What do you think?
Rate this book
American Vampire
Southern Blood: Vampire Stories from the American South
Perhaps more than any region, the American South is haunted by the mythology of the vampire, returned from the dead to drain life from the living.
203 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
9 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Schimel
342 books139 followersI'm a full-time author, anthologist, and translator (Spanish->English) living in Madrid, Spain.
Writing in both Spanish and English, I've published over 90 books in a wide range of genres, including poetry (DESAYUNO EN LA CAMA and FAIRY TALES FOR WRITERS), children's books (LA AVENTURA DE CECILIA Y EL DRAGÓN, COSAS QUE PUEDO HACER YO SOLO, LITTLE PIRATE GOES TO SCHOOL, etc.), short stories (TWO BOYS IN LOVE, HIS TONGUE, THE DRAG QUEEN OF ELFLAND), graphic novels (VACATION IN IBIZA), and many anthologies (STREETS OF BLOOD: VAMPIRE STORIES FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTH, SWITCH HITTERS: LESBIANS WRITE GAY MALE EROTICA AND GAY MEN WRITE LESBIAN EROTICA, KOSHER MEAT, FOUND TRIBE: JEWISH COMING OUT STORIES, CAMELOT FANTASTIC, etc.)
I've twice won a Lambda Literary Award, for FIRST PERSON QUEER and PoMoSEXUALS: CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY.
My picture book ¿LEES UN LIBRO CONMIGO? was selected by the International Board of Books for Young People for Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2007 and my picture book NO HAY NADA COMO EL ORIGINAL was selected by the International Youth Library in Munich for the White Ravens 2005.
My poem "How to Make a Human" won the Rhysling Award for Best Science Fiction Poem.
I am also the publisher of A Midsummer Night's Press, a small poetry publisher, which has published THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR OTHER LIFE by Achy Obejas, THE GOOD-NEIGHBOR POLICY: A DOUBLE CROSS IN DOUBLE DACTLYS by Charles Ardai, BANALITIES by Brane Mozetic, translated by Elizabeti Zargi, and FORTUNE'S LOVER: A BOOK OF TAROT POEMS by Rachel Pollack, as well as the annual series BEST GAY POETRY and BEST LESBIAN POETRY.
Writing in both Spanish and English, I've published over 90 books in a wide range of genres, including poetry (DESAYUNO EN LA CAMA and FAIRY TALES FOR WRITERS), children's books (LA AVENTURA DE CECILIA Y EL DRAGÓN, COSAS QUE PUEDO HACER YO SOLO, LITTLE PIRATE GOES TO SCHOOL, etc.), short stories (TWO BOYS IN LOVE, HIS TONGUE, THE DRAG QUEEN OF ELFLAND), graphic novels (VACATION IN IBIZA), and many anthologies (STREETS OF BLOOD: VAMPIRE STORIES FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTH, SWITCH HITTERS: LESBIANS WRITE GAY MALE EROTICA AND GAY MEN WRITE LESBIAN EROTICA, KOSHER MEAT, FOUND TRIBE: JEWISH COMING OUT STORIES, CAMELOT FANTASTIC, etc.)
I've twice won a Lambda Literary Award, for FIRST PERSON QUEER and PoMoSEXUALS: CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY.
My picture book ¿LEES UN LIBRO CONMIGO? was selected by the International Board of Books for Young People for Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2007 and my picture book NO HAY NADA COMO EL ORIGINAL was selected by the International Youth Library in Munich for the White Ravens 2005.
My poem "How to Make a Human" won the Rhysling Award for Best Science Fiction Poem.
I am also the publisher of A Midsummer Night's Press, a small poetry publisher, which has published THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR OTHER LIFE by Achy Obejas, THE GOOD-NEIGHBOR POLICY: A DOUBLE CROSS IN DOUBLE DACTLYS by Charles Ardai, BANALITIES by Brane Mozetic, translated by Elizabeti Zargi, and FORTUNE'S LOVER: A BOOK OF TAROT POEMS by Rachel Pollack, as well as the annual series BEST GAY POETRY and BEST LESBIAN POETRY.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 6, 2021
This is a fairly good (if uninspired) anthology of a dozen vampire stories with Southern settings. The setting is only important in a few of the stories. There are three older stories, from William Tenn, Manly Wade Wellman, and Robert Barbour Johnson, and eight from the 1990's. The remaining one is Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons, by far the least traditional, best, and longest story in the book. Other than it, my favorite was a very amusing and well written Esther Friesner story, Claim Jumpin' Woman, You Got a Stake in My Heart.
