Great news! Lisa Morton posing with the second edition of her book, The Halloween Encyclopedia. Photo: Lisa Morton; The Nerd Element.
“So yeah, I’m working on a non-fiction vampire book,” Lisa casually announced in the latest issue of her newsletter (which you should definitely subscribe to). I had no idea she was planning such a book until I read that today. As you can probably tell, I’m a little excited.
Lisa Morton writes about horror, ghosts, witches and folklore, but is probably best-known for her books about Halloween including The Halloween Encyclopedia (2003; 2011), A Hallowe’en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writers over the Centuries (2008) and Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (2012). I used to keep the first edition of her encyclopedia by my bedside for some light night time reading.
But this will be her first non-fiction book about vampires and I’m keen to see how she tackles the subject. She gave a little insight into her research in her newsletter: “And when I wondered about very early vampire reports, my research led me to a gentleman named William of Newburgh.” Vampire non-fiction fans should be very familiar with William.
I’ve got no other details about the book apart from what I’ve quoted. If I was to take a guess, I’d say it would probably be following in the footsteps of her 2015 book, Ghosts: A Haunted History. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was published by Reaktion Books, too. If I score any other details, I’ll let you know.
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