HOWEVER, I cannot believe any human would want to go on forever, trapped in a coffin all day, only to suck blood at night and perhaps have a little ice-cold sex. So I reinvented the legend. My vampires are Fausts, who pay on a day-to-day basis for hyper-extended life. They have much more latitude in their behavior and can even choose to age. They must retard the advancement of mankind by killing the few special ones in exchange for a powder they drink that, combined with human blood, greatly retards aging.

The eighteen living vampires are directed by dark angel agents of Lucifer. Their drinking of blood is a direct perversion of the blood of the covenant God made with Moses and with Jesus offering his blood for eternal life. Naturally, a set of ancient scrolls exists that give away this demonic plot, along with an apocalyptic prophesy. The book versions have been ruthlessly hunted down, but an original scroll, awaiting translation, pops up in the Princeton University rare book collection. Vampire Vincent DeVilbiss, former priest, is sent to destroy it; but he finds the place a fortress. He seeks to use a beautiful, mysterious and troubled young female librarian - and the male librarian who loves her from afar - to get to the scrolls.

My "star" vampire is also unique, because he aspires to be human again and slip his infernal chains. Most readers find themselves alternately liking and loathing this more three-dimensional monster.

Fun Facts: The two "Vs" in "Vincent DeVilbiss" are subliminal fangs. The last name can also be looked at as "devil biss": "Biss" in German means "bite."

About a year after this novel came out, I received an out-of-the-blue call from a gentleman with a Deep South accent. He claimed to be calling from New Orleans. He had just finished The Book of Common Dread and said, "It makes Anne Rice's vampire novels look like shee-yit." I begged to differ, saying that we had used the legend for widely divergent reasons (I have spoken with her biographer, Katherine Ramsland, who used to live not too far from me and believe I understand quite clearly the impetus behind Ms. Rice's works). The caller further stated that, "I had to confess how I felt; but I won't tell you who I am, because I'm a close personal friend and I love her parties too much to become persona non grata." Strange. Oh, I've had much wackier unexpected calls than that one! I also had somebody call and claim to be vampire, and said that he wished that vampires really were like I had written.