Randomize ME

‘Helmort‘ is the story that inspired Bram Stoker to write ‘Dracula’.

Two things happened in close succession. One, I was taking medical classes in school. Two, I started becoming interested in my family’s history. Specifically, my mother’s name.

Imagine you’re a young woman, holding your first-born in your arms, a perfect little girl. Why would you name her ‘Helgard’?

(Yes, it means the same in both German and English – ‘guard of hell’ – though ‘hel’ in German translates more into ‘land of the dead’ rather than the ‘pit of flames’ more usual in English.)

Helmort is closest to my heart because I like exploring different mindsets.

For example, he does not view killing humans as being any different from humans killing cows. (If anything, he feels his killing humans is more justified because he does it to survive while humans kill animals simply because they like the taste.)

I was a Licensed Practical Nurse who recently finished school to become a Registered Nurse.

It was during my studies that I realized vampires could be real. Not the supernatural, shape-shifting, killed-by-sunlight version popularized by movies but the realistic, needs-to-drink-human-blood-to-survive creature described in Eastern European folktales.

In ‘Helmort‘, vampirism is passed similarly to hemophilia (aka the ‘bleeding disease’). Therefore female vampires would be exceedingly rare and important because they are the key to creating more vampires.

I am currently working on the sequel to ‘Helmort’.

(The females are coming…)

Hmm. Interesting question.

The obvious answer would be ‘Dracula’ (if it were written in a more modern style) but several people have told me that ‘Helmort’ reminds them of Edgar Allan Poe’s works.