I appreciate your thoughts but can’t agree with the sentiment that a vampire is whatever an author decides. If the only thing standing between Elizabeth Bennett and a vampire is that Jane Austen never called her a vampire… then words have no meaning. Imagine applying the same measure to a werewolf, and all an author need do is *call* a being a werewolf for us to accept it as such. We would never accept that Jaws or Hannibal Lecter or Luke Skywalker is a werewolf in any literal sense.