Ask the Author: Catherine G. Lurid
Answered Questions (7)
Catherine G. Lurid
Thank you for your question. Well, a Strzyga is something akin to a Strigoi, but exclusively female. She’s a hybrid of sorts, part vampire, part dark witch—a mix of Dracula and Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga, by the way, is a Slavic witch, and she’s the central figure in my sequel, I’m diligently translating into English right now.
This witch, much like a Strigoi, drinks the blood of humans and animals, raises the dead from their graves, and terrifies travelers who lose their way in the forest. In Slavic paganism, there are countless rituals—some even involving sacrifices—performed to appease her. One of these based on crafting a handmade doll and burning it in a forest bonfire. Remarkably, this tradition survives in Poland and Belarus till these days.
This witch, much like a Strigoi, drinks the blood of humans and animals, raises the dead from their graves, and terrifies travelers who lose their way in the forest. In Slavic paganism, there are countless rituals—some even involving sacrifices—performed to appease her. One of these based on crafting a handmade doll and burning it in a forest bonfire. Remarkably, this tradition survives in Poland and Belarus till these days.
Catherine G. Lurid
Thank you for the question.
It so happened that four years ago, when I first started writing, AI as we know didn't exist. Back then, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about, but the words didn’t flow so easily as they do now. It took me about three years of daily writing to hone my craft and begin expressing my ideas, images, dialogs and a pretty complex storyline with the right and precise words. Words that, like arrows, hit the exact bullseye when skillfully wielded.
So, writing it is not really a talent, i think it's more a skill that our brain develop and refine over time.
AI may be a fast machine, but the human brain is something more unique, creative, and incredibly complex ( a biomachine if you like), the full capabilities of which remain unknown to anyone on the planet. Is it less fascinating than AI?
I advocate for developing the brain and its potential. Yes, AI can assist, for instance, with translation for example (which I tried and it turned out to be a disappointing experience without using the brain for extensive work of repeatedly revising the entire text). Anyway, I may assure — in the process of creation of something really fresh, truly perfect and unique, nothing surpasses the human touch.
It so happened that four years ago, when I first started writing, AI as we know didn't exist. Back then, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about, but the words didn’t flow so easily as they do now. It took me about three years of daily writing to hone my craft and begin expressing my ideas, images, dialogs and a pretty complex storyline with the right and precise words. Words that, like arrows, hit the exact bullseye when skillfully wielded.
So, writing it is not really a talent, i think it's more a skill that our brain develop and refine over time.
AI may be a fast machine, but the human brain is something more unique, creative, and incredibly complex ( a biomachine if you like), the full capabilities of which remain unknown to anyone on the planet. Is it less fascinating than AI?
I advocate for developing the brain and its potential. Yes, AI can assist, for instance, with translation for example (which I tried and it turned out to be a disappointing experience without using the brain for extensive work of repeatedly revising the entire text). Anyway, I may assure — in the process of creation of something really fresh, truly perfect and unique, nothing surpasses the human touch.
Catherine G. Lurid
Thank you for the question! Among my gothic elements, I would say one stands out - a love for ancient cemeteries. It's an absolutely fascinating places not only to choose names for you book characters but also to admire the ancient burials, family crypts, and sometimes just stone slabs under which the bodies of great people lie. I've been to the graves of Russian writers such as Bulgakov, Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and Alexander Pushkin. On the ancient cemeteries of St. Petersburg. On the oldest cemetery in Prague and in Italy, where I paid tribute to the memory of Dante Alighieri. Not to mention London and all its boroughs))) Creepy and fascinating in the same time.
Catherine G. Lurid
Sure, I've been there)
Countess Krumlová lived in the eighteenth century in the Krumlov, which is a small town with a river, surrounded by castle walls. It's a very atmospheric place, equally mystical. Like something out of Charles Perrault's fairy tales, the town of Krumlov attracts a multitude of tourists every year. Night tours, however, are also conducted there, one of which I happened to join once. We were led through narrow cobblestone streets, shown the eerie puppet museum located in the attic of one of the houses, and initiated into the legends of vampires. It was eerie, but isn't that what all writers of mystery and horror seek?
