First there is a lot of book news for this upcoming week. My novel Wormwood will be on sale for only 0.99¢ starting tonight at midnight. The sale runs from April 21st until April 28th. You can get the book simply by clicking on the links next to this post.
Also my new short story "Shadow People" will be free for the next 4 days. Starting at midnight tonight you can get the story FREE on Amazon by clicking on this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UB84UDO
This story has never been FREE before and will only be available for five days.
The last piece of info that I have is that Wormwood will soon be available as an audiobook. I anticipate the audiobook's release by May 1st on Audible and ACX.
In the past I have posted about reportedly true instances of vampirism. There were the reported incidents at Highgate Cemetery in England and the "Mercy Brown" vampire story from Rhode Island. Today I want to talk about another incident that reportedly was of a real life vampire, or in this particular case... Vampires.
Back in the mid 1720's a group of doctors were requested to investigate a small village in Serbia called Medvegia. It was reported that a man named Peter Plogojowitz had died, but was later witnessed by villagers walking the streets of the town. To add to the hysteria reportedly nine people fell ill with a deadly sickness that had been somehow connected to blood loss. This is an excerpt from the book "The Everything Vampire Book." :
"In 1725, Peter Plogojowitz, by rights an average man of little distinction, passed away and was buried in the Rahm district of Kisilova. Just over a week later, a mysterious twenty-four-hour illness, which some report as involving a loss of blood, struck nine villagers of varying ages resulting in their deaths. Plogojowitz's wife claimed that her dearly departed husband had paid her a visit in order to collect his shoes (some accounts claim he visited his son for food on several occasions and when refusing dear old dead dad, the son died). This substantiated the reports — prior to their demise — from those who fell ill that Plogojowitz not only visited them but attempted to strangle them."
Also my new short story "Shadow People" will be free for the next 4 days. Starting at midnight tonight you can get the story FREE on Amazon by clicking on this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UB84UDO
This story has never been FREE before and will only be available for five days.
The last piece of info that I have is that Wormwood will soon be available as an audiobook. I anticipate the audiobook's release by May 1st on Audible and ACX.
In the past I have posted about reportedly true instances of vampirism. There were the reported incidents at Highgate Cemetery in England and the "Mercy Brown" vampire story from Rhode Island. Today I want to talk about another incident that reportedly was of a real life vampire, or in this particular case... Vampires.
Back in the mid 1720's a group of doctors were requested to investigate a small village in Serbia called Medvegia. It was reported that a man named Peter Plogojowitz had died, but was later witnessed by villagers walking the streets of the town. To add to the hysteria reportedly nine people fell ill with a deadly sickness that had been somehow connected to blood loss. This is an excerpt from the book "The Everything Vampire Book." :
"In 1725, Peter Plogojowitz, by rights an average man of little distinction, passed away and was buried in the Rahm district of Kisilova. Just over a week later, a mysterious twenty-four-hour illness, which some report as involving a loss of blood, struck nine villagers of varying ages resulting in their deaths. Plogojowitz's wife claimed that her dearly departed husband had paid her a visit in order to collect his shoes (some accounts claim he visited his son for food on several occasions and when refusing dear old dead dad, the son died). This substantiated the reports — prior to their demise — from those who fell ill that Plogojowitz not only visited them but attempted to strangle them."
So as was common in these situations Plogojowitz was dug up and examined for signs of decomposition. Supposedly Peter showed no signs of rotting away, in fact he looked "fresh" and had shown signs of hair and fingernail growth. He also had fresh blood running from his mouth. Again here is an excerpt from The Everything Vampire Book:
With the cooperation of authorities and military personnel, the poor man was dug up, and according to accounts did indeed bear the telltale signs of a vampire. Some of his skin had sloughed off to show new skin underneath, his hair and nails had grown, there was blood near his mouth, and he appeared relatively intact. It should come as no surprise that his appearance was cause for panic and anger. Plogojowitz's corpse was staked through the heart, after which it was reported that fresh blood leaked from his chest and out the mouth and ears. The poor man's corpse was promptly set alight and burned to ash. Naturally, this gave cause for all of his alleged victims to also be exhumed and measures taken, such as garlic stuffed in their mouths, to make certain they would rest in peace.
