Paul Voodini

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Author Paul Voodini

Biography

Paul Voodini was born in the city of Sheffield in the north of England in the year 1964, in a convent run by the Sisters of Mercy (the nuns not the Goth rock band, sadly). Quite why his parents deemed it necessary for him to be delivered in a convent has never been satisfactorily explained, although, given all that was to later transpire, perhaps they knew more than they were letting on. On the night of Paul's birth a snowstorm was raging, and to this day Paul's favourite weather continues to be 'snowing', a fact that outrages the cheery sun-worshippers that he encounters.

As a child, Paul became obsessed with science fiction movies, super-hero comics, and the Victorian horrors and melodramas such as Dracula and Frankenstein. A reclusive child with few friends, Paul allowed his imagination to wander and flourish, much to the dismay of parents and teachers who chastised him on a regular basis for being a day-dreamer of Olympic standard. Paul is a Pisces. Those who know about these things will understand.

In his teenage years, Paul discovered the work of Ray Bradbury and quickly became immersed in this great writer's world of carnivals, ghost-trains, sideshow freaks, and dystopian futures. Frequent bus trips to the local library fed this appetite (this was, after all, pre-internet), and books such as Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Halloween Tree remain firm favourites.

With these obsessions and influences, little wonder then that Paul was drawn as an adult into the murky world of the stage magician, and for many years Paul worked professionally as a mind-reader and hypnotist. In this environment, Paul discovered that his wild imagination was a distinct advantage, and allowed him to dream up (one could say conjure up) new presentations, new angles, and new performance styles for magic shows. He began writing manuscripts and instructional booklets for other performers, outlining his somewhat unique perspectives and ideas. These became very popular within the magic world, most especially in the subset of magic occupied by mysterious mind-readers and pseudo-psychics. Thanks to these instructional manuscripts, Paul has been lucky enough to have been invited to lecture all over Europe, the USA, and, of course, his native Britain.

But fantastical novels and short stories have always been Paul's first love, and the desire to write books of a wondrous and horrific nature was too strong to resist for long. During a three hour car journey back home from a magic conference, a young vampire girl from Victorian London popped up in the back of Paul's car (his poor, despairing parents had been right, his ability to day-dream is incorrigible), and throughout the journey this phantom recounted tales from an alternative reality where vampires had once been real, and had prowled the cobble-stoned streets of Britain's capital city. Now focusing all of his energy on producing literature, Paul continues to live in the city of Sheffield, from where he patiently awaits the arrival of snow while his fevered imagination continues to chronicle the stories of the vampire girls of Victorian London, told to him on that fateful car journey.

Paul has two teenage children from a previous marriage who, Paul is happy to observe, appear to share his love for super-heroes, vampires, and the 'night-side' of life. After all, if one cannot brainwash one's own children, who can one brainwash?

Bibliography

Dolly Biters - The Vampire Girls Of Victorian London