FOURTH MEAL

Filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu (an NYU Grad Film alum) is offering a peek at the screenplay for her vampire web series, Fourth Meal. The script is a finalist in The Rockstone Foundation's Black Women's Entertainment Web Series Screenplay Contest, and you can cast your vote and help decide the winner.  Jusu plans to use the prize money to shoot the series' pilot.

Fourth Meal synopsis: A dangerous new breed of black vampires protected by added melanin roam the earth. Rayne, a half vampire, half human hybrid, has one insatiable need: to eradicate corrupt vampires.

Read the Fourth Meal Script
Cast Your Vote

An Avalanche of Undead News

During the past two months I've been revising and polishing two separate manuscripts, which I've now turned in to my agent. Therefore, I desperately need to catch up on the avalanche of vampire news cascading into my inbox. Here are some of the items that have been coming my way:

Comic-Con

San Diego's annual festival of all things dark, fantastic, and—yes—even geeky is now in full swing and runs through the weekend (the final day is July 24). Highlights for vampire fans include a preview of Underworld: Awakening, a True Blood panel, and a Q&A session called "Vampires and Others: How do you make a relationship work when you or your significant other lack a pulse or face other mortal-challenged issues?" For full details, head to www.comic-con.org.

Bloodletting.org

Bloodletting.org is a new text-based, role-playing game with a vampire theme, played by people from across the globe. Players develop personalities for their characters through interaction with other players in various forums. Stories are told, shared, role played, and expanded upon. 

Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

I interviewed Littlefield about her young adult novel, Banished, last fall, and Rebirth, the second installment of her apocalyptic zombie series for adults, is now available from Luna Books. All Things Urban Fantasy says of the novel, "Rebirth is part The Walking Dead, part The Road, and part something totally new and engrossing... You need to read this book. You will be disturbed, you will be compelled, and you will not be the same."  Check out SophieLittlefield.com.

Vampires Revealed

Join Bektamun, a 3000-year-old vampire, on a journey of discovery. Leave behind your preconceived ideas, forget the horror stories, and disregard everything you think you know about vampires.  vampiresrevealed.weebly.com

Blood and Bone China

Episode 9, "Goodbye Happiness," is now available:

To view all episodes, visit bloodandbonechina.com.

Upcoming Ghostly Films

Yes, I typically highlight upcoming vampire films, but ghosts are my first paranormal love, and there are two ghostly movies on the way that have captured my interest.  Here are the trailers and info.

Restless
Director Gus Van Sant's (Good Will Hunting, Milk) story of a terminally ill girl (Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska), a boy with a Harold and Maude-ish love of funerals (Henry Hopper, son of Dennis Hopper), and the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase). The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and will be arriving in select theaters in September.

The Woman in Black
Daniel Radcliffe's retirement from the Harry Potter series finds him working as a young lawyer who travels to the eerie home of a deceased woman in Victorian England. Based on the novel by Susan Hill. If the movie is anything as good as a stage adaptation of the story I saw years ago in London, this should be an excellent, chilling, ghostly treat.

Music Monday: Mariee Sioux's "Flowers and Blood"

When I'm at a loss about what song to share on Music Monday, I often head over to the Children of the Night radio program for ideas. During one of her shows this past spring, host Aylin Unal played Mariee Sioux's dreamy, gothic "Flowers and Blood" from the 2007 album Faces in The Rocks.  If you're in the mood for kinder and gentler music with a blood theme, this one should work for you.

VAMPIRE WEDDING Casting Contest

Vampire fans can enter to win the chance to appear in Castalides Pictures' upcoming horror/comedy film, Vampire Wedding.  Here's the official info from the Vampire Wedding team: 
___________________________

BE THE NEXT VAMPIRE/VAMPIRE SLAYER STAR!

Give us your very best vampire ATTIRE/IMPRESSION! Upload your PHOTO to the Vampire Wedding Facebook fan page or via our Vampire Wedding iPhone Casting App, which will be live in the next couple of weeks, or if you prefer, upload your VIDEO to our brand-new Vampire Wedding YouTube channel. This is your chance to play a VAMPIRE alongside REAL A-LIST ACTORS on a FILM SET!

Don’t forget to send your contact details to info AT vampireweddingmovie.com, referring to the Vampire Casting Competition.

