"The Girl on the Bench in the Rain" by K. Winters Is a story about a type of vampire, And it’s a story about trust. But most of all, It’s a story about love. I've often found a level of disappointment in classical literature labeled as gothic horror in that all the main characters are doomed from the beginning. The reader knows they are going to die. If fact, they are already dead, or un-dead. And yet they were once human, they once loved, but they succumbed to a overwhelming desire for power over others. And that consumed them. In my world, I wanted to explore the myth from a more human perspective, and thus I discovered an old world term 'Dhampir', or half-breed. It was also a way to indirectly explore issues that complicate life today, in modern America: ethnic mixing. I only scratch the surface but it still intrigues me. The Dhampir in the story (an ancient Romanian word for a vampire halfling) is a kinder and gentler version of the traditional vampire character, yet still capable of extraordinary feats of strength and agility. The Dhampir is less the monster found in classic literature and more human, of which all of them are, mostly. This conceptual change emphasizes the human qualities of the vampire myth with all the frailties and foibles that are associated with being human. Yes, it's a book about vampires. But I wanted to offer a new spin to the age-old vampire myth and explore the romance and adventure of this experience from a human perspective.