The Blood Countess / The Iron Maiden

This is a historical fiction about the infamous "Blood Countess," Elizabeth of Bathory, who, according to legend, killed around 650 girls over the course of her lifetime in order to bathe in their blood, which she believed would keep her skin young. She is associated with many vampire legends and may have been an inspiration for Bram Stoker's Count Dracula (read Raymond McNally's Dracula Was a Woman for more on that).

Cover!

Soundtrack

I have a bit of an eclectic soundtrack going for this book... a lot of gypsy types of music, since the book is set in the vicinity of Hungary, and a lot of heavy metal / goth type music that was actually inspired by Elizabeth of Bathory:
  • Gypsy Caravan, a compilation done by Putomayo
  • "On the Beach," a song from the score of Queen of the Damned, which is also "gypsy" in nature
  • "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Vanessa Mae - just a creepy vampire-sounding song, with a bit of a modern feel to it
  • "Bathory's Sainthood" by Boy Sets Fire
  • "Bathory Aria" and "A Gothic Romance" by Cradle of Filth
  • "Vlad the Impaler" by Theatres Des Vampires
  • There is also a band named Bathory, and I've been listening to a lot of their stuff... but I'll only list my favorites when it's all done.

Here is my Vampire Mix 1, which I created to listen to while I read through Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I'm still working on a Vampire Mix 2 with songs from the above.


Resources

This is my first historical fiction, and I've had to do a bit of research.
Fiction
  • The Blood Countess by Andrei Codrescu
  • The Blood Confession by Libby Anderson
Nonfiction

All content copyright © Kate Spofford.