October 14, 2019 - Above: A mixed media portrait of Bram Stoker by C.F. Payne. I love the connection to his character Dracula with the pointed ears and elongated, clawed fingers. Chris has produced a number of paintings and drawings of authors and artists over the years that he often offers for sale though his Etsy store (where Cathy and I happily purchased this one for our collection). Tales of vampires in one form or another exist in virtually every culture around the globe, but none have captivated audiences—or cast a longer bat-shaped shadow—than has Dracula. Written by Bram Stoker and first published in 1897, Dracula wasn't the first literary bloodsucker ("The Vampyre" by Mary Shelley's friend John Polidori in 1819 and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla in 1872 predate it) but it most certainly was and is the…