The Supernatural Bookstore: All Creepy, All the Time.

Click here to read the free sample chapter of the abridged Varney the Vampyre book one!

At the Supernatural Bookstore you will find a continually growing (as I have time) selection of downloadable ebooks. At this time, my focus is vampires. My ebook choices tend to fit into the needs categories I see my college students displaying. The abridged Varney (the only one of its kind) grew out of my attempt to use the original version in my Vampires in Literature class. The Supernatural Study Guides are a realistic outgrowth of my attempted classroom discussions with students who hadn't made time to read the poems and stories. I thought that vampire lesbians and sundry images of biting,sucking, and supernatural victimization would be enough to get them to read these classics. Frustrating us all was their inability to read the old language and archaic grammar.

Thus began the saga. The brain-breaking labor (of love) that this website, and the ebook products within the bookstore represent. I want the non-ivory tower world to read once more Varney the Vampyre -- the first serial vampire story ever written. It wasn't written with the idea that only academics would read it. It was written for the then-audience of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. Varney hasn't altered, but the language molded.
Remember the Buffy where she is talking to Giles about what makes a vampire stand out as a vampire in a crowd of non-vampires? She notes the out-dated clothing on the vampire. Well, Varney is attired in out-dated clothing, and he is also Waaayyyyy overdressed. The author was paid by the word; the padding is profuse.

It has been my honor to remove some of the excess padding, and to give Varney modernized language, syntax, and grammar.


After that work of love, it struck me that my time pressed students might lack the time to read even an abridged and modernized version of Varney. This was the germ of an idea that has led to the Supernatural Study Guides. I want my students talking and contributing to the dialogue surrounding vampires. (And yes, eventually Ghosts, Werewolves, and all the other supernatural pantheon.

Thus far the list for Study Guides is fairly short. If you have suggestions for those to do first, I would appreciate them. Please use the contact form below.

Supernatural Study Guide: Varney the Vampyre book one: The Feast of Blood

Supernatural Study Guide Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Lord Byron's "Augustus Darvell"

Supernatural Study Guide: "Carmilla"

I have simply run out of time, and like my students, I face the choice of posting the partial listing of desired study guides, or of waiting until I have time to complete the proposed guides. I will be working on this as the year progresses.