Normally when you hear hoofbeats you think about horses. Maybe sometimes you should think about zebras. Vampires may be scary, but for some people they aren't half as frightening as falling in love. This novel changes the traditional paradigm of a vampire. Triston Fallonside and Rodrigo Garcia Olza are as close as two friends can be. Their friendship developed after a clandestine benefactor offered Triston a scholarship to Spain's most exclusive equestrian riding school, right after the puzzling death of his mother. Decades earlier, Triston's father, a world-renowned Kentucky thoroughbred...

The entire idea of a vampire through the earliest recorded history has helped people make sense of their own world. The vampire today serves a totally different purpose than the historical paradigm. Social experiences described by true vampirism appear to be those related with a sense of difference. Many true vampires start their accounts by declaring that they always felt "weird" inside and uncannily different to those around them. Their vampire awakening made real sense of this experience. The fifth novel in the Rodrigo Garcia Olza Vampire from Spain series traces the protagonist's ancient...

Theater and art can be viewed as a form of religion. The live event of theater can be seen in the light of a spiritual service, ceremony, and ritual. Both theater drama and religion thrive on ambiguity. Some truths may only be witnessed in the dark; and embracing the darkness is sometimes required to stop it. Vampire horse trainer Rodrigo Garcia Olza, his two brothers, and equine sidekick, Micah, often feel compelled to thank someone, blame someone -- and realize this is the notion of God and the Devil. Like most others, they cannot wholeheartedly believe that everything that happens to them...

Fog occurs naturally in San Francisco: fog not unlike fog that engulfs San Francisco's Alcatraz Island, where Rodrigo Garcia Olza mysteriously arrives underwater. Many so-called vampires worldwide are really demons. At least for this island, many theologians propose that that demons created vampires by entering and animating corpses the Ohlone Indians buried on Alcatraz Island. When Spain's explorers intruded upon the ancient burial grounds the natives avoided, many of the dormant evil spirits were awakened and have yet to be quieted - despite valiant efforts through the centuries. To...