The Countess herself was barren, and later she fell ill altogether. As I mentioned earlier, none of the local or visiting doctors could find the cause of her ailment.
Therefore, she relied entirely on magic, for which she was so renowned both before and after, in Czechia and particularly in Prague (where I also had the chance to live). Eleanor herself was born near Prague and had numerous connections with the most powerful sorcerers in the country. It was they who first advised the princess to place wolf families in the courtyard of her castle and to milk the she-wolves, using their milk as a remedy for barrenness.
It's unclear who helped her (God or the Devil), but at the age of 41, Eleanor becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. However, after years of blissful motherhood, Countess Krumlová is struck by tragedy. Soon after, her husband is accidentally killed while hunting, shot by King Charles IV himself. Eleanor becomes a widow and locks herself away in the castle. It's during this time that she becomes deeply involved in occultism, concocting poisons, and hunting. BTW Eleanor never hunted wolves. At least herself and before her illness.
When Eleanor fell seriously ill, everything changed irrevocably. She was tormented by unbearable pain, screaming in agony at night, terrifying the residents of Krumlov. Soon, she grew thin and emaciated. Hiding from the sun, she looked paler and more lifeless with each passing day. Many doctors came to her aid, but even more occultists and sorcerers. One of the most powerful witchers advised Eleanor to once again switch to wolf milk, but this time mixed with their blood. Rumors spread throughout the town and then across the country that Eleanor had turned into a Moroi - a living vampire. Her image became the basis for Gary Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula. It was SHE, with her hairstyle, deathly skin, and bloody lips, who became the prototype of the Count in the movie. For example, Vlad Tepes, the original Dracula, never had such an image, although he possessed quite an extraordinary sadistic imagination.
She pursued her exquisite methods of treatment for so long that rumors of her connections with vampires reached as far as Austria. When Eleanor died, her family refused to bury her in the family crypt in Vienna, leaving her body in Krumlov instead. If she were to rise from the grave, at least she would remain relatively out of reach from the capitals.
No one knows if she rose from the grave, but among the Slavs, there's a folk saying: "In every legend, there's a tiny drop of fiction."
Countess Krumlová lived in the eighteenth century in the Krumlov, which is a small town with a river, surrounded by castle walls. It's a very atmospheric place, equally mystical. Like something out of Charles Perrault's fairy tales, the town of Krumlov attracts a multitude of tourists every year. Night tours, however, are also conducted there, one of which I happened to join once. We were led through narrow cobblestone streets, shown the eerie puppet museum located in the attic of one of the houses, and initiated into the legends of vampires. It was eerie, but isn't that what all writers of mystery and horror seek?
The Countess herself was barren, and later she fell ill altogether. As I mentioned earlier, none of the local or visiting doctors could find the cause of her ailment.
Therefore, she relied entirely on magic, for which she was so renowned both before and after, in Czechia and particularly in Prague (where I also had the chance to live). Eleanor herself was born near Prague and had numerous connections with the most powerful sorcerers in the country. It was they who first advised the princess to place wolf families in the courtyard of her castle and to milk the she-wolves, using their milk as a remedy for barrenness.
It's unclear who helped her (God or the Devil), but at the age of 41, Eleanor becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. However, after years of blissful motherhood, Countess Krumlová is struck by tragedy. Soon after, her husband is accidentally killed while hunting, shot by King Charles IV himself. Eleanor becomes a widow and locks herself away in the castle. It's during this time that she becomes deeply involved in occultism, concocting poisons, and hunting. BTW Eleanor never hunted wolves. At least herself and before her illness.
When Eleanor fell seriously ill, everything changed irrevocably. She was tormented by unbearable pain, screaming in agony at night, terrifying the residents of Krumlov. Soon, she grew thin and emaciated. Hiding from the sun, she looked paler and more lifeless with each passing day. Many doctors came to her aid, but even more occultists and sorcerers. One of the most powerful witchers advised Eleanor to once again switch to wolf milk, but this time mixed with their blood. Rumors spread throughout the town and then across the country that Eleanor had turned into a Moroi - a living vampire. Her image became the basis for Gary Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula. It was SHE, with her hairstyle, deathly skin, and bloody lips, who became the prototype of the Count in the movie. For example, Vlad Tepes, the original Dracula, never had such an image, although he possessed quite an extraordinary sadistic imagination.
