
Issaquah, Washington, USA 1951
My name is Norma Mae Rollins. I’m fourteen and an illegal vampire. I miss my mom, but new ghoulish appetites force me to remain with my creator.
Bill didn’t mean to transform me. At least, that’s what he claims. His frightening temper, relentless lies, and morbid scientific experiments makes it hard to know what to believe. However, someone snitched about Bill’s experiments to a nearby Coven. Now both of our corpses will burn.
Bill won’t run. He is curious what happens to a vampire after final death. I don’t want to die again. It hurt so much the first time. Bill thinks his vampire boyfriend might shelter me. I must brave an eternal existence with elder vampires and other monsters who don’t think I ought to exist. Oh and figure out who I am allowed to eat. A vampire’s reality is nothing like the movies.
Author Elizabeth Guizzetti
Guizzetti is an illustrator and author best known for her demon-poodle based comedy, Out for Souls & Cookies. She is also the creator of Faminelands and Lure and collaborated with authors on several projects including A is for Apex and The Prince of Artemis V.
To explore a different aspect of her creativity, she writes science fiction and fantasy. Her debut novel, Other Systems, was a 2015 Finalist for the Canopus Award for excellence in Interstellar Fiction. Her short work has appeared in anthologies such as Wee Folk and The Wise and Beyond the Hedge. She loves vampires and after writing Immortal House, she has written several other vampire stories in the same universe. Guizzetti lives in Seattle with her husband and two dogs. When not writing or illustrating, she loves hiking and birdwatching.
5 STARS
I love the Paper Flower Consortium Universe. The stories are rich with its coven’s backstories. This one tells the tale of fourteen-year-old Norma Mae Rollins. Guizzetti does a fabulous job growing the relationship between Norma and her bloodline progenitor Derrik. A tender, funny struggle between a teen and her “grandfather”. Trusting someone after a trauma—whether human or a vampire—can be difficult and yet rewarding. I enjoyed the smooth transitions between Norma’s diary entries and the coven’s dictations and memoires. Well done.