Um..

I don't think there's a limit to ideas - whether the idea be about vampires, werewolves, royalty, or just plain normal people.

I can't speak for everyone, just myself, of course. But, for me, it's not the "new age vampires" that "drive me wild." It's the stories. It's the way they're written. It's the characters and situations. I can relate to Rose completely, and yet, at the same time, she is so other-worldly and mystical that I can't even touch her on the relatability. If Rachelle had written the same story, only instead of vampires, her characters had been werewolves, I'd still read it and love it just as much. I love Amelia At-Water Rhodes' shape-shifters, and Meg Cabbot's ghosts, and R.A. Salavator's elves. Not because they are shape-shifter, ghosts, and elves, but because the authors have made them human, given them human problems, and still kept the mystical aspects there.

The supernatural has always been popular. Zombies, wizards, vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, angels, demons, god, ghosts, dragons, ectect. They've all had their "turn in the spotlight" so to speak. Now, it just happens to be vampires.

Like any other fictional book, it drives us into a world that we wish existed and we want to keep up with.

Right now it's vampires that we all seem to want to connect with. Big deal. A few years ago everyone was crazy for wizards. In a few years, people will be crazy for something else.

These stories just seem to give people hope that some of the things involved in these stories (mainly the true love romance portion) can actually happen. Also, most of these stories have some kind of humanizing part to them. Not so much Twilight, and I haven't read Vampire Diaries, but with Vampire Academy Rose loves, loses, gains, etc. There is a human state of mind that puts us on the straight path to relate to her. I don't think it's so much the vampires as it is the stories and traits that go with them.

There's also the part of immortality that most vampires seem to have. Most people don't look forward to death and wish to live on forever. This gives them a chance to become the character in the book and see people who actually can live forever.

Hope this answered your questions.

P.S. they did have vampire baseball in Twilight in case you missed that. ;)

I honestly think anything other than the paranormal is boring. I think writers can do so much wit the paranormal, make up their own rules that it is so much more enjoyable to read. and apparently since vamps/shifters have been done quite a bit authors are doing some new things lately.