Check out these vampire links!

Dark Side of the Net has a great list of vampire blogs (I'm even on there). Check out the extensive list! They have some other great resources for the vampire lover too.

Now I'm off to San Francisco until Sunday for work!

Addressing the Twilight vs. True Blood ( and Vampire Kisses) for the Last Time...

I'm writing this because each week I am amazed to see the amount of people that are brought to this blog by searching for the following:

• similarities between twilight and true blood
• twilight vs true blood
• twilight vs sookie
• which came first twilight or sookie stackhouse
• twilight copied sookie stackhouse novels
• twilight or sookie
• sookie stackhouse vs. twilight
• twilight copied vampire kisses

Each week there is a ton of new searches, sooooo I figured I would make all the Sookie, True Blood, Twilight, and Vampire Kisses accessible in one entry (listed newest to oldest):

What Stephen King has to say about Meyer

Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Books comments on book similarities

Twilight and True Blood Spoofs

Comparing Twilight, True Blood, Sookie, and other vampire Books

True Blood vs. Sookie Books

Is True Blood going in the Right Direction?

Bill and Eric Cookies

True Blood Episode 4 Review

True Blood Episode 2 Review

Twilight vs. True Blood

True Blood Pictures and Videos

True Blood Trailer

True Blood Pilot Episode Changes

True Blood Pilot Review

Vampire Commercials

Vampire Kisses vs. Twilight

Pam the Vampire

True Blood coming soon!

I love the Sookie Books

Thanks and Enjoy!

Looking back on the year... and new things to come

Highlights of my year include:

Interview with Jennifer Rardin
Twilight vs True Blood Debate: Here and Here
The premier of True Blood
Reviewing Bride of Casa Dracula before it was released

Plus.... reading a lot of great books. My tops include:
Charlaine Harris Sookie books
Kim Harrison Rachel Morgan Books
Marta Acosta's Casa Dracula Books
Jennifer Rardin Jaz Parks Series
Jennifer Armintrout Blood Ties

I would also like to mention that I should be doing a work presentation that I am giving on my vacation instead of blogging, but I felt I needed to update. I will be gone for a week or two because I am getting married Saturday! I've been super busy making sure we had everything ready for the ceremony and the reception, packing my apt and moving, and all sorts of fun stuff that goes along with the whole nuptial traditions. I am looking forward for it to be done with!

So on that note, I wish everyone a Happy New Year! Thanks to all my readers! See you next year!

Have a Happy Vampire Holiday...?

Christmas cards anyone?


A Christmas Story, boutique, and "Twas the Night Before Christmas" - Vampire themed.


More Vampire Christmas Gifts


Some holiday vamp books:
Holiday with a Vampire

The Vampire Christmas

A Changeling for All Seasons

All I want for Christmas is a Vampire

Fun stuff to spend your time and money on

Check out this vampy necklace from Collett's Treasures.

Want to vamp up your pictures in photoshop? Find some video tutorials here.

If you have hundreds of dollars to spend, this Fang Necklace is pretty awesome. Bittersweet makes other awesome things that are vampy, like these cool rings.

This isn't a vampire blog, but has some vampire stuff in it and is awesome.

Curious how to brush a vampire's teeth? Take a look at this instructional booklet.

I think Bencandace's Halloween Charm Bracelet is super cute.

Links and Such

Want to sleep in a coffin? Weburbanist posted some crazy hotel rooms and one of them is the vampire hotel room:

"Watching horror movies one has to be a little bit curious about whether it is comfortable for vampires to sleep in attic coffins. Now those who are so inclined (or who prefer partying at night and sleeping during the day) can experience this vampire room first hand at the Propeller Island Hotel." Their entry on abandoned buildings is pretty awesome too.


Might be interesting reading: Project Haunted House

Do you believe? Reports of sitings at Paranormal Database

Also, Vampire Wine is having a sale: 4 bottles for 55.00 (includes shipping)

More Fun Stuff - For Halloween

I thought I would look around for more Halloween stuff, more is to come I am sure.

