I, too, have always LOVED vampire stories. I roll my eyes at the Twilight groupies (the way I roll my eyes at most teenage fads :)), but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with adapting the mythology.
And to those of you complaining about the “feminization” of vampires, if you look closely at Stoker’s Dracula (yes, I have read it) the Count is the only master vamp we meet, so how do we know all vamps are like him, and not that he was just a total bastard in life, too. And about the “romance” aspect? Um, wasn’t the sexualization of the prim and proper Victorian Lady, Lucy, a major theme of the book? The connection in literature between blood, feeding, and sex has long existed. Vampire lore is no exception.
I’ve read probably half of the authors you listed (Hamilton, Harris, Butcher, Green, Harrison, Andrews, Kenyon, Moning), and each of them has their own take on the vampire mythos. (ie, Harrison’s vamps come in two varieties: living and undead, because a virus causes vampirism, and it can affect the living, too. Otherwise, her vamps are pretty classic. Hamilton’s vamps are also pretty classic, except that they are as varied as humanity, and they have to play at politics, after having been outed, in a struggle for equal rights, etc. Kenyon’s “vampire’s” are the most different (Dark-Hunters vs Daimons-turned-vamp), but still have much in common with the classic vamps: blood drinking, being killed by sunlight/decapitation.) And they are definitely NOT aimed at teenagers!
