Your best guide would be to read diaries and letters written by people who actually lived in the time period you want to re- create. Keep in mind that your worst critics will be other writers, especially if you are writing in a genre. People who write Westerns, for example, usually know their time period pretty well and are likely to judge your work pretty closely. Some people like nothing better than finding a historical error in a novel.

I read an SF story some years ago about people from the future who used a time-machine to travel to the past to escape a dictator. The police in the future sent specially-trained police to go into the past and capture them. One way they recognized men from the future who lived in 1950's, was by the fact that they didn't have the habit of pulling up their slacks when they sat down. This habit has almost entirely disappeared today, just as many other habits or daily chores have been forgotten, now that we have appliances, automobiles, and indoor plumbing.

My own experience in writing a historical novel, involved reading histories and biographies. Keep in mind that using a historical character involves fully immersing yourself in that person's life. With Drakulya, I found that writing as if I were listening to him speaking was the best approach--which explains why the book is best read aloud. In most cases a writer would be better off creating his or her own characters, or as I did, re-creating them. In fact, after first deciding to re-work Bram Stoker's characters and plot, I was forced to abandon Vlad the Impaler, who was Stoker's model for Dracula, in favor of Vlad's older brother Mircea. It was, quite simply, impossible to turn Vlad into a sympathetic character.

Going back, I'd like to describe how I first became interested in Dracula.

It is, perhaps, best to begin then at the beginning, and describe myself as I was in 1966, standing with my mother in a department store in Memphis. It was there that I found a paperback version of Bram Stoker's gothic novel, Dracula. This particular book was in fact a comic-book format popularization of Stoker's novel. I was intriged by the book and its black-and-white presentation of the story of the vampire-king. The influence of this book remained largely unconsious, until 1973 when, as an undergraduate at Arkansas College, I began taking courses in American literature. While doing the reading for these classes, I came across frequent allusions to the vampire myth in contemporary authors like Norman Mailer, Hunter Thompson, Thomas Pynchon, John Gardner, and Ken Kesey.

It was a passage in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that particularly caught my interest. Kesey's book, like the others, was filled with the vampiristic symbols of blood- drinking, bats, crosses, wolves, fangs, mirrors, and so on. In Kesey's book, he describes McMurphy moving toward a nurse who, frightened by his approach, uses a cross to ward him off, saying, "I'm a Catholic!" Through an interesting twist, the nurse, herself, has a scarlet red birthmark that starts at the corner of her mouth and runs down her face, suggesting that she, too, possesses vampire characteristics.

Immediately following this scene, Kesey describes McMurphy changing his clothes. Randle Patrick McMurphy takes off his pants, while his friends watch, and they are surprised to discover that he wears black silk underwear on which have been sewn "white whales with red eyes." McMurphy explains to his friends that the shorts were given to him by an English major.

The joke about the white whale is clearly a funny allusion to Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick. But as I thought about it, I was unable to explain why Kesey had decided that the white whales should have red eyes. This problem led me to re-read Melville's novel, but nowhere could I find a description of Moby Dick with red eyes. I did, however, discover a passage in Melville's novel describing the sperm whale as "so incredibably ferocious as to be continually athirst for human blood." In retrospect it seemed, too, that in spite of this seemingly odd juxtepositon, the white whale of Moby Dick and the vampire king of Dracula have a great deal in common.

Both books are, in fact, monster stories that involve a sea-chase and a final attempt to harpoon/stake the monster. The destruction of the ship is paralleled by the destruction of Dracula's coffin. Both Dracula and Moby Dick are (1) seemingly immortal, (2) virtually indestructible, (3) immensely strong, (4) pale white in color, (4) reclusive, (5) bear a scarred forehead. There are, of course, a number of other similarities, but this short list was enough to convince me that the stories of Dracula and Moby Dick were based on the same archetype, an archetype that, charged with the seperate personal histories of a moderately talented Irish Victorian theater manager named Stoker and an immensely talented American sailor named Melville, resulted in two novels that are, at least superficially, unique.

