The Dancing Valkyrie [Paperback]

Peter Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2005

The Dancing Valkyrie is a story about a woman who is an erotic dancer at a topless club who goes on a hike in the Adirondacks and falls in love with a woman who proves to her she was never a human but was always destined to be a real live vampire in both the flesh and the blood.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The primary thought behind the writing of "The Dancing Valkyrie" was to portray vampires as they might be if they were a natural creation not yet proven to exist. When I decided to write a vampire novel, I wanted my vampires to be of flesh and blood, not demons who are actually dead. This thought tied in with a second idea. I did not want to copy what others had written. If of flesh and blood, and fully alive, my vampires would be able to eat and drink, not be bothered by the sun or crucifixes, and would be able to pass as human. And since I had always felt a bit sorry for fictional vampires being unable to enjoy sex, it was natural for my vampires be fully sexual beings. In fact, sex would become the primary bait they would use to get their prey. To make them as human as possible required limiting my vampires from having supernatural abilities. They could have some talents such as rapidly healing from less than fatal injuries and have some psychic abilities such as mind reading and tricking the eye with hypnosis. But they would not be able to become bats or suddenly move from one end of a room to another. The Adirondack location was picked because there is something mysterious about the place. It is an island of wilderness surrounded by a sea of civilization. Hikers and hunters have been lost here without ever being found.

About the Author

Pete Klein was born in Detroit, Mich., in 1942, has been married since 1968, has three grown children and two grandchildren. Klein has been living in the Central Adirondacks of northern New York since 1987 where he has held a number of jobs, most recently as a reporter for a local weekly newspaper. When not writing for the newspaper or working on the next installment of The Dancing Valkyrie, Klein enjoys exploring the Adirondacks on foot and is also working on a guide book that will include many of the hikes he has taken. Klein says his interest in the vampire legend began in grade school after seeing the original Dracula movie on TV and realizing the story took place in the same country his grandparents had immigrated from, Romania. Over the years, and after reading numerous novels and watching as many movies with vampires as the main characters, Klein made several attempts at writing a version of his own. While attempting to write a vampire novel that would be truly original, Klein had other interests that would have an influence on the final result. His life long interest in wild places eventually resulted in a move to the Adirondacks where much of the story of The Dancing Valkyrie takes place. His extensive studies in philosophy and theology formed much of the basis of what vampires might be if they were more than products of the imagination. As the years passed, an idea took shape and certain elements became clear. If there were vampires, they would be creatures created by God with a morality of their own. They would be flesh and blood with a need for blood as real and as demanding as a human has need for food. The result is The Dancing Valkyrie.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com; First edition (December 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411659651
• ISBN-13: 978-1411659650
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,029,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pete Klein was born and raised in Detroit, Mich. where he attended Notre Dame High, Harper Woods. After high school, Pete joined the US Navy and served as a Corpsman in New Port, RI, and Long Beach, CA. After receiving an Honorable Discharge, it was back to Detroit for a year before moving to NYC to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Klein says, "I lived in New York at the right time (mid 60's) in the Lower East Side (East Village) and enjoyed discovering the city and myself.
In 1968 Klein married. In 71 he moved upstate where he raised his family and worked in the automotive aftermarket as a manufacturer's rep, traveling all of upstate NY.
Then it was back down to the city for a few years as the sales manager for a firm importing automotive parts and accessories from the Far East.
Missing the country life, Klein moved the family back upstate to the Adirondacks.
Klein has been living in the Adirondacks for the past 23 years and has been a reporter for the Hamilton County Express for the past nine years. It was going to work as a reporter that finally moved him to return to his early dream of writing books.
The thought of writing vampire novels came early. After first watching the original Dracula movie, Klein asked his grandmother, a German born and raised in Romania, if there were any truth to the story. The grandmother, being a sensible Catholic, responded, "That's just foolish superstition."
But the fascination with vampires didn't die. Klein says, "I think being Catholic had something to do with the vampire fascination. Here I'm talking about the blood of life, intrinsic to both the story of Jesus and vampires, and the sexual undertones of most vampire stories.
The vampires in Klein's novels are very different from those in other novels. Here again, Klein believes his Catholic background has much to do with the difference in his novels.
Klein says, "I can enjoy just about any vampire novel or movie but never find any of them in the least bit believable or scary. I figure if there were any chance of vampires being real, they would need to be natural creatures created by God for whatever reason God would create them. Therefore, even though my vampires are extremely dangerous, I do not see them as demons. I tend to view them much as I view any deadly predator. They look and act like the humans they were before they became vampires but they do need blood and take what they need when the need arises."
The hiking guide book to trails in the Adirondacks, while very different from vampire fiction, was a natural for Klein who loved the outdoors and the northern woods even when growing up in the city.
In addition to writing for the paper and writing books, Klein also writes book reviews for AllBooks Book Review.