Teen Vampire Readings

No, I'm not recommending any books, but rambling about the vampire material I read as a teen. As far as I know, unlike today, there was not a mass market of vampire stories directed at young readers. However, since I, mostly, preferred reading to movies, I sought out what was available.

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” held a permanent position on my lap during ho-hum eighth grade history and science classes. I read that book backwards and forwards, inside and out. The following year, I devoured nineteenth and early twentieth century vampire stories. At fifteen, my interested turned to the historical Count Dracula, Vlad Tepes, his reign of impaling terror, and how Stoker integrated the "real" count into his novel.

While my friends sighed over teen magazines, I spent sunny, summer afternoons laying on a blanket in the backyard and reading books such as Raymond T. McNally's and Radu Florescu's absorbing, now-classic, “The Search for Dracula." A showing of the orginal "Nosferatu" (in my mind, still the best vampire movie out there) on television was worth cancelling other plans for the night.

Less important to me than Top 40 radio was the knowledge that the castle people referred to as Castle Dracula was really Bran Castle, which Dracula did, in fact, use during his raid. I already knew I wanted to write a vampire story one day, but the idea, at this point, had not taken shape. I did, however, continue to read and research. When the time came, I wanted it to be right.