Interviews, press reports, TV features

ROMANIA PROMOTIONAL TOUR  FOR DRACULA TRAVEL GUIDE NOV. 2013

During my trip through Romania together with Dacre Stoker to promote the Dracula Travel Guide book, we held press conferences in Bistrița, Hotel Castel Dracula and at Bran Castle. We received a lot of attention, both on TV and in the press—although our differentiated message about responsible Dracula tourism, the true location of the vampire's castle and the lifetime identity of the Count mostly was drowned by the expectation that our visit would flush fresh dollars into the local economy. We were confronted with the same attitude, alas, when we sat for an interview with Shaun Turton in Bucharest for Roads & Kingdoms/Slate.

VPRO DUTCH NATIONAL TV INTERVIEW FOR "MADE IN EUROPE":

At the beginning of 2016, I was approached by Dutch national broadcaster VPRO Televison for a feature that would include the myths around Count Dracula. I managed to get Dacre on board and in May, we spent some days in the Argeș Valley, directly next to Poenari Castle, together with the Dutch/Belgian film crew. For the interview, that took place on the ruins of the Impaler's fortress, I had prepared print-outs of my maps, so that I could easily explain my findings about the true location of Castle Dracula to the film maker.

The documentary "De Duistere Kant" (The Dark Side) was broadcast on 18 March 2017 as part of the VPRO series "Made in Europe."

RELEASE OF POWERS OF DARKNESS BOOK

The publication of Powers of Darkness led to various interview requests; the one from Rue Morgue Magazine already came in before Halloween 2016—the originally planned release date of the book. Although the interviews can still be accessed online (except for the one in Reykjavík Grapevine, that never was published), I created PDF copies of the texts for you, that can be downloaded here. In all four interviews, the central questions were about the nature of Stoker's participation in the Icelandic publication and the role of Valdimar Ásmundsson. As the Icelandic preface showed signs of a translation from a foreign language and it seemed improbable that Ásmundsson would have added a hint to the Thames Torso Murders on his own account, I supported the thesis that Stoker at least had provided the preface, while other elements—such as the erotic scenes and the references to Icelandic sagas—must have come from his Reykjavik partner.

Further interviews with Iceland Monitor, Vampirisme.com, and Tisfris can be found under the tab Vamped.org | Vampirisme.com | More; these rather were essays shaped as dialogues.

Note: For the reviews of the book, see the extra Reviews page.

By request of Andreas Axikerzus Sahjaza from Brazil, I answered a series of written questions for Strigoi Rede Vampyrica Magazine (spring 2021 issue, but published in October 2021). The text is available both in English and in the Brazilian-Portuguese translation.

By request of Valur Grettisson, editor-in-chief of the Icelandic cultural magazine Reykjavik Grapevine, I answered a series of other questions, mainly about the Nordic versions of Dracula. It was published here on May 9, 2022. For my archive, I created a copy as a PDF file.