The whole vampire chic thing passed me by. Not just the Twilight movies and the HBO series “True Blood,” either—I never got hooked on Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Series,” either. Vampires? Yuck? I think the last vampire movie I enjoyed was the Dracula remake starring Frank Langella back in 1980. And I only liked that because I worked at a movie theater in college, the Royal Park Cinemas 4 in Gainesville, Florida, and during opening weekend, many of the guys taking tickets were dressed as vampires and could get away with breathing heavily and biting pretty girls gently on the neck. HEATHER BREWER podcast excerpt: "I changed the way that I wrote when I started Book 5. Normally, I write from beginning to end. For some reason, this time, I wrote the last half of the book first. I think I was anxious to get to it. It really screwed with the way that I write." So I was surprised how quickly I devoured the first four books in Heather Brewer’s five-book young adult series, The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. Young adult novelist Heather Brewer, 'The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod' Heather and I share a literary agent, Michael Bourret, and he recommended the series. I trust him with my career so trusting his suggestions for my free time seemed reasonable. And, as usual, Michael was right. We meet Vladimir Tod in the 8th grade, a half-human, half-vampire trying to find his way in the world of middle schoolers. Having a daughter in 8th grade naturally heightened my interest, but these are damn good stories—vampires or not. Heather literally just finished the fifth and final book in the series and I look forward to hearing about that—and some other potentially explosive news her fans will enjoy. Heather Brewer • • • • •