gets punished for it. She in fact surprises him! I love that she pranked him when they first met, and he took it really well.

3) Is there an unpopular opinion you have about the ship?

Honestly, as much as I love the idea of a Dracula adaption that fully embraces the polyamory of the group, I don't trust a mainstream tv show with canonizing this ship. I enjoy it more because its just like two, three of us on tumblr fangirling/fanboying over it. I don't think I could handle it if some sequel or spinoff villainized Jonathan yet again. So yeah, I want this to stay purely fanon!

[rebloggingrexan]

yEAH :'( here's a good fanfic with this premise and i wanted to share it

"I looked into Renfield’s room; but there was no trace there except——!” Again he paused. “Go on,” said Harker hoarsely; so he bowed his head and moistening his lips with his tongue, added: “except that the poor fellow is dead.”

This is the biggest leap but idc I'm going to hc that Arthur hesitated bc he actually was with Renfield WHEN he died and it was too sad and horrible to tell

[aster-blogging-dracula]

I found the PERFECT arthur holmwood fancast

I was scrolling on pinterest when I found out about Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Anna Karerina(2012) and-

THAT'S OUR BOY ARTHUR!!! Tall, handsome, curly hair.

C'mon look at those big eyes and tell me he isn't the perfect match for representing arthur's joy and sadness

[0nelittlebirdtoldme]

Acquired this beauty in Brighton. It is vampiric, monstrous, erotic, surreal, gorey and beautiful. Huge "Jonathan's stay on castle Drac" vibes but with a twist - and some strange and blood-hungry beasts...

[see-arcane]

Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

[bluecatwriter]

I got this in my email inbox yesterday and I had to clap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing so hard that I'd wake up my spouse in the adjacent room! XD Glad you're enjoying!

I've just found out about @bluecatwriter 's Jonathan and Renfield fics and oh god I am NOT normal

Thank god my exams this week are about plants and bugs cause if I had to make an effort studying I'd be FUCKED

[vickyvicarious]

For the ask game!

📕 What book has had the biggest impact on your life, and why?

This is a really tough one honestly. I am constantly reading books and often deeply moved by or get really focused on the book, but I haven't especially had any particular books which were super... revelatory, I guess? There are lots of favorite books, or books attached to favorite memories, but in terms of impact I think there are two main ones coming to mind right now in different ways.

First, The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson. I actually went through a several year phase like ten, fifteen years back when I pretty much only ever read fiction. And fiction is great of course, but there is so much to learn about the real world, about history or people or science or what-have-you that I was missing out on. My mom read that book and liked it, loaned it to me. I liked it and started looking for other books by that author, and not only did I really enjoy those too but I also got the taste back for reading nonfiction and have found a vast number of excellent books since, as well as learned a lot I otherwise wouldn't have! It's still a rather reading-specific impact i know, but it feels pretty big to me.

The second, more recent/current one would be Dracula by Bram Stoker. The impact here is more just... social, I guess? Specifically reading it in Dracula Daily last year and again this year, I have gotten super into it. And that led to me meta-ing and analyzing it a bunch and getting more into close reading than I have been doing in a while, to reacting with others the day of, to reading a lot of horror, to enjoying the format so much that I started signing up for other lit substacks left and right, to joining the LXGF discord and meeting/talking with many lovely people on there... such and so. To a certain extent it's just the classic fandom experience but it also has had a notable impact on my mood and life over the past year and change, so it also comes to mind.

.

Send me a book ask!

[yallemagne]

Your birthday was yesterday? HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *dumps a ten-gallon bucket of confetti over your head*

I just wrote up an entire post and this awful website fucking ate it. And didn't save the draft. UGHHH I hate this fucking place. Ruining my birthday post.

Let's GET INTO IT a-fucking-gain, gonna list the gifts by order of acquirement.

First things first my friend got me a fucking WALL SCROLL with BUGS on it. Not beating the wannabe entomologist allegations.

