Quite a few books starring vampires live on my bookshelves. Anita Blake, the heroine of Laurell K. Hamilton’s series, loves a vampire named Jean-Claude and a werewolf named Richard. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher features vampires from the Red Court, the Black Court and the White Court. Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty series stars a shapeshifter while a few vampires make appearances, too. A number of authors, including Maggie Shayne and Charlaine Harris, combine love and mystery with a healthy (unhealthy?) dose of the undead. And of course, Ann Rice’s Vampire Chronicles are classics.

On television, I still miss the recently cancelled Moonlight, which I understand is to be repeated in the near future on Sci-Fi Channel. Lots of us watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, both series featuring Angel, the vampire with a soul, and Spike, a not-so-nice vampire we loved anyway, as well as a host of others.  Forever Knight, a cop drama with a vampire on the night shift trying to atone for his un-life and yearning to become human, was a favorite of mine back in the day. TV’s love of vampires goes back to the daytime drama Dark Shadows, at least in my memory. I’m sure there were other such programs in television’s early years.

Nowadays, the Winchester brothers in Supernatural have been known to stake a few vampires, among other things that go bump in the night. And HBO’s new series (based on books written by Charlaine Harris with protagonist Sookie Stackhouse) True Blood captures new fans each and every week.

At the movies, who can forget Interview With the Vampire, a hit for Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt? Or the classics with Bela Lugosi? There are too many movies to mention, including parodies made famous by George Hamilton and Leslie Nielsen.

Now we have the latest vampire phenomenon, a series of books beginning with Twilight and written by novice author Stephenie Meyer. The movie from the first book, released last weekend and starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, grossed nearly $70 million in its first weekend, almost twice what it cost to make. Summit Entertainment immediately announced plans to film New Moon, the second book in the series.

What’s the fascination with vampires? No matter the medium, vampires draw attention, keeping their secrets in the midst of human communities, whether they be the villain of the tale or an anti-hero like Edward Cullen in Twilight. Even in the two Twilights – both of which, unfortunately, move too slowly and left me wishing for something other than what they are –vampires enthrall readers and moviegoers.

A quick study on Wikipedia shows the vampire phenomenon began long ago, probably with the story of Vlad III, born in Transylvania and the ruler of Wallachia (a region of Romania) from 1456 to 1462. Vlad was known as Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. He killed tens of thousands of people, impaling most on a sharp pole, with some accounts saying his victims included up to 100,000 Turkish Muslims. At the time Romania was fighting off an invasion from Turkey, and Vlad was a folk hero to many Romanians.

The name Dracula means son of Dracul. That term is the title given to Vlad II by a secret order of knights known as the Order of the Dragon, an order that vowed to uphold Christianity and defend Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire from the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and as ruler of Wallachia, his coins bore the dragon symbol.

Many stories have used the Dracula theme, including an 1819 short story by John Polidori, The Vampyre, and an 1871 story, Carmilla, by Sheridan Le Fanu. Then Bram Stoker, in his research of Romanian history, found the name and used it for his villain in his 1897 novel of the same name. The rest, as they say, is history.

The vampire quickly bewitched his way into mainstream literature, spawning discussions in every medium, college classes and websites. The undead remain, to the delight and horror of millions of readers, moviegoers and television fanatics, promising to lure each of us into their spell. I consider myself under such a spell, so vampire novels will continue to appear on my bookshelves. I just can’t help myself!

My local theater must be going broke about now – I haven’t been to many movies in recent months. Quite a change for this film fanatic who used to boast about going to at least four movies in a weekend. A favorite memory is the Saturday I managed to see four movies. Of course, I can’t remember what they were, and I’m sure my body would never let me accomplish that feat again.

According to my calendar, I’ve been to five movies since August 31, and rented four others. That’s a new record for me, folks. And I’m having a bit of difficulty wrapping my mind around the fact.

The problem in recent months is a dearth of decent flicks. The word ‘decent’ is relative, of course. I’ve been prattling on about all these trailers I’ve seen and how excited I was to see this or that film. And I don’t really have any excuse for not seeing those films. I’ve just decided not to go to the theater. Whether it was a critic’s poor review, something else planned for the weekend, a good book or plenty on the DVR, or simply a desire to stay home, my trips to the movies have become few and far between.

Ah, I hear a question. What were the five movies that managed to capture my attention? Traitor, Righteous Kill, Nights in Rodanthe, The Duchess and The Secret Life of Bees. I would recommend four of the five. (Skip Righteous Kill.) Take tissues for Rodanthe, The Duchess and Life of Bees.

