COME INTO MY PARLOR VAMPIRE SERIES

To CroninвЂ™s mind, the center of the book is the mournful tale of an abandoned young girl named Amy, who may or may not hold the key to the salvation of the tiny sliver of mankind that survives.

When he started formulating the book, he explains, the вЂњvampire boom had not yet occurred.вЂќ agents and quasi-mystical nuns to chemically neutered pedophile janitors supervising shady government operations hundreds of feet underground. And вЂњThe PassageвЂќ is not only, or even primarily, about vampires: it spans nearly a hundred years and contains dozens of vividly voiced characters, from gruff, lonely F.B.I. He has never read any of the вЂњTwilightвЂќ books - вЂњIвЂ™m kind of not the demographic,вЂќ he says.

COME INTO MY PARLOR VAMPIRE SERIES

from the Iowa WritersвЂ™ Workshop and a PEN/Hemingway Award for his book вЂњMary and OвЂ™Neil,вЂќ a meditative novel about love and loss told in a series of short stories. And two, what do I want to do thatвЂ™s my own take on it?вЂќД¬ronin, by all appearances, is an unlikely heir to AmericaвЂ™s genre-fiction throne. One is I have to wonder why I chose that and whatвЂ™s interesting about it to me. вЂњWhen I started writing вЂThe Passage,вЂ™ вЂќ he told me recently, вЂњI said O.K., IвЂ™m going to write a story that arguably has something rather like a vampire in it. вЂњHe didnвЂ™t like to call them vampires.вЂќ Even now, years later, you can still catch Cronin wincing just a bit when you use the word. Yet when Cronin first began discussing вЂњThe PassageвЂќ with his agent, Ellen Levine, вЂњhe liked to call them вЂglowsticksвЂ™ or вЂfliers,вЂ™ вЂќ she told me. And yes, he received a very public benediction from no less a pop-literary eminence than Stephen King, who called in during an appearance by Cronin on вЂњGood Morning AmericaвЂќ to congratulate him: вЂњYou put the scare back in vampires, buddy!вЂќ Yes, that cinderblock-size apocalyptic thriller hit the best-seller lists soon after its 2010 release. Yes, Cronin originally sold that book, along with two sequels - the first of which, вЂњThe Twelve,вЂќ comes out this month - for close to $3.75 million, and the film rights for a reported $1.75 million. Justin Cronin is still a bit sensitive about the word вЂњvampire.вЂќ Yes, the supernatural bad guys in his sprawling, 766-page novel, вЂњThe PassageвЂќ - about death-row inmates infected by the United States military with a rare Bolivian jungle virus, afflicting them with superhuman strength and a lust for human blood - are recognizable as very close cousins of the fanged creatures whoвЂ™ve torn a bloody swath through American pop culture.

Come into my parlor vampire