Ten  years of Dracula publishing

Today, February 7, 2022, it is exactly ten years ago that my first article about Bram Stoker's Dracula novel appeared. Preparations started in spring 2010, when I agreed with a young Swedish model to produce a photo series based on a dark Gothic theme. That theme became Dracula, and the photo story was more based on Coppola's movie than on the original story, that I started reading only later. The photo shootings took place from November 2010 till spring 2011, and together with my studio team, I worked six months on editing the photos, using giant formats like 140 x 180 cm @ 300 dpi. This was the basis for my first book, The Ultimate Dracula, with the first full photo story based on Stoker's epochal novel ever. As I wanted to add some maps to the book showing the precise locations of the action, by the end of 2011 I started studying old military maps from the Habsburg era to pin-point the exact place of the fictitious Castle Dracula, the Nr. 1 setting of Gothic literature. It took me three full months; the break-through took place on January 24, 2012, between 8:32 and 9:51 pm, while I studied a high-res facsimile of Stoker's notes emailed to me from Philadelphia. As this discovery seemed of utmost importance to me, I hastened to write an academic paper, that was released through Linköping University Electronic Press in Sweden. Alas, my research received little attention, just like the complete book published in April 2012, just a few days before the Bram Stoker Centenary Event in London. This enterprise swallowed a chunk of my savings, while The Irish Times declined an article about Mount Izvorul as the true place of Dracula's Castle - I had not had the opportunity yet to take photos in Transylvania... By the middle of May, when I had climbed the mountain, the issue was not "hot" anymore...

I continued to do my research and from December 2013 on published my findings through the Letter from Castle Dracula, the news bulletin of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, whose acting editor I became. On February 7, 2017, exactly five years ago and exactly five years after the release of my paper on Castle Dracula, my work was rewarded with a book publication: Powers of Darkness was launched by Overlook Press, New York.

Five more years of conference organization and research followed, focusing on the earliest serializations of Dracula: the Hungarian version, the first US serial in the Chicago Inter Ocean I unearthed, the two Swedish variants, and Makt myrkranna, of course. Most articles were published with the ink still wet, outside the official academic channels, and for free, to get the news out quickly. Recognition followed, with the Research Award of the TSD, the Lord Ruthven Special Award and the Golden Bat Award of the COTN International Dracula Conference; encouraging friendships with colleagues all over the world developed. In the mean time, I have written a novel (without vampires) and have become a father again - my path is leading away from a daily diet of Dracula Studies, but perhaps, there are still some surprises around the corner!