We’re straying from Twilight for a moment … to talk about The Vampire Diaries. The hit book series by LJ Smith comes to the small-screen tonight in a new TV series on the CW. Here’s a little about the show:

“The Vampire Diaries” comes to TV from creator Kevin Williamson – who also created “Dawson’s Creek.” He tells the associated press that “The Vampire Diaries” isn’t just the story of a girl and a vampire – he says it’s also the story of a town.

It’s clear that “The Vampire Diaries” is building on the recent rise in popularity of vampires, thanks in part to the Twilight Series and HBO’s “True Blood” – which is a TV series based on Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series of books. But Williamson tells the AP that the popularity of vampires is a cycle, not a fad – pointing to the ‘80s cult classic movie “The Lost Boys” as an example.

LJ Smith published the original Vampire Diaries in the early to mid 1990s – originally as four books. HarperTEEN recently reissued the series in two volumes, building on the rising demand for vampire stories from teen readers after the explosive success of Twilight. Fans of both series will note the similarities – and though Smith’s books came first, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer insists she’d never read them. Earlier this year, Smith published a new addition to the series – continuing the saga of Elena Gilbert and her vampire love interest.

Read more HERE.

I can personally recommend LJ Smith’s books from The Vampire Diaries series … I think they are a great read for Twilight fans thirsting for more stories in a similar vein. (LJ Smith’s Secret Circle and Night World series are also excellent, enjoyable reads). 

You can even read the first Vampire Diaries book online for free:

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

The TV series is definitely an adaptation of the book, however, with new or slightly different characters and changes to the plot. There are vast differences between Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books, and I except a similar degree of differences from LJ Smith’s books to The Vampire Diaries TV show. Here is the official synopsis of the show from the CW website:

Four months after the tragic car accident that killed their parents, 17-year-old Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev, “DeGrassi: The Next Generation”) and her 15-year-old brother, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen, “Everwood”), are still adjusting to their new reality. Elena has always been the star student; beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends, but now she finds herself struggling to hide her grief from the world. Elena and Jeremy are now living with their cool-but-overwhelmed Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning, “Smallville”), who is doing her best to be a surrogate parent.

Elena manages to find some comfort with her familiar social circle – best friend Bonnie (Katerina Graham, “17 Again”), frenemy Caroline (Candice Accola, “Juno”), and former boyfriend Matt (Zach Roerig, “Friday Night Lights”), but Jeremy is on a more dangerous path, hanging out with the stoners and using drugs to hide his pain. Jeremy is also trying to figure out why Matt’s sister, Vicki (Kayla Ewell, “The Bold and The Beautiful”), is suddenly rejecting him and hanging out with Jeremy’s rival, Tyler (Michael Trevino, “Cane”).

As the school year begins at Mystic Falls High, Elena and her friends are fascinated by a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley, “Fallen”). Stefan and Elena are immediately drawn to one another, although Elena is puzzled by Stefan’s increasingly bizarre behavior when he appears suddenly at the cemetery where her parents are buried. What she doesn’t realize is that Stefan is hiding a dark, deadly secret of his own – the fact that he’s a vampire. At a bonfire party the next night, Elena and Stefan are just getting to know each other when chaos erupts after Vicki is attacked and left bleeding from a savage bite to the neck.

Fearing that he knows who is responsible for the attack, Stefan returns home and finds his older brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder, “Lost”), whom he hasn’t seen for 15 years. Damon is also a vampire, and the two brothers have a long and bitter history. Damon ridicules Stefan for rejecting their legacy of violence and brutality, but he understands his brother’s obsession with Elena, since she looks exactly like a woman Stefan loved more than a century ago; a woman that Damon tried to make his own. Now these two vampire brothers – one good, one evil – are at war for Elena’s soul and for the souls of her friends, family and all the residents of Mystic Falls, Virginia.

Based on the series of books by L. J. Smith, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is from Alloy Entertainment and Bonanza Productions Inc in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Williamson (“Scream,” “Dawson’s Creek”), Julie Plec (“Kyle XY,” “Wasteland”), Leslie Morgenstein (“Gossip Girl,” “Private”) and Bob Levy (“Gossip Girl,” “Privileged”). Marcos Siega (“Dexter”) directed the pilot.

It’s been a while since I read the books (though I just started re-reading the first one), but seeing as they were written in the early ’90s, it’s only reasonable to expect producers to give the TV series an update and to make a few changes for the 2009 audience. Here are some recent headlines to get you up to speed:

• ‘Vampire Diaries’ Stars Ian Somerhalder & Paul Wesley Sink Their Teeth Into Hump Day Hottie Status
• Interview with Candace Accola (Caroline in The Vampire Diaries)
• Interview with Stephen R. McQueen (Elena’s brother Jeremy in The Vampire Diaries)
• OBS Preview: The Vampire Diaries comes to the CW
• The Vampire Diaries follows success of True Blood and Twilight

Think The Vampire Diaries may be worth watching? Check out these videos …

The Vampire Diaries previews:

The Vampire Diaries clips:

The Vampire Diaries airs tonight (Thursday) at 8/7c on the CW

Will you be watching The Vampire Diaries tonight? Have you read the books? Tell us in the comments!