By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org

What if? … The great premise of many a great horror and historical fiction novel. So why not write a mashup?

That is sort-of what Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi have written with “Stoker’s Wilde”, a ‘what if …” that finds Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, contemporaries who lived from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, thrown together to “face a vampire cult determined to open the Gates of Hell.”

Hopstaken and Prusi, who now live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, both have long ties to West Michigan and to WKTV Community Media.

“We worked on the novel for almost a decade before finding a publisher,” Hopstaken recently said to WKTV. “It came out in May 2019 from Flame Tree Press and is available in hardcover, paperback, e-book and audiobook. The sequel, ‘Stoker’s Wilde West’, was also sold … It picks up the story of Bram and Oscar in the American west.”

Hopstaken is from Wyoming originally and graduated from Wyoming Park High School in 1981. Prusi is from Negaunee, in the Upper Peninsula, and she worked at WKTV from 1987 to 1991 — one of her highlights from that time, she said, was “directing a 36-hour live TV show to land (the station) in the Guinness Book of World Records.” She is also a three-time champion on the quiz show Jeopardy!

“Stoker’s Wilde” is described in promotional material this way:

“Years before either becomes a literary legend, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde must overcome their disdain for one another to battle the Black Bishop, a mysterious madman wielding supernatural forces to bend the British Empire to his will. With the help of a European vampire expert, a spirited actress and an American businessman, our heroes fight werewolves, vampires and the chains of Victorian morality. The fight will take them through dark forests in Ireland, the upper-class London theater world and Stonehenge, where Bram and Oscar must stop a vampire cult from opening the gates of Hell.”

Sounds like quite a ride, for the reader and the writers.

“The research was definitely a lot of fun,” Hopstaken said. “We kept finding new characters and weird historical quirks to put into the book, such as Oscar Wilde’s roommate, Frank Miles, who was a noted portrait painter. He went a little crazy and was actually suspected of being Jack the Ripper, so of course we had to write him in. Bram stole Oscar’s fiancée from him and whisked her off to London, we had to put that in the book.

“We did take a trip to Dublin and London. It was amazing walking the same streets as the characters. We also visited Stonehenge and decided that is where the final scene of the novel would take place.”

Additionally, their research turned up a few surprises, and great plot twists.

“Bram was very ill as a child and nearly died,” Hopstaken said. “He made a miraculous recovery and became a star athlete at school. His illness and recovery became a plot point in the novel.

“Oscar Wilde’s mother collected and wrote about Irish folklore and was an expert in the supernatural, so we featured her as a character in the novel. Also, despite having a reputation for being a writer, Oscar Wilde only published one novel throughout his life. “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” so like Bram Stoker, he is most famous for writing a supernatural story. “Stoker’s Wilde” has them both getting their ideas for their novels from coming in contact with vampires.”

The writing style of the novel, while very unique, does borrow elements from the past as well. The writers use various narrative points-of-view — characters, but also letters, journal entries, news clippings.

“It’s the same way ‘Dracula’ is written, so we thought it would be fun to copy Bram Stoker’s style,” Hopstaken said. “It’s not the easiest way to write a book, but it did give us the chance to hear first-hand from both our main characters, Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, as well as may of the supporting characters.”

For more information on “Stoker’s Wilde” and “Stoker’s Wilde West”, and to find various ways to read, visit flametreepress.com.

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