I met him at... some regional conference or another. I think it was at Desert Dreams. Maybe. They all start blending after a while. But yeah, he was very sweet and very animated and wearing what was quite possibly the most starched pair of jeans I've ever seen in my life.

I'm pretty sure he irons them.

Now if it was Angelus meets Melrose Place, I'd be there.

SNORLE! Heh.

Yeah, Amy, "Once Bitten?" Dude, that's the name of the first movie Jim Carrey starred in. I know, I loved it...in the 80's, when I was THIRTEEN.

Paging Jilli! What were the YA vampire novels you recommended as antidotes for the Twilight series?

Not vampires, but werewolves, I loved "Blood and Chocolate" by Annette Curtis Klause (OK, she HAS a vampire book, "The Silver Kiss", but I didn't like it nearly as much).

Also not Jilli, but I'd second Blood and Chocolate as a rather lovely coming-of-age story. (By George, the film is pants, though. Way to totally miss the point, repeatedly, film-makers.)

Whilst I found Vampire Kisses cute like woah (because it is essentially a book about Teenage!Jilli, and thus slayed me), I do think that the Twilight crowd might be more inclined to like a bigger, chewier book. Tithe, Ironside and Valiant are great books by Holly Black - urban faeries rather than vampires, but with plenty of darkness, strangeness, magic and suchlike. (And girls who have SPINES! Yay!) Cassandra Clare's City of Bone (and, one assumes, the sequels) is a cracking read, and I also enjoyed the hell out of Melissa Marr's splendid Wicked Lovely. I'll be buying the sequel as soon as it's in paperback. I also enjoyed Blue Bloods and Masquerade, by ...er, Melissa De La Cruz, iirc? Anyway, they're basically Cruel Intentions, only with vampires. (And said vampires are fallen angels, to add a little interesting twist, who are constantly being reincarnated in a fairly original fashion, but tend not to get the memories of their past lives kicking in until adolescence.)

Whilst I found Vampire Kisses cute like woah (because it is essentially a book about Teenage!Jilli, and thus slayed me)

Hee! Yeah, kinda. I'll admit I'm very grateful that Ellen Schreiber is writing them, because if *I* had written something similar, the Mary Sue -ness would be a mite terrifying.

(Edited to add: which is why I sometimes want to shake Raven about her dislike of school. No, honey! School is good! Yes, your classmates are twits, but school! Yay school! Ahem, I may have character over-identification issues, what?)

I also enjoyed Blue Bloods and Masquerade, by ...er, Melissa De La Cruz, iirc?

Really? I read Blue Bloods, and was not taken with it.

I'm partway through re-reading Vamps by Nancy A. Collins, trying to figure out if I just had a cranky day when I read it, or if I really am that meh on it. I don't want to be meh on it, because she's written some really good non YA books in the past. But ... like I said upthread, non-stop high-end fashion brand names, and the plot is kind of predictable.

REALLY? Nancy Collins?! Color me surpised. That seems a weird...turnaround. I mean, usually an author goes from the frothier stuff to the edgier stuff later.

We're talking "Sunglasses After Dark" Collins, right?

Fay mentioned a whole bunch of the books I was going to recommend for your teens, Kristin, but I'll add just a couple more: The House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast (starting with Marked ) has been very popular at my library among the Twilight crowd, as have Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy and Frostbite (first two books in a series, IIRC). I haven't read anything from either series yet, but they both look darker & edgier than the Twilight books. Both series are published as YA.

My sister's stepdaughter really liked Blue Blood. She's currently reading the Twilight series and agrees with my niece that, while it's not well-written, it is unputdownable.

When I go out there to visit next month, I'm going to bring out some Marjorie Liu vampire romances for her to read. I've gotten some good recs on her books from customers at the bookstore.