I think this wreath by Crafty Dame is super cute, plus it can be altered in all kinds of different ways if you wanted to make something similar:

I recently bought the 4 dollar teeth at Wal-Mart – they are not worth it. They are too big and they fall off easily. Definitely better than a 4 dollar mouth piece, but I would invest in something a little bit more expensive. Maybe this site has higher quality fangs (for about 12 bucks):

I might go for these:

Or pay the 75 cents for the heart box?

Arana Muerta has some pretty crazy Halloween props and decor that she's made. Check it out. Here are some things that were made:

The apothecary jars would be easy to make for a Halloween Party - which is what fellow Craftster NyteRayn is trying to get ideas for in this thread. There are a lot of great ideas - check it out! Here's another link from the thread for Creature Jars:

Another Craftster - Oohmybee's has done an awesome cemetary:

This is also an awesome Halloween Party by craftster Sylvieonabun

Craftster is one of the greatest sights ever, so definitely check it out... especially the Halloween Forum.

Get Ready for Halloween!

Oriental Trading has some great stuff for Halloween. I think I just may order some goodies.

Candy Blood Bags - The candy probably tastes nasty, but they look awesome.


Vampire Bite Tattoos


Gory Bite Tattoos


Classic Glow in the dark fangs


RIP Gift Bag


And these are just nasty:

Chili Fingers


Edible Bandages

True Blood and Other Links

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, posted a review (which I completely agree with) on Twilight. They also get extra points because they mention Etsy.

Marc's been sending me some things, and a link he sent me was Totally Looks Alike. Jim Croce totally looks a like Vlad!
The True Blood FanSite has more pictures posted for the show. If you have been reading my blog you know I am all team Eric… I’m not sure if I like the TV show Eric versus the man of my dreams. I think they did a better match for Eric than they did for Bill though. What do you think?

Eric:


Bill:


Bill does look a lot better here though:


According to Bestbuy, you can get a free DVD of episode 1 of True Blood if you buy an HBO DVD.

Here is extended trailor for the show:


Alan Ball POV with more show clips:

Fun for Friday

Because it's Friday, and I am quite bored sitting at my desk at work, here are some fun links for your Friday.

Entries of note from my blogroll:
Judge a Book recently judged some of the Anita Blake Books.
Magia Posthuma explains why he is researching the historical context of the 17th and 18th century vampires scares. I love research and it's really quite fascinating.
Revenant Ones does a lot of vampire movie reviews.
The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire has old movie clips, news, stories, and more.
Vampirewire has a link to another vampire recipe - Vampie!

Links and Videos:
Black Pheonix Alchemy Lab has some unique scents and products. I just ordered samples of Blood Kiss and Dorian and a few others. There are hundreds of crazy and unique scents.

How to make your own vampire fangs:


A whole bunch of Vampire Links

Funny Vampire Quotes and t-shirts

Anti-vamp? Here's a vampire slaying kit.

Two and a Half Weeks Until True Blood Premier

True Blood premiers on HBO September 7th at 9pm. I have been a big fan of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series and look forward to the show. I've also managed to get a few friends hooked on the Sookie Stackhouse books as well!

I know that the books will be 10x better than the show - I wasn't extremely impressed with the pilot episode - which you can read about here and here. They've made some changes and I would support Charlaine Harris and just watch it for fun.

Here's the trailor:



I'm a fan of the theme song too:



In honor of the premier my friends and I plan to have a little vampire party. Here are some recipes for you to have a vampire party too!


Here's the recipe for Vampire Cupcakes: A lot of folks did these for the Twilight Premier and I think they are fantastic.


These guys are pretty cute. You can find the recipe here.

Some Drinks:



You can really use any red mixture, add some elements to the glass, and it looks great. Here is the above recipe - find another yummy drink recipe here.



You can buy these glasses here, or make your own!

Have any more ideas? Let me know!

It's Friday! Videos, Links, and Fun Stuff

It’s Friday! The week has gone by pretty quickly… I’ve been pretty busy with work, wedding stuff, and I went to the Warped Tour! I will post pictures soon. Since it’s Friday, I thought I would add something fun.

I think Stewart Townsend is one the sexiest vampires. Here is a picture and the music video from Queen of the Damned (Jonathon Davis of Korn is singing).





