Emerging author, Raven Starr has been writing since she was 15 years old. In 2007, some of her poems are featured in When Times Moves On (Anchor Books), a new poetry anthology. She is also publishing her first novella, The Vampire's Embrace (TreePress.net) and a short e-book, Fantasy (Red Rose Publishing).

On April 30, 2007, a media report stated that three people in Guyana had been arrested in the killing of a woman who'd apparently inspired a superstitious revulsion. During the early morning hours, she had wandered into the village of Bare Root, where even people possessing cell phones still believed in superstition.

do not ever eat the bird
their wings tap furiously against
the ribbed vault of thy palate
do not swallow the incarnated freedom
do not dare to awake me
i do not belong to the sun-worshipping tribe
no! do not feel sorry
i am happier that way

nadja
February 25, 2002

After Ernest's departure Ethel Brandenbourg's heart was swaying hither and thither in a hurricane of conflicting feelings. Before she had time to gain an emotional equilibrium, his letter had hurled her back into chaos. A false ring somewhere in Ernest's words, reechoing with an ever-increasing volume of sound, stifled the voice of love.

While she may not actually be the first, Hungarian Countess Erzebet Bathory is credited in many chronologies of vampire-related crime as the first person on record to be murderously motivated by blood. What's notable about her is that most killers with vampiric appetites are male, while Erzebet was female. She was also one of the most bloodthirsty "vampire killers" in history.