Perhaps more than any region, the American South is haunted by the past. Ghosts of history, of the dead, of wars and lineages, of slights to honor - all linger vividly. One reason for this is the importance of religion in the South. The belief in, and fear of, God gives rise in the South to a host of superstitions, both petty and grand; one of the strongest is the mythology of the vampire, returned from the dead to drain life from the living. All the stories in Southern Blood are set in the South, from Florida to Texas, North Carolina to Arkansas. They include: "The Cursed Damuzel, Manly Wade Wellman; "Blood Kin," Delia Sherman; "She Only Goes Out at Night," William Tenn; "The Silver Coffin," Robert Barbour John; "The Flame," Fred Chappel; "Blessed by His Dying Tongue," Tracy A. Knight; "Claim-Jumpin' Woman Got a Stake in My Heart," Esther Friesner; "Like a Pilgrim to the Shrine," Brian Hodge; "God-Less Man," James Kisner; "Carpetbagger," Susan Schwartz; "The Smell of Magnolias," Lawrence Schimel; "Carrion Comfort," Don Simmons