This week’s writing prompt is, What I learned when researching my book…
When I was writing The Vampire’s Daughter, I did a ton of research on vampires. I also was doing research for my thesis, which was also on vampires, so a lot of the research was academic. One term I came across and used in my book that I’ve rarely ever seen in mainstream vampire literature is callicantzari. People who were born during the 12 days from Christmas to Epiphany were sometimes thought to be vampires because that would mean they were conceived during Lent, meaning the parents were immoral and the child thus cursed. In The Vampire’s Daughter, one of the reasons why the local priest hates the character of Victoria is because her birthday is on Christmas Day, making her a callicantzari.