Sequel to original ‘Dracula’ is well worth a 112-year wait

BY Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

Count Dracula, the grand-daddy of all vampires, is back, vengeance coursing through his veins, in a frighteningly good novel written by Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew.

The timing couldn’t be better. Fans can’t stop gushing over vampires. Stephenie Meyer, Charlaine Harris and a host of other writers are making their fortunes slaking fans’ bloodlust for stories of the undead.

But writing sequels to classics whose authors are no longer among the living can send shivers of dread through fans and critics.

In the case of Dracula The Un-Dead, which continues the chilling tale begun in Stoker’s Dracula, written more than a century ago, the shivers are because this is a wonderfully scary sequel.

Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, a Dracula documentarian, wrote this sequel based on the premise that Bram always intended to write one. Why? Dracula’s “death” at the end of the original novel has been subject to debate.

The Un-Dead continues the story, 25 years later, of the team of fearless vampire hunters who still believe they rid the world of Dracula. Among them: Mina and Jonathan Harker, Dr. John Seward and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing.

Now, it seems, someone is stalking these players and trying to kill them. It could be Dracula, but there’s someone new on the scene: the beautiful and undead Countess Bathory, whose thirsts for cruelty and sexual encounters are unquenchable.

The hunters unite once again to battle evil, but things are more complicated. The Harkers’ son Quincey, ignorant of his parents’ past, is proving a hindrance, and a dogged London detective is convinced that the city’s recent vampire-committed killings are actually the work of Jack the Ripper.

This daring sequel captures the essence and gothic glory of the original.

Newcomers to Stoker’s Dracula as well as diehard fans will be stoked by this sequel, which happily plants the seed for a follow-up.

Dacre and I are celebrating and promoting the release of DRACULA THE UN-DEAD in Paris where our publisher is Michel Lafon and the title here is: DRACULA L’IMMORTEL!

Today was a VERY AMAZING DAY! Dacre and I did a book signing at Virgin Atlantic Megastore and saw an at least 4 story billboard of the book there — it had our names on it in lights on Le Champs Elise!!!! WOW! Our sincere thanks to all our fans and supporters — this is your triumph too, since DRACULA THE UN-DEAD was written for all of you! Stay tuned to this “bat channel”– tons pics to come!!!

Dublin Leg

The Dublin “tour” was much the same as in London, including three days of nonstop interviews, except this time live national TV was included in the schedule. I had a spot on the television morning show, Ireland AM, and about 20 minutes on the very popular Gerry Ryan radio show.

I love Dublin, and enjoyed soaking it all up as I made my way through the city, on foot or in cabs. Taxi rides zipping through Dublin traffic proved to be very entertaining. Dublin taxi drivers have solid opinions about America, the international economy, local politics, and even more about their native son, Bram Stoker and Dracula, and are not afraid to share their thoughts. One of the drivers even took it upon himself to help prepare me to get “up” for the Gerry Ryan show. He felt I was too relaxed and laid back and should be on the edge of my seat to be ready to go toe to toe with Gerry. His work was not in vain. I met several people over the next few days, who had listened to the show and remembered me.

Other than the many radio and newspaper interviews, I did two power point presentations followed by book signings at the Pearse Street and Ballyroan Libraries, and another signing at Chapters, the largest independent book store in Ireland.

Kudos to the Dublin based Harper Collins publicist Moira Reilly. She had all the details of the publicity tour organized well in advance, and was lots of fun to work with. One day we emerged from a quick lunch at our hotel, Buswell’s, to catch a cab to a book signing, and were nearly swallowed up by a peaceful political demonstration as about 10,000 people blocked the street, adjacent to the Irish Senate. Moira joked that she was quite the publicist to arrange such an impressive turnout for me. I replied that if she were a really impressive publicist all those people would show up at the book signing!  

I was not really sure what reactions to expect from local book enthusiasts, after all this was Dublin. Considering Dublin’s rich heritage in Gothic literature, I wondered if I would be “preaching to the choir”. As it turns out, most of them knew very little of the details of Bram’s life and family in Dublin, or his seven year process of writing Dracula while he lived in London, and were quite interested in the information I presented. Dublin’s Douglas Appleyard, a Stoker cousin, has been very helpful to me in regards to Stoker genealogy. He has been able to fill in many blanks in the family history for me, and I appreciate his help.  Everyone I met in Dublin seemed to embrace my effort as a member of the Stoker family to regain some of the family’s literary legacy. I am grateful for their acceptance.

