Douglas Clegg is an award-winning horror writer who has achieved remarkable visibility through tireless promotional efforts. Now he is embarking on an ambitious vampire trilogy called The Vampyricon, for which Ginjer Buchanan at Berkley/Ace just shelled out six figures at auction. Agent Simon Lipskar at Writers House, who made the sale, describes the new series as "Anne Rice Meets the Arthurian Legends," and says they are set in medieval France and the Mideast at the time of the Crusades. The first of the trilogy, The Throne of Blood, will be out in hardcover in October next year.