A question for Londoners

One of my characters in my novel-in-progress is a twenty-two-year-old male, originally from London, who's been living in the U.S. for five years. Here's my question: would a young middle-class male from London use the word "bloke" to refer to a guy? I once lived in London for five weeks, but it's been a while, and I don't want my character sounding like an American's interpretation of a Londoner instead of a genuine Londoner. Granted, he's been living in the U.S. since his late-teens, so I know I can get away with some Americanisms. If you're a Londoner or familiar with speech in that area, I'd greatly appreciate your help. Thanks!

Russian and French speakers, I'll have some questions for you another time.

Best vampire TV show of all time

Last week I asked about your favorite vampire movies of all time; this week I'm switching to TV. Honestly, I've never really sought out vampire TV shows. I'm not sure why, but I tend to ignore small-screen vampire entertainment on this blog because I've never become hooked on such a show. So, I'm giving those of you with a TV favorite a chance to air your opinion. Sorry to all you Moonlight fans out there--I heard about that particular show's recent cancellation.

"Dracula's Lament"

I'm now up to 78 pages of Vampire Book #2. Woo hoo! I'm hoping to reach the 100-page mark by the end of the month. Keep in mind that sometimes it's taken me an entire year to write 100 pages, so I'm ecstatic that this book is pouring out of me so quickly.

Speaking of vampires...my sister and I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall yesterday. Generally, I'm a movie snob who loves indies and foreign films (I also saw the excellent indie Before the Devil Knows You're Dead over the weekend). But I'm a sucker for Judd Apatow comedies, and I have to say I quite enjoyed the Sarah Marshall flick. Better yet, it featured a musical Dracula puppet show. I was looking for a YouTube clip of the show and couldn't find one, but you can catch Jason Segal singing the movie's famous song "Dracula's Lament" in a bar scene here. I'm not going to bring up the fact that I've seen Dracula The Musical yet again, but I was thrilled when Mila Kunis's character shouted out "Dracula Musical!"

Are you a Guylighter?

As usual, I find the best news about vampire entertainment from novelist Marta Acosta's Vampire Wire blog. Today she posted a link to an amusing article, "Can A Man Be A Twilighter Too? One Guy’s Tale Of Being Bitten And Smitten." If you're a male who's unexpectedly found yourself immersed in a young adult vampire love story, of all things, I'm sure you'll greatly appreciate this piece--written by an MTV dude, no less. I've searched the Web seeing if anyone has yet coined the term Guylighter for male Twilighters, but I haven't found any signs of it. Therefore, I'm offering the term to the Twilight lexicon to see if it catches on.

Another site that tackles the subject: TwilightGuy.com.

Whispers Through Time by Kim Murphy

My friend Kim Murphy has a new book out: Whispers Through Time. The novel is filled with ghosts, time travel, mystery, romance, Civil War history...pretty much everything that makes a compelling page turner. I recommend it. It's the sequel to Whispers from the Grave, a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Nominee and a ForeWord Magazine 2007 Book of the Year Finalist

Vampires and romance/A buried discussion

Forty-one percent of Suburban Vampire visitors prefer vampires who've got that lovin' feeling. Here are the rankings for my most recent poll, "I prefer vampire tales with a large helping of..."

1. Romance
2. Action
3. Horror
4. Humor
5. Musical numbers
6. Mystery

I'm really surprised mysteries didn't rank higher, unless mystery fans prefer the romance part of vampire mysteries over the mystery aspect.

In lieu of a poll this week, I'm going to direct visitors back to a discussion I started last week but buried under all my posts about movie trailers and the like. What's the best vampire film of all time? Discuss here.

Sean Lennon and vampire music

When I watched the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead trailer (see here), I really liked the music. Turns out the film is being scored by Sean Lennon--yep, John's son. And the movie stars Jake Hoffman--yep, Dustin's son. Ain't It Cool News has more info, and I found the movie's official website.