I also had several interesting discussions with my good friend Brian Showers, author and enthusiastic supporter of the Bram Stoker Society, which is based in Dublin. He has agreed to provide material to Ian and me for the script development for our upcoming trailer for a book industry website. Brian and other members of the Bram Stoker Society are also working with the Bram Stoker Estate in our efforts to have a Bram Stoker statue commissioned and placed in Dublin. 

On the weekend, the very gracious and learned John Moore, shared his extensive collection of Bram Stoker papers and books with us. He made Jenne and me feel so welcome, but in four hours we were able to digest only a fraction of his library treasures. Hopefully, we will be able to visit him again, perhaps during our next trip to Dublin, tentatively planned for May 2010.

 Jenne’s agenda/desire was finally able to emerge from underneath the Dracula cloak and take center stage on our last day in Dublin. We rode a city bus out to Enniskerry, County Wicklow to get a glimpse of the Irish countryside, and toured the impressive gardens at Powerscourt.

We took a day to completely relax, unwind, and pack our bags, to head home to South Carolina, where we anticipate the US book launch on October 13.

London Leg

Jenne and I drove the first leg of our trip to London, hoping to avoid a weather delay similar to our experience in May, when our trip to Dublin was postponed for 24 hours. In May, a thunderstorm in Atlanta, GA prevented our plane’s take-off from Columbia, SC, so we were stuck, and missed our connection to Dublin and our first engagement during the “One City One Book” festival. On this trip to London, we were on a tight schedule and could not afford to miss a day, which would have necessitated rescheduling 15 interviews.

So, we drove white-knuckled, three hours to the Atlanta airport in torrential rain during a thunder and lightening storm, which was without a doubt the most perilous part of our travel to London. A very stressful drive, but we got there in time for our flight.

Jenne and I arrived in London at 11:30 AM, thirty minutes ahead of schedule and only slightly worse for wear. We met the driver provided by HarperCollins and set off to the Soho district of London and our wonderful accommodations at Hazlitt’s Hotel. We were determined to fight off jet lag, so rather than take a nap we went for a walk to get our bearings. We discovered we were only a five minute walk from Piccadilly Circus, which like Times Square in NY, is the pulse of the fine city of London. Ironically, it is also the location our Dracula the Un-Dead where a certain body is found impaled!

Waterstones Piccadilly, the largest bookstore in Europe, where the Dracula the Un-Dead presentation and book signing would be held the next evening was just off the circle. We wandered in to scope it out and after fifteen minutes of searching I was in a bit of a panic. We could not find one copy of Dracula the Un-Dead. We were reluctant to ask at first, but I wondered-had we come to the wrong city- got the date wrong or had any of a hundred other things gone wrong? I got up my courage and made an inquiry to a sales lady, who informed me sales were so good, it was hard to keep restocking the shelf, and the present inventory had just been moved into the lecture hall on the 6^th floor for an appearance by the author and book signing the next night. She asked if I want to buy a ticket?  I did not have the heart to tell her who I was.

The next day was a whirlwind of press interviews and call in radio programs at the very comfortable HarperCollins offices. The routine was a 20-30 minute interview followed by a 5 minute break. I was nursing a bit of a cough, so I consumed plenty of hot tea, resulting in many trips to the men’s room during my breaks. Essentially, I found myself repeating many of the same basic answers during all of the interviews, however interesting variations occurred with some of the journalists’ creative questions, as they strived to pique the interest of their particular readers or listeners. I found the journalists who had read our book, really liked it, or so they said, and presented much more in depth questions than those who had only read the press releases and trade reviews.

The evening “power point” presentation and book signing at Waterstones was very well attended by about 60 people, including some familiar faces; World Champion Court Tennis player, Australian Rob Fahey, and Hampton Court Palace Tennis Club members, John Clark, Richard East, and Robin Mulcahy. It was also really an honor to have in attendance graphic novelist Tony Lee, his lovely wife Tracy, and Tony’s publisher Harry Markos of Markosia Publishing.

The next morning involved a few radio interviews at the BBC studios, followed by a lunch meeting with my cousin Robin McCaw (great grand son of Bram), as we discussed my upcoming audience with a Dublin city official and the procedures to gain approval for a Bram Stoker Statue in Dublin.

Throughout our London visit, the HarperCollins staff could not have been nicer. The three ladies who ushered in our book and organized the promotional events in London affectionately became known as Team Un-Dead. Led by the extraordinarily organized and charming Liz Dawson, everything went off without a hitch, even an impromptu photo shoot in a nearby churchyard.