Calmet on eBay

Dom Calmet Augustin's Dissertations sur les apparitions, des anges, des démons et des esprits, et sur les revenants et vampires de Hongrie, de Boheme, de Moravie et de Silésie (1746) is one of the all-time most influential works on vampirism. It was a best-seller in its time. A second and third edition were released in 1749 and 1751.

A copy of the latter edition—Traité sur les apparitions des esprits, et sur les vampires, ou les revenants de Hongrie, de Moravie, & c.—is available on eBay. 

Current bid for both volumes? £34.33. There are currently 10 bids on it and five days left to go. Better get cracking!

Generating names; avoiding clichés

I was larking about on the 'Vampire writers support group' (VWSG) on Facebook yesterday, mentioning how often the word 'blood' appears in vampire novel titles. It also gave me an idea:

Hey folks, let's play a little game - a game of...cliche! Post a word or term commonly used is vampire novel titles. Annnnd go!

There was a huge response. Evidentially, there are tons of clichéd words in vampire novel titles! In the midst of it, I suggested there should be a vampire novel title generator. 

I googled about, couldn't find one, so I thought bugger it, I'll make one myself. And I did. Presenting the Vampire novel title generator! Here's a sample:

The scary thing is, the thing generates a lot of legit titles–which just goes to show how pervasive these words and combinations, actually are.

Seriously, though, 'blood' is such an overused term in vampire titles. I got to discussing it with fellow VWSG member, Donna Michele Fernstrom, after she mentioned Tanya Huff's Blood trail (1992). 'Do you ever notice,' I opined, 'how many vampire stories are puns on 'blood'? It'd be like novels about people, having food-related titles. 'The Importance of Being Edible', 'The old man and the seafood', 'Fifty shades of whey'.'

I also raised the subject on David MacDowell Blue's blog entry, 'Tropes that need to go away' for Vampires.com:

My vote’s for leaving ‘blood’ out of vampire titles. In vampire context, it’s a food pun!

Imagine if novels in other genres were largely food-based puns: ‘Catcher on Rye’, ‘A Farewell to Hams’, ‘The Yeast Also Rises’…

Fellow commentator, Sandrine Scialdone, added: 

Totally agree Anthony. Any title that seems too contrived or tries too hard to advance some romantic-vampire-+-multiple-other-creatures-”Eternal Kiss of the Dark Gift Under a Doomed Moon….Trilogy” is what turns me away.

So how about it, authors? Think you can steer clear of the clichés in 2013? Put it this way, some of the most successful vampire novels of all time completely avoided them. Don't believe me? Try I am legend, 'Salem's Lot, The historian, Twilight, Let the right one in–and, of course, Dracula, on for size. You can do it!