To the Jungian analyst, these stories represent a fanciful retelling of the attempts of ancient hunters to capture and kill an immensely dangerous beast. To the Freudian, they carry the unmistakeable imprint of the primal horde, intent on destroying the father/god who is oppressing them. To most Social Scientists, these stories are clearly the expression of resistance to a false authority and the hope of establishing a new society, based on a utopian vision of cooperation and Mutual Aid. This interpretation is clearly consistent with Robert Zoellner's Salt-Sea Mastodon and H. Bruce Franklin's Prison literature in America, among others, and this strange cyclical capture and release of sexual/political energies is clearly an "American" literary theme, as was suggested by Robert Spiller, and earlier by William Blake and D.H. Lawrence.

I had during the intervening years, lost my copy of Dracula. The same book was, luckily, reprinted at about this time, with a new introduction by the English actor, Christopher Lee. Those of you who have seen one of the Hammer film versions of the Dracula story, may remember that Christopher Lee wore red contact lenses when he played the blood-engorged vampire. This then explains why the modern film Dracula has red eyes. But it fails to explain why Kesey's white whales have red eyes--unless, of course, both Dracula and Moby Dick represent variations on the same archtype.

The problem presented by a non-archetypal interpretation is clear--why in heaven's name does Kesey describe his white whales as having "red eyes." In looking at Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth we can easily understand why Gulley Jimson paints a picture of the Biblical Leviathan with "the blue eye of Hitler." Something about this image appeals to our knowledge and understanding of history, that is, to our personal unconscious experience of this particular novel. In contrast, Kesey's fusion of the "red eyes" on the "white whales" seems to appeal to a deeper level of our experience. As we read this line of the novel, we say to ourselves: Yes, white whales do have red eyes!

Within the dynamics of the two novels, _Dracula_ and _Moby Dick_, it helps to visualize the relationship of the characters in this way:

      Dracula  _______________  Captain Ahab
              /               \
             /                 \
Moby Dick   /                   \   Prof. VanHelsing

 INDIVIDUAL                        SOCIETY

The characters of Moby Dick and Prof. VanHelsing represent the extremes of the individual and the social: Moby Dick is the isolated and enigmatic representative of pure physical power, and Prof. VanHelsing as teacher, scientist, and spiritual authority represents the social order. In the films _Dracula_ and _Frankenstein_, made in 1931, Edward Van Sloan played both Prof. VanHelsing and Dr. Frankenstein's teacher. In _Dracula_ Van Sloan organizes opposition to the vampire and succeeds in destroying Dracula, but in _Frankenstein_ Van Sloan is himself murdered by the Frankenstein monster while he is alone and attempting to dismember it. The distinction here is an important one. In the films Prof. VanHelsing is a pure representative of the social order, fully capable of organizing and leading his small band of followers against the monster vampire. In the film _Frankenstein_, however, the Van Sloan character has failed in his duty as Dr. Frankenstein's teacher, and when he tries to destroy the monster that is the product of his failure, the monster strangles him.

Death by strangulation is a stock image in horror films, as in _Dracula_, _Frankenstein_, and _The Mummy_ (1932) in which Van Sloan starred. Strangulation is also the means of death for Ahab in _Moby Dick_. As a form of ritualized violence, strangulation plays an important role in many films, especially horror films and westerns, including _Hang 'Em High_, _Once Upon a Time in the West_, and _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_. Strangulation was also an important part of the religious rituals of the Thugs and the Khonds and, of course, the ancient Hebrews. The recent book _Life and Death of a Druid Prince_ examines this practice among the Celts. As a ritual symbolizing "socialized" violence, it can be a symbol for the breakdown of society and/or its reintegration.

The essential social conflict is played out over and over again in recent films, including _Roadhouse_ and _Batman_, and television programs, like _Ironside_ and _Kung Fu_. There are, in fact, some actors who are typecast in these archetypal roles, as for example Richard Basehart and Gregory Peck, who were originally cast as Ishmael and Ahab in the film version of _Moby Dick_. Basehart later played The-Keeper-of-the-Law in _The Island of Dr. Moreau_ (reprising the role created by Bela Lugosi), Admiral Nelson in _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_, and the creator of "Kitt" the one-eyed (red, of course) car in the television series _Knightrider_. Gregory Peck's career, too, tends to follow archetypal roles, as he later played Dr. Mengele in _The Boys from Brazil_ who struggles against Laurence Olivier (who also played Prof. VanHelsing in a recent film version of _Dracula_).

