Hello Darklings! And welcome to Redbough (Red- bow-er) . I know you’re going to love it here.

Well…maybe love is too strong a word.

It’s a funny wee town really, comprising two parts. The Village is where the humans live and there’s a few wiccans and witches of the other sort too.

The Lights is where the Vampires live (ironic, huh?) You don’t want to spend too much time there. As you can imagine, it can be a bit…well…a lot…dangerous. But it looks real pretty at night.

And then there’s the werewolves that live in the forest on the edge of Redbough. They mainly keep to themselves. They don’t like the Vampires and they’re wary of the humans. Can’t blame them, really.

Who am I? I’m Fiona Tate: Chronicler of Countesses, Scribe of Supernaturals, and Dweller of the Dark. (Both by choice and by brain).

I write character driven vampire tales for creatures who live in the dark and I’m ridding the world of the evil that is (self) stigma and (self) discrimination regarding mental illness. Depression, in particular.

This is the first post of my serialized tale, A Vampire Cursed. (Under the guise of fiction, of course). Every week, on a Wednesday, NZ time, I’ll post the next episode, so I strongly suggest you subscribe. You don’t want to miss anything.

There’s a small fee to keep up with A Vampire Cursed. That’s because The Lights Blood Bank asks for a small donation each time a Vampire visits. We find it best to help them with this donation otherwise they start looking for human meals.

And we all know how that goes.

You’re more than welcome to stay here as long as you like but please remember that like Vegas, what happens in Redbough, stays in Redbough.

Now, here’s a brief introduction to the characters we’ll be meeting next week:

Eilidh (Ay-lee) Moss

Eilidh’s a 900 (give or take) year old vampire who runs an occult bookstore in The Lights. She’s maintainted a lot of her human qualities, which is rare in a vampire but she’s starting to suffer from The Tediums. That’s a disease that can occur with vampires of a certain age. You see, once you’ve been there, done that, over a thousand times, you can start to become…well…bored out of your mind.

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Miriam Switcher

Miriam is Eilidh’s daylighter. That’s the vampire term for dogsbody. That means she gets to live in a small room in the back of the bookstore while Eilidh gets to live in the flash condo above it. Miriam does all the things Eilidh can’t do like run the bookstore while Eilidh’s…well…dead…during the day.

Miriam’s devoted to Eilidh. Not enthralled, you understand, we modern vampires don’t approve of that sort of a thing, but yes, she’s definitely devoted. And pale for a human.

Karah Moore

Karah’s a bit of a mystery really. She’s human, she lives in a motorhome on the outskirts of The Village. She seems to be quite intellligent (for a human) and is friendly with all species but never seems to get too close to anyone. Mind you, that’s sensible in Redbough.

We see a fair bit of Karah in the Quill & Query, she really does love her books and of course, we’re all insanely curious about whether or not her hair is naturally that color. I always thought humans were limited in natural hair colors, but who knows?

Then there’s Finn, he’s a witch. He’s actually set to be the leader of his local coven when his mum passes but he really, I mean really, doesn’t want to be. We’ll have to see how that one pans out.

There’s Flip (short for Phillipa), she’s Eilidh’s siresister. Those two have been getting up to all kinds of mischief together for centuries.

Oh, I mustn’t forget Morgan! She’s the owner of The Tavern, in The Village. We don’t see a lot of her in The Lights but she’s a wonderful healer and her herb garden is sublime. If Morgan doesn’t grow it, its not worth growing, I always say.

Morgan’s also the leader of her own coven, but its the wiccan sort, not the magical sort. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. I’m just saying.

There’s a lot more interesting characters you’ll meet in Redbough if you choose to stick around. And we hope you will.

A bit of history to keep in mind though. Just so you’re always on alert whiole wandering through our little town. Redbough was created as a haven for supernaturals, by three outcasts of the Arcane Guild. (You’ll hear more about the guild as we go on).

There was a vampire, a witch, and a werewolf (no, they didn’t go into a bar, this story is no joke) and they became disillusioned with the way the Guild were running things. These three wanted to include humans in their world, they didn’t see them as prey or as servants. So they broke off and created Redbough.

It started off as a small village and then the vampire population grew and added The Lights for themselves. Unsociable creatures, vampires.

This brief history lesson is just to make you aware that Redbough is a town of outcasts. It’s for those that live outside the so-called norm. Outcasts of all species, colors, and conditions.

Essentially, things can, and do, get weird.