Stoker: Evolution of a Vampire

by Calvin Cherry

Discover the dark inspiration behind Dracula in this thrilling Gothic prequel.






No one can deny that Abraham Stoker penned a Gothic tour de force in 1897. All readers and moviegoers are familiar with the name
Dracula, as a parade of literary colleagues and Hollywood directors have probed the monster's conscience for generations. Even so, few artists have explored Stoker's motivations for creating such a loathsome, seductive protagonist. Welcome to
Bram's Frightmare: a wild, historical tale that fuses the life and times of a struggling author, a ruthless prince, and vampire mythology.


Set in London in 1887, aspiring writer and stage manager Bram Stoker attends a séance that changes his life forever. What starts as an innocent ritual spirals into a series of unforeseen yet connected plot twists and encounters with the bloodthirsty beast mistakenly freed from the underworld on that fateful night. As Bram's young son Noel intervenes to pull his father from the madness that ensues, wife Florence's health begins to decline, and his employer, actor Henry Irving, is being questioned about a violent murder that takes place outside his Lyceum Theater.


To save careers, families, and souls, father and son seek answers to the darkest secrets hidden within the Carpathian Mountains, an ancient monastery, a ruined castle, and a forbidden cavern.



This
Dracula prequel is meant to pay homage to a brilliant man, writer, and Romantic masterpiece, mixing fantasy, fact, and Gothic elements to show how literary art is born.

700 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 29, 2026

About the author

I am a 48-year-old native Georgian and a retired sailor. I work as a Business Systems Analyst for a major insurance company in Atlanta and have a 16-year-old son named Jacob. He is already 7 inches taller than me and six sizes up from my shoe size! My spouse, Kevin, is from Tennessee and shares my passion for music, traveling, reading and writing. I have seen Elton John 27 times in my life and about to make it 28 in November. English and History were my favorite subjects in school, so I guess it did not come as a surprise that one Christmas Santa left me four graphic novels under my tree when I turned 7: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, and Dracula by Bram Stoker. I have been taking a bite out of Dracula ever since! After 11 years of intense research and crafting, my debut historical fiction novel Stoker: Evolution of a Vampire was published by Page Publishing this past February.