To make it clearer, it is possible to say that there are certain images, or "markers" that are used in this archetype, and which allow us to identify the position of the characters along the continuum from Self to Society. The "VanHelsing" type, representing Society, are always people with a social position of authority, usually a doctor or a professor or police chief, and they often have a physical disability that forces them to function through others. For example, in the TV series _Ironside_ Raymond Burr played a police chief who was in a wheelchair (as was the "VanHelsing" character in the _Tomb of Dracula_ comic book series). Moving to the "Ahab" character, he can be identified as having a mix of social and physical powers, and he often has a missing eye or leg or arm, as is the case with a host of famous "bad guys", including characters in _Dr. No_ and _Batman_.

A film in which the "Ahab" theme is played out often focuses on a policeman who has been disgraced. He must find his way back into society. Or he could be a doctor, as in _The Fugitive_. Sometimes this film has an "initiation" aspect, as in _The Silence of the Lambs_ where Jodie Foster's character is challenged to prove herself as a new FBI agent, going after the pschopath with the aid of an "Ahab" type, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In _The Fugitive_, on the other hand, Dr. Kimbal is in conflict with the "Ahab" type--a one-armed policeman, and much of the focus of the film is on the "VanHelsing" type, the police inspector (played by Tommy Lee Jones) who is hunting for Dr. Kimbal. "Ahab" type films include _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ and _Island of Dr. Moreau_.

The "Dracula" character is also a mix of physical strength and social power, like the character of Sherrif Buford Pusser in _Walking Tall_. This catagory slides over into the "Moby Dick" type, and often it is difficult to distinguish, because in American films this type predominates a whole series of action films, from _Cliffhanger_ to _Once Upon a Time in the West_, from _Kung Fu_ to _Unforgiven_.

The difficulty in distinguishing the "Dracula" from the "Moby Dick" arises in part because a character often shifts during the course of a film from the unintegrated/monsterous "Dracula" to the integrated "Moby Dick" during the course of the film, as for example happens to Stallone's character in _Cliffhanger_ or _Rocky_. This is, in fact, the predominant action in most American films.

As the "Dracula" type, the character is often associated with scars, whitened skin, great physical strength and power of will. The film plays out the characters shift from monster to man, as in _Robocop_, _The Bride_, and _The Elephant Man_.

The visceral audience responses to blood, crosses, whitened flesh, etc. are linked to a conflict of individual vs. society. To reject this thesis would require a rational explanation for the polar bear in _Roadhouse_ or the bizarre imagery of the last scene in _Walking Tall_....

And, of course, we should remember that Dr. Mengele in _The Boys from Brazil_ had a strange compulsion to surgically alter the eyes of children from brown to blue, perpetuating "the blue eye of Hitler." And thus we come back to the question: "Why do white whales have red eyes?"

And why do the white whales have red eyes? I intend, some day, to address this anthropological question in another essay. But until then I can only recommend that you read my novel _Drakulya_ for a literary exploration of this problem.

The novel, in a 19th century style, has quotations as the chapter headings. These chapter headings reflect 20 years of research in vampires, folklore, religion, and mythology. These chapters headings have their own consistency--a historical movement from the Book of Genesis through Melville's Moby Dick, followed by a thematic transition through various symbols and metaphors associated with vampires.

If I were beginning this project today, the task would be much simpler, especially because so many older books are now being transferred to CD-Rom. It would be easy to do word searches on a CD product for bats, blood, etc. and through a whole pantheon of related characters, including St. George, the Holy Grail, The Ark of the Covenant, Isis & Oririus, and finally Lilith--the first vampire. I have enough quotations to do two or three other books, so you can consider Drakulya to be the first of a series.