KARL SHUKER: Hope you like his new direction

I have long planned to write a novel, especially one infused with elements of fantasy and featuring traditional but little-known mythological entities, but other projects have so far taken up all of my available time. However, I am currently experimenting during whatever spare time I can find by writing short stories in this specific vein, interspersed with factual commentary. Here is one of my stories.

Today, tales of vampires are largely confined to novels, television series, and films, especially in the Western world. In the Philippines, conversely, the fear of what are widely considered there to be real, and very dangerous, supernatural bloodsuckers, lives on – as do, at least allegedly, these entities themselves. Nor is there just one type of Filipino vampire either. On the contrary, a bewildering, somewhat interchangeable array of forms and sexes have been reported, named, and classified. Among the best-known are the berbalangs of Mapun Island, which resemble monstrous humanoid bats but whose astral essence departs their physical bodies at nights to infiltrate those of sleeping humans, whereupon these fiendish horrors feed upon their victims’ entrails. The predominant category of Filipino vampires, however, comprises the aswangs.

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