Whaling City Vampires: Love Beyond Death and Read an Ebook Week

Slip through dark dirty alleys avoiding the scampering rats and the oily soot. Creep through the night along the banks of a river that's port to hundreds of whaling ships and the workplace of shipbuilders, sailors and merchants. Just watch out for drunken sailors, vagrants, pirates and VAMPIRES!

Whaling City Vampires: Love Beyond Death is available at Smashwords.com for FREE this week in observance of Read An Ebook Week. You don't need an eReader to read any of the ebooks at Smashwords. You can download a copy in any of several different formats including a PDF which only requires a free Acrobat Reader download.

The Great New England Vampire Panic | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

 The Great New England Vampire Panic | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

This is a really fascinating article about supposed vampires in northeastern New London County, Connecticut and eastern Rhode Island in the late 19th century.

As described in the article, Lena Brown's grave in the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island still receives visitors.

The Vampires Rescue a Pirate from a New London Jail

In Chapter 10 of Whaling City Vampires: Love After Death, vampires Amy and Ruthie decide to slip into a jail cell in the New London Courthouse building to meet an actual pirate. After meeting the pirate and learning more about his situation they decide to free him and help him escape his appointment for execution.

Here's an image of the courthouse as it may have looked in 1850 when the story takes place:

http://jud.ct.gov/external/news/NL_rededication.htm

Here's the link to the page where I found this image: http://jud.ct.gov/external/news/NL_rededication.htm

The courthouse was built in the 1780's and still stands and is in use today. I have no idea whether it once had jail cells in the basement, but it does in the story. In the story it was also built earlier and survived the burning of New London by the British led by the local traitor Benedict Arnold.

Notice the tree on the corner. This is the tree where Susie and Amy hide behind in Chapter 6 when Amy shows Ruthie the house she grew up in.

Here's what the courthouse looks like today:

http://newlondonlandmarks.org/NLLguidebook/blueTour11.html

 

The tree was replaced by roadsigns! Actually, the tree was probably killed by disease or a hurricane.

Vampires Searching New London from the Roof of the Custom House

Amy, Ruthie and Susie search for Reverend Williams from the roof of the Custom House in New London around 1850. This building still stands on Bank Street and is now used as the Custom House Maritime Museum. The Custom House pier across the railroad tracks directly behind the Custom House is a much cleaner and nicer place for a stroll than during the busy whaling days where the story takes place.

Amy's Wardrobe

Amy's Taste in Dresses
 I imagine Amy would have worn dresses similar to this one. Whether she was stealing a new dress or deciding what to wear for the evening, she always imagined the way Robert would like to see her when she chose a dress.

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https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/299149

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Vampires Go Clothes Shopping!

Wouldn't it be great to be able to shop freely taking whatever you like without having to pay for it? Of course, the vampires were stealing, but that's one of the advantages of being a vampire along with superhuman strength and invulnerability to sickness and, unless decapitated or staked in the heart, immortality. That was the greatest part of the sci-fi movie The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston. Believing to be the last man on earth he went into stores taking whatever he needed and taking whichever car he liked. After seeing that movie I remember remarking to my mother how great it would be to be the last person on earth and have everything to myself. She quickly listed off many disadvantages of that situation that would surely outweigh the one advantage of having everything in the world just for me.

Amy loves to shop for free dresses, but does so carefully so as not to make any of the shop owners suspicious.When Ruthie is feeling down Amy expects Ruthie to have her spirits lifted by shopping for a new dress just as she does. In fact, Amy uses dress shopping as a cure for any bad mood and is baffled when Ruthie fails to be cheered up by dress shopping. However, Amy is thrilled when Susie is delighted by Amy's shopping technique. Unlike Ruthie, Susie is very impressed by Amy's attitude toward shopping and is eager to devise ways to have even more luxuries than just fine dresses. Susie wants to take advantage of all the ways she can improve her life with her new vampire abilities but Amy and Ruthie are constantly oppressing her desires for fear of being discovered and destroyed.

In fact, Susie suggests that they clean out the pockets of their victims and use the money to obtain luxuries for themselves which is distasteful to Ruthie and terrifying to Amy who, as a rule, doesn't do business with humans for fear of being recognized, hunted and destroyed. Susie, citing all the strengths and advantages they now have as vampires, is frustrated and resents being so restrained when she feels the world is hers for the taking. She wants to hunt out luxuries for herself just as passionately as she hunts for blood.