title: Blood Lust: Conversations With Real Vampires
author:  Carol Page 
description: A survey of honest-to-goodness human bloodsuckers that manages to buffer sensationalism with sympathy. Through historical research, anecdotes, and interviews, free- lance journalist Page (Cosmopolitan, Omni, etc.) celebrates ``the decade of the vampire'' and the impact of the vampire image on popular culture from cereal shapes, novels, movies, and fashions to rock music, pornography, and political cartoons. While admitting that the vampire mystique is ``about sex and power,'' she tries to debunk the myth by portraying her subjects as needy and lonely souls whose craving for blood or obsession with those who crave it are not much different from such other emotional maladies as manic- depression or eating disorders. Among her subjects: a gay vampire who ``drinks other people's blood to get to know and understand them better''; a vampire hunter who claims to be a distant grandson of Lord Byron; and a young man convicted of murdering a woman whom he perceived to be his blood-sucking grandmother. Without getting too mired in theories or details, Page also discusses African blood-drinking rituals, a London ``Dracula Society'' that stages a ``Hunt-A-Vampire Weekend,'' the influence of the 60's soap opera Dark Shadows, and a Fox-TV vampire special in which facts apparently were egregiously fudged. She also draws a hilarious comparison between Vlad Tepes--the infamous Romanian prince on whom Bram Stoker's Dracula is supposedly based--and Romania's toppled dictator Ceausescu. Avoiding the lurid gush of Norine Dresser's American Vampires (1989), Page entertains, informs, and even inspires the cause for ``Vampire's Rights'' without draining too much out of us. -- <i>Copyright 1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</i>
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  The Harlequin
  
  Laurell K Hamilton
  
  To Jonathon, who never freaks about my choice of research. He took away my
  serial killer books, at my request. When I was ready he gave them back. He's
  helping me understand that just because someone else thinks you're a monster
  doesn't mean you are. Even if that person says they love you. Here's to
  finding love that builds you up, instead of breaking you down.
  
  MALCOLM, THE HEAD of the Church of Eternal Life, the vampire church, sat
  across from me. Malcolm had never been in my office be fore. In fact, the last
  time I'd seen him, he'd accused me of doing black magic and being a whore. I'd
  also killed one of his members on church grounds, in front of him and the rest
  of his congregation. The dead vamp had been a serial killer. I'd had a court
  order of execution, but still, it hadn't made Malcolm and me buddies.
  
  I sat behind my desk, sipping coffee from my newest Christmas-themed mug: a
  little girl sat on Santa's lap saying