The “Pitch Black: Books with Bite Tour” swoops down to Borders at Redmond Town Center, 16549 NE 74th St. at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29. Authors of vampire tales for teens and tweens will read book excerpts, answer questions and offer giveaways at the free event.

The featured authors are Ellen Schreiber (“Vampire Kisses”), Nancy A. Collins (“Vamps”) and Claudia Gray (“Evernight”).

The Redmond Reporter caught up with them via phone this week.

• Schreiber’s “Vampire Kisses” series revolves around a goth girl named Raven and her enigmatic boyfriend Alexander, who live in a place called Dullsville.

Redmond’s not known as a goth town, yet isn’t feeling disenfranchised a pretty common thing for people in the target age group?

“I think it is universal,” Schreiber agreed. “At any time in our life, we can feel that way, especially the teen or tween years. You don’t necessarily have to be a goth, but maybe have different tastes, different views. You may feel like you’re not popular. I kind of felt like an outsider myself — not a goth, but I was into theatre and wore black a lot.”

She said she enjoys writing about the romantic notion of vampires, “the idea of needing someone for eternity” and believes that young female readers are drawn to that fantasy.

Some book reviewers have compared the character of Alexander to a classic “bad boy” somewhat like Hollywood icon James Dean.

“I don’t think of Alexander as a bad boy, but more mysterious, aloof, secluded,” she responded.

Johnny Depp was an inspiration for Alexander “because he tends to do characters that are different — that have an edge to them,” she explained.

A “Vampire Kisses” movie is in the options stage, Schreiber added. She’d like to see Ellen Page of “Juno” fame as Raven and perhaps Ben Barnes from the “Narnia” series in the starring roles, although it’s too early to know who’ll be cast if or when the movie materializes.

• “Vamps” is set in an all-girls, all-vampires school. “I don’t know which would be worse — all girls or all vampires,” Collins joked. “It’s modeled on exclusive girls’ prep schools in New York, kind of like Gossip Girl versus Lestat the Vampire.”

The main characters in “Vamps” are Lilith Todd, the ruthless daughter of a vampire businessman and virtuous Cally Monture, “an unexpected threat from a trash zip code.”

Such a match-up conjures thoughts of old-school Jackie Collins novels and female rivals pulling each other’s hair.

This author Collins, no relation to Jackie, said the animosity between Lilith and Cally is more in line with “The Parent Trap” — although it’d be a spoiler to say why.

She also noted what makes her modern-day vampire characters different than those of conventional folklore.

“They were not created by being bitten — they’re born this way, descendants of demons who were stranded on Earth and forced to breed with humans for survival of the species. This is a turning point in their culture — there are groups that want to go backward, stick with the old ways and those who want to co-exist (with humans),” she said.

• Claudia Gray is a pseudonym for Amy Vincent. Her book “Evernight” is set at a tony boarding school called Evernight Academy. The heroine is Bianca, who is drawn to a brooding young man named Lucas.

We asked Gray if they are vampires. She explained, “People switch teams throughout the drama. … It’s not readily known which are vampires and which are not. There are also some human students unaware of the nature of the school.”

Bianca and Lucas find themselves together in spite of some dark secrets, she added. He stands up to the popular clique and has some very admirable qualities but is also prone to temper. The two are “searching for normalcy in the midst of all this weirdness” at Evernight Academy, said Gray.

While authors of books for teens often draw from their own high school experiences, Gray said hers was totally the opposite of what’s presented in “Evernight.”

She went to the same school from grades K-12, just a block away from her home. Boarding school seemed exotic and glamorous by comparison.

“Bianca lives in both worlds,” said Gray. She’s at the boarding school because her parents have taken jobs as teachers there. But they give her a lot of independence, hoping she’ll learn how to be on her own.

Gray said that most of her readers are 16-17 years old but she’s received e-mails from people as young as 12 and as old as 40. She feels that the “young adult” book audience is growing because “after high school, people’s lives become very divergent.”

Some go to college, some join the military, some move far away, some stay in their hometown forever. The high school experience is one to which nearly everyone can relate and remember, said Gray.

Interactive information about the “Pitch Black: Books That Bite Tour” is on the Web. Visit www.harperteen-pitchblack.com/.