Vampires should be sexy, intelligent, and creative .

Keeping up with my vampires has been and will continue to be an educational experiance. While polishing up the first one, I have begun the second ( which was a suggestion by an agent blog). The other suggestion that I follow is to get the story out there first. The original draft of Ceiling does not bear much resemblance to what exists today. I suspect that the final draft will be even a little different from the current one. But I know where I am going and it makes the writing better. No plans for more kids in the second for this duo, this is basically Henri and Arina together without Jean Paul to oversee. There were hints in Ceiling that Henri and Jean Paul had quarreled before Ceiling , and I intend in the second one to bring in some of where Henri was during the time apart. This will develop his character a little more deeply than the baby beef cakes with dimples /good husband and dad mode that was prevalent in Ceiling. There are unresolved issues from Ceiling that will bleed over into the WIP. Where Ceiling was largely about Arina's transition through her Change , the raising of their kids, and their development as a couple as they established a rhythm in their relationship,the society in which they live, the second one deals with perceptions of those outside their immediate world as they help to relocate the Colony from one coast to another. I definately want to do more with Rosie and Joshua who came in late to Ceiling -like  Henri and Ariana , their kids are grown and there is nothing to hold them in New England. From the very beginning, these stories were always intended to be a series.
I just recently started reading one of the Vampire Babylon series, Night Falls. Love the writing , hate the vampires. Its better , I think than the much touted Empire, which I just could not get through .( Lorelei, you are a better woman than I for finishing it- I hated the vamps in it so much that I had to stop.) . I like my vampires evolving, intelligent and not guilty about who they are. I don't believe that Human is necessarily the most desireable existence .
I don't hate everyone else's vamps - I like JR Ward, Christine Feehan and love Chelsea Quinn Yarboro. I am currently getting through the True Blood  dvd series from the library here - and may try some of the books after the fact. I don't find Bill particularly attractive and the camp is annoying.
But , I don't hate it. I loved the Buffy movie - hated the tv series except for Spike and Darla . I liked Julie Bentz well enough to follow her over to Dexter where she was his wife through season four(I think). (I only did that for one other actor and that was baby beef cakes ,Julian McMahon. He started off in Profiler and later went to Charmed. ) Cole Turner can be the " source of all evil "in my apartment anytime. All the demons were better looking than the good guys in that series. Everytime that it was announced that someone would not be back- I kept hoping that it would be Leo. He was a perennial wet blanket.