calliopes_pen

Margaret Nolan has passed away at the age of 76. May she rest in peace. She may be most remembered by James Bond fans for being the gold painted model in the title sequence of Goldfinger (1964), as well as playing Dink in the film.

I’m not a fan of the Carry On films, or the James Bond franchise, but I still thought she was familiar. Therefore, I consulted her filmography on IMDB. She was the blonde vampire bride that stalked Jonathan through the castle with the other two, in Mystery And Imagination: Dracula (1968). To me, she was memorable there! She was evidently using the name Marie Legrand when she appeared in that, hence why I didn't make the connection.

She also had a small part as Girl At Inn in Witchfinder General (1968). Her scene was evidently cut from Frenzy (1972).

(Using an icon of the vampire brides, as the blonde is her)

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams (38879 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mina Harker/Lucy Weston, Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker, John Seward/Lucy Weston, Lucy Weston/Jonathan Harker, John Seward/Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker/John Seward
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Weston, Mrs Hoskins (Dracula TV 1968), Mrs Weston (Dracula TV 1968), Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: Mind Control, Possession, Vampires, Friendship, Gothic, Dabbling In The Black Arts, Post-Canon, Blood, Fog, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Vampire Bites, Vampire Turning, So much for that hot tea and a blanket, Jonathan takes a tumble for Mina
Summary: The Count has been defeated, but all is not as it should be. In the wake of their presumed victory, Mina Harker stands at a crossroads. She finds herself torn between one world and the next; the living and the undead. She is dragged ever further from the light with every breath she takes. In the fallout, the ripples of her eventual choice will change those she holds dearest to her heart most of all.

And as always, I'll post a round-up thing discussing this year's Yuletide either later today, or tomorrow.

I thought I had linked to this already, but apparently I hadn’t. For Yuletide Madness, lost_spook wrote the fantastic Night Falls for me, for Dracula (1968). I recommend reading it.

Night Falls (8535 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker, John Seward/Lucy Weston
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Dracula, John Seward, Mrs Hoskins (Dracula TV 1968), Mrs Weston, Lucy Weston, Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: Mental Institutions, Mental Disintegration, Victorian, Victorian Attitudes, Pre-Canon, Period Typical Attitudes to Mental Illness, Mind Control, Vampires
Summary:

Something unknown and sinister is coming for them all…

In other Dracula related news, I just now ordered Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula. It’s the Icelandic version, which was originally published/translated into that in 1900, and now finally translated into English--with extra characters and a few other differences in the plot from the original novel, from all I’ve heard. I’ll finally get to see how different it is.

For those interested st_aurafina is hosting Let’s Stick Together: A Friending Meme For 2017.

I created a second part of this year’s Yuletide story, but it’s just for storing a few deleted scenes that people may be interested in for curiosity’s sake. They are scenes that would have gone in, but couldn’t for various reasons. I wanted to keep them somewhere safe other than a comments thread. thisbluespirit gave me the go ahead after I asked if it was okay.

So if someone actually notices the word count jump upwards from the already ridiculous number of 58,042 words to 59,747 words, therein lies the cause. Through this change, all the end notes have automatically been bumped ahead to the end of that second chapter, and will be found there.

Also, because I was asked by a couple of people, I thought I might answer here, too. No. You don’t really need to have watched Dracula (1968) prior to reading the story, but it might help to understand a few alterations in regards to characters—-particularly why Jonathan Harker (played by Corin Redgrave in the film, who is having the time of his life) is the way he is. There are a few smaller differences in the story (as in the characterization of Van Helsing and Dracula) that aren’t nearly as big as his change.

The fanfic is sort of branching off at a critical moment for the characters, but enough information is given in my story that you could probably understand without having seen that part, in regards to plot.

So for the curious who haven’t already watched, here’s Dracula (1968) in its entirety on Youtube. Denholm Elliott is Dracula. It’s only an hour and twenty minutes long. I recommend giving it a watch even if you don’t want to read the story.

Wrap The Cloak Of Night Around His Shoulders (58042 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mina Harker/John Seward, Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker
Characters: John Seward, Mina Harker, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Weston, Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: When Vampires Attack, Exorcisms, Hypnotism, Possession, Bats, Temptation, Friendship, Mind Control, Jonathan runs away with Dracula, Van Helsing is clever, Mina protects Lucy, Seward needs a blood transfusion and blanket right about now, There's something in the basement, Vampire Bites, Hurt/Comfort, Character Turned Into Vampire, Elements of Lucy/Mina, staking, Vampirism Causes Irreconcilable Differences, Suspense, Nightmares, Fog, Journey to the Castle, Happy Ending, Blood Drinking, Adventure, Alternate Universe
Summary:

What if Seward and Van Helsing told Mina about the danger Lucy was in sooner? What if Lucy wasn’t bitten a final time that night, because Mina was in the house? This gives them a reprieve. Everything changes for the better and for the worse. Each takes a more active role in their fate as they fight to keep Dracula away from Lucy, and the darkness closes in around them.

Yes, thisbluespirit. I guessed you may have written at least one (The Poison Tree) of the stories I received, but I didn’t guess that it was both of them. So thank you so much.

This story clocked in at a whopping 114 pages in Microsoft Word, for a grand total (no matter what Ao3 says—it might register the scene breaks) of 57,748 words. This is, by far, the longest thing I have ever written. The outline alone was 10 pages. I printed it, so I could have access to it at all times that I was away from the computer. I did not print the story, but I’m still genuinely amused that you did.*

I should have made it into separate chapters, but I didn’t even think of it at the time after all the edits were completed. Sorry about that. I do see in retrospect where a few chapter breaks could be, as one scene in particular was nearly 10,000 words.

I really must thank you, by the way, specifically for this post. The Picspam came in handy. So did the gif set in another post where you showed Seward fainting, and these promo shots in color. I might have used the fainting gifs for reference.

I can’t post the story to Livejournal, just like I couldn’t post it there last year, since it exceeds the word count limit. This year, I’m almost certain that I cannot post it to Dreamwidth, either, for that very reason. So…if someone ever feels the desire to comment on the story, you can do so in this post, or the cross-post on LJ, or just go to Ao3 by way of the link in this post if one happens to have an account there.

*Tomorrow or the next day, I plan another post about trivia from the writing process. I’ll try to make notes of all the random references sprinkled throughout the story that I alluded to in my author’s notes. There are a couple extra deleted moments that you can decide if you do or do not wish to see after they're described.

Edit: Or I could (and did) just post it today, since I gathered everything sooner than expected.