Dear Lord Akeldama & Parasolverse Ephemera

For lovers of Gail Carrigers’s Parsolverse, enjoy a compendium of extras and appendices, with your esteemed host, Lord Akeldama. This is not a story. In this special volume you will find the following: Part the first ~ a collection of ten years’ worth of the Good Vampire’s advice including on such wide-ranging topics as fashion, relationships, food, travel, culture, and identity. Part the second ~ a collection of bits and bobs related specifically to Lord Akeldama. Part the third ~ a series of short essays, intellectual salon-style, on such topics as shoehorning the paranormal into a steampunk world; vampire quandaries; and how Victorian world-building elements work in the Parasolverse. Part the fourth ~ deleted scenes with various favorite characters from the Parasol Protectorate, Finishing School, and Custard Protocol series. I had absolutely no idea, when I originally conceived of Lord Akeldama, that he would end up being my most popular character. He’s a combination of Oscar Wilde, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and various aunties and sundry uncles from a childhood spent in and around the greater San Francisco Bay Area artist and poet community. I started his “Dear Lord Akeldama” column in my blog back in 2010. Why did I do it? Because it was so much more fun to answer the questions I was getting in his voice, rather than my own. And people had more fun asking. I’ve collected many years’ worth of the Good Vampire’s advice here (and all are still available to read on my blog). This special collection features them all in one place and I have loosely broken his thoughts into categories. Where possible I attributed the original questioner by first name or handle. In some cases, I changed the question to match the style of presentation (this is Lord Akeldama we are dealing with here, presentation is everything). I hope you enjoy all his outrageousness so far here, all in one place. Expect excessive use of italics.