Check out this Vampire Music Playlist.

Etsy Seller EsmeArt has a great Lego and Vampire Print for sale:



While not exactly "vampire" art, BellatrixArt has some great pieces. Check it out!

I also just found out from Vampire Wire that Colin Firth will be in the Dorian Gray movie!

I love Colin Firth and I love The Picture of Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde. Coincidentally, Stewart Townsend also played Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman.

Some people say that Dorian Gray is a vampire: he sells his soul to become beautiful forever; never aging and never growing old. Read the book, it’s great. Oscar Wilde is quite brilliant and his quotes are always great.

I have lot of plans for the weekend, but I am hoping to have some new book reviews Monday!

The Old vs The New

Traditionally, vampires have been evil demons, not sympathetic creatures of the night. So what's changed?

Characteristics of the traditional vampire in fiction and folklore:
Drinks blood to survive
Can’t go out in the Sun
Allergic to crosses, holy water, and other religious relics
Obviously, traditional vampires have been seen as demons, messengers of Satan, and other evil beings. While I may not support all of Christiangoth’s beliefs, he explains the relationship between your classic vampire and religion it quite well:

"It is also important to note that while the vampire legend is nearly universal, it reached its most epidemic proportions in heavily Catholic (or Orthodox) eastern Europe. Most cultures have taboos against drinking blood. This can doubtless be traced back to the command the Lord gave Noah after the flood forbidding the drinking of blood (Gen. 9:4). It is ironic that both the Catholic and Orthodox religions feature as their central superstition the idea of drinking blood and eating flesh (under the sacramental appearance of wine and bread) against the specific commands of God. That these religions are dominant in cultures where vampirism (both in legend and in practice) runs deep is significant.”

These vampires were said to drink your blood… your life essence, your being. Leviticus 17:11 says "the life of a creature is in the blood." This goes with the above mentioned Levitical law forbidden the consumption of blood. If something drinks your blood and you die, it is a death worse them murder, they have literally consumed your life.

Darkness is synonymous with evil. The sun brings life. The sun helps crops to grow and makes living and working possible. The sun represents life. Light is often used to describe God or goodness. It is no wonder an evil being cannot bear to live in the sunshine.

A vampires weakness to religious items helps to illustrate how the church is able to defeat evil. Even though the creature may seem powerful and dangerous, it can be defeated with the use of a cross or holy-water. This gives power to the religion, it’s doctrine, and faith.

Another common way to kill a vampire would be fire. Fire is also used as a symbol for life and protection. People are able to cook and warm themselves with it, and many ceremonies used fire. Fire is also said to cleanse someone, to make them pure. Fire represents something good; good again, defeats evil.

Omnibus Sanctis discusses the symbol of the vampire as well, saying

"Vampires are us, what we become (monsters) when we turn our backs to God and give ourselves over to unbridled passions, our lusts and selfishness, our nihilism. In this way vampire stories are at their core Catholic. Built into the conventions of the genre is Catholic theology; light/darkness, blood/life, life/sacrifice, undeath/damnation, soul/immortality, instinct/vice, sin/slavery, the sacramentals (holy water, crucifixes, rosaries, etc…).”

Most vampires of the evil vampires are similar to the anti-christ. They are evil beings, but promise eternal life, often eternal riches and beauty as well, by drinking blood.

Today’s vampire, the same principles cannot be used. Not all vampires are seen as evil, more like they are “misunderstood.” There might be some evil vampires, but there can be good ones that exist as well. Experimental Theology touches on the differences between vampires now and the evil vampires of old, suggesting that vampires use to be more about sin, and now they are explained by biology.

In most modern works of fiction the vampire:
Usually has inhuman strength
Many times handsome/beautiful
Lustful
Rich
Not always weakened by religious objects
Sometimes allergic to silver
Sometimes can mind read or exert mind control.


Today’s popular vampire is dark and mysterious, dangerous, yet able to love and protect. These vampires could be argued as a symbol for sin or temptation, but mostly they have been made into romantic characters. The vampire now represents eternal beauty, love, wealth, and sometimes wisdom. It is rarely associated with eternal damnation.

