“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.”—Princess Irulan in Frank Herbert’s Dune
When it comes to writing the opening passages of my works, I recall the above quotation and heed its advice—usually to my agony. But when those first few tortured sentences finally seamlessly resolve to set the scene for the story to come, I know it from my ecstasy. Thus, I offer, for your consideration, the beginning of Chapter I of Dracula/Harker: A Gay Gothic Romance—Part II.
Welcome to my agony and ecstasy:
Jonathan Harker’s Diary (written in shorthand)
August 8th
I awoke in the small bed of a dawn-greyed guest room, alarmed upon feeling the nightlong dream of losing myself in a living shadow’s loving embrace slip away—until my grasping fingers gripped the broad, muscled back of the man lying atop me, his utter nakedness pressed unabashedly to mine, his bearded face pillowed on my smooth chest, his mere presence all I could ever desire. Though the sight of him made me heedless of the early hour, the strange place, and our doubtless precarious circumstance, panic still struck when I suddenly feared my ring finger as bare as the rest of me. Raising my hand before my face, I turned it in the wan light to reassure myself of the Count’s enduring claim over both my body and soul. But then, as before, the man himself fulfilled me when I looked down to see his half-lidded eyes gazing up at me from atop my pale breast. Impulsively, I combed splayed fingers through his thick mane of long hair, drew his whiskered, ruddy lips up to mine—the heft of his manhood trailing upward along my exposed thigh—and kissed him long and deep. When at last our gasping lips parted, I beheld his long-lashed eyes lowered in beatific repose and, seeing my avenging guardian angel finally at peace in my arms, never loved him more.
(Copyright © 2025 Mark Zidzik. All rights reserved.)
"Dracula/Harker: A Gay Gothic Romance Inspired by Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'" by Mark Zidzik 