Photo by Charmain Brackett Dacre Stoker signs copies of his book on Oct. 23 at the Book Stall in Aiken. It was usually around Halloween when Dacre Stoker would get the question about his last name and if he was any relation to Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula.

The answer is yes; his great-grandfather was the brother of the author. Now, the Aiken, S.C. resident has furthered his Family’s literary name by producing a sequel to his great-grand-uncle’s work.

“The whole thing took about six years,” said Stoker, whose book, Dracula: The Undead hit the book shelves on Oct. 13 and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List on Oct. 23 at number 23.

During those six years, Stoker collaborated with Ian Holt to pick up where the 1897 novel left off. Stoker poured over the notes Bram Stoker left behind and are on display at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia. He also read biographies of Bram Stoker, who was an enigmatic person, leaving his civil service job to follow a life in the theater.

The original manuscript is owned by a private collector so Dacre Stoker has never seen the original, but he has seen photographs of it which were used in the Sotheby’s auction of the manuscript several years ago.

The publication of Dracula in 1897 did not have the critics’ attention and was practically overlooked. Dacre Stoker said he has only been able to find one interview with Bram about that work. Bram Stoker died in 1912, and it wasn’t until about two decades later that Dracula’s popularity began to rise. The 1931 Bela Lugosi film plus stage versions of Dracula caused the swell of interest in the undead count from Transylvania.

At an Oct. 23 book signing in Aiken, Stoker expounded on his take of the original and his own work.

The end of Dracula leaves room for a sequel, he said.

Dracula is stabbed with a buoy knife, and his throat is slit. As the sun rises, the vampire crumbles into dust.

Earlier in the book, however, Bram Stoker laid out the only way a vampire could be killed, which included a wooden stake through the heart, the head cut off and garlic placed in the head.

Dracula: The Undead resumes the story about 25 years after the first novel ends with all of the same characters plus a few that Bram Stoker wrote outlines about but didn’t make it into the first book.

“There’s quite a body count at the end of the first book,” said Dacre Stoker. “There were no police with all the killing going on.”

Introduced into this book is a detective, which Bram Stoker had named in his notes.

Bram Stoker also put real people into his first book. An Icelandic version of Dracula is the only one known to have a preface written by Bram Stoker.

“The events in the story are true,” said Dacre Stoker in relating the preface. “They were based on people he knew. Some of it was based on Jack the Ripper.”

Dacre Stoker introduces a few characters of his own into the book who are based on real people such as Lady Bathory, a Hungarian countess and serial killer who lived in the 16th century. She may have killed as many as 600 women in 20 years and bathed in their blood to retain her youthfulness.

Mr. Stoker will be making a presentation on his book on Nov. 4 at Nancy Carson Library in North Augusta.