The romantic vampires are handsome (not too many ugly vamps out there), fall in love at first site of the heroine, loyal, smart, rich, great in bed, protectors, but they are also the attractive “bad boy” that women love. They are everything a woman could want… eternally.

Do vampires have souls? Could vampires be devoted to a God, or a faith? Anne Rice, who is now Christian, says she will not a write a Christian Vampire novel because she thinks it cannot be done, but Tanya Huff’s Blood Ties vampire is a devout catholic who believes he still has a soul, no matter what the church says. Edward of the Twilight Series is afraid that vampires do not have souls, The vampires in ----- go into a sort of limbo when they die because of their lack of souls, but if they are made into humans can enter heaven or hell if they are killed. Buffy’s vampires are soulless… until the handsome ones (Angel) are “cursed” and possess one once more.

Omnibus Sanctis makes a good point:

"Since vampires represent human nature how is redemption possible? Within the conventions of the genre it is not. Once you are a vampire you are always a vampire, there is no cure, no redemption. But this can lead to fairly one dimensional characters (pure evil, however witty). [This is why Milton gave Satan the best lines.] And why Mrs. Rice let Lestat suffer guilt. Others have tried in different ways to overcome this problem. Take the characters of Angel and Spike. But both characters suffer from what amounts to emasculation or an identity crisis. They are vampires but either can’t be a vampire (Spike’s chip) or do not want to be (Angel’s soul), except when convenient."

Today's popular vampire still promises eternal life, wealth, and beauty, but it is often mixed with guild, longing for death, and burden of time. If today's popular vampire isn't a symbol for sin or death, what do think it is a symbol of? Or does the vampires still hold a significant symbolic value?

Success! And Links...

Gardella Vampire Hunter Book 4 -When Twilight Burns came out yesterday... I am refraining from buying it because of I need to not spend money at the moment; shame shame. Check out Colleen Gleason's website and blog. You can even buy t-shirts.

I had a small victory yesterday. Yesterday my guy asked me for some books. I started handing him books he might like. After a few minutes he finally just said it - "do you have any vampire books?" I wished I would have remembered the exact words he said because he asked the question with such defeat. We have been dating for over 5 years and he has always made fun of me for loving (maybe obsessing) over vampire books and the like. I finally got him!

Check it out:

Magia Posthuma: "On several occasions, particularly on the periphery of the Habsburg Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries, dead people were suspected of being revenants or vampires, and consequently dug up and destroyed. Contemporary authors named this phenomenon Magia Posthuma. This blog is dedicated to understanding what happened and why."

Revenant Ones: Blog related to the BloodCopy site, but has much more to offer. This blog has all kinds of vampire movie clips and fun extras.

Urban Vamp: "Confessions of a modern day vampyre." I've mentioned her blog before; it includes information about modern day vampyrism and more. Plus I like her writing style.

Vampire Vineyards: They sell "vampire" wine, cola, energy drinks, and more. If they had a sparkling wine I might have bought it... I'm a sucker for sweet champagne (no pun intended).

Vampire Bear: A video advice column given by the vampire bear... lately it is how to learn Hebrew...

The Vampire Librarian: I haven't had a chance to look through his whole blog, but it looks great. I use to work in a library...

Blood and Shadow: "Everything one could want to learn about Vampires; from the blood drinking to the psychic vampires. Sanguines, myths, the horrors, the truths, et cetera. Give this a read, learn a bit about the topic, and enjoy this little slice of the more...regel side of the paranormal."

Vampire Tools: Originally in Portuguese, but offers a translator for different languages.

and Vampire Handmade stuff from Etsy.

Movies, Books, Links, Etc.

I’ve been slacking: I haven’t been to work (sick hours – use’em before you lose’em) and I was too busy this weekend to do anything like read.

Lost Boys: The Tribe came out last week. I was quite disappointed when I went to the local blockbuster to find that they were all gone! I was quite surprised that they there were all checked out, so I have to delay on my review of the cult-classic sequel.


