Karen E. Taylor | |
---|---|
Born | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
Education | Grove City College |
Occupation | Novelist |
Known for | The Vampire Legacy series |
Karen E. Taylor is an American novelist who is known for The Vampire Legacy series of novels, which has been published by Kensington Books. [1] [2]
A reader of vampire/horror novels, Karen first started writing Blood Secrets in January 1988. She conceived of writing the novel while living across the street from a cemetery, but reportedly never intended to create an ongoing series. She subsequently embarked on the creation of a series in response to the success of her first book. That series now includes seven titles. Los Angeles Times contributor Robert Masello described her as the Los Angeles area's "own Anne Rice." [3]
The Vampire Legacy Series
Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), which was inspired by the life and legend of Lord Byron. Later influential works include the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847); Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a lesbian vampire, Carmilla (1872), and the most well known: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Some authors created a more "sympathetic vampire", with Varney being the first, and more recent examples such as Moto Hagio's series The Poe Clan (1972–1976) and Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire (1976) proving influential.
Robert Lawrence Stine, known by his pen name R.L. Stine, is an American novelist. He is the writer of Goosebumps, a horror fiction novel series which has sold over 400 million copies globally in 35 languages, becoming the second-best-selling book series in history. The series spawned a media franchise including two television series, a video game series, a comic series, and two feature films. Stine has been referred to as the "Stephen King of children's literature".
Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.
Tananarive Priscilla Due is an American author and educator. Due won the American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood (2001), and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and the World Fantasy Award for her novel The Reformatory (2023). She is also known as a film historian with expertise in Black horror. Due teaches a course at UCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic", which focuses on the Jordan Peele film Get Out.
The Historian is the 2005 debut novel of American author Elizabeth Kostova. The plot blends the history and folklore of Vlad Țepeș and his fictional equivalent Count Dracula. Kostova's father told her stories about Dracula when she was a child, and later in life she was inspired to turn the experience into a novel. She worked on the book for ten years and then sold it within a few months to Little, Brown and Company, which bought it for US$2 million.
Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American gothic horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name, and starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. It focuses on Lestat (Cruise) and Louis (Pitt), beginning with Louis's transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791. The film chronicles their time together, and their turning of young Claudia into a vampire. The narrative is framed by a present-day interview, in which Louis tells his story to a San Francisco reporter. The supporting cast features Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea.
The Addiction is a 1995 American vampire horror film directed by Abel Ferrara and written by Nicholas St. John. Starring Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Paul Calderón, Fredro Starr, Kathryn Erbe, and Michael Imperioli, the film follows a philosophy graduate student who is turned into a vampire after being bitten by a woman during a chance encounter on the streets of New York City. After the attack, she struggles coming to terms with her new lifestyle and begins developing an addiction for human blood. The film was shot in black-and-white and has been considered an allegory about drug addiction and the theological concept of sin.
Lisa Jane Smith is an American author of young adult fiction best known for her best-selling series The Vampire Diaries, which has been turned into a successful television show. Her books, particularly The Vampire Diaries and Night World, have been in the New York Times Best Seller list and have been nominated for five awards.
Nancy Holder is an American writer and the author of several novels, including numerous tie-in books based on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She has also written fiction related to several other science fiction and fantasy shows, including Angel and Smallville.
Simon Clark is a horror novelist from Doncaster, England. He is the author of the novel The Night of the Triffids, the novella Humpty's Bones, and the short story Goblin City Lights, which have all won awards.
Michael Mallory is a writer on the subjects of animation and post-war pop culture, and the author of the books X-Men: The Characters and Their Universe, Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of HorrorThe Science Fiction Universe and Beyond, and Essential Horror Movies. As an animation and film historian he has written over 600 articles, frequently for Variety, the Los Angeles Times and Animation Magazine, and has been featured in documentaries and DVD extras about animation. He co-authored the memoirs of animation legend Iwao Takamoto, which were published in 2009 as Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters. He has also written the script for the annual Annie Awards ceremony, the Oscars of the animation industry, since the mid-1990s.
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Ray Garton Jr. was an American author of horror fiction for adults and young adults.
LGBTQ themes in horror fiction refers to sexuality in horror fiction that can often focus on LGBTQ+ characters and themes within various forms of media. It may deal with characters who are coded as or who are openly LGBTQ+, or it may deal with themes or plots that are specific to gender and sexual minorities.
Melissa de la Cruz is a Filipina-American writer known for young adult fiction. Her young-adult series include Au Pairs, the Blue Bloods, and The Beauchamp Family.
Lisa Morton is an American horror author and screenwriter.
Karen Haber is an American science fiction and non-fiction author and editor, as well as an art critic and historian. She is the author of nine novels including Star Trek Voyager: Bless the Beasts, and co-author of Science of the X-Men. Other publications include Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, a collection of essays by leading science fiction writers and artists, and Transitions with Todd Lockwood, a retrospective of the artist's work. In 2001, she edited a Hugo-nominated essay collection celebrating J. R. R. Tolkien, Meditations on Middle-Earth. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many anthologies. She reviews art books for Locus magazine and profiles artists for various publications including Realms of Fantasy. With her husband, Robert Silverberg, she co-edited Best Science Fiction of 2001, 2002, and the Best Fantasy of 2001 and 2002 for ibooks and later, co-edited the continuation with Jonathan Strahan.
Elaine Bergstrom is an American author in the genres of fantasy and horror. She has had 13 novels published. She has been described by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as "one of Wisconsin's best-known horror novelists".
Anne Rice was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first volume in the series into a commercially successful eponymous film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).
David John Skal was an American cultural historian, critic, writer, and on-camera commentator known for his research and analysis of horror films, horror history and horror culture.