The summer after 3rd grade I was an odd kid - well at least the other kids thought so. My idea of fun was to do research papers or reports. Now, take in mind that my dad was an elementary school teacher so I probably thought that he would be impressed or something with my studious behavior. Really though, I just loved doing them.
I remember that summer in particular because my husband and I have just started watching True Blood on DVD and I had, all those years ago, started an odd fascination with the undead. I wrote a detailed report, complete with photocopied photos, of Vlad the Impaler - or Dracula. I was transfixed on how a real person could have been turned into legend. I remember vividly reading about how he put the heads of his victims on poles leading up to his castle. How gruesome... how fascinating to a little girl living in a ticky tacky suburb house in Southern California.
I then researched, now remember I was what 7 or 8, how Dracula was portrayed in movies - leading to a somewhat unhealthy love of Bela Lugosi. There were so many "facts" about vampires - you had to be bitten three times to become one, they slept in coffins, they were romantic towards their victims (at least I thought so).
Later I devoured the Anne Rice books. Although when I saw the first film made from the series, An Interview with a Vampire, I realized that I skipped through all the gore in the book. So much so that my husband was confused because he thought I had read the book. I had, I just skipped anything with any kind of violence. Give me a sexy vampire any time, but leave out the gore (and truth be told the blood).
I come from Hungarian descent which is where my true fasincaiton with this all stems from - I always wondered if I had a little Vlad the Impaler lurking in my genetic line somewhere. Who knows, but I love a good vampire story.
