by
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 105
One hundred years after being driven out of a small Irish town, a vampire returns...or does he?
Publisher: Wordwooze Publishing
Illustrators:
Narrators:
Genres:
Word Count: 33450
Setting: Ireland
Languages Available: English
Word Count: 33450
Setting: Ireland
Languages Available: English
An automobile was parked in the circular driveway, close enough to the entrance for the driver to dash out and jump inside quickly, if need be. A Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, its aluminum painted coat and silver-plated fittings reflecting the sunbeams as the little group, to a man, stopped to inspect the automobile.
With an envious sigh, Seamus admired its open-body construction.
Ah, to own somethin’ like that. Whoever had moved into the manor must definitely have a lot of cash. Aye, undoubtedly ’tis a rich Yank, to have such a fine an’ ostentatious vehicle.
The car’s bonnet was up.
READ MORESeamus saw movement. It was then he realized a man was leaning over the fender into the interior, working with a tool of some kind. He straightened, and they saw he was wearing the bottom half of a chauffeur’s gray uniform, with its jodphur-like trousers. Leather gaiters encased his legs. He was shirtless, suspenders pulled over wide shoulders and a broad chest encased in a white knit undervest.
“G’day.” He glanced at the priest. “Morning, Father.”
He was young and tanned and definitely not bothered by the morning sunshine’s glare. A cloth lay on the fender, tools upon it. He selected another and went back to work.
“’Morn.” Nodding, Seamus held out a hand. “Seamus Flannery.”
“Jack Horne.” The young man straightened, laying down the tool long enough to grasp his hand in a firm, warm grip. He gave it a sharp shake, then release it, picked up the tool and went back to work.
“Is th’ master to home?”
“Probably.”
He had a foreign accent. American, Seamus thought.
“It’s still daytime.” His answer was casual. There were clicks and clangs as he concentrated on whatever he was doing. “He doesn’t generally come outside until later in the evening.”
Someone shuddered at that, and a few of the men exchanged glances, but Seamus felt relief. If the new owner was up and it was daylight, that ruled out the vampire theory right there.
“Thanks.” He looked at the others. “Come on, lads.”
All five headed to the house. As one, they were up the steps and on the stoop running the length of the building, all of them, even Father Ryan at this point, where they stood looking at each other and milling around like sheep, none wanting to be the one actually stepping up to the door and knocking.
“Well?” Seamus spoke up, looking at Conor.
“Well what?”
How his friend could give him such an ignorant look, he didn’t know.
“So step up an’ give that door a rap an’ let’s see who’s inside.”
The look on Conor’s face told him he had a better chance of saving enough money to buy a Rolls. When none of the others volunteered, Seamus gave a grunt of exasperation. With a sigh and a shrug, he stamped to the door. Studying the knocker, an ornate, brass thing with a horseshoe-shaped flange, he seized it, bringing it down against the metal plate.
Three times. The last knock defiantly.
The echo of the last strike had barely died away when he heard footsteps inside. The others heard, too, and huddled closer together.
Like a bunch o’ chickens listenin’ to a fox outside th’ henhouse, he thought scornfully.
There was a rattle of keys, a click of a lock. Slowly, the door swung open.
Everyone prepared to run. Even Seamus tensed, though he would never have admitted it.
“Yes sir?”
A man stood there, a very dignified man, dressed in dark, conservative livery. He blinked slightly as the sunlight struck him directly in the eyes.
“May I help you?”
“Oh…uh… Right.” That brought Seamus out of his trance. “We—that is, th’ others an’ I—” He gestured behind him at his mates. “We’re from Balleywalegh an’ we saw th’ light last night, an’—”
He stopped, uncertain what to say, desperately wishing he’d realized he was going to be forced into this position. I could’ve practiced what I was goin’ to say on th’ walk here. I should’ve known Conor an’ th’ others would coward out, an’ I’d end up doin’ it. It happens every time. When will I learn?
The rest of his thoughts were interrupted as the man once more spoke, promptingly, this time. “Yes, sir, you’re from the village, and…?”
By now, Seamus had gotten a good gander at him and decided he didn’t look as he thought a vampire should, especially a dearg-dul.
Hadn’t they always been described as extremely ugly, with fiery eyes, the palest of skin and rows and rows of sharp teeth like those piranha-fish he’d read about as lived in South American rivers? This fella… Why, he looked to be only as old as Seamus himself, and certainly neither pale nor fiery- eyed. Definitely not ugly. Pleasant-looking, as a matter of fact.
One might stretch a point and say handsome.
Blond and fair, with blue eyes squinting in the sunlight. As for his teeth? They might be a trifle large, what Seamus considered English teeth, being a trifle crooked in the bottom row, but there were no more than the usual number. They certainly didn’t look any sharper than his own.
