About The Dark Heaven
My fascination with The Vampire Chronicles began in 1994 after watching the movie Interview with the Vampire. I became captivated by Louis, and as I delved into the novels, I found myself falling deeply in love with both him and the world of the vampires. I often daydreamed about them and even encountered them in my dreams.
The inspiration to create this site came from the movie Queen of the Damned. Although it differed significantly from the original novel, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it despite the less-than-ideal portrayal of the characters. Afterward, I read Queen of the Damned, which became my third favorite novel in the series. In 2002, I decided to write fanfiction inspired by the books and published it online, naming the site The Dark Heaven.
At that time, many well-designed and content-rich websites dedicated to The Vampire Chronicles existed. Motivated by their quality, I worked hard on The Dark Heaven, teaching myself website design and coding while enriching the site with information about the movies, novels, and characters. Additionally, I created sub-sites such as The Vampire Coven, The Vampire Coven Topsites, The Vampire Coven Banner Exchange, and The Vampire Coven Online Resource Centre.
Unfortunately, on December 25, 2008, The Dark Heaven was hacked—a most unwelcome Christmas surprise! Lacking an up-to-date backup, I spent considerable time cleaning the files. Eventually, I decided to completely overhaul the site, not only redesigning it but also moving away from iframes and rebuilding it with PHP.
By 2009, I had completed the redesign and basic PHP integration. However, enriching the content proved to be a time-consuming task. I reopened The Dark Heaven with plans to continue adding content over time. Most of the sub-sites were also restored, except for The Vampire Coven Topsites, as I couldn’t find a suitable script for it.
In 2015, I transitioned The Vampire Coven Online Resource Centre from WordPress to Piwigo. However, due to challenges in maintaining the script over the years, the site was almost abandoned and is now slated for closure. I may integrate its resources into The Dark Heaven in the future.
In 2019, I discovered that WordPress could be used for website building with good results. At the same time, the PHP SiteSkin script I had been using was becoming outdated. This prompted me to begin another revamp of all my sites.
I decided to close The Vampire Coven Banner Exchange and The Vampire Coven, the latter previously serving as a fanlisting for Anne Rice’s vampires. Their content has since been merged into The Dark Heaven. I may create new sites dedicated to Anne Rice in the future if I find suitable scripts to support them.
In recent years, I’ve noticed that many of the once vibrant and beautifully designed websites dedicated to The Vampire Chronicles have disappeared. This realization strengthened my resolve to keep The Dark Heaven alive as a tribute to these beloved stories.