March 27, 2016
Bad book. Bad, bad book.
Apparently, this was the opening in what was supposed to be a series of regionally-centered short stories about vampires. For all I know, the series worked out just fine. But from the evidence of this book, the editors didn't care very much about it.
The first insult is the introduction, which trots out every known cliché about the South in two pages. Tied to the past, wrapped up in the civil war, plantations and magnolias. And yet, somehow, the introduction manages not to mention the single most important writer of Southern vampire tales. Anne Rice is only name-checked in a single story, and there only tangentially. Piss-ant meanness.
The stories are slight, badly edited, conventional, trite, and almost exclusively from the book's recent past. Southern Blood was published in 1997 and 8 of the 12 stories are from the 1990s. These are almost uniformly the worst--there's one exception--and, despite being written on so much tradition conventional in the extreme. It is embarrassing how many typographical and printer errors there are--several in almost every story, including the lead-in editorial comments, which is also mis-printed once--and this given that the 12 stories barely go past 200 pages, and that's only because the type is large (and ugly), the page lay-out using too much white space (and black borders!)
The book looks like a vanity project, and I am surprised Greenberg's name is associated with it at all. (He doesn't even contribute a dedication, making me wonder what his contribution was.) For no particular reason, the stories are listed in the contents under the state with which they are associated--Louisiana, Georgia, etc.--but these seem randomly assigned. Perhaps the reason is to remind the reader that these stories are Southern in some sense, since the regional connection is hard to notice in most of the stories, inconsequential.
Carpetbagger is a mediocre story about a Yankee woman who is turned into a vampire by a Confederate sympathizer and saved by a creole who thinks of even white Southerners as invaders. It is set in contemporary times, though, as if 100-plus years had not passed since the Civil War.
"Claim-Jumpin' Woman, You Got a Stake in my Heart," manages to keep some narrative drive--remarkably rare in this collection--but is told in the single-most irritating voice I have read in years, a mock hale-fellow-well-met Ivy League-ese of the forties.
"The Silver Coffin" is the oldest of these published in 1939. It's the story I was after when I got this collection, because the Weird Tales magazine in which it appeared is ridiculously expensive. The story suffers from "weird Tales" preference for atmosphere over action. It, too, is told as one long monologue and is tame in the extreme.
"Like a Pilgrim to the Shrine" is 'The Devil Came Down to Georgia" with vampires, but set in Florida; it is badly overwritten, given the lack of suspense, and the dialog laughable.
"The Cursed Damozel" is one of three worthy stories in the collection. By Manly Wade Wellman, it reflects his intense knowledge of southern folklore and elicits a greater range of psychology in his characters than any of the stories from 50 years later.
"The Scent of Magnolias" has a ridiculous set up, is boring, and strains to make connections with the Southern environment through its most clichéd aspects: magnolias, oppressive heat.
"The Flame" is the only worthy story from the 1990s, focusing as it does on the victim rather than the vampire, and mostly avoiding beyond a twice (thrice, three-hundredth) told tale.
"God-Less Men" is a ridiculous study in stereotypes, most of them, oddly Western rather than Southern. (It's set in Texas.)
Blood Kin is definitely southern Gothic, but is also just a series of clichés running into each other.
Carrion Comfort is the third worthy story. (It's from 1982.) I can see why Dan Simmons wanted to expand this into a novel: there's much left out here, such as motivations, and the middle third is an action story, not a weird one. But his novel was so ridiculously bloated the original short story still looks better by comparison.
Blessed By His Dying Tongue ends up undermining any point i may have had--which wasn't much, given the copious plot holes. But it has Elvis, so it's Southern.
She Only Goes Out at Night is a clichéd take on Manly Wade Wellman themes--which, you know, why bother, since Wellman is already represented in the collection?--but, grading on a curve, is not so bad since it came out in 1956. But it's also not any good.
So, skip this. Read Wellman, because Wellman is good. Find Dan Simmons's short story somewhere else. (And avoid the novel.) Nothing else here is worth hunting down.
Apparently, this was the opening in what was supposed to be a series of regionally-centered short stories about vampires. For all I know, the series worked out just fine. But from the evidence of this book, the editors didn't care very much about it.
The first insult is the introduction, which trots out every known cliché about the South in two pages. Tied to the past, wrapped up in the civil war, plantations and magnolias. And yet, somehow, the introduction manages not to mention the single most important writer of Southern vampire tales. Anne Rice is only name-checked in a single story, and there only tangentially. Piss-ant meanness.
