Ve vant to read your vampire stories
Not to panic or anything, but ...
Vampires! They're everywhere!
On TV. At the movies. On the shelves at local bookstores. Not since the days of Count Chocula and Count von Count of "Sesame Street" have bloodsuckers of the two-legged kind been so darned ubiquitous in pop culture.
Still, we're sensing something in the air: The dank, fetid, unmistakable aroma of overexposure. And before this whole vampire craze bottoms out completely, we're gonna milk it one last time.
After all, why should Charlaine Harris (of Sookie Stackhouse/"True Blood" fame) and Stephenie Meyer (the "Twilight" novels) be the only ones to cash in on the undead?
So here's the deal: We'd like to hear the best, scariest, creepiest, funniest or hottest Las Vegas-based vampire story you can create.
A story about an annoying Midwestern vampire family that visits Las Vegas once a year to sate their bloodlust? Sounds good. The tale of a vampire trout that preys on unsuspecting fishermen at Lake Mead? Cool. The adventures of a vampire showgirl? We are sooo there.
You get the idea. Just remember that we're looking for original, crafted-from-deep-within-the-bowels-of-your-own-brain stories here, not retellings of stories, TV shows or movies you've seen or read somewhere else. (In fact, plagiarized entries will be disposed of immediately via an ingenious little wooden stake that bursts into flame.)
Keep your stories to 500 words and send them to: VampireFest '09, Las Vegas Review-Journal Features Department, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125-0070.
Or, if you'd like, just e-mail them to jprzybys@reviewjournal.com. (Put VampireFest in the subject line.) Or fax them to 383-4676.
Make sure we have your story by 5 p.m. Oct. 8. We'll peruse the entries and share a few of them with readers in the Oct. 25 Living section and online, just in time for Halloween.
We'll even award the winner a $100 prize -- think of all the Halloween candy corn that'll buy -- and the usual bragging rights.
Now, if you'll excuse us, we're starting work on this steampunk/superhero/dinosaur story. We figure that's going to be the next big trend, and we want in early ...
