As a mortal woman in medieval Yorkshire, Marion Chase falls in love with a young woman and is shunned by the church and the village. Marion takes refuge in a forest cottage and becomes an herbal healer. When men from the village threaten to burn her as a witch, Marion is rescued by a vampire, transformed, and joins a Sisterhood in York dedicated to ethical living for vampires. When Henry VIII's 1546 ban on prostitution reaches York, the Sisterhood closes its brothel and disbands. The vampires scatter and Marion becomes a battlefield nurse travelling throughout Europe.
She travels to America during the Civil War and is then instrumental in the development of blood banking in the 1930s. In the 21st century Marion runs a Chicago blood bank with a hidden sideline of providing ethically sourced blood to Midwestern vampires. All is well until Marion falls in love with the one person who can destroy her. Rachel Sutter is an FDA inspector who is the living likeness of Marion’s medieval love.
Stella Fosse champions older women’s creativity by leading imaginative workshops in seasoned romance, erotica, and memoir writing. Her 2019 book, Aphrodite’s Pen, encourages ripe women to explore erotic writing as a joyful practice. She models this playful approach in her own fiction, including her novel, Brilliant Charming Bastard, and her story collection, The Erotic Pandemic Ball.
Stella blogs about topics of interest to women after midlife, including creativity, media representation, and finances. She draws on her background in biotechnology to write about older women’s health. Stella encourages guest blogs on her site by other Women of a Certain Age.
Stella appears on podcasts to talk about vivid life in the Queenage years. She also guest blogs for other writers. She lives with her partner in North Carolina.
Reviews
Vampires of a Certain Age moves seamlessly between sixteenth century England and the present-day USA. In its well-paced and dramatic events, we see the strength of the personal bonds between women and the persecution from authorities over time. Running throughout is the blood of life.
Stephanie Shields, Author of The Strange Woman
Delightfully fresh. Stella Fosse’s style is crisp visually as well as verbally. Ethically sourced blood is the best thing since “What We Do in the Shadows!”
Diana Wilde, Host of “Granny’s Got a Podcast!”
A brilliant twist on the vampire myth, told from a feminist perspective.
Mirinda Kossoff, Author of The Rope of Life