Were things like True Blood, Twilight, etc. part of the decision?
No. I don’t need anybody’s reaction to lead me. I mean I’ve never read [any of the Twilight] books. I’m not a very aware consumer of pop culture. Even though I write vampire books, it took a really long time for Twilight to penetrate my awareness. I can remember a long time ago having people write me emails and ask me what I thought of Twilight and I said, “What the f**k are you talking about? I have no idea.” Twilight bubbled up in my consciousness about the same time as Charlene Harris and the Sookie Stackhouse stuff, along with the True Blood show and the Twilight movie came about. It doesn’t appeal to me at all. Ultimately, I don’t like vampires that don’t kill and eat [laughs]. You either find a way to take these creatures, and if you are going to use them as your protagonists, and take them on their own terms and find a way to deal with them on their own terms and still make them a character that somebody can get behind. Otherwise, you’re just cheating. Well…okay, maybe that’s