I enjoyed the quiet and character-driven Secret Life of Bees. It stars Dakota Fanning, an excellent actress at any age, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo and Paul Bettany. The story, set in South Carolina in 1964, focuses on young Lily (Fanning), after she and Rosaleen (Hudson) run away from home. They end up on the doorstep of the Boatwright sisters. Eldest sister August (Latifah) manages a successful honey farm, cynical June (Keys) is a cellist and civil rights activist, and tender-hearted May (Okonedo, the heart of the film) tears up at the mention of anything sad. How these five women become a family, and what Lily learns about her mother, takes the moviegoer on a bittersweet journey of discovery and loss. The movie is well worth the viewing.

While I may not be going to many movies, a couple of blogs keep me up-to-date: The Movie Blog contains posts on upcoming releases, what’s going on in the industry and some reviews. Roger Ebert’s reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times are enlightening, as I tend to agree with him on most movies. Although, of course, he’s much more of an expert and a much better writer than I am. He also has a blog, Roger Ebert’s Journal, which I find extremely interesting and well written. Don’t skip reading the comments, too.

In Ebert’s words: “I started this blog in May, and it has enriched my life. I have been astonished by the high quality of the comments received. I have also been educated, amused, moved, corrected, encouraged.”

Talking movies is nearly as good as seeing one, in my opinion. Maybe reading about them has taken the place of viewing. I’ll let you know.

As far as I’m concerned, gardening is hard work!

My garden area is between the house and the sidewalk to the front door, and it’s always been a sore spot. When I first moved in, it looked like a jungle. I finally cleared it out, and then the grass took over.

There’s a beautiful Japanese maple that keeps getting better every year near the front window. A huge hosta huddled next to the house, and it just kept getting larger. Two sedems also managed to survive the jungle, and they too were huge, leggy and unmanageable. All three plants were constantly being hit by the lawn mower, as we tried to keep the grass under control.

So after more years than I care to count, I decided something needed to be done. My sister volunteered to help (I’m sure she regretted that offer at some point during our adventure), and we set a date.

That Saturday morning, I headed to the garden supply store and bought mulch. Soon the bags were stacked in the garage, and I was trimming back the sedems and the hosta.

When Mary arrived with her two youngsters and a set of garden tools, we got down to business. Within an hour, the three plants were dug out, setting on another section of lawn, and a large section of sod was gone.

There were, of course, problems from the get go. Neither of us thought about how wet it had been recently, so we had mounds of mud to contend with, and the soil was much more clay than dirt. Both factors made digging difficult. Mary took it as a personal challenge and declared she was going to kick that grass to the curb before she was finished.

And she did.

About four hours later, Mary was dividing the hosta into eight pieces, and the two sedems into three each. I tried to envision the plants in full summer green, and pointed to spots I thought would work. (The placement is marked on the photograph at the end of this post.) We dropped in the divided plants, pushed the muddy clay around the roots, with our hopes high that they would all survive.

Once the 14 transplants were in the ground, the mulching began. I tried to be dainty (hah!) about it, raking carefully. Mary soon convinced me the only way to garden and mulch was down on my knees, close to the ground, pushing those cedar chips around. My 10 bags of mulch didn’t last long, but we put it down around the plants. My Sunday task was to find more mulch, and finish around the maple. (I added another six bags of mulch!)

After a great deal of effort, we had eight bags of sod at the curb for the city to pick up Monday morning. A neighbor gave me recyclable bags so it all went to the city compost pile. The bags were so heavy, we placed each on an empty plastic mulch bag and dragged it to the curb, a task that took both of us to accomplish. Whew!

Then it was cleanup time. What a mess! It may take me a while to get that sidewalk clean, but it was definitely worth it.

My niece Maura wanted to help with it all, and she did – bringing us water and watching her little brother. My nephew Thomas was fascinated by the earthworms, and more than a few glasses of water had to be thrown out after the worms were given baths. It was fun to spend time with Mary, Maura and Thomas. I’m not physically able to do as much in the garden as others, so Mary did the lion’s share of the work, for which I am eternally grateful.

Do you have any suggestions for my hosta/sedem garden? Any tips for a non-gardener? How do I keep it user friendly?

On this long Saturday, I learned a few things. One, my sister Mary is amazing!

Two, I learned that I am definitely not a gardener. Mary and her husband Mike, our sister Tricia and her husband Mike (who has a degree in horticulture, and they have always had great outside gardens and lots of indoor plants) are the gardeners in the family. I’ll stick to my few house plants, thank you very much!