Reader'sSeries: Twilightlvr1

Twilightlvr1

My journey into the world of Twilight was brought to me in more ways than one by my 17 year old daughter. Last summer I was looking for a book to read on the airplane while traveling to see my friend in New York State. My daughter had read all of the Twilight books and having known my weakness for vampire stories, loaned me her paperback copy of Twilight. To make a long story short, I was captivated and within a week had all four books read.

I re-read all of the books several times over the next few weeks and found I was becoming totally obsessed. I found the Twilight Moms posting board and did make several posts there, but honestly the site is so big I found it to be a bit overwhelming. But at least I knew I wasn’t alone in my obsession. I loved that the site opened with a little blurb about ignoring the housework and daily chores to read Twilight, because that is exactly what I had done.

My personal foray into fan fiction didn’t start until after the whole Midnight Sun fiasco.

Again, thanks to my daughter, I read the unfinished script, honestly not even sure what I was reading at first. I suppose you can call me naive, but at first I honestly thought this could be someone else’s take on Twilight from Edwards POV and couldn’t believe Stephenie Meyer’s unfinished work was on line. I stayed up very late and read the whole thing in one night. I found it to be wonderful and fell in love with Edward all over again. Well of course, the next day things unraveled and we all found out that this was leaked and Stephenie decided not to finish it. To say I was devastated is an understatement. I thirsted for more of Edwards thoughts and didn’t know where to turn.

Once again, my daughter came to the rescue. She is an avid reader on FFn and suggested I go on there to look for stories from Edward’s POV. Now, here’s where I am strange. I drug my feet for two weeks to think about it. While I had read Buffy and Angel fan fiction in the past, that was not from a book, those were from TV shows and felt different to me somehow. I was afraid that reading fan fiction authors stories wouldn’t begin to compare to Stephenie Meyer’s written word. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

At first I looked through the FFn web site and found several stories but they weren’t exactly what I was looking for. But I was not ready to give up. So I googled Twilight fan fiction and came across the Twilighted web site. This is where my fan fiction world really began. It promised to have high quality stories, and the site didn’t lie. My very first story that I read was Die to Self by JenWordSong. What a first story to begin with! It had 27 chapters and told the story of Bella and Edward’s wedding, honeymoon and first touch into Bella becoming a vampire so well, that many times I found myself in tears. And parts were in Edward’s POV! I was in heaven. As we all know, once you get started, there’s no turning back. Again, I wanted more.

It wasn’t long after that that I came across There Are Worse Things I Could Do by EZRocksAngel. I had a soft spot for this one as I have always loved the movie Grease (having seen it in the theatres when I was a young teen) and was fascinated with how the author was able to adapt this into a Bella/Edward story. And as the story progressed I noticed that her writing got better and better with each chapter and I was totally in love with her writing and her story. So I started leaving gushing reviews and she started responding back to me saying I was one of her favorite reviewers. That meant a great deal to me. I tend to be somewhat shy by nature and find the forums to be somewhat intimidating. So in e-mailing back in forth, Angel was really the first author that I had the chance to talk to about Twilight and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. She is currently writing Creature of Habit and I can’t say enough about her brilliance on that piece. She has managed to combine the world of Twilight with bringing in a bit of Angel The Series on the side. It’s fabulous.

I really can’t pinpoint my favorite type of stories. I actually like a wide variety. I am a huge fan of Bella and Edward and hate to see them with anyone else other than each other. Now having said that, however I have found 2 stories with Bella/Edward/Jasper that I adore. The first being The Trip Home by MsKathy. And the second is Just The Three of Us by Kuntrygal. What makes these stories work is the emotion the writers put behind their words. In both of these stories, the writers have Bella, Edward and Jasper being in love equally. It’s not gratuitous sex, it’s love and devotion and I find that very endearing. And again, both writers couldn’t be sweeter. I am happy that they seem touched by my reviews.

It’s funny how I first shied away from the human stories, but find that they actually seem to be my favorite type now. Vampire Edward is so brooding and there are so many obstacles, that sometimes I prefer to read something a bit more versatile.

A new recent favorite of mine is To Feel by Rockbandstar. This story has Bella and Edward being in loveless marriages to other people and they fall in love and begin an affair. It’s beautifully written and the author has really touched on some real emotions and tapped into the deep love that her Bella and Edward share. It’s not an easy road for them and has been a long journey for both of them to be together. Having been through a failed marriage myself, this story touches me in a very personal way and I am grateful to the author for writing it.

Also another story that I feel needs more attention is Blood Lines by Windchime. Her chapters are incredibly long and she puts so much into each chapter that I am often times astounded by her words. This is actually a Vampire Edward story where he finds that he actually fathered a child while he was human. Family of the now elderly son is looking to Edward to see if he has any information on the father. The time line takes place after Eclipse right before Edward and Bella’s wedding. The explanation as to how this child was fathered is fascinating as is the support that Bella has for Edward throughout this time. It is a long story, that still is not complete, but has a lot of twists and turns and even a baby. For anyone that was disappointed in the whole baby story in Breaking Dawn and the way it was handled, this story shows a very different and gentler way to handle it. The love and support that Bella and Edward have for each other jump off the page in this story and it’s really very lovingly written.

The only things that drive me crazy in this world of fan fiction are; Edward cheating and or dissing Bella. And when stories, that I have loved and have patiently waited for updates on, get abandoned. I’m sure it’s very time consuming and very difficult, to be so creative. But it makes me very sad when stories go so far and are never finished.

What I especially love is when writers message me back and tell me what my reviews mean to them and then they say – “Hey, have you checked out any of my other work?” I love that.

There are of course many, many other authors that and stories that I would love to pay tribute to, but there just isn’t enough space to mention them all.

All in all I really want to say that my love for Twilight knows no end. My love for fan fiction knows no end. I am totally obsessed. I like to see Happily Ever Afters because in the real world they seem to rarely happen. I live vicariously through the romance of these characters in the stories and can’t believe the amount of talent the writers have. It blows me away at times.

So I thank you to all the writers, only a few who I have mentioned here, who have kept me happily entertained for many hours. (now I won’t talk about the lack of sleep and how I have to consume huge amounts of caffeine to get through my work day!) Your words are a joy to me and I am truly amazed at all of the talent that is out there. Please don’t ever stop writing, cause I’ll always be reading!

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Author's Blurb by Angel/EZRocks

My first story was a little flangst piece called, There Are Worse Things I Could Do. Yes, it is a take off of Grease. Yes, Edward is Danny Zuko. Yes, I love it like my first born, the one you make mistakes on and try to correct them with you second and subsequent children. I was very unsure about my writing with Grease. My reviews were average. Nothing exciting but each chapter I would receive the nicest, most supportive reviews from one reader.

Twilightlvr1.

She would review, I would respond and eventually we found ourselves emailing frequently about many things, primarily our love for David Boreanaz, Robward and all other things Twilight and fanfic related. We talk about work and raising girls. We discuss stories we are reading and our frustrations with certian aspects of the fandom. When I was nervous or worried, I would reach out to her and ask for her honest feedback on my story, which she gave freely. When I posted Creature of Habit she was one of the first reviews I saw from my posting, and the same for each of story I have posted since.

I feel lucky to have met such a thoughtful, intelligent, supportive woman by my side in the land of fanfic. Being a participant in this fandom has brought many things into my life and awesome readers like her are just one of the benefits!

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