If you've been paying attention, I made a post about a belt with a slutty little hip pouch and garter. My friend saw it and was like "you want something like that?" absofuckinglutely. Sent me the link to this bag by TalismanaDesigns on Etsy. AHHH oh my god. I'd picture me wearing it but camera angles are difficult. And the day could have just been the gift-giving and then a run to the fuckin grocery store for all I care and I would have been happy.

BUT THEN WE WENT TO THE BEACH!!! I went out into the water three times, second time - I let the water carry me on my boogie board until I was beached, third - I went without the board and got carried so far that I was nearly at the docks. It's very easy to get far out without a board, a bitch to get back to land, but I managed. Right after I mused that someone's gonna think I'm drowning, a kindly surfer asked me if I was okay and I looked and was like "HOLY FUCK how did I get this far?"

It was a lovely beach time. There were people getting baptized. After all, my birthday is a holy day. Explanation comes in time.

After beach, we went to a neat little shop, Friend got me that "WTF" magnet. My bounties are not pictured because I left one of the things I bought in the car like fuckin Cinderella.

Then, we went to pick up Friend #2 for lunch, at which point they gave me these

Bat Coffin Earrings. NOT BEATING THE VAMPIRE ALLEGATIONS.

Then, we had lunch and plans quickly changed after I asked Friend #2 if they liked X-Men. We were supposed to drop them off, get ingredients, then go home to make my cake. But Friend #2 agreed to see Deadpool and Wolverine!!! Officially best birthday ever if it wasn't already which it absolutely was.

Stopped by the grocery store to get a free cake that I get with my account there and then waited for movie start time at Barnes & Noble where Friend #1 pointed out that motherufkcing Deadpool backpack and Friend #2 BOUGHT IT??? Even after finding out the price. Like a mad person. And before that they were buying books that Friend #1 wanted (much to their chagrin). Friend #1 got back at them by buying them a pin. I was cheerfully chanting that everyone gets gifts on my birthday and then one of them hit me with "Just like Jesus". So, not to brag, but I am the second coming of Christ.

And then we watched Deadpool and Wolverine and I was sitting there with my silly little Deadpool backpack and my two good friends, and it was perfect. Everything everything fucking perfect. AHHH.

[ibrithir-was-here]

Blood Of My Blood: The Eye of the Storm

(Click for better quality)

Stay tuned! We’ve got more of our finale to come!

@animate-mush @thegoatsongs @see-arcane @pinkninjapj @bluecatwriter

[fiotrethewey]

"We promise you a hearty welcome, and a loving greeting, and a health as true as your own right hand." - Dracula, 25th May, Letter from Quincey Morris to Arthur Holmwood.

ALT TEXT:

A drawing of three men from the waist up, Quincey, Arthur and Jack, against a grassy scene. Arthur has his arms around the other two. Quincey (left) is wearing a cowboy hat, coat, waistcoat and tie. Arthur is in the middle, has fairer hair than the other two and has a moustache. Jack (right) in a sweater vest and necktie. Jack has his arms folded.

(Partial Redraw and Inspiration from: https://www.tumblr.com/bluecatwriter/762867674855473152)

[can-of-w0rmz]

Disclaimer: never said they were going to be high quality doodles I’m sleep deprived asf

Not Monsieur Frankenstein’s best idea @bluecatwriter

[rebloggingrexan]

#There was a post (I think from last year?) talking about how Dracula is about the inherent good of humanity #and how none of the characters would’ve survived if they weren’t compassionate and loyal to each other #just as much as they’re smart and brave #And… yeah.

#Nothing to add to that. #Just beautiful.

Despite being a foreigner and his apparent madness, the people of Whitby buried the captain as a hero. Although he had no connection to the locals but crashing to their shore, they treated him like one of their own. It's reminiscent of how the people of Transylvania cared about Jonathan despite the fact that he wasn't one of them and offered him their wild roses, garlic flowers, mountain ash, crucifix...

I was thinking about this too when I listened to the entry a few days ago... it's such a lovely echo of the townsfolk of Transylvania doing what they could to help Jonathan. Dracula really is all about reaching across divides of culture, space, and understanding to see the humanity in other people. This is such a touching scene!