Even though October is typically the month where the creepies comes out to play, one of the ghouls of the Halloween season seems to be experiencing a surge in popularity.

Vampires!

And this isn’t the old school “I Vant To Suck Your Blood” Dracula.  No, these new school vampires are sexy and sensual and showing up all over the place.

The “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer is being read by everybody (probably mainly a female audience though).  Technically the books are classified as being for the teen audience but that hasn’t stopped people from all ages embracing the story of the Cullen family/coven of vampires.  The 4th book in the series, “Breaking Dawn”, was released this summer and people chose to hold midnight parties at bookstores to pick up their copies.

Meyer’s script for ‘Midnight Sun’, the 5th book in the series,  was recently leaked on the Internet.  The story was to be about the series of events from the character Edward’s point of view.  She posted the manuscript on her website, along with the message that the leak has upset her to the point of putting that novel on hold indefinitely.

The series is being turned into a feature film, scheduled for release on November 21.  The film is full of “up-and-coming” actors and fans of the series all seem to be wildly torn between loving or hating the casting decisions.  More than 5000 actors auditioned for the role of Edward and if this film is a box office success the actors really have the chance to break into the Hollywood big time.

This Sunday, HBO launches their new series “True Blood“.  Marketed under the tag line of “Thou Shalt Not Crave Thy Neighbor”, the series is set in Louisiana and portrays vampires trying to live amongst regular society now that their blood needs are filled by a new synthetic blood product.  The series stars Anna Paquin, a human who has a “gift” for hearing others thoughts and falls in love with a vampire.

Series creator Alan Ball was inspired by the books in the ‘Southern Vampires Mysteries’ series by Charlaine Harris after stumbling across the first book while browsing in a bookstore.  He felt it would be a disservice to her work if they were condensed into a 2 hour movie, thus the development of the 12-episode first season.

The viral marketing for this series has taken all angles, from web banners to comic books to full websites that feature beer-like commercials for a canned blood product.  You can even find out what type of blood you should be drinking.

The blood is rushing and the vampires emerging, who’s ready to join a coven?

Jill blogs at GlossyVeneer where she rambles on and reviews things in her daily life.  She also writes at JillWillRun, as she trains for a marathon raising money for cancer research.