Dedicated to the memory of Pat Killough, my toughest critic but also my leading cheerleader, and a man with a keen editorial ear that I miss very much.

Lee Killough

Foreword

When Stephen Pagel approached me about MM Publishing reprinting some of my books, I accepted with delight. Not only have I known Stephe since his fandom days in Wichita and want to support his publishing enterprise, but I could not refuse the chance to see the Garreth Mikaelian books back in print. Blood Hunt faced a hard road to publication in the first place, returned to me twenty-three times, usually with a rejection that read, "This is a delightful book. We passed it around the office and everyone loved it. But . . . it is a vampire novel that isn't a horror story. That makes marketing it an impossible problem. So with regret we return the manuscript to you."

Tor books solved that problem by marketing it as horror anyway. Readers have had no problem with the fact that the books are not horror and Mikaelian is—or was back then—a different kind of vampire. Readers love him, in fact. Their only problem has been finding copies of Blood Hunt and its sequel, Bloodlinks. Paperback books are truely ephemera these days, hardly on the shelf before they vanish to make way for even newer books. At conventions fans approach me wanting to know where they can buy copies of the books. At home I receive letters asking me if I have copies to sell. Unfortunately I do not. Until now I could only suggest haunting used book stores in the hope that a copy might turn up there. I will never forget the phone call that woke me at midnight one night. A fan called from California to tell me, triumphantly, that after combing every bookstore and used bookstore in Berkeley he had finally found a copy of Blood Hunt.

So nothing makes me happier than making the two Mikaelian books available again. For all you readers, then, who tried and failed to find copies the first time around, here he is; come and get him. Enjoy.

Lee Killough