My husband just does not understand why I love to read and write. In his eyes I am wasting time, wasting my life away. He has never been able to comprehend how much life I find through reading and writing. I don’t read or write to simply pass the time when I am bored, it is something I actually look forward to and work to make time for in my crazy schedule. Reading and writing are a passion for me because it gives me something I need to stay sane and positive in a world that is often times cruel and unjust, it gives me an escape.

Like many people I have faced hard times in my life, some of which I am facing now. I have faced abuse, ridicule, and loss so I needed something to help me get through the negative times, something to make me smile through my pain. The first place I found that escape was reading. When reading or writing a truly great story, I become completely engrossed in the world and characters of the story. This means that for a brief time I am not worrying about my troubles, or why I was sad about my own situation. Instead, I find myself thinking about the characters and what they are going through; the love they have found, their heartbreak, their losses, and their wins are distractions that help ease my own circumstances.

I am not saying that the way to deal with all of life’s struggles is to put them on the back burner and live vicariously through the lives of fictional characters, but I am saying that making that occasional escape into another world can be refreshing. It can help ease your sorrows if only for a short time and give you the chance to escape to a happier place and come back to your reality with a fresh mind and cooler head.

I love most things paranormal, but throw in romance and you have really caught my attention. However, there is one paranormal creature that rises above all of the rest…Vampires.

Vampires intrigue us and capture our attention like no other creature. We can see that clearly in media, movies, and books. Vampire stories are written, re-written, and recreated over and over and our love for them never sways. We love them evil, full of gore, fear, blood, and pain, but we also love when they sparkle and fight against evil, eating animals to save human lives.

Obviously, I cannot speak for every person who loves vampires like I do, but for me it is that bad side that really draws me in. Regardless of what vampire story or movie you are looking at they are have one thing in common, that the vampire instinct is evil and the urge to drink blood and kill is incredibly strong. Keeping that in mind, the idea that a vampire would fight to resist their strong animalistic urges for the love of a human or humankind, is something I just cannot resist.

I want the vampire to have bad moments, to fall off the wagon occasionally and come close to losing themselves to that blood lust, that draw to the dark side. Then to see them remember the ones they care about in a flash and pull themselves back from the brink of murder, of turning into an evil bloodthirsty creature, to me that is the ultimate fantasy, the ultimate love story. Who does not want to imagine someone who could love them so much they would turn their lives around for the better to prove that love? Vampires are the ultimate representation of that, and for that reason, I truly believe they will live on in love stories for many more years to come.