She pursued her exquisite methods of treatment for so long that rumors of her connections with vampires reached as far as Austria. When Eleanor died, her family refused to bury her in the family crypt in Vienna, leaving her body in Krumlov instead. If she were to rise from the grave, at least she would remain relatively out of reach from the capitals.
No one knows if she rose from the grave, but among the Slavs, there's a folk saying: "In every legend, there's a tiny drop of fiction."
Catherine G. Lurid
Strigoi is indeed a vampire. According to Belarusian, as well as Romanian folklore, people turned into strigoi by selling their souls to evil. They would die, then return, rising from their graves. To identify a strigoi's grave, one could use a horse. The animal was brought to the cemetery at night and led over fresh graves. If the horse refused to step on one of them, it meant a strigoi was buried there. Then the grave would be opened. Another sign was the absence of decomposition of the body. Then the corpse's head was severed and placed in the same spot but facing downwards. Next, the heart was cut out and burned.
Slavs have another bloodsucker, the Moroi. He is closely related to strigoi and werewolves, but moroi is a living creature, not a corpse, entity or animal. During the day, he appears to be an ordinary person, but when night falls, he wanders the streets, preying on residents, piercing their necks with a special device, and drinking their blood. He's called a living vampire or a vampire among the living. He can be killed, and for that, a stake made of oak or aspen is required. The moroi could be recognized among people if you put silver in his hand.
Beliefs about Strigoi and Moroi in Eastern Europe existed long before the Romanian Count Dracula and persisted after him. In the 18th century, the Countess Krumlová from the eponymous Czech town of Krumlov was suspected of vampirism. The countess had been ill for a long time, judging by the symptoms described by her doctors; she had cancer, which no one at that time could detect or cure, of course. The countess was pale, thin, and looked more like a walking corpse. Her pile of gray hair was styled in a voluminous hairstyle, and her lips appeared blood-red due to the abundance of beets and wolf blood she consumed. Yes, you heard that right. Since medicine at the time and in that region was closely linked to mysticism and witchcraft, wolves were specifically caught for the countess, their milk squeezed, and their blood drawn. Confined in cages and awaiting their death, the wolves howled incessantly every night, instilling primitive terror in the residents of the small town.
In Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania, there was Shamanic traditions during the Celtic period and name itself Strigoi came from there. However, it was by no means a human, but rather, at the same time, more of a werewolf. Strigoi in the very beginning is more of a nocturnal spirit, a forest dweller. It could become invisible, transform into an animal or a human. Nevertheless, it's a vampire, and it feeds on the blood of its victims. When transforming into an elder, it deliberately shows the traveler the wrong path instead of the right one. It leads them into swamps and dense forests, where it deals with them, draining all their blood to the last drop. However, unlike the modern (we are talking about 12-14 century as a modern now) legends, it never sold its soul to the devil, moreover, it was never a human. According to Slavic paganism (as well as many ancient religions), the world is dual. During the day, good entities inhabit the forests, helping humans. But at night, the dominion shifts to the world of the dead and beings like the Strigoi. So there is balance of good and evil: someone gives life, and someone takes it. And this cannot even be called evil, because if you always give life and never take it, there will be no balance in nature. And if we delve even deeper, in the 1st century BCE in Tuscany, the Etruscans had a goddess of the afterlife called quite literally Vamp. It is likely from here that the name and the very image of vampires originated. This is a naked maiden —with dead skin and wings — who flew at night, stole babies, and drank the blood of young men.
Thank you so much for the question. I enjoyed answering it and I hope you haven't fallen asleep while reading this.
