Elaine Bergstrom is an American author in the genres of fantasy and horror. She has had 13 novels published. She has been described by the ''

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...

'' as "one of Wisconsin's best-known horror novelists".

Personal life

Bergstrom was born and raised in Cleveland. She had polio as a child, which she says brought her an early awareness of – and comfort with – death. She studied at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated with a degree in journalism with a minor in Latin American studies. She remained in Milwaukee to establish her career.Loohauis, Jackie (October 24, 2004). "Bergstrom has insatiable thirst for her next vampire kill", ''

''
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(registration required). Residing in Bay View, Bergstrom is divorced, raising two children, one with Down syndrome.

Career

Bergstrom's writing career started in advertising and newspaper reporting, including as a freelance writer for '' The Milwaukee Journal''. She taught some writing classes at Milwaukee Area Technical College. While working as a copywriter in the early 1980s, she returned to creative writing; her first published piece of fiction was her first novel, ''Shattered Glass'', the first in a series of vampire novels. Published in 1989, the novel introduced the character of the immortal Stephen Austra and artist Helen Wells, who had polio, along with Steffen's family of

hereditary Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

vampires A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths ...

. Its setting is Cleveland and nearby suburbs, in the 1950s. The novel was a critical success, and since then, Bergstrom has written five other novels in the series, including ''Daughter of the Night'', which featured Elizabeth Bathory as a half-breed Austra vampire. Using her grandmother's name, Marie Kiraly, Bergstrom wrote a sequel to ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

'' called ''Mina ... The Dracula Story Continues'' and its sequel, ''Blood to Blood ... The Dracula Story Continues'', which both look at Mina Harker as a woman changed by her experience in Transylvania, struggling to find her way in the repressive Victorian society. Both were featured in the Science Fiction Book Club (the former for more than a decade) and Doubleday Book Club. For ''Glass'' and its sequel ''Blood Rites'', she visited a number of major art glass producers. For the novel ''Madeline ... After the Fall of Usher'', she adopted Poe's journalistic style to tell a story in which the details of the last few months of Poe's life are correct, with her own fictional story overlaid on them. Bergstrom wrote

novels A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

for the Ravenloft setting, including '' Tapestry of Dark Souls'' (1993) and ''Baroness of Blood'' (1995). ''Tapestry of Dark Souls'' introduced the first lesbian couple in a D&D/ TSR world; Bergstrom has a significant gay following. She also works as a television critic and feature writer. Her interviews have included the novelist David Morrell and director Wes Craven.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergstrom, Elaine 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women American fantasy writers American horror novelists American women novelists Living people Novelists from Ohio Women horror writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Writers from Cleveland Year of birth missing (living people)