“…an’ we saw th’ light an’ thought we’d stop by an’ offer a welcome to th’ village.” For the first time since stepping onto the porch, Conor came out of his daze and managed to speak up, if a trifle weakly.
“Oh. I see.” The man smiled. That transformed his face to something totally human and completely harmless.
“So if your master’s around,” Seamus picked up the thread again. “We’d like to extend an invitation—”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible at the moment, sir,” the man interrupted.
“But—”
“The master is unavailable. He’s out for the day.”
“Out?” Conor spoke up again. “Yon chauffy-lad says he’s in. We haven’t heard any motors passin’ by. Anyway, his car’s still here, so how did he travel? Did he fly?”
Conor, you idjit, was all Seamus could think.
The butler, for that’s what Seamus had decided the man was, didn’t appear insulted however. In fact, he smiled again, though his answer was a trifle frosty, this time.
“Master Novotny has several motor cars. He occasionally drives himself, Mr…?”
“…Leary. Conor Leary.” It was a moment before Conor spoke, reluctantly supplying his name, then adding, “Mayor o’ Balleywalegh.”
“Mr. Leary.” The butler acknowledged this with a nod. “If you’d care to come back this evening, I’m certain the Master will—”
“We wouldn’t mind waitin’,” Seamus put in, knowing it would take a team of horses and a blast of gunpowder to get Conor or any of the others to come back again. Even in daylight. “Until he returns.”
“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be proper,” came the answer, as he expected. “I’ve no authority to allow anyone in without the master’s permission.” He began pushing the door shut as he spoke. “Please come back this evening.”
The door was closing fast. Seamus attempted to insert one of his Size 13 brogans into the still-open space.
“Wait…”
“Good day, sir.” The butler spoke with finality. The door was nearly shut.
“What’s the problem, Steven?” The question came from behind the man, somewhere far inside the house, asked with a slight accent.
“Sir? When did you get back?” There was obvious bewilderment in the question.
“I never went out.”
Footsteps came down stairs. The door was pulled open again, the butler looking behind him. Once again, those on the stoop braced themselves.
The man standing couldn’t have been more different from Steven. Seamus felt his heart sink as he looked at him.
This isn’t what a vampire should look like, was all he could think.
Tall, longish dark hair, very much out of style—more like what one of them stage actors would sport, Seamus thought—framing a pallid, narrow face contrasting with the lightest of blue eyes, so pale they appeared nearly colorless. Handsome, yes, the master of the house truly could’ve graced the screen of any cinema, but certainly not as a vampire.
The lad looks more like one of them matinee idols…that Valentino or Ramon Navarro or other of those Latin lover types.
COLLAPSEHarper on Alluring Reads wrote:4 Stars
A hundred years before, the villagers of Balleywalegh drove the vampire preying on their womenfolk from their midst…and that should’ve been the end of it. But now, it’s 1929, and the monster’s back. Or is he? Someone’s definitely occupying the abandoned manor house again. Karel Novotny has the same name as the former Undead resident but he’s much, much younger, and more up-to-date. He even drives a Stutz Bearcat! With his movie idol good-looks, he’s enthralled the local lasses, especially Seamus Flannery’s daughter Brigid. Seamus isn’t much for believing in vampires or any other creature of the night but he’s a little worried about the pale young man’s attention to his daughter. And when Brigid becomes suddenly and unexplainably ill, he has to make a decision.
Is Karel Novotny the monster returned or not, and if so, what will the good men of Balleywalegh do this time?
Are the superstitions of the town’s folk silly, or is there really something to fear in the dark?
Seamus Flannery’s peaceful life is shattered the moment his wife, Maeve, starts shrieking uncontrollably when she sees a light in an old deserted manor. Like Seamus, I wondered why something so simple would send a woman into hysterics. Maeve isn’t the only one who has seen the light. Seamus soon learns that the people in the town believe a vampire has taken up residence in the old manor. At first Seamus laughs it off, but after meeting Karel Novotny, the owner of the manor, he isn’t so sure. After Seamus does a bit of digging through the town history, he learns there was indeed a vampire in the town over a hundred years ago. Seamus begins to wonder if the vampire has come back to exact the revenge he promised.
Karel is certainly intriguing. I thought he handled the attention of the town’s folk very well. While he seems to genuinely want the people to like him, I also got the impression he was playing with them a little bit. I was pretty sure he wasn’t actually a vampire, but it’s clear he IS hiding something. I found myself racing through the pages determined to figure out his secret.I liked Seamus immediately. He’s a very pleasant, down to earth man who provides the much needed voice of reason when the men of Balleywalegh want to charge up to Karel’s house and destroy him. Seamus admits Karel is odd, but he won’t convict a man of being a vampire without concrete proof. I found Maeve’s test of a garlic laden dish at the town potluck to be especially entertaining.
