My Dark Valentine
By Karen Essex Some stories refuse to fade. Dracula in Love has followed me for years like a shadow—beautiful, intimate, and a little dangerous. When I first wrote it, I wanted to ask a simple but radical question: what if Mina Harker were not the dutiful Victorian heroine of Bram Stoker’s imagination, but a woman of appetite, agency, and secret power? What if she were the vampire’s equal? Long before “romantasy” became a defined genre, I was drawn to stories that braided history sensuality,...
