Wolfman Jake

Last summer, Justin Cronin’s The Passage had me warily looking up at trees lest one of his soul-sucking “virals” be lurking in the limbs all ready to rend me limb-to-limb. This summer, thanks to Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf, no more looking up at full moons while walking the dog. Granted, my chances of being [...]

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Cast a spell on me

The new normal is the paranormal in much of today’s fiction, both literary and commercial. Here a ghost, there a zombie, everywhere a vampire or a werewolf. But several recent novels enchant with the magic of storytelling even as they trip the light fantastic. Alice Hoffman, of course, is one of the leading practitioners of American magical [...]

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After dark

Kresley Cole is another Central Floridian who writes vampires. Also werewolves, demons, witches, Valkyries and other “Lore” creatures. The paperbacks in her paranormal romance series, “Immortals After Dark,” are regulars on the best-seller lists – the recently published Demon from the Dark debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times‘ list. An earlier entry, Kiss of a Demon King, won [...]

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End in sight, or apocalypse wow

Coming soon to this space my take on Justin Cronin’s The Passage, but we are having a helluva thunderstorm and I’m logging off for now…. If the lights go out, it will be so appropriate. Ok, it’s two hours later, I’m back, and so’s the electricity. Made me think of the residents of First Colony [...]

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Toothy grins

I want it on the record that I was into vampires long before Buffy and Sookie and Bella. Twilight, shmilight. Remember Barnabas Collins and Dark Shadows? How about Bunnicula? And the original Dracula? Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? I should have known that vampires were becoming way too trendy when my original copy of [...]

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