WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM FOR THIS SHAMELESS PLUG OF SOMETHING ELSE THAT I DID NOT RIGHT, BUT ENJOYED A LOT.

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A strong independent woman runs across a vampire. Although he initially tries to kill her, they reach an agreement, and though their relationship is rocky at first, they become confidants, and eventually friends.

He is with her in this small US town, keeping his coffin in a house's basement, posing as the cousin from abroad from the landlady. He puts under his power a disreputable character which, under his influence becomes a better, more reliable person, and eventually a confidant and a friend.

Together with his woman friend, they face the diverse mysteries and dangers in their town,,,,

Sounds familiar? Well, yes, if you think Barnabas and Julia.

BUT

I am describing Baron Dragomir Blasko and Josephine Nicolson from the Baron Blasko mysteries by A. E. Howe.

Josephine is the major stockholder of the town bank, a bank that has survived the Depression (the action takes place during Roosevelt's first term). She lives in Alabama, and under a peculiar set of circumstances she and Blasko have been bonded, unable to live apart from each other. He lives in her basement, and poses as her cousin from Romania – unlike Barnabas who WAS a cousin, but did not come from England – Blasko does come from Romania but is in no way related to his landlady.

Blasko does no need to bite his other confidant, Matthew, to hold power over him. Picking him up from the gutter, he uses his hypnotic power to sober him up, and end his career as the town drunk, letting him take steps towards respectability. In exchange Blasko gives him various tasks.

Blasko is not Barnabas in many respects. Actually he would be Barnabas after a few years would have let him learn from his mistakes. For one thing, he has no yearnings for Sweet Young Things, nor is he looking for lost loves. But he seeks a way to be useful, and that's how he gets involved in local mysteries. He does not turn into a bat – he just rescues an injured bat, nurses him to health, gives him a name, Vasile, and keeps him as a pet. He can reflect in a mirror, but when he looks at it, he sees himself as a decaying corpse.

He lives on the bottled blood that Josephine provides for him, but it is not enough, so every now and then he attacks someone (unless Josephine offers himself to him) Then he is quite capable of assaulting a miscreant, leaving him weakened and with a compulsion to mend his wicked ways.

There is no other way around it. Dragomir Blasko is very much a good man who has learned to live with his condition – he has conversations with Matthew about destiny and the need to fight it, even if is a losing fight. Josephine does not fully believe in his goodness till the third book.

Their friendship is slowly becoming love, but Blasko is afraid to take the final steps. In the fourth book he is looking for a way forward, reading some obscure tome (the Necronomicon – H.P. Lovecraft is very much an inspiration).

In the fifth book we would learn if he found a solution and if he and Jaqueline could be together. But the fifth book is in limbo as the publisher is not willing to publish something without a public for it.

So my advice is: Get the books, from Amazon, Kindle, or from second hand. Read them, and then write to A. E. Howe asking "When is SCALES coming out?"

(Note, there are some nice inside jokes, starting with Baron Blasko, given that Bela Lugosi's real name was Blasko, and that his father had been ennobled as a Baron. Then in a story about Lovecraftian monsters, a recluse gives his name as Howard Philips)

Get the books, you will be glad you did.

Books in order

1 Fangs

2 Knives

3 Claws

4 Tentacles

5 Scales (we need to have this one published)

NOW WE RETURN TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING