The Impaler

You have known me by many names, but the one that you would be most familiar with is Dracula. However, before that, I was known as Vlad, the Impaler. What you hold now in your hands is my story, the beginning of a tale that spans countless lives and countless souls. It is a tale that is not so much a tale, but instead the complete and utter truth, if truth is what you seek, which I know that it is. That is why out of the mass of hundreds, it was you who picked this book from the shelves.

Do not be alarmed or think it strange that I know of this, for that is irrelevant to the course of actions that will follow. Now, it has become too late and you have begun this journey whether you wanted to or not. You see, this is a cursed book, and you are a seeker of truth, a seeker of knowledge, a seeker of the unknown. That is why you will open the pages and will look inside not knowing what to find, and afraid of seeing what I truly know of you and all of humanity. Before you go on, I warn you that what you will read inside is haunting, desolate and grim, and not civil or kind in any way. It is a story that will leave you changed and disturbed, and if that is a journey that you wish not to take, then I implore you to put me back on the shelf where you found me and leave at once from here. For now that you have read what you have read, I will call for you...always.

About the Author
Arthur, Thomas: - THOMAS ARTHUR was born in Poland in 1946, during the aftermath of World War II. After growing up in extreme poverty, Thomas and his uncle, a cobbler, escaped to Brooklyn NY in 1961 where they both worked at a shoe repair shop. At an early age, his talent for writing was seen and Thomas took opportunities from local reporters and writers, ghost writing to make extra money and eventually helped his uncle open a shop of his own. After many years of notable work as a ghostwriter, Thomas became frustrated for not being acknowledged for his talent. Thomas applied for various writing jobs and was denied due to his lack of educational merits. At a late age of 34, Thomas decided to change that and went to pursue his education, eventually receiving a Masters in English from Brooklyn College in 1988, and gaining acceptance into the acclaimed John Hopkins University Ph.D. Writing Program. But after the sudden death of his uncle, mounting expenses, and the unrewarding obscurity of ghostwriting, which he continued to do to pay for college, Thomas decided to take over his uncle's shoe repair shop instead and stopped writing altogether. Being retired now, and with much push from his long-time writing friend, Professor Ron Lovell, gave Thomas a unique chance to return to his long lost passion. The Book of Vlad: The Impaler is his thirteenth novel, but first under his own name, as well as the first work he has written in over twenty-five years.