Review: A Taste of Blood Wine

Freda Warrington’s A Taste of Blood Wine is the first in a series, and of a subgenre you’d think would feel tired, worn out, even (dare I say it?) bloodless. The sweeping gothic period romance. Even describing it summons images of Jane Eyre meets Twilight. Which proves unfair in the end. To be sure, a…

How I Would Have Done Twilight

Is there a more controversial vampire story than Stephenie Meyers’ “Twilight” saga? Doesn’t seem likely. For one thing, fans and detractors of the series hardly even try to restrain themselves. Some Twihards literally cannot even see any tale of the undead or of lycanthropes through any other lens (the notorious poster who called “The Wolf…

Make Believe

Shoulda Woulda Coulda… Make believe is fun. In fact without it this delightful thing we call fiction simply would not exist. So let us now make-believe–as in “let us create a belief”–some beloved or well-known characters to be undead. Why not? For one, Sherlock Holmes. Leaving aside that the physical description of him is perilously…