Halloween 2020, Day 22

If you’re looking for a contemporary vampire read, Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite is brand new, edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker with stories by an all-star lineup of authors including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.” Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.   

If you’d like to sample a taste from the collection, Tor.com has a spooky excerpt from Rebecca Roanhorse’s story “The Boys From Blood River” here.

Enjoy a couple of eerie snippets.

Now let’s go old school...

But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse:
Thy victims ere they yet expire
Shall know the demon for their sire,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.

- From “The Giaour” by Lord Byron (1813).

(Art is “Vampire” by akelataka.)