Dark Henry Smith - Mike Johnson

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Résumé :
I remember well the old cinema and the sandwich boards outside with garish colors inviting only the brave inside to see Dracula in dripping color. NO ONE UNDER THE AGE OF SIXTEEN. I was twelve and looked younger, but with my coat collar turned up, an unlit cigarette dangling between my lips, and a sympathetic attendant taking my change, in I crept. My stature in school was slightly elevated when I was able to recount the storyline and describe the captive women in the cold castle, unable to afford thick sweaters or coats to cover themselves adequately. After watching the movie, I knew I would eventually write a vampire book. My hero would be different, though, with no bloodletting or midnight grave desecration, no fear of holy water, or a crucifix. So, after some vampire lore and history study, my first novel, DARK HENRY SMITH, Was born. Henry Smith is a real vampire with no aristocratic pretensions. He was raised by nomadic Jews, a six hundred-year-old wanderer and champion of the underdog. Sympathetic to human frailty, he is easily angered and frustrated by his attempts to assimilate into modern society. And so, his story continues with all his faults and prejudices displayed unapologetically....

Biographie:
Mike Johnson, fiction writer and poet, is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's most innovative writers. He lives on Waiheke Island and has taught creative writing at AUT University and the University of Auckland. In 2002 he received The University of Auckland's Literary Fellowship, having been Literary Fellow at Canterbury University in 1987. His first novel, Lear, the Shakespeare Company Plays Lear at Babylon was short listed for the New Zealand Book Awards in 1986, his novel Dumb Show won the Buckland Memorial Award for Literary Excellence in 1995, and he won the Frances Kean Award his short story, 'Magic Strings' in 1999. His first book of poetry, The Palanquin Ropes, (1983) was co-winner of the John Cowie Reed Memorial Competition. His non-fiction, Angel of Compassion, was shortlisted for the Ashton Whyle Award in 2014, and a poem from Vertical Harp, The selected poems of Li He (2006) has been anthologised in the Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (Random House, 2015). Mike Johnson is the author of twenty-six books including nine books of poetry, three of shorter fiction, one non fiction, three children's books, and ten novels....

Sommaire:
Michael Johnson (Mike Johnson) Was born in England and raised on the grim city streets of East London. He left at an early age homeless, hungry, and, in his own words, lived many lifetimes in many strange places in this world. Mike later emerged as a talented writer, as yet unpublished. He has three novels and a collection of twenty short stories to his credit. He eventually settled in Los Angeles County, where he lives, and continues to write....