For face-to-face meetings with the Vampire Wedding Casting Team, Castalides Pictures will be presenting Vampire Wedding at the LONDON FILM & COMIC CON from the 8th to the 10th of July. Check the Vampire Wedding website for daily updates or follow us on Twitter.

Vampire Wedding is a horror/comedy about Sophia Heartfield, a wedding planner who ultimately has to battle vampires to save the man she loves.

Vampire Wedding Synopsis:

All ambitious but heartbroken wedding planner Sophia cares about is her fiancé, Michael, who apparently just dumped her. Neither the high-profile wedding of aging silent movie legend Angelyne Argyle nor the nomination for the Wedding Planner of the Year Awards help to brighten up her day, when all of a sudden she finds herself surrounded by vampires plotting to take over the world. With the help of photographer Paula and florist Raymond, Sophia jumps to rescue her fiancé, to ruin Angelyne’s evil plan, and to save the world from impending doom.

For more Vampire Wedding information, head to www.vampire-wedding.com and www.facebook.com/vampirewedding.

Vampire Wire's Marta Acosta Makes Her YA Fiction Debut June 2012

I've been a fan of Marta Acosta's Vampire Wire blog for years, and Marta has been sharing words of advice and wisdom with me as I navigate my own way down the long and difficult road toward publication (she's the author of the Casa Dracula series).  I'm thrilled to see that today she announced that Tor/MacMillan will publish her first venture into young adult fiction, Dark Companion, in June 2012.

The Dark Companion synopsis:

When foster teen Jane Williams is invited to attend elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls and escape her violent urban neighborhood, she thinks the offer is too good to be true. She's even offered her own living quarters, the groundskeeper's cottage in the center of the birch grove.

Something's not quite right about the school -- or is it Jane? She thinks she sees things in the birch grove at night. She's also beginning to suspect that the elegant headmistress and her sons are hiding secrets. Lucky is the gorgeous, golden son who is especially attentive to Jane, and Jack is the sardonic puzzling brother.

The school with its talented teachers and bright students is a dream for a science and math geek like Jane. She also loves her new friends, including hilarious poetry-spouting rich girl, Mary Violet. But the longer Jane stays at Birch Grove, the more questions she has about the disappearance of another scholarship girl and a missing faculty member.

Jane discovers one secret about Birch Grove, which only leads to more mysteries. What is she willing to sacrifice in order to stay at this school...and be bound to Birch Grove forever?

For more info, head to vampirewire.blogspot.com. Congrats, Marta!

Jill Tracy's "Sell My Soul" Named the Official Song of Melissa Marr's GRAVEMINDER

I received the following news from frequent Suburban Vampire Music Monday artist Jill Tracy:

New York Times best-selling author Melissa Marr named Jill Tracy's "Sell My Soul" as the official song for her new novel Graveminder. Marr says she listened to the tune on endless repeat for inspiration, especially while creating scenes in the Land of the Dead. Jill Tracy will be forever immortalized as the sultry singer in Mr. D's Tip Top Tavern, alluring nightspot of the unliving. "Sell My Soul" is featured on Melissa Marr's website. The book has already been optioned for TV. Marr and Jill Tracy are discussing future collaborations.

Melissa Mar discusses Graveminder, her first adult novel:



You can download "Sell My Soul" at http://jilltracy.bandcamp.com. For more info about the music and the novel, head to JillTracy.com and Melissa-Marr.com.

Music Monday: CHUPACABRA by Rhymin' Reason

There aren't too many songs about chupacabras, the vampiric, livestock-attacking creatures of modern legend in the Americas (the name literally translates to "goat sucker"). However, my sister recently introduced me to "Chupacabra," musical duo Rhymin' Reason's clever and hilarious ode to the mysterious vampire cousin.

The group was started by a California husband and wife teacher team "dedicated to teaching young children about environmental science and health through song," according to rhyminreason.com. "Chupacabra" can be found on their 2007 CD Metamorphos Us. I'm unable to track down a video for the song, so I'm attaching an Amazon music sample widget and links to sites where you can listen to and buy the music.  Enjoy. And protect your goats.



iTunes:


Rhymin' Reason on CD Baby
Official website: http://rhyminreason.com