Carmilla

Carmilla (1872) is a novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Published twenty-six years before Bram Stoker's Dracula, Le Fanu's work of Gothic horror and mystery is considered an important early entry in the genre of vampire fiction.
Recorded in the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, a medical professional with a detective's sensibility, is the story of Laura, a teenager bearing a strange secret. Raised in a castle by her father, a widower who recently concluded his career in service to the Austrian Empire, Laura has been haunted since her youth, when she was visited at night by a beautiful, spectral woman. Now eighteen, she awaits the visit of Bertha Rheinfelt, a niece of her father's friend. When Bertha dies mysteriously, however, and when a girl named Carmilla is brought to the castle under strange circumstances, Laura fears that the past has come full circle. But she soon overcomes her mournful state, growing close with Carmilla. But the girl's behavior soon proves unsettling. Carmilla is prone to sleepwalking, sleeps through the day, declines to participate in prayers, and makes romantic overtures to Laura. She begins to be haunted by strange and violent dreams, waking one night to discover Carmilla at the foot of her bed, and bite marks along her neck. Her father intervenes, taking her to a local village. On the way, they meet Bertha's uncle, who shares the chilling details of her fate. It becomes clear that Carmilla, whoever she is, is far from the innocent young girl she claims to be.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Three of Bill Ransom's short stories appeared in the PEN/NEA Syndicated Fiction Project that the National Endowment for the Arts called "The Pulitzer Prize of the Short Story". "Uncle Hungry," "What Elena Said" and "Learning the Ropes" appeared in Sunday magazine editions of major U.S. newspapers. Bill has six novels available from WordFire Press: Jaguar, ViraVax, Burn, and he co-authored The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect and The Ascension Factor with Frank Herbert. The Pandora Sequence holds the entire Herbert/Ransom trilogy, plus insights into their collaborative process. Brother Blood/Sister Death is his seventh WordFire novel.Bill was a firefighter, firefighting basic training instructor, and an Advanced Life Support Emergency Medical Technician for twelve years. He volunteered with humanitarian groups in civil wars in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. He's had plenty of experience with blood.He twice received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and recently retired after fifteen years at The Evergreen State College, his last five years as Academic Dean of Curriculum.