Literary Novelist Turns to Vampires and Finds Pot of Gold.

Justin Cronin is the author of an epic, multimillion-dollar, 766-page novel that stars bloodthirsty creatures that run in packs and savagely kill people at night. And he's planning to turn it into a trilogy. So he is prepared for the inevitable comparisons -- another vampire book? -- that could accompany the publication on Tuesday of ''The Passage,'' the sprawling saga of a girl named Amy who is one of the victims of a covert military experiment that went horribly awry and its bloody aftermath. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]