The stories are slight, badly edited, conventional, trite, and almost exclusively from the book's recent past. Southern Blood was published in 1997 and 8 of the 12 stories are from the 1990s. These are almost uniformly the worst--there's one exception--and, despite being written on so much tradition conventional in the extreme. It is embarrassing how many typographical and printer errors there are--several in almost every story, including the lead-in editorial comments, which is also mis-printed once--and this given that the 12 stories barely go past 200 pages, and that's only because the type is large (and ugly), the page lay-out using too much white space (and black borders!)
The book looks like a vanity project, and I am surprised Greenberg's name is associated with it at all. (He doesn't even contribute a dedication, making me wonder what his contribution was.) For no particular reason, the stories are listed in the contents under the state with which they are associated--Louisiana, Georgia, etc.--but these seem randomly assigned. Perhaps the reason is to remind the reader that these stories are Southern in some sense, since the regional connection is hard to notice in most of the stories, inconsequential.
Carpetbagger is a mediocre story about a Yankee woman who is turned into a vampire by a Confederate sympathizer and saved by a creole who thinks of even white Southerners as invaders. It is set in contemporary times, though, as if 100-plus years had not passed since the Civil War.
"Claim-Jumpin' Woman, You Got a Stake in my Heart," manages to keep some narrative drive--remarkably rare in this collection--but is told in the single-most irritating voice I have read in years, a mock hale-fellow-well-met Ivy League-ese of the forties.
"The Silver Coffin" is the oldest of these published in 1939. It's the story I was after when I got this collection, because the Weird Tales magazine in which it appeared is ridiculously expensive. The story suffers from "weird Tales" preference for atmosphere over action. It, too, is told as one long monologue and is tame in the extreme.
"Like a Pilgrim to the Shrine" is 'The Devil Came Down to Georgia" with vampires, but set in Florida; it is badly overwritten, given the lack of suspense, and the dialog laughable.
"The Cursed Damozel" is one of three worthy stories in the collection. By Manly Wade Wellman, it reflects his intense knowledge of southern folklore and elicits a greater range of psychology in his characters than any of the stories from 50 years later.
"The Scent of Magnolias" has a ridiculous set up, is boring, and strains to make connections with the Southern environment through its most clichéd aspects: magnolias, oppressive heat.
"The Flame" is the only worthy story from the 1990s, focusing as it does on the victim rather than the vampire, and mostly avoiding beyond a twice (thrice, three-hundredth) told tale.
"God-Less Men" is a ridiculous study in stereotypes, most of them, oddly Western rather than Southern. (It's set in Texas.)
Blood Kin is definitely southern Gothic, but is also just a series of clichés running into each other.
Carrion Comfort is the third worthy story. (It's from 1982.) I can see why Dan Simmons wanted to expand this into a novel: there's much left out here, such as motivations, and the middle third is an action story, not a weird one. But his novel was so ridiculously bloated the original short story still looks better by comparison.
Blessed By His Dying Tongue ends up undermining any point i may have had--which wasn't much, given the copious plot holes. But it has Elvis, so it's Southern.
She Only Goes Out at Night is a clichéd take on Manly Wade Wellman themes--which, you know, why bother, since Wellman is already represented in the collection?--but, grading on a curve, is not so bad since it came out in 1956. But it's also not any good.
So, skip this. Read Wellman, because Wellman is good. Find Dan Simmons's short story somewhere else. (And avoid the novel.) Nothing else here is worth hunting down.
September 17, 2023
I remember picking up this anthology because it was edited by Lawrence Schimel and I had been impressed by others he had prepared because whatever their subject he had included works for their literary merit. Well clearly I failed to realise that even the best editor has to make compromises, though I never imagined that it would be necessary to make the number that must have been necessary to produce such an awful anthology. Every story may, not be atrocious but most of them are.
This is a work that emerged from a marketing department and had a minimum of creative input from anyone unconnected with balance sheets. Even an obsessive of vampire tales should give this a miss. It is an insult to even bad horror anthologies and a crime against literature.
This is a work that emerged from a marketing department and had a minimum of creative input from anyone unconnected with balance sheets. Even an obsessive of vampire tales should give this a miss. It is an insult to even bad horror anthologies and a crime against literature.