Seamus’ weakness is his daughter, Brigid. When she and Karel start to become close, Seamus can’t help but feel overprotective of his child. I couldn’t help but smile when Seamus managed to interrupt the romantic interludes between Brigid and Karel. However, when Brigid falls prey to a mysterious illness, Seamus lets superstition get the better of him. He and the rest of the men in the town decide to take matters into their own hands. I was on the edge of my seat as Seamus and his friends marched up to the manor. Would they discover a bloodthirsty vampire, or were they about to make the biggest mistake of their lives?
I was completely surprised at the way the story ended. I did have a few things figured out, but I never saw the truth about Karel coming. I did find the ending a bit abrupt for a story that had so much build up. However, I still found the conclusion satisfying and I certainly had a smile on my face when I finished the story.Definitely a fun, fast paced story. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it. Readers wanting to know Karel’s secret should certainly pick up a copy today.
Review of 1st Edition
Amanda on Manic Readers wrote:4 Stars
This is the first novel that I have read by this author. I’m happy that I got the chance to read it and review it however! I enjoyed Seamus first and foremost, the father of Brigid. I could almost hear his bluster and roar as he tried to figure out just exactly what was happening in his town. While the townsfolk seemed to fall back upon wild hysteria Seamus is determined to figure out a way to look at what’s happening in the small town logically.
Karel is a character that was a complete enigma. Even reading through the book I found myself asking, is he a vampire, is he not a vampire? It almost seemed to me that he wanted the townsfolks attention on him. He makes me think of half of a magic act, here he is distracting attention, while someone else is somewhere else making the magic happen.
By the end of the book I was definitely on the edge of my seat, something’s I was like – oh! I saw that coming, and others I was like, where did that come from?! It’s definitely an enjoyable read, a read that takes you out of the monotony of everyday and drops you right into the past in a time of lore and passion.
I give this a solid 4 stars because it was a really great book! The heat level however was very tame so I give it a Sensual heat level.Review of 1st Edition
Margaret Marr on Nights and Weekends wrote:Rating: 4
Vampires are Forever by Tony-Paul de Vissage is an interesting read. The setting is a village in Ireland in 1929, where the characters speak broken English and are entranced by motor vehicles traveling down the road. We follow the Flannery family composed of husband Seamus, wife Maeve, and several children, the eldest named Brigid.
Seamus is a strong male character who is, more often than not, level-headed and views himself as the protector of his family. He is introduced to a unique situation, however, when Maeve and the rest of his community fall into superstitious beliefs about a foreigner who moves into an old manor that was once said to be occupied by a vampire. Being so level-headed, Seamus makes the first contact with his new neighbor to prove a point to the villagers but soon discovers he may have a superstitious side as well. Although Seamus believes his neighbor Karel Novotny is human enough, he pulls up startling facts through archives about the Novotny name. To complicate matters, Brigid is romantically interested in Novotny, which obviously alters Seamus’ take on the whole ordeal.
Although this story is set in the early 1900’s, we are introduced to a very modern take on the classic vampire tale. Tony-Paul de Vissage is a wonderful storyteller who successfully wove drama, some mystery, and erotica into one book. There are less than a handful of editorial errors present in the novel but not enough to take away from the story. Overall, Vampires are Forever is not your typical vampire story and the ending is not what you would expect.
Review of 1st Edition
Gloria Lakritz on Paranormal Romance Guild wrote:No one has lived in Casa Ascuns Mansion in Balleywalegh, London, since the vampire Karel Novotny was driven from it decades ago. Now it’s 1929, and no one is more surprised than Maeve Margaret Donovan Flannery when she sees a light in a window of the dark, deserted place. She’s sure that the vampire has returned with bitter revenge in store for the small village.
Seamus Flannery isn’t considered a local, even though he’s lived in Balleywalegh for the twenty-five years since he married Maeve. He shows himself as even more of an outsider when he’s not willing to march up to Casa Ascuns bearing torches and sharp, pointy sticks. He’d rather not stake an innocent man—even if it is a coincidence that he shares the same name with the vampire that the villagers once ran out of town. Seamus doesn’t even believe in vampires, but when his daughter arrives on leave from boarding school and shows an interest in the new occupant of the mansion, Seamus decides to do a little more research—just to be safe.
What I like most about Tony-Paul de Vissage’s vampire novels is that the romance is only secondary to the plot; they’re more along the lines of an Anne Rice offering. With most of the romance taking a back seat, more attention can be focused on the sinister aspects of a really good vampire tale—and I enjoyed that a whole lot more.
Seamus Flannery is a blustery man with a whole lot of common sense, which will immediately endear him to readers. While everyone else is spiking mashed potatoes with garlic, dipping crosses in holy water, and sharpening stakes, Seamus seeks to gather unmistakable and irrefutable evidence. He does, however, become comical as he tries to keep his daughter away from Karel Novotny until he’s sure.
