The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner -- Today!!

Hey all! Today is the day to get your feverish little hands on the Eclipse novella "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner". It seems to have crept right up on me. Which is a good thing I suppose, since many have been chomping at the bit to get it for months. Well, this watched pot has finally boiled so get out there on Amazon and start shopping :)

AMAZON LINK

<3 Happy hunting, mis amigos petite!

I had a minute today to wax philosophical...

Since I first saw previews for Twilight something has been nagging at me. I couldn't put my finger on it but I've figured it out. I totally love the look of Rob as Edward. I'm okay with that. And generally speaking, he's a fairly good Edward. And Kristen is um... okay looking as Bella (although this person more closely matches my idea of Bella) and we know I've had issues with Kristen's actual portrayal of how Bella would act/react/move/speak/blink (lol) BUT, my issue is that I never bought into the hype that the chemistry between Rob and Kristen onscreen was so great. I never saw it. I still don't. In my opinion, there isn't that much heat between them. And what's more, there doesn't seem to be any conviction behind what they say to each other. I don't believe them, I suppose is what I'm getting at. They said all the right words at the right times, seemed to understand the import of the words behind the dialog. And yet, there's more to just 'saying' them. I know they are only actors, and not Edward and Bella, but I know there are actors out there somewhere who could have made me yearn, ache and empathize with their plight to be together against all odds. I wanted so badly to feel it. I needed to know that Bella felt she would burst if Edward didn't lean in and kiss her. I wanted my heart beat to quicken when Edward's growing hunger forced him to expel Bella from him ...before he did something he'd regret. I never once got the right feelings while watching B&E interact onscreen. I couldn't tell that it was the end of the world for Bella being separated from Edward for even one day. I know I should have felt that way because that's exactly how I felt when I read the books. I yearned for his return right along with her. I hated the times Bella showed up at school and found that Edward and the rest of the Cullen's weren't there. It depressed me when she'd go home to her room and he wasn't there. When he leaned in for the first time, just to 'try one thing' I thought I'd go mad with want!

I'll admit, the Edward conjured up in our own minds based on the words crafted by Stephenie is a hard act to follow. Same with the addictive, incendiary love and lust between Edward and Bella. There is a perfection of angsty love on those pages that would be near impossible to duplicate. But still, I feel a little slighted that Rob and Kristen didn't come closer. I think there was so much worry about the technicality of getting it right, they over thought it. They being not just the actors, but all involved: director, writers, lighting guy, lol. I think everyone believed that the onscreen Edward and Bella had to embody what made us all fall in love with them in the first place, so much so that they focused on pursuing that perfection and lost what should have felt easy: the natural, undeniable, immediate attraction between the two.

I never once felt watching either movie that these are two people who want more than anything to be together, that they'd rather die than live without each other or that their attraction was so demanding that they had to be touching at all times, that Bella would risk her own death over and over to keep trying to be with him or that Edward would subject himself to constant, torturous pain just to be with her.

I know those are hard things to convey onscreen. But the heart wants what the heart wants. And I know it's not impossible because someone else did it. Taylor Lautner. He made me believe him. He was subtlety heartbroken over and over by Bella's unintentional rejections. His unrequited love was so... delicious. I bought him hook, line and sinker. As Jacob, he became the boy whose sunny disposition wouldn't let him be defeated. He wore his heart on his sleeve valiantly and was the eternal, beautiful best friend. I found him irresistible. Some of you may scoff and accuse me of reacting to his (stunningly) transformed body from that of a boy to a man and while I cannot deny that his physical presence was noteworthy, it's not what I'm proud of here. I'm proud of the fact that Taylor was willing to gruelingly work out to change himself completely. He's committed to being Jacob and it shows, and not just physically. In the last scene of New Moon, when Jacob whispers "Bella", I felt it. In that one word, I knew that he was putting himself out there and not caring who saw (Edward), pleading with her, but still knowing he had lost (the battle but not the war) and was subsequently broken.

My little gripes about things should by no means be considered as admission of any sort of dislike for any of the Twilight movies. I just pointed out something that needles at me. I applaud Rob and Kristen for taking on two of the most beloved characters of the last decade. And here's hoping that next time, they'll get a little closer to that sweet tortured love that haunts my fantasies.

My Favorite New Moon Scene

Hi all. I'm sure I had something concrete to say... I just, you know, found this picture and all of a sudden I... really don't remember what I was going to tell you..

Funny how the brain works. Anyway, here is a nice little picture that displays the culmination of all those touch-and-go moments between Jacob and Bella. You know, all those little moments when their eyes meet or their hands touch. Little by little the two of them work up to this point, mostly because of Jacob's persistence. Bella is sort of along for the ride, as we know, humoring Jacob so as not to hurt his tender teenage feelings. She's lucky Stephenie Meyer didn't write me into New Moon because something tells me I would have been the horny Jacob groupie always popping in for a visit. I guess Bella would have just had to deal with that big ole hole in her chest all by herself. :D

A Little TWILIGHT Experiment...

Hiya! I've decided to conduct a little experiment. I haven't read any of the Twilight books since before Twilight the movie opened. And here lately I've genuinely been missing it; the words, the details of Forks, nuances of Edwards looks explained, all the stuff not included in the movie.

I got Twilight out last night, right before I went to bed. Understand, I have a cold right now and the pinnacle of feeling crappy was around 9 PM last