Coincidentally the strange attacks stopped after the staking of Plogojowitz. All was well in the quiet village for a couple of years, but then a man named Arnod Paole returned to the village from war. Reportedly whil off fighting in what is now Greece, Paole said he had a run in with a vampire. He went through great lengths to try and prevent himself from becomming one of the undead here are Paole's words from a book called the Repertum: "TheRepertum states that Paole “had eaten from the earth of the vampire's grave and had smeared himself with the vampire's blood, in order to be free of the vexation he had suffered.” Unfortunately for the former soldier, his “cure” proved futile, and he allegedly spread his tall tale around the village"
It wasn't long before Paole died from a fall off of a wagon. Again villagers reported seeing Paole walking about and he was accused of four deaths:
As with Peter Plogojowitz, these accusations became grounds for digging up Paole to examine his corpse for signs of vampirism, which they did forty days after his burial. Again, the folkloric signs of the ultimate nightcrawler came into sharp focus. According to the Repertum, the villagers found that Paole was “quite complete and undecayed, and that fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; that the shirt, the covering, and the coffin were completely bloody; that the old nails on his hands and feet, along with the skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown.” As was customary, a stake was driven through Paole's heart, and he “gave an audible groan and bled copiously.” After he was done scaring the knickers off everyone with his final death knell, he was burned to ashes.
With the cooperation of authorities and military personnel, the poor man was dug up, and according to accounts did indeed bear the telltale signs of a vampire. Some of his skin had sloughed off to show new skin underneath, his hair and nails had grown, there was blood near his mouth, and he appeared relatively intact. It should come as no surprise that his appearance was cause for panic and anger. Plogojowitz's corpse was staked through the heart, after which it was reported that fresh blood leaked from his chest and out the mouth and ears. The poor man's corpse was promptly set alight and burned to ash. Naturally, this gave cause for all of his alleged victims to also be exhumed and measures taken, such as garlic stuffed in their mouths, to make certain they would rest in peace.
Coincidentally the strange attacks stopped after the staking of Plogojowitz. All was well in the quiet village for a couple of years, but then a man named Arnod Paole returned to the village from war. Reportedly whil off fighting in what is now Greece, Paole said he had a run in with a vampire. He went through great lengths to try and prevent himself from becomming one of the undead here are Paole's words from a book called the Repertum: "TheRepertum states that Paole “had eaten from the earth of the vampire's grave and had smeared himself with the vampire's blood, in order to be free of the vexation he had suffered.” Unfortunately for the former soldier, his “cure” proved futile, and he allegedly spread his tall tale around the village"
It wasn't long before Paole died from a fall off of a wagon. Again villagers reported seeing Paole walking about and he was accused of four deaths:
As with Peter Plogojowitz, these accusations became grounds for digging up Paole to examine his corpse for signs of vampirism, which they did forty days after his burial. Again, the folkloric signs of the ultimate nightcrawler came into sharp focus. According to the Repertum, the villagers found that Paole was “quite complete and undecayed, and that fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; that the shirt, the covering, and the coffin were completely bloody; that the old nails on his hands and feet, along with the skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown.” As was customary, a stake was driven through Paole's heart, and he “gave an audible groan and bled copiously.” After he was done scaring the knickers off everyone with his final death knell, he was burned to ashes.
The strange thing about these accounts to me are the eye-witness reports. The stories not only come from villagers, but also from esteemed and educated people like doctors and town councilman. It seems like a lot of these stories come from the same part of the world ... Eastern Europe which leads me to believe that it is a cultural phenomenon of the time. Here is the report from the doctors who were summoned to investigate the cases. This is from Vampyres.Ca:
"In their report, Visum et Repertum (Seen and Discovered), the officers told not only what they had heard from the villagers but also, in admirable clinical detail, what they themselves had seen when they exhumed and dissected the bodies of the supposed victims of the vampire. Of one corpse, the authors observed, "After the opening of the body there was found in the cavitate pectoris a quantity of fresh extravascular blood. The vasa [vessels] of the arteriae and venae, like the ventriculis cordis, were not, as is usual, filled with coagulated blood, and the whole viscera, that is, the pulmo [lung], hepar [liver], stomachus, lien [spleen], et intestina were quite fresh as they would be in a healthy person."
Again, the one thing that sticks out to me is the clinical detail by educated people. This wasn't just Urban Legend passed between a bunch of farmers...What do you think?
"In their report, Visum et Repertum (Seen and Discovered), the officers told not only what they had heard from the villagers but also, in admirable clinical detail, what they themselves had seen when they exhumed and dissected the bodies of the supposed victims of the vampire. Of one corpse, the authors observed, "After the opening of the body there was found in the cavitate pectoris a quantity of fresh extravascular blood. The vasa [vessels] of the arteriae and venae, like the ventriculis cordis, were not, as is usual, filled with coagulated blood, and the whole viscera, that is, the pulmo [lung], hepar [liver], stomachus, lien [spleen], et intestina were quite fresh as they would be in a healthy person."
Again, the one thing that sticks out to me is the clinical detail by educated people. This wasn't just Urban Legend passed between a bunch of farmers...What do you think?
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