OH MY GOD THIS IS GORGEOUS!!!

We’re winning.

I found his bio on societyofpresidentialdescendants.org and it was so delightful I had to copy paste the whole thing:

“Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave it to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale (BA, 1977), and was trained to be a museum curator in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture (MA, 1980). A decorative arts curator at the Newark Museum for thirty-seven years before he retired, Ulysses has never stopped writing for the sheer pleasure of it. Aside from books on Victorian furniture, art pottery, studio ceramics, jewelry, and the White House, Ulysses created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel, appeared in 2012. His most recent novel, Cliffhanger, was released by JMS Books in December 2020.

“Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of 45 years. They have two grown children, adopted in 1996.

“Ulysses is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant. His late mother, Julia, was the President’s last living great-grandchild; youngest daughter of Ulysses S. Grant III, and granddaughter of the president’s eldest son, Frederick. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City. He is also on the board of the U.S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University.”

And frankly, the novels sound like they slap:

Desmond was nominated for a Lambda Award.

“With his husband of 45 years.” You kids don’t know ... they got together before AIDS, at the peak of the Gay Glam Life. They stayed together as their generation died around them, and made through it to the point where they could marry and have a legal family. He looks like a chipper preppie who never had a serious thought or care in the world, but it took *incredible* determination, commitment, and also luck to get here.

having now read the first of this man's vampire books, you can absolutely tell that he cares a lot about historical furniture because oh my god he really wanted to tell us about all the historical furniture in this vampire's house. material culture as foreplay. seduction via theses about chairs

✍️ to read this man's books, they have everything AND cool furniture ✍️

"Cupid with a Pistol on Top of a Mountain of Skulls" by Gustave Doré ( 1832 –1883).

Strong Armand energy.

He doesn’t eat the toaster!

This Day in Buster…November 16, 1927

The Edmonton Journal suggests that readers ‘…enroll with Buster as he starts in college, finish with him - you gain in joy knowledge.  “College” is a fun panic and it’s worth millions.’

OMG I CAN'T.

Buster is always a good idea and the music is just *chef kiss*

If you all do not already follow The Art of Costume Podcast, go do it now! They are great and often they have in the show the costume designers of the show/movie they’re talking about!

Their last episodes are like a list of the faves of this blog (and its readers): Crimson Peak, Penny Dreadful, Sleepy Hollow, and Interview With The Vampire (the 90s film). So, go and enjoy wherever you listen to your podcasts! (That sounded like and ad, but I just really like that podcast XD)

All hail extremely-in-fashion-Lestat!

Howl’s Moving Castle - Fan art by Julia Tveritina

This is beyond beautiful!!!

This should be the plot of Swan Lake.

It had finally arrived in the mail. 

I'm flipping through Realms of Atlantis again for reasons and I just love that Daniel is apparently around Court somewhere but never really mentioned as being in the room, and the one time Lestat refers to him directly, he doesn't even get a name check!

"I smiled. Our coming out into the modern world had begun over forty years ago with a human radio interviewer in a rented room in San Francisco inviting Louis to tell his story to a tape recorder. And now here we were, all of us, storing every word and gesture of this historic meeting on the modern offspring of that old recorder."

I am legitimately losing my mind.

✨ HUMAN RADIO INTERVIEWER ✨

He has a name. Lestat knows his name! Lestat stayed at his house in Florida and spoke to him about his time with Armand, if nothing else. He's Armand's only fledgling, for god's sake. I mean come on!

I hope Daniel gets that put on a t-shirt and gives them out to the Coven as Christmas gifts. Or on a set of throw pillows he leaves on Lestat's throne. Maybe he can comandeer Benji's studio and start his own vampire podcast call "Human Radio Interviewer at Vampire Court."

I'm going to go chew paper.

This has strong “regular human bartender” vibes and I CAN’T 😂😂😂😂

Daniel Molloy, regular human radio interviewer.

ooc: Denis fic is as rare as hen's teeth. This one fits my hcs for him almost perfectly but more importantly it's fantastic (and will hurt you)

Thank you for sharing, I loved it 🥰

Armand: Vampires thrive best among their kind. We need to live with other vampires, in covens and all.

Lestat: What no, I long to LIVE with mortals. My Garden's Road and Savage Devils will inevitably take me to be around humans all the time! Only limited dim-witted cruel vampires want to remain among other vampires! Vampires aren't capable of beauty as humans are! I love humanity and want to be near them. I want them to love me, as I love them! I dread the company of other vampires, except for maybe one or two and I must live among mortals to feel like I am making my immortal life meaningful. Your ideals are old fashioned, your house stinks, and you smell. Also you're small and I can't hear you from up here.

(A few suicide attempts, ninety two fledglings sired from lestat, three mass vampiredom extiction events, one trip to walmart and 13 books later)

Lestat: I think we should all get together and write our own history as one because nothing will be best for all vampires than to live as one tribe, one coven :)

Armand:

I laughed way too hard at this.

Artist Asks!