Once again, this author takes readers out of this world to escape to places and time-periods that you’ll never otherwise visit. What small, quiet village is complete without something dark lurking in the shadows—whether real or imagined? As always, the setting is brought out in stark contrast and populated with peculiar characters.
With a dark, forbidding mansion, enthralling prose, and lively villagers, Vampires Are Forever is escapism at its best. Don’t expect a predictable ending because you won’t get one here; it all comes together with unrivaled wit and imagination. When it comes to vampire fiction, Tony-Paul de Vissage is the go-to author.
Review of 1st Edition
Michael D. Smith on Amazon.com wrote:4****Stars
When doing Dual reviews, it is so nice to have a change of pace from the ordinary. Tony-Paul de Vissage, from his author profile, is very interesting indeed, and so is the premise of his vampire love story set in the quaint Irish farming town of Balleywalegh in the 1920's.
The point of view of two of the important characters telling this tale are both male voices. One told from the brouge and accent of Seamus Flannery, father, husband and respected member of his community, and the other, Karel Novotnoy the newest member and now called Foreigner to the community.
Our story opens with the description the Flannery family; wife Maeve, children Bridget, Sean, Ossian, Padraig, Liam, Deidre, and Baby Denis. The arrival of lights on at The Manor long empty has aroused fear in Maeve Flannery and in the townsfolk. Talk about the Vampire’s return and what it means to the town, and what happened previously is learned.
Seamus Flannery is not apt to be scared about things that go bump in the night. He is fair minded and not apt to panic. He will need more than gossip to fear things that are unknown, that is until his beautiful daughter comes home and is within the sights of the foreigner's attention.
Karl Novotnoy arrives with a small entourage. He has a butler, a driver and a past. The house he has moved into is called the Manor House. It is an austere and forboding building left over 100 years ago when the townsfolk ran off the 'dearg due', their name for vampire, who was preying on their daughters. Who lives in the Master Bedroom???
The magic of this story is the picture of time gone by, where a hint of ankle could bring a man to his knees. The townsfolk potluck dinners, gossip and small town lure with the wonderful rich brouge accents to bring it even more to life. It was a short story, too short in fact, as I could have read this authors style forever. I loved how the author had Maeve Flannery concoct a dumpling dish laced with garlic for the Town Dinner to test a vampire! This story was rich in description, and had me the reader on the edge to the last page to learn the secret.
Review of 1st Edition
Kat Henry Doran on wild Women Reviews wrote:I thoroughly enjoyed this charming short novel which reviews all the basic vampire parameters but focuses them through a delightfully fresh lens.
Set in a small Irish town in 1929, the novel effortlessly produces the vampire memes of the innocent village beset a hundred years ago by vampires, and its currently empty, brooding mansion newly occupied by ageless foreigner Karel Novotny, who just happens to have the same name, and exhibit the same vampire-like good looks, as the ghoul hounded from the property over a hundred years ago. We get Karel’s sad tale of his exile from Hungary and the dispossession of his personal fortune, the village daughter Brigid who swoons for him, the village girls taking ill and dying as they did a hundred years ago, garlic and crosses, and the vigilante villagers once again roused to murderous ire. Then … we start seeing things quite differently.
1929 is also an interesting date for dealing with newly-merging cultures: old rural values, the neighboring big city where daughter Brigid learns new mores, and newly imported American concepts all mix into and provide humorous contrast to the vampiric mood.
5 Stars
Review of Second Edition
It is 1926 in rural Ireland and the small village of Ballywalegh is in a proper uproar after the local manor house, uninhabited for more than a century, is reopened by its new owner, Karel Novotny—handsome as any movie actor, he is—with his odd acting staff, their fancy cars and furniture limited to those oversize caskets stored in the master bedroom.
On the eve of the annual Fall Fellowship Festival, old fears and myths start up again about strange happenings at the manor house and illnesses among the young women of the village. So what’s a man such as Seamus Flannery to do, when his lovely daughter Bridey arrives home from her teaching position for a short vacation, intent on attending the Fest?
On the heels of a most successful Festival when Novotny and Bridey, as well as many of the other young people of the village, had themselves quite the time, illness strikes—just as it did before. Driven to frenzy, the villagers storm the manor house, looking to commit violence—just as they did before.
Our Review: There are many terrific aspects of this delightful story, one of which is author deVissage’s ability to create the nuances of Irish-speak. Reading this story, for us, was a welcome visit home. Another excellent aspect is his ability to create parallel story lines, populated by intriguing characters, and a hint of mystery which kept us turning the pages.
On a scale of 1-5, Forever, My Vampire deserves a 6.
Review of Second Edition
