Pinocchio's gunning Luckies and knocking back bourbon at the bar when the fairy with the blue hair steps in from the street wearing a sheer Day-Glo blouse and hot pants that leave little to the imagination.

The very qualities that make the traditional vampire a threat in nineteenth-century stories—particularly his or her erotic power and unconventional behavior—make the vampire appealing to twentieth-century readers.

rain / just after midnight / and the sound of / geese moving south