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The Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary defines vampire as such:

vam-pire n. 1. In folklore, a corpse that rises from it's grave at night to suck the blood of the living.

Kind of a bland description, don't you think? Today's vampire has taken on a wholly new meaning, often beyond any description or definition. A vampire can actually be defined any way our imagination takes us. They can be as serious as Bela Lugoisi's portrayal of Count Dracula to as mundane as the female vamp in "Razor Blade Smile or even as silly as the vampire portrayed by George Hamilton in "Love At First Bite".

Television was no exception to the cult classic, vampire genre shows. "Dark Shadows", the 1966 to 1971, and very different soap opera, took us by storm with the enigmatic Barnabas Collins. The teen raved show of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" introduced us to the vampire, Angel, who later became hero in a spin-off show. Short-lived "Kindred: the Embrace", loosely based on the White-Wolf RPG game (which I'll speak of next) was my favorite vampire induced show. Even today you can still find the vampire depicted show of "Moonlight" on Friday nights.

White Wolf took vampires a step further by developing a Role Playing Game (RPG) of "Vampire: the Masquerade", much in the genre of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). The game stepped up to LARP (Live Action Role Playing) where it gave vampires more credence by allowing the die-hard followers of vampires to live out the fantasy.

What exactly attracts us to these fantastic creatures of the night? Is it the desire to live out our own dark side? Is it the supernatural powers that vampires purportedly possess? Living for an eternity? Romance? Adventure? All of the above?

I surely can't put a finger on any one answer for myself. I would have to check the box: All of the above. I find I am truly fascinated by vampires in all aspects. I think I would miss the sun though. I love the beach and I don't look good with the ghostly pallor of a vampire, and I surely don't think there are any sunscreens out there in SPF 1000! Raybans wouldn't help much either.

Another down-side presented by White Wolf is the vampire's inability to have sex or procreate in any manner other than to embrace a child. Like Louis, in Anne Rice's "Interview With a Vampire", did to the plague ridden girl whom he named Claudia. But then that child would never grow up! Man! Wouldn't that suck!

Then there is the ever presentable problem of the vampire hunter. There are just some folks out there that

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