Vampire. Vampir. Vampyre. Vampyr. Undead. Blood-sucker. Sanguinarian. Lamia. Previously living. Life-challenged. Undead. The names denoting this creature -- these creatures -- continue into every race, every nationality, and every culture. They appear in books, comic, graphic novels, songs, cartoons, televisions shows and movies. So what is the attraction of this enduring, undying, yet constantly changing myth? (And is a vampire a creature of myth?) What kernel of essential need does the figure of the vampire supply? What traits and characteristics remain constant across vampire novels, vampire stories, vampire poems, and vampire films? How do we read them, create them, interpret them, and write about them? Are vampires’ really just humans suffering from dietary restrictions as many current novels seem to imply?

Examine the vampire in novels and what do you find?

• You find a creature that still retains human form, although dead.

• It is a creature that has a truly parasitic relationship with humanity, most especially with its own family

• It drinks the blood of the living to survive -- although sometimes it also eats regular food

• It sometimes needs to be invited into ones' home

• It has rigid rules to exist by.

• It is a creature that continues to have a life (of sorts) without the need of divine (Holy of some sort) intervention

• It is usually in direct opposition with the ruling theology of whatever culture it "lives" in

• And in declining numbers, within an increasingly secular world, it is depicted as either inherently evil, or as the product of an evil action. And like all evil, it usually wears an attractive face which helps the victim to forget that a vampire is first, last, and always a predator.

It is the predator which the human lovers usually describe briefly sensing before they become attached to their vampire. They describe the fear as being almost subliminal – something they are, at the back of their minds, aware they should feel. Then they set aside the fear and allow themselves to be taken. They ignore the fact that they could easily wind up deader than the undead vampire. Life being less important than the pleasure (paranormal romance here) they get from the vampire.

This website is dedicated to exploring our ongoing relationship with vampires: things that are almost human, but not quite; almost monsters, but not quite, almost men or women, but not quite. They are malleable, changeable, undying... predators, like us.