August 5, 2018
Tones: Gothic Romantic Contemporary Mundane
Themes: Family Life, North vs South, New vs. Old,
I think there were just 2 stories I wasn't crazy about. Though the 2nd was monotonous. It Felt too long for a so called Short story. (They should have just made it into one of those 100 page books you buy to read at the beach.
I closing I'll just say my favorite was : Like a Pilgrim to the Shrine by Brian Hodge
My FULL review Story by Story is here
https://multiscreenmotivision.wordpre...-
american-south/
Themes: Family Life, North vs South, New vs. Old,
I think there were just 2 stories I wasn't crazy about. Though the 2nd was monotonous. It Felt too long for a so called Short story. (They should have just made it into one of those 100 page books you buy to read at the beach.
I closing I'll just say my favorite was : Like a Pilgrim to the Shrine by Brian Hodge
My FULL review Story by Story is here
https://multiscreenmotivision.wordpre...-
american-south/
October 12, 2023
1/5 stars
I tried, but I couldn't get into any of these short vampire stories. The writing as well as attempt at older Southern sounding phrases and language was just awful.
I tried, but I couldn't get into any of these short vampire stories. The writing as well as attempt at older Southern sounding phrases and language was just awful.
January 10, 2024
Didn't care for this one much, maybe one or 2 stories but mostly it was very slow
February 7, 2017
A few interesting bits interspersed among genre cliches, trying desperately hard to be edgy. Mostly seem to be written by people whose only exposure to the American South came from watching Gone with the Wind and Deliverance. A few flickers of stomach-turning misogyny just for spice.
I added a star back for "The Silver Coffin" - the oldest piece in the book, I believe - and "The Cursed Damozel". "Blood Kin" was nice and eerie, too.
I added a star back for "The Silver Coffin" - the oldest piece in the book, I believe - and "The Cursed Damozel". "Blood Kin" was nice and eerie, too.
October 20, 2019
Enjoyable sometimes funny vampire stories all set in the south. Including an Elvis one. A decent read for october.
May 24, 2023
I love vampires! I particularly liked Carrion Comfort and The Silver Coffin. No comment on the quality of these stories. They were fun to read.
April 3, 2013
This anthology includes 12 vampire stories set in the south. Being a southerner myself, I thought this would be a neat little read. Honestly, I only enjoyed about half (maybe less) of the stories.
The short stories included in this anthology are:
*The Carpetbagger (Louisiana) by Susan Shwartz
*Claim-Jumpin' Woman, You Got a Stake in My Heart (Georgia) by Esther Friesner
*The Silver Coffin (Virgina) by Robert Barbour Johnson
*Like a Pilgrim to a Shrine (Florida) by Brian Hodge
*The Cursed Damozel (Tennessee) by Manly Wade Wellman
*The Scent of Magnolias (Alabama) by Lawrence Schimel & Billie Sue Mosiman
*The Flame (North Carolina) by Fred Chappell
*God-Less Men (Texas) by James Kisner
*Blood Kin (Louisiana) by Delia Sherman
*Carrion Comfort (South Carolina) by Dan Simmons
*Blessed by His Dying Tongue (Tennessee) by Tracy A. Knight
*She Only Goes Out at Night (West Virginia) by William Tenn
By far, the most famous story included is Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. I purposely opted NOT to read this particular story. The reason being I actually have the novel sitting on my shelf and I haven't read it yet.
The stories I found enjoyable were:
The Silver Coffin
The Scent of Magnolias
The Flame
God-Less Men
She Only Goes Out at Night
Of Course, being an anthology is going to be a hit and miss with the stories. I have yet to find an anthology in which I enjoyed all the stories. If you chose to read this book, I would suggest checking it out from your library or finding a cheap used copy from Amazon or Thriftbooks.
*Book Hollow*
The short stories included in this anthology are:
*The Carpetbagger (Louisiana) by Susan Shwartz
*Claim-Jumpin' Woman, You Got a Stake in My Heart (Georgia) by Esther Friesner
*The Silver Coffin (Virgina) by Robert Barbour Johnson
*Like a Pilgrim to a Shrine (Florida) by Brian Hodge
*The Cursed Damozel (Tennessee) by Manly Wade Wellman
*The Scent of Magnolias (Alabama) by Lawrence Schimel & Billie Sue Mosiman
*The Flame (North Carolina) by Fred Chappell
*God-Less Men (Texas) by James Kisner
*Blood Kin (Louisiana) by Delia Sherman
*Carrion Comfort (South Carolina) by Dan Simmons
*Blessed by His Dying Tongue (Tennessee) by Tracy A. Knight
*She Only Goes Out at Night (West Virginia) by William Tenn
By far, the most famous story included is Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. I purposely opted NOT to read this particular story. The reason being I actually have the novel sitting on my shelf and I haven't read it yet.
