Expertise:  I am volunteering to answer questions about real vampires because I myself am a real vampire. I can tell you about the real vampire community--who we are, what we do, what makes a vampire. While I am part of a more energy-driven vampire group, I am also familiar with true crime and historical figures where otherwise normal folks took the blood-drinking vampire a little too seriously.

Experience in the area
I have been a leader and a teacher in the vampire community for more than 25 years. Here is a little of what I have learned. You will not be made an immortal. You will not grow overlarge canine teeth (fangs). You do not need to sleep in a coffin (unless you want to). You're not going to suddenly possess any kind of super powers, unless you count the ability to play with energy which in and of itself might be considered a super power. You're not going to be immune from disease, although you may find yourself becoming a stronger person physically as well as mentally. You may experience a dramatic increase in confidence. You may come to understand how thought becomes deed in very real terms. I am vampire. I kneel before no other creature. I am an intelligent animal who has retained my animal intelligence. This flesh of mine is a gift in which I revel, but my lot in the convoluted universal matrix is to exist as a creature of energy. I thrive on the energy of the cosmos around me. That energy exists in many forms. It exists in lifeblood, in psychic forces, in the angry hurling of lightning bolts from cloud to cloud. This diversity manifests on the earth in the many different and legitimate breeds of vampire which share the world with mortal humans. Knowing my lineage, I seek to mate my personal energy with that of magic and nature as a vital part of my existence. As a vampire, I am a natural being part of the natural universe. I am not confined to this plane or this dimension. I am a cosmic being of fluctuating energy. The matter that makes my flesh and flows through my body drifted down from the stars. My sight and my vision are necessarily wider and broader. Life, death, what are these to me? They dance as close as hungry lovers. This is no two-sided mortal coin but one great continuum. The impetus of eternity is the power of the vampire. I claim that power for myself.

Organizations
Order of Maidenfear

Education/Credentials
BA, Haverford College MS Clinical Psychology, University of Maryland