Not a review of "Iron Man 2"

It was going to be, but really, what's the point? It's a fun, funny, action-packed sequel to a fun, funny, action-packed original. If you liked the first, you'll like the second. Robert Downey Jr. is awesome. The end.

Today I'm going to talk about something much more urgent.

Vampires.

What is the deal with vampires? Why are we (yes, me included) currently so obsessed? I am such a 12-year-old fangirl when it comes to the "Twilight" series. (Wait. Let me be clear. I do not own any merch other than the books and movies. I do not check fan sites on a daily basis. I am not part of any group that has a name with the prefix Twi-. But I am a fan.) I also watch "The Vampire Diaries" on Thursday nights, which, frankly, is much much better than the "Twilight" series.

I never was into vamps before. I have never read a word of Ann Rice. (Is it Anne with an "e?" I don't even know.) I saw parts of "Interview With a Vampire" and "Queen of the Damned." Nothing memorable for me. Ok, I admit, I enjoyed The Count when I watched "Sesame Street," but I think that's about as far as it went for me.

I have tried again and again to figure this out. I am at a loss. Anybody out there have any ideas?

The point of me bringing this up is clearly people are into this stuff. There are like a billion and half vampire book series out now, and they are being... heh... devoured! Same goes for other supernatural things: wizards, witches, werewolves, etc. And now there's a sub-supernatural group writing hero stories based on Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology.

It's all fantasy, all the time.

And I get it; it's fun. And it's clever. I mean, this stuff has been written about for centuries so doing it now is pretty easy. The foundation has been laid.

I want to be a writer. I want to have an original idea and unique characters and a compelling story for them. But it's so HARD! Every time I think I have something, I work on it for a while, decide it sucks and then stop. I know my ideas are good, I'm just having a hard time executing them. (Maybe I need a writing partner?)

I'm not trying to say I'm too good to write about fantasy stuff. If I could think of something that nobody has done yet, I'm all over it. Young Adult, too. That genre is so mislabeled it's not even funny. Grannies are reading YA stuff at the bus stop. It would be fun to write in both of those genres.

The moral of this post is this: Writing is hard. Being original is hard. And vampires are a fun distraction.

P.S. - This is Stefan and Damon Salvatore, the vamp brothers in "The Vampire Diaries." Like I said: A fun distraction. ;)