16 Comments
User's avatar
M Soul's avatar

I’m still in the middle of reading but I love how visual it all is! I think u did a good job with the scenes🥰

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

Thank you for reading and for leaving this kind comment midway through your lecture ❤️

I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of it.

Expand full comment
Stephen Duffy's avatar

Great work, Stefan! Glad to have finally read it, felt like a classic vampyre story from the very beginning 💚

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

Thank you so much! That really means a lot to hear—especially coming from you.

Expand full comment
Bogdan Stoichescu's avatar

Big SB… this is great! First gut feel read … there is something theatrical about this in the coolest/best possible way … a stage retold in prose. (Not sure if helpful… but perhaps something to play around with) Since I cant help not get meta with everything… it would be interesting if you want extend this piece in the future to perhaps lean in to this ‘theatricality’ to have some subtext/suggestion on the viewer wanting to experience/see vampires in this setting, and their mainstream expectations on what they want to see or not… relating to your post a while back about Nosferatu … not too explicit and more background but interesting practice nonetheless to stretch you and see what comes out the other side. Not social commentary but Satire in the best way.

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

Thank you very much for your thoughts, B! Right now, with vampires, I am trying to figure what works with both my readers and I. You've made a very good observation with the 'theatricality' of this piece-something that was lost on me. Writing these pieces is my research on 'vampyres', finding out how they work and how they differ from the mainstream trope. One day soon, when I will have a better grasp of them, I would like to revisit and extend this piece, as well as Nosferatu. Still, my next 'vampyre' piece will be set in the near-future.

Expand full comment
Solace Solnova's avatar

Not you making me use google translate lol I love this so far (still reading). You set the scene so well.

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

Solace, I hope it didn’t bogged down your experience. As a note, whenever I use Romanian words they are primarily there for flavor and I wouldn’t hide some plot point behind them without providing a footnote or an explanation somewhere in the text.

Nevertheless, I appreciate the fact that you are a curious individual and I love the fact that you research the text you’re reading. It is something I wish for my readers to do, but I wouldn’t it want to be a requirement.

Expand full comment
Solace Solnova's avatar

No it didn’t take away from the experience. I absolutely loved it! it felt like a scavenger hunt.

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

Glad to hear it! I must recommend you Book of The Sun by Gene Wolfe. It also has a sequel, Urth of the New Sun, but I haven’t read it. That is indeed a scavenger hunt.

Expand full comment
Solace Solnova's avatar

Thank you, I’ll check it out!

Expand full comment
Bev Levine's avatar

Loved this--thank you for sharing.

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

Thank you for reading, Bev! Are vampires a trope you like? Or is it the historical setting?

Expand full comment
Bev Levine's avatar

It's a little bit of both. I'm all over the place in my taste. Love your writings.

Expand full comment
Stefan Baciu's avatar

I too am all over the place, so it’s good to know I’ve found a bird of my feather. Thanks again for the kind words!

Expand full comment
Chibueze Agu's avatar

Nice work 🥂

Expand full comment