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According to the author (excerpt from interview by Jessica Dickenson)

During the pandemic, a fellow started Dracula Daily, which became an overnight sensation. Dracula Daily is an email newsletter that sends you the novel Dracula, in ‘real-time’— as it happens to the characters. It rapidly acquired over 200,000 subscribers and inspired worldwide news coverage.

Though I was not a subscriber, I did become aware of the enormous buzz surrounding Dracula Daily.  Since I had not thought about vampires for a while, a new curiosity rose from the dead.  On my own, I reread Bram Stoker’s classic along with all of the selections gathered in two hefty anthologies edited by Michael Sims and David Skal. I thought, “What innovations could I bring to this well-worn genre?” There were a few.

One example: I took a Jane Austen-ish approach to Bram Stoker’s nobleman of means. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” became “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a foreign bachelor, in possession of a drafty castle, must be in want of a wife.”

Second example: opportunities that Bram Stoker overlooked such as Dracula writing a memoir, planning a Hallowe’en soiree, and more.

Third example: adding pop culture and technology to the vampire mythos.

The fourth example was telling a vampire’s rite de passage backward. Taking a closer look at vampire literature, it seemed there was room for a fresh approach. By free-associating about various things –– Wes Craven’s Freddy Krueger films, dating apps, The Playboy Club, Instagram influencers, Photoshop, humble brags, house hunting, happy hour –– I asked myself, «What would a vampire do?»  Then I wrote the poems.

Samples

Dracula Plans His Hallowe’en Soiree

Near Hallowe’en, routine tension sets in.

Expected entertainment, catering,
Décor: a bachelor like Dracula
Tries to outdo last year’s event— though some
Attended by mistake and won’t return.

Tradition dictates hospitality’s
Essential to his kind.  Longevity
Must be preserved.  Drinks are but one concern.
His entourage deserves to be amused.

Instead of necks turned red as after-birth,
Refreshments can be served by a blood bank,
Thanks to a generous donation made.

Exquisite concentration on details
Is a tourniquet for his unquiet mind,
Obsessed with real estate, castle upkeep,
Demands imposed by vamphood’s life-in-death.

His party plans completed, its checklist ticked,
The Transylvanian lord licked his lips,
Succumbed to tempting pleasure-crested pricks.

~~

Oupire

Despair found me a dozen steps from the hangman’s tree dazed by pre-dawn hush, squinting at the bark’s myriad imperfections and odd notches, some similar to letters. Wait. Did someone carve oupire?  Impossible.  Yet the word broke through the bastion of my thoughts, its sinister meaning slipping into my awareness like a skilled burglar. My attraction to broken wings, broken men, generated a low drone of dread, my lips parched with dry gloom and unuttered yearning. A moral failing.

A shadow bewitched the branches, thrilling me with a swoop of dark energy. Large footprints impressed the damp turf, great ghost ships of shoes. A tall, lean figure moved towards me, skullish in his gauntness and unworldly pallor, attire too formal for a forest trek. Rivulets of red streaked his stare, eyes all undimmed shock as if staring into questions that are invisible to mortals. Could he detect my goosebumps from my silhouette in poisoned starlight?

Suddenly, he covered my bare shoulders – with the plushest cashmere scarf or cape –saying that we must not keep friends waiting, urgency whispered with a heavy accent, betraying the lisp of a secret woe or ill-fitting dentures.

As my free hand clasped the fabric, my coil of rope slid to the ground. Untethered, I let the stranger usher me through the red moon’s mist onto a gravel path as if we’d both made a bargain under our shared sky.

Note: Oupire is the Polish word for vampire.

What readers are saying

“Vampire’s Verses” is a wonderful compilation of dark enchantments. LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s poetry is a rich tapestry of both new and original vampire lore. While discovering these pages, I found myself reading quickly, fueled by the excitement of her content, while at the same time, lingering on the beauty of her words.
–Jeani Rector, Editor-in-Chief, The Horror Zine

“Vampire Verses” showcases LoSchiavo’s formal versatility: fibonacci, haiku, golden shovel, villanelle, sonnet, prose poem, and the decasyllabic lines of poems that seem otherwise unconstrained.  She’s equally adept at shifting among tones, from the eerie to the ironic. Her work is encrusted with images and phrases that will sparkle in the dark behind your eyelids long after you’ve finished reading.
–Carl Bettis, Editor-in-Chief, Tiny Frights

LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s collection is a rich cocktail of vampire lore. Her eclectic style, bold and imaginative choice of language and sophisticated word play, adds gravitas to a beloved genre. The Tale of the Vintner’s daughter is a particular favourite, highly evocative, nuanced and as deftly constructed as a spider web.
–John Stocks, Poetry Editor, Bewildering Stories

While contemporary in focus, the style in which the poems are written change throughout the work. This kept me engaged and interested to see how the next poem would be presented.

Vampires are always lurking in and out of popularity. It is nice to see a poetry collection focus on all that they are …  through a modern lens. I found myself chuckling at some of the modern references that we all can relate to. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is not common to find poetry that approaches vampires in such a creative and timely way.
–Mackenzie Grazzeti, Lit Lemon Books

There’s romance, humor, and blood in “Vampire Verses” — like in the good old times.
–Mark Benecke, President, Transylvanian Society of Dracula

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