Bloodsuckers Make Their Mark on TV, Books, Drinks

From California Chronicle

Aug. 28--Jennifer Swanson was leading a perfectly normal life before the monsters came along.

The 52-year-old Westford resident works as a marketing researcher from 9 to 5 in Cambridge. When she clocks out, she focuses all her attention on being a mom and taking care of other people.

Then Eric came along and lit a fire. The tall and handsome 1,000-year-old blond showed up in her living room one night and now Swanson is tangled in a world of vampires, telepaths and shapeshifters.

"Every Sunday at 9 o'clock, I'm glued to the TV set," says Swanson, who can't get enough of the HBO vampire series "True Blood." "The vampires on this show are incredibly sexy. They make you laugh and they make you think. They also have everything most humans dream about --eternal youth, beauty and power. And they don't stop at anything to be with the one they love."

Swanson's not the only one who's been gripped by the vampire pandemic. Unless you've been sleeping in a coffin for the past year, you probably noticed that vampires are the hottest genre around, whether they're on TV, the big screen, at the bookstore or in the drink cooler. So why are humans fiercely biting into the myth?

The vampire legend has been around for thousands of years, in almost every part of the world. With that kind of placement, UMass Lowell English Professor Bridget Marshall says the bloodletting was bound to leave a mark on pop culture.

"The vampire mythology has a few particular signs that

read on