GM: What do you make of the current vampire craze? It really shows no sign of abating.

SM: It doesn’t seem to be abating. It’s one of those unanswerable questions because when you think it’s one thing, it turns out to be another. … I think in the teen world, there’s a beautiful romance about that stuff. I believe this year the Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart characters [in the "Twilight" saga] have a baby. It’s this perfect romance, this perfect ideal. Ours isn’t quite as fluffy as that … our characters and the way that Alan works is, as soon as a character has a semblance of happiness, he digs a hole for them to drive into.