Oliver’s life is no different from those of most middle school kids—except he sleeps in a coffin and drinks blood for breakfast Oliver Nocturne lives a pretty normal life—he deals with bullies, has an obnoxious older brother, and generally feels misunderstood. But being a vampire presents another host of problems, especially when he feels—he knows—he’s not quite like everyone else. When Emalie, a human girl with a troubled past, takes a picture of him, Oliver ignores the rules that forbid him from interacting with humans and agrees to show her the darkest secrets of the Seattle underworld. But their quest will uncover more than vampire mythology—they will learn the terrible truth about Oliver’s past and his purpose. And for Emalie, this knowledge could come at a fatal price.

Oliver, a young vampire, discovers that he is a little more human than his vampire family and classmates.

We all have stories to tell. Sketch People is a collection of stories about peopletheir work, their passions, and their experiences. In this compilation by T. J. Banks, a woman tells the story of a message she received from an old family friend following the death of her late mothers dog. Another woman, a cancer survivor, recounts her long and complex journey from geologist to master gardener to environmental and safety engineer to goats-milk soap maker. An actor and playwright talks about the inner workings of his craft, while actress Tippi Hedren reflects not on her film career but on her work with the wild cats of the Shambala refuge in Acton, California. The collection also includes an affectionate tribute to the late writer and activist Cleveland Amory, who more than lived up to his personal philosophy of simply to be kind. Each sketch brings us a little closer to understanding how these particular folks got where they were going and what transformed them along the way each person has a spark, a tale worth telling. T. J. Banks offers interesting sketches of writers, artists, photographers and others in Sketch People, highlighting passions, ideologies and historical accounts of each persons true story in her impacting and emotionally driven style. Patricia Spork, Sporkette Gazette

The first major biography of the pathbreaking, perpetually influential surrealist artist and iconoclast whose inspiration can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé—by the celebrated biographer of Cézanne and Braque In this thought-provoking life of René Magritte (1898-1967), Alex Danchev makes a compelling case for Magritte as the single most significant purveyor of images to the modern world. Magritte’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have become an inescapable part of our visual landscape, through such legendary works as The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) and his celebrated iterations of Man in a Bowler Hat. Danchev explores the path of this highly unconventional artist from his middle-class Belgian beginnings to the years during which he led a small, brilliant band of surrealists (and famously clashed with André Breton) to his first major retrospective, which traveled to the United States in 1965 and gave rise to his international reputation. Using 50 color images and more than 160 black-and-white illustrations, Danchev delves deeply into Magritte’s artistic development and the profound questions he raised in his work about the very nature of authenticity. This is a vital biography for our time that plumbs the mystery of an iconoclast whose influence can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé.

Bon Temps’s psychic waitress takes a dangerous road trip in the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series—the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood. There’s only one vampire Sookie Stackhouse is involved with (at least voluntarily) and it’s Bill Compton. But recently he’s been a little distant—in another state, distant. Then his sinister and sexy boss Eric Northman tells Sookie where she might find him. Next thing she knows, she’s off to Jackson, Mississippi, to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead, a dangerous little haunt where the elite of vampire society can go to chill out and suck down some Type-O. But when Sookie finally finds Bill—caught in an act of serious betrayal—she’s not sure whether to save him...or sharpen some stakes.

Consuming energy instead of blood, psychic vampires come in a variety of unsuspecting guises. This unique approach to the subject will introduce you to a trio of new thieves: group vampires, parasitic vampires, and global vampirism. Exploring environmental, developmental, and past-life factors, Psychic Vampires presents effective step-by-step empowerment procedures you can use to protect yourself and replenish your energy reserves. This practical guide offers: An exploration of previously unknown forms of psychic vampirism Methods to identify and counteract the effects of psychic attacks Thirteen photos illustrating the "Vampire Shadow Phenomenon," the "Halo Effect," and more A Seven-Day Psychic Protection Plan

Prominent examples from contemporary vampire literature expose a desire to re-evaluate and re-work the long-standing, folkloristic interpretation of the vampire as the immortal undead. This book explores the "new vampire" as a literary trope, offering a comprehensive critical analysis of vampires in contemporary popular literature and demonstrating how they engage with essential cultural preoccupations, anxieties, and desires. Drawing from cultural materialism, anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, gender studies, and postmodern thought, Piatti-Farnell re-frames the concept of the vampire in relation to a distinctly twenty-first century brand of Gothic imagination, highlighting important aesthetic, conceptual, and cultural changes that have affected the literary genre in the post-2000 era. She places the contemporary literary vampire within the wider popular culture scope, also building critical connections with issues of fandom and readership. In reworking the formulaic elements of the vampiric tradition — and experimenting with genre-bending techniques — this book shows how authors such as J.R. Ward, Stephanie Meyers, Charlaine Harris, and Anne Rice have allowed vampires to be moulded into enigmatic figures who sustain a vivid conceptual debt to contemporary consumer and popular culture. This book highlights the changes — conceptual, political and aesthetic — that vampires have undergone in the past decade, simultaneously addressing how these changes in "vampire identity" impact on the definition of the Gothic as a whole.

Graham Boynton's Wild is the definitive biography of photographer Peter Beard, a larger-than-life icon who pushed the boundaries of art and scandalized international high society with his high-profile affairs. He was the original 20th century “enfant terrible” with the looks of a Greek god who blazed like a comet across the worlds of art, photography, and fame. The scion of several old WASP fortunes, he was by instinct an adventurer, and the more dangerous the escapade, the better: whether he was hunting big game in Africa, ingesting epic quantities of drugs, or pursuing the most beautiful women in the world. Among his friends were Jackie Onassis, Andy Warhol, and Francis Bacon. When Peter Beard died in 2020 after mysteriously disappearing from his Montauk home, he remained an enigma to even his closest friends. Journalist and author Graham Boynton was a friend for more than 30 years, spending time with Beard at his bush camp in Africa, in London, and at his Long Island home. From hundreds of Boynton’s interviews with Beard’s closest friends, former lovers, and fellow artists comes this intimate portrait of a man Sir Mick Jagger called “a visionary.”

In the tradition of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot, the nightmare continues for the new vampire's assistant in the popular Saga of Darren Shan. Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now, as he struggles with his new life as a Vampire's Assistant, he tries desperately to resist the one temptation that sickens him, the one thing that can keep him alive. But destiny is calling. The Wolf Man is waiting.

The mere mention of vampires used to be enough to make people think of a nocturnal predator. But over the centuries the vampire has changed from monstrous villain to sexual object, for both men and women alike. Allure of the Vampire examines our intimate attraction to these beings in a detailed manner. Now, join occult author Corvis Nocturnum as he reveals the fascinating evolution of this icon as it has lured and enticed us in folklore, film and books from the days of ancient civilization to the living breathing inhabitants of our modern subculture, the vampire community.