Halloween Dracula FFW Newsletter 2012

Flair For Writing Newsletter
Dracula
Editor: Megan Princess Megan Snow Rose
Assistant Editor: Ange; Angel

Greetings Everyone! Megan and Angel here. It is almost Halloween. Can you believe it? I have my stuffed black cats out, orange and white pumpkins in the yard, dancing Frankenstein, little plastic ducks dressed like Halloween characters and my haunted carousel. Angel made some new sigs for the newsletter. What is the newsletter about you ask? Dracula! He was the first vampire we know of unless you want to go back to the Medieval times or Lilith, Satan's sister so they say. This newsletter is dedicated to Dracula. I am going to watch the movie with Gary Oldsman and I have been watching the "Twilight" movies and the "Dark Shadows" movie. Vampires. Romantic, alluring and enchanting. I will write about Dracula first and then Angel will be sharing what she found out. We hope you hope you will enjoy this newsletter. Show your fangs and here we go.


Dracula is a 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The novel tells the story of the Count Dracula who left Transylvania to come to England and the battle that ensued between Dracula and a small group of people and Van Helsing.

The novel touches on horror, vampire literature, gothic, the role of Victorian women and invasion literature. The novel has been transformed into plays and movies.

Jonathan Harker came to see Dracula on official law business but Dracula's wives captured him and the Count saved him because he had other plans for him. Harker escaped by climbing out of the castle and lived to tell about it. Harker was engaged to a woman named Mina and Dracula had loved her in another time period and was obsessed with her.

Dracula can transform into a wolf and when he was on the ship coming from Translyvania, he killed everyone. We can't forget Mina's best friend Lucy who strung three men along but became Dracula's victim and was turned into a vampire and killed by Van Helsing, a vampire hunter. We have to feel sorry for Lucy. Dracula loves Mina and wants to turn her into a vampire like he did Lucy and Harker and Van Helsing go after Dracula and they kill him. Dracula had already bit Mina and she was on her way to being a vampire.

The novel didn't sell until 1922. Maybe people had lightened up by this time. At the time of the writing, the novel was considered gruesome and others saw it as an adventure story. Sherlock Holmes author Sir Authur Conan Doyle liked the novel and wrote Brams Stoker a letter and told him so.

Translyvania is associated with Dracula as being his home land. The real Dracula lived there but he wasn't a vampire. He killed people but Angel will tell you about this later. He had been beaten and tortured when he fought in the war against the Turks and made others pay for his abuse.

Count Dracula is a centuries old vampire and a Transylvania noblesman. He lived in a decaying castle in the Carpathian mountains. He led troops against the Turks across the Danube. Dracula returned from death as a vampire from the tomb he was buried in, in his chapel in his castle with three beautiful female vampires beside him. Dracula fell in love with Mina and that is where Brams Stoker's novel begins.

I respect Dracula and he was the start of vampires but I love Barnabas Collins, Lestat, Damon of "Vampire Diaries" and the Twilight vampires the best. I do love watching the Dracula movie with Gary Oldsman and Keenau Reeves. I love Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman. Dracula in this movie reminds me of Ozzy Osbourne's brother. He is so cool.


This is Angel's story for the newsletter.

Hello Everyone. Angel here. Are you ready for Halloween? Get all those decorations out and start decorating. Let's have some fun! Carve those pumpkins and run down to the store to get lots of candy and a little bit for me and some for the kids. Don't forget to dress up!

Let's all get together and watch our favorite vampire movies.

The Romanians supported Dracula since he rid them of the Ottoman rule. He was their savior from evil. Once when two Monks visited him, he showed off a row of impaled corpses in his courtyard. He then asked what the two Monks thought of his actions he had taken. The first Monk responded: "You were appointed by God to punish the evil doers." The second Monk was more critical and condemned Dracula's actions. The second Mok was rewarded with impalement.

His fellow Romanians shared his lust for blood. They cheered and shouted in jubilation when their enemies foreign or domestic were put on display. In the book, "Dracula, Prince Of Many Faces" by Radu Florescu and Raymond T McNally, they wrote that Dracula became somewhat less of a devil. "Budai Deleanu sought a hero to be immortalized above all other heroes of Romanian history. In his eyes, Dracula was "the brave" not "the Impaler leading his disorganized gypsy army in battle array with the help of angels and the forces of good against the Turks, the evil boyars {a higher class of Russian nobility and the forces of Satan. Romanian Folklore and literature continues to paint Dracula as a hero. He had a reputation in his native country as a man who stood up to his enemies. There is documentation that he was even viewed as a a Robin Hood because he often raised humble men to high rank. The peasants remained faithful to him. In Romania, he is still considered one of the greatest leaders in the country's history.

Countless people have also attempted to justify Vlad III, Dracula's cruel and savage actions on the basis of political neccesity.. Many of the merchants in Translyvania and Wallachia were German Saxons who were seen as parasites preying upon Romanian natives of Wallachia. The wealthy land owning Russian boyars exerted their own often impulsive and unfaithful influence over the reigning princes. However, Dracula did his country a service in times of war by getting rid of thousands of enemies although many of Dracula's victims were also Wallachians and few deny that he gained a perverted pleasure from his actions.

Author Michael Guest calls Dracula"the Devil's Puppet." The devil was talking with one of his demons Murduk. The devil states that life has bought him to me and he will serve the devil willingly or unwillingly. He has no choice in the matter. Guest is claiming that Dracula was acting from demonic forces.

Dracula was a force to be reckoned with. He put fear into his enemies and they were silenced. Every moment since his third reign, the odds against Dracula's survival was too great. Dracula could sense his demise. He bought his second wife and son with him where they would be assinated with him. Dracula was caught and killed in battle against the Turks near the town of Bucharest in December of 1476. He had just begin his reign two months prior.

Some say he was assinated by disloyal Wallachian aristocrats just as he was about to sweep the Turks from the field. Some say he fell in defeat surrounded by his loyal bodyguards. Others say he was accidentally struck down by his own men. The Turks seperated his head from his body. His head was displayed on a stake by the Sultans as proof that he was dead. He was buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near Bucharest.

Dracula didn't set out to become one of the most hated and beloved rulers of Romania. His life started out as a sea of uncertainity during times of war. His own father and brother and himself as hostages to an enemy that was slowly suffocating his land. He was imprisoned and tortured at the age of eleven. This gave him psychology issues. He was tortured and starved in his adult life for ten years as well. He watched others being impaled from his cell window. He was transformed and when he was released from prison the second time, he left with an unfathomable amount of wrath that had been brewing for some time. His ill fated circumstances clouded his judgments, he lost himself and in a sense went mad. Dracula's actions made him infamous. His name is one that will not be quickly forgotten for many years to come and his lack of empathy and sadistic qualities will continue to saturate the modern world whether it is written in a book or seen on the film screen.

I found this story on this site:
http://www.simplysupernatural.com/DraculaHeroSavageDiane Huxley.html

Thank you Angel.

Angel and I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. We loved writing this. Have a Happy Halloween and be nice to vampires! Love: Megan and Angel

These Sigs by Angel:
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