Did I mention I had no time for reading this weekend? I did start reading the first 3 pages of Red Death The first book in the Jonathan Barrett - Gentlemen Vampire Series. I’m not sure yet if I will enjoy the book or not, either way the cover art is horrible. Look how his little fangs rest upon his lower lip...that looks awkward.

I did make a lovely discovery; Halloween is on a Friday this year! I hope one of the clubs around here will have a big costume party; that would be super.

I was never a big Myspacer – when I joined I felt like I had given up a piece of my soul. That was a while now, and I have become practically addicted to the game Mobsters. Now they have a Vampire game that I have started playing… I think it’s a lot of fun. If you have myspace, you should play. It’s not that exciting, but I still think its fun. You earn blood to pay for abilities and other stuff, you do missions with how much energy you have, and you can kill and fight people.

Anyone read the 4th Twilight Book? While I didn’t, I did find the spoilers and reviews quite amusing. Maybe I will read it after all. It looks like a lot of fans were quite disappointed. It seems like young girls shouldn’t read this book either.
Spoilers – this thread Breaking Dawn – WTF? is awesome. Just reading it, I’m like “WTF?” Maybe I won’t read the book.

I know this a last week, but if you don't already know, this fella is playing Eric Northman in the Sookie Sackhouse TV Series True Blood. And if you don't already know, I'm all team Eric.

I will have to see him in action to judge if he is the Eric of my dreams or not... opinions?

Take the Sookie Stackhouse Quiz! Do you know the books?

More Vampire stuff here.

Handmade Vampire Buys

If you aren't already familiar with the fabulous Etsy, you need to go do so now! Etsy is a huge collection of stores filled with all kinds of nifty handmade items. You can get everything from art to baby socks to website design, to jewelry.... they have everything. Plus, you are supporting handmade items. That being said, here is some of my top vampire picks:

Bookplates by PinkFairyWand


Vampire Book Bag by BabastudioPrague


Nosferatu Case by MorbidDecor


Vlad Purse by DeadandUndead


Vampire Teeth Necklace by MelodyDoll


Bela Lugosi Magnets by AtomKid


Twilight Charm Bracelet by Millie5328


Blood Martini Glasses by CCCreations


Cigarette Case by SweetHeartSinner

For Your Boredom (or mine)

Get your own fangs here.

Confessions of a Modern Vampyre - blog of a psi vamp.

Vampire Research - likes to call themselves an "institute" but I don't think I would go that far... lack of "research" as well... kind of interesting, has a long list of links on the blog.

Vampires Among Us - Lists all kinds of information.

Real Vampires?

Last night I introduced my fiancé to the interesting world of Blood Copy and the True Blood viral campaign. He won’t play Mobsters with me, but he did think that the campaign was pretty interesting. I also showed him a couple of sites about/for sanguinarians, psi-vamps, and vampyre lifestylers.

People who are role-playing and people who actually think they are vampires are posting a lot on the BloodCopy website. A few people who are involved in real covens have actually expressed concern/annoyance over BloodCopy and Tru:Blood. It is getting pretty interesting.


If anyone is interested here are a view links:
Psivamp.org
Veritas
Veritas Resource Directory
http://sanguin.org/
http://www.suscitatio.com/

Vampire Notes posted some interesting links the other day too. To see the blog entry go here… otherwise, here are the links

By Light Unseen Media - "By Light Unseen Media will present the best of quality fiction and non-fiction on the theme of vampires and vampirism. We will offer fictional works with original imagination and style, as well as non-fiction of academic caliber."

Broadsheet – publication of Broad Universe that promotes women writers of paranormal, horror, and sci-fi fiction.

And Genre of the Month– July is Vampire Month

Also, DragonBytes.com for full texts of classic vampire stories: Vampyre by John Polidori; Feast of Blood/ Varney the Vampyre by James Malcolm Rymer; Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu; Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker: Dracula by Bram Stoker, and from the lunatic fringe comes The Vampire: His Kith and Kin by the eccentric clergyman Montague Summers.

I haven’t checked it out yet, but I am interested to see what they have for Varney the Vampyre. I have been looking everywhere for it and the only place I have found the full edition is on amazon for over 30 bucks.