"To be a Vampire is to know your pale skin and red lips offend others."-Malcolm VIt's the mid twenty-first century. Anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and homophobia have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The world is run by "the state," and Christian zealots, whose chief governing tools are fear and oppression. It's a wonderful time to be alive-unless you're a Vampire. Vampires are despised, and feared, and subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence.Considered undead, unholy, without basic human rights, Gatsby Calloway lives on the fringes of society, avoiding humanity. Until he meets Barnabas, a young encaustic painter. When Barnabas is mortally wounded during an anti-Vampire attack, Gatsby must forget everything he has known, and learn to trust. Bronx-born wordsmith, Larry Benjamin considers himself less a writer than an artist whose chosen medium is the written word rather than clay or paint or bronze. He is the author of two previous novels: Unbroken, which was a 2014 Lambda Literary finalist, and a 2014 IPPY (Independent Publishers Book Award) Gold medalist, and What Binds Us. He is also the author of Damaged Angels, a collection of short stories, and the allegorical novella Vampire Rising.He lives in Philadelphia with his husband and their two dogs.