Moreover, I'm preparing for the publication of a dilogy, the first book of which is about the mystical forest in Transylvania, Hoia Baciu. This place rightfully earns the title of the Bermuda Triangle of Europe and harbors many terrifying secrets...
Slavs have another bloodsucker, the Moroi. He is closely related to strigoi and werewolves, but moroi is a living creature, not a corpse, entity or animal. During the day, he appears to be an ordinary person, but when night falls, he wanders the streets, preying on residents, piercing their necks with a special device, and drinking their blood. He's called a living vampire or a vampire among the living. He can be killed, and for that, a stake made of oak or aspen is required. The moroi could be recognized among people if you put silver in his hand.
Beliefs about Strigoi and Moroi in Eastern Europe existed long before the Romanian Count Dracula and persisted after him. In the 18th century, the Countess Krumlová from the eponymous Czech town of Krumlov was suspected of vampirism. The countess had been ill for a long time, judging by the symptoms described by her doctors; she had cancer, which no one at that time could detect or cure, of course. The countess was pale, thin, and looked more like a walking corpse. Her pile of gray hair was styled in a voluminous hairstyle, and her lips appeared blood-red due to the abundance of beets and wolf blood she consumed. Yes, you heard that right. Since medicine at the time and in that region was closely linked to mysticism and witchcraft, wolves were specifically caught for the countess, their milk squeezed, and their blood drawn. Confined in cages and awaiting their death, the wolves howled incessantly every night, instilling primitive terror in the residents of the small town.
In Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania, there was Shamanic traditions during the Celtic period and name itself Strigoi came from there. However, it was by no means a human, but rather, at the same time, more of a werewolf. Strigoi in the very beginning is more of a nocturnal spirit, a forest dweller. It could become invisible, transform into an animal or a human. Nevertheless, it's a vampire, and it feeds on the blood of its victims. When transforming into an elder, it deliberately shows the traveler the wrong path instead of the right one. It leads them into swamps and dense forests, where it deals with them, draining all their blood to the last drop. However, unlike the modern (we are talking about 12-14 century as a modern now) legends, it never sold its soul to the devil, moreover, it was never a human. According to Slavic paganism (as well as many ancient religions), the world is dual. During the day, good entities inhabit the forests, helping humans. But at night, the dominion shifts to the world of the dead and beings like the Strigoi. So there is balance of good and evil: someone gives life, and someone takes it. And this cannot even be called evil, because if you always give life and never take it, there will be no balance in nature. And if we delve even deeper, in the 1st century BCE in Tuscany, the Etruscans had a goddess of the afterlife called quite literally Vamp. It is likely from here that the name and the very image of vampires originated. This is a naked maiden —with dead skin and wings — who flew at night, stole babies, and drank the blood of young men.
Thank you so much for the question. I enjoyed answering it and I hope you haven't fallen asleep while reading this.
Moreover, I'm preparing for the publication of a dilogy, the first book of which is about the mystical forest in Transylvania, Hoia Baciu. This place rightfully earns the title of the Bermuda Triangle of Europe and harbors many terrifying secrets...
Catherine G. Lurid
You finally found happiness, discovered true love, fulfillment, and peace within your soul. However, it was all just a dream.
Catherine G. Lurid
In my life, there has been a great deal of mystique (if you're an observant spectator), which is precisely why it now permeates my books.
***
The human brain is uniquely wired. If something contradicts its common sense, it simply moves it from the folder labeled “reality” to the folder labeled “illusion.” (с) 3:13 AM
***
So it always was the fear that one day my brain might transfer everything from reality to the "illusion" folder. The fear itself led me to document extraordinary occurrences not only with the dry facts but also with a spectrum of my own emotions. These instances evolved into stories, and later gathered into my books.
***
The human brain is uniquely wired. If something contradicts its common sense, it simply moves it from the folder labeled “reality” to the folder labeled “illusion.” (с) 3:13 AM
***
So it always was the fear that one day my brain might transfer everything from reality to the "illusion" folder. The fear itself led me to document extraordinary occurrences not only with the dry facts but also with a spectrum of my own emotions. These instances evolved into stories, and later gathered into my books.
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