Lefanue began writing poetry in his teens. He studied law at Trinity College, though he never practiced and refused with a call to the bar. For a guy who wrote so many books, Lefanue just wasn't concerned about his life having a narrative arc.
Carmilla is a double-whammy: an English-language vampire novel that predates Dracula by nearly three decades, and an edit from Carmen Maria Machado that both underlines the story's gay subtext and has a bit of fun with readers while doing it. Just try not to take her notes too literally and you'll be fine, probably.