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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  **A GIRL'S GUIDE TO**
  
   **VAMPIRES**
  
   **By**
  
   **Katie MacAlister**
  
   **Contents**
  
  Chapter One
  
  Chapter Two
  
  Chapter Three
  
  Chapter Four
  
  Chapter Five
  
  Chapter Six
  
  Chapter Seven
  
  Chapter Eight
  
  Chapter Nine
  
  Chapter Ten
  
  Chapter Eleven
  
  Chapter Twelve
  
  Chapter Thirteen
  
  Chapter Fourteen
  
  Chapter Fifteen
  
  Chapter Sixteen
  
  Chapter Seventeen
  
  Chapter Eighteen
  
  Chapter Nineteen
  
   **Epilogue**
  
   **Joy Randall's Top 5 Tips for Vampire Hunters**
  
  1\. Location, location, location. Remember, if you wouldn't be there, neither
  would a bloodsucker. They won't be found dead (ha!) in places like discos,
  ten-minute lube shops, or Switzerland. Check the Czech Republic.
  
  2\. Trust your eyes. You know the handsome, annoyingly arrogant, self-assured
  man in the shadows with long hair and a cleft in his chin? He's your vampire.
  
  3\. No matter how tempting it might be, DO NOT "ACCIDENTALLY"
  
  ACQUIRE A PAPER CUT AND SUGGEST YOUR VAMPIRE KISS YOUR
  
  FINGER TO MAKE IT BETTER. Wha