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Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

© Linda Suzane

When it comes to vampire authors, only Anne Rice can compare with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro in number of books and the length that she has been writing about vampires. Anne Rice published her first vampire novel in 1976. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro published the first of the Saint-Germain novels, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, in 1978. For the last twenty-seven years, she has been writing about the Comte de Saint-Germain and his fellow vampires. The series now includes seventeen Saint-Germain books, plus two about Madelaine de Montalia, a character who first appeared in HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, and three about Atta Olivia Clemens, a character who first appeared in Yarbro's third book, BLOOD GAMES. The list continues to grow as we should see the next book in the series sometime in 2005.

To say that she is a prolific writer seems to be almost an understatement. She has published over 70 books, 60 works of short fiction, essays, reviews. She has written westerns, historical suspense, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, romances, and nonfiction. She and Bill Fawcett co-authored books under the name Quinn Fawcett, including a series about Mycroft Holmes and a series of spy novels with Ian Fleming as the master spy. I first learned of Chelsea through her nonfiction books about Michael, a channeled entity, whose wisdom she has shared in four books. I then went on to read her vampire novels, even before I became obsessed with reading vampire novels. She has also become an eBook author with a variety of eBooks including MAGNIFICAT, about the first woman Pope, and one Madelaine de Montalia novel, IN THE FACE OF DEATH. Her eBooks are available from http://www.hidden-knowledge.com/ and http://www.fictionwise.com.

Saint-Germain and related series are hard to classify, for they certainly don't fall into the category of horror. Nor do they qualify as vampire romance, although Saint-Germain's attitude towards women is definitely romantic. For the most part they are rich historical novels whose main characters just happen to be vampires. Unlike other series, these books weren't written in a particular order, but focus on different periods of history. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA is set in France in 1743. The second book, THE PALACE, in Renaissance Florence 1490-1498, the third, BLOOD GAMES, takes place during the time of Nero.

Another unique feature is that her vampire Saint-Germain is modeled closely after a real historical person Comte de Saint-Germain. Stories tell he possessed an elixir of life and remained for almost a hundred years of recorded appearances, a man who appeared to be the age of 40 - 50. He claimed to have lived centuries and told stories of the past as though he had actually been there. Nothing is known for certain of his birth nor of his death. He was an alchemist, thought of being capable of creating gold and jewels. A member of secret organizations, including the Freemasons. He was the confident of kings and queens, a lover of jewels and beautiful women, who visited all the European courts. He was a spy, often involved in secret adventures. He was a figure of mystery, but it was never claimed that he was a vampire. But it does neatly explain many of the so-called historical facts. If you would like to find out more about the real Comte de Saint-Germain, check out

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