Award-winning poet LindaAnn LoSchiavo is a four-time nominee for The Pushcart Prize and a Rhysling Award nominee, to name only a few of her accomplishments. She has published several poetry chapbooks as well as full-length poetry collections. One of the latter, A Route Obscure and Lonely, earned her an Elgin Award.
Now, she brings to readers Vampire Ventures, a coagulated (see what I did there?) chapbook of poetry that embraces the mythos of the historical vampire while embracing how contemporary vampires might act in the technology age, all while bringing the fear, obsession, gore, sexiness, and passion we’ve come to love as vampiric readers.
I really enjoyed reading this collection, with her use of various types of poetry, and found her word play, plucking me like fingers on a violin, made me tense for the next poem, while also wanting to peek around the corner (or on social media) to see if any blood thirsty vamp was lurking. There’s chills and darkness but humor, too. It’s an entertaining collection for horror poetry connoisseurs.
I’m thrilled LindaAnn has agreed to share one of her poems from Vampire Ventures here, below.
Villanelle: Defined by a Stygian Realm
by LindaAnn LoSchiavo
From a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored
He arrived. Evil means produced his kind.
Superstitions lurked in forgotten lore.
The curse of darkness appeared on our shores,
More frightful than ever known to mankind
From a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored.
Pale stranger with charm. Just flirting, I swore.
To the dangers therein, I had been blind.
Superstitions lurked in forgotten lore.
Red flags? Advice and rules are such a bore.
He seemed refined. Who knew he was defined
By a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored?
Eternal love he vowed. His past, he swore,
Was doomed by gossip. Ex-girlfriends would find
Superstitions lurking in forgotten lore.
Our bridal chamber was suffused with gore,
Blood moon’s oath. We’re now immortals entwined.
From a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored,
Superstitions lurked in forgotten lore.
From a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored
He arrived. Evil means produced his kind.
Superstitions lurked in forgotten lore.
The curse of darkness appeared on our shores,
More frightful than ever known to mankind
From a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored.
Pale stranger with charm. Just flirting, I swore.
To the dangers therein, I had been blind.
Superstitions lurked in forgotten lore.
Red flags? Advice and rules are such a bore.
He seemed refined. Who knew he was defined
By a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored?
Eternal love he vowed. His past, he swore,
Was doomed by gossip. Ex-girlfriends would find
Superstitions lurking in forgotten lore.
Our bridal chamber was suffused with gore,
Blood moon’s oath. We’re now immortals entwined.
From a Stygian realm ‘twas best ignored,
Superstitions lurked in forgotten lore.
LindaAnn LoSchiavo, Biography –
Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo (she/her), a four time nominee for The Pushcart Prize, was also nominated for Best of the Net, Balcones Poetry Prize, an Ippy, a Firecracker Award, the Rhysling Award, and Dwarf Stars and also won an Elgin Award. She is a member of SFPA, British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild.
She has published Women Who Were Warned, Messengers of the Macabre, Apprenticed to the Night (UniVerse Press), Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide (Ukiyoto Publishing), and her newest, Vampire Ventures (Alien Buddha Press).
Forthcoming in 2024, she will have a book published called Cancer Courts My Mother from Penumbra / Stanislaus State College, and in 2025, Eros and His Entourage from Naked Cat Press.
Vampire Ventures, About –
Vampire Ventures is a 41-page chapbook of poetry that beckons readers to embrace the mystique of the shadow sphere and savor the forbidden allure of encounters with the undead — be it a moonlit rendezvous, an otherworldly romance, or a seductive soiree thrown by the enigmatic Count himself. In a realm where immortal desires and human emotions intertwine, 19 poems use the tropes of popular culture to explore the paradox of “living in death,” a theme central to the vampire mythos.
Chronicles of blood lust await you…
To learn more, go to her dedicated Vampire Ventures website.
Praise for Vampire Ventures –
LindaAnn’s new collection is a rich cocktail of Vampire Lore. Her eclectic style, bold and imaginative choice of language and sophisticated word play, adds gravitas to a beloved genre. “The Tale of the Vintner’s Daughter” is a particular favorite, highly evocative, nuanced and as deftly constructed as a spider web.
— John Stocks, Poetry Editor,Bewildering Stories
Vampire Ventures showcases LoSchiavo’s formal versatility: fibonacci, haiku, golden shovel, villanelle, sonnet, prose poem, and the decasyllabic lines of poems that seem otherwise unconstrained. She’s equally adept at shifting among tones, from the eerie to the ironic. Her work is encrusted with images and phrases that will sparkle in the dark behind your eyelids long after you’ve finished reading.
— Carl Bettis, Editor-in-Chief, Tiny Frights
There’s romance, humor and blood in Vampire Ventures — like in the good old times.
— Mark Benecke, President, Transylvanian Society of Dracula
Purchase and Other Links –
If you see this link before the end of November 2023, and are a bookseller or reviewer, you can find Vampire Ventures on NetGalley as well.
___________________________
Thanks for joining us for the Hook of a Book Poetry Project. You can read more about it, catch up on past posts this month, as well as posts from previous years, here on my Poetry page. Spread and share to help support the poets and the project.
HOOK of a BOOK! 
Thank you very much, Erin. And thank you for your wonderful spotlights on poetry and poets, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is truly my pleasure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: SFPA November 2023 Round-Up – SPECPO