The stories I found enjoyable were:
The Silver Coffin
The Scent of Magnolias
The Flame
God-Less Men
She Only Goes Out at Night
Of Course, being an anthology is going to be a hit and miss with the stories. I have yet to find an anthology in which I enjoyed all the stories. If you chose to read this book, I would suggest checking it out from your library or finding a cheap used copy from Amazon or Thriftbooks.
*Book Hollow*
February 21, 2011
Lots of uncaught typos and errors and very distracting giant capital letters at the beginnnings of chapters, but solid collection of stories. I noticed one was recycled from Vampire Detectives, which is a little annoying. Above all I was pleased with these, especially with "Claim-Jumping Woman You've Got a Stake in My Heart" by Esther Friesner, which I originally read 20 years ago in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. It was my all-time favorite short story from the years I subscribed, and I no longer have those magazines after many moves and much shedding of baggage. Hilarious story of country-western singing vampires in rural Georgia, narrated by and told to caricature Ivy Leaguers. Doesn't make sense, what I just said? Read the story, it's funny.
June 27, 2011
A middling collection of vampire stories. Some were--of course--more creative and enjoyable than others. And the American South is--of course--an excellent setting for vampire lore. Still, I was hoping for more. Vampires make for such great stories; it's a shame this collection didn't boast better ones. The editors, too, have much to answer for, as the text has more than its fair share of typos, grammatical errors, and other mistakes. Still, it's not a bad way to pass the time while traveling, so I can't complain too much.
July 1, 2012
While it wasn't the greatest anthology of vampire based stories, it was a refreshing break from the overabundance of "fluffy bunny" vampire fiction that's grown abundant, though there are bits that leak through. The attempt at capturing local dialects was delightful. Fewer tourist based stories would have been nice in an attempt at grabbing local color. All in all, neither a great nor an awful read.
January 30, 2015
This took me a lot longer to read than I thought it would.
I liked it but some of the stories were really long and seemed to drag in places.
I like the re-imaginings of vampires for some of the stories. Vampires that can be in the sun and don't have fangs but still drink blood. Vampires that feed off of energy and can be in the sun. I just really like vampires. Because vampire stories have fascinated me ever since I was a child. But it was fairly enjoyable.
I liked it but some of the stories were really long and seemed to drag in places.
I like the re-imaginings of vampires for some of the stories. Vampires that can be in the sun and don't have fangs but still drink blood. Vampires that feed off of energy and can be in the sun. I just really like vampires. Because vampire stories have fascinated me ever since I was a child. But it was fairly enjoyable.
June 9, 2014
This book is okay. I did not love a lot of the stories in this book and felt that they were borderline paranormal romance. At least half the stories in this book are fantastic and well worth the price I paid. I will admit that I purchased this book used and did not have to pay the MSRP, so if you can find it the same way it's worth a few bucks.
April 4, 2011
Like any anthology, this had some interesting stories and some that didn't work out. I liked the Southern flavor, but most were not scary enough for my taste. If you are a fan of the vampire genre, it's worth a read, but only after you've exhausted the works of Anne Rice.
July 11, 2011
I just enjoyed it. There were a few stories that left me wanting, such as The Silver Coffin, The Cursed Damozel...they could have been so much more. But, the new vs. ancient view of the absurd with Dracula and Kraeken...fun!
June 29, 2016
My parents got me this for Christmas and it is a worthy addition to my growing collection of vampire books. I love the Southern Gothic genre and this is a great representation of it! Fun stories, well told, and engaging.
January 4, 2009
Well chosen anthology. Would recommend to vampire fans and anyone looking for a slightly different view of the vampirt mythology.
Read
February 3, 2010This book was just ok. The only reason why I finished it so quickly was because I was stuck at a gas station for 5 hours and nothing better to do.
October 6, 2011
First book I never finished
March 24, 2012
I enjoy vampire stories. It is one of my guilty pleasures. I really liked some of these stories and some of them were kinda silly. I still think Victorian vampire stories are the best though.
May 4, 2012
not worth reading got it as a clearance book and now i know why
October 15, 2012
Read it because there was nothing else to read.
August 25, 2013
Some of the stories are weaker than others, but most of them are fantastic. I do love me some vampires, and revisiting the Lowcountry via these works was a pleasant treat!
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews