Dacre Stoker is the executive director of the Aiken County Open Land Trust, a fly fishing instructor and a volunteer at the Aiken County Sheriff's Department.

He's also heir to a blood-sucking literary tradition.

Mr. Stoker, 49, is a great-grand-nephew of Bram Stoker, the Irish author who introduced the world to Dracula in 1897.

He's continuing the Stoker literary legacy with The Un-Dead, a sequel to Dracula that he has written with Ian Holt. The book has been endorsed by the Stoker estate, and plans are in the works to turn the as-yet unpublished book into a film.

Dracula is Bram Stoker's best-known work, but it did not become wildly popular until 20 years after his death, when it was made into a film in 1931 with Bela Lugosi in the title role.

Dacre Stoker grew up in Canada. In 1979, while in college, he picked up Dracula for the first time.

"I was surprised that this old story was a 'page turner' and fairly fast-paced," he said.

He wrote a paper about his great-grand-uncle and his possible motivations for writing the novel.

"I had seen so many film versions of Dracula and very few had any resemblance to Bram's original novel. ... I found it really sad that all the trash Hollywood had put out had really sullied Bram's and the family's literary legacy," he said.

Several years ago, Mr. Stoker met Mr. Holt through a mutual friend.

"Ian's story ideas for a sequel to Bram's work really sparked a lot of those old feelings I had when I did my college paper. Ian and I decided to work together to re-establish the Stoker lineage ... by resurrecting Bram's original themes and characters," he said.

Mr. Holt, 36, has been fascinated with Dracula since he was a child.

His quest to know Dracula has taken him to Transylvania, to sleep in the ruins of the castle and stand at the spot where Vlad the Impaler, the real-life inspiration for Dracula, would have watched the executions of his foes.

He said he has actively pursued the opportunity to write a sequel for a decade.

"Writer of the sequel to Dracula, that's the epitaph I've always wanted," he said.

The sequel is set about 25 years after the first novel ends.

More than 600 pages of the original novel were edited from the final work. Mr. Stoker and his wife, Jenne, visited the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia where Bram Stoker's original, handwritten notes were on display. The North American branch of the Stoker family has an autographed copy of the original novel.

Mr. Stoker said those items plus some private family papers were used to complete the sequel, which has Bram Stoker's original title, The Un-Dead.

"Believe me when I say we and Bram have some real big surprises for the fans - plot twists and characters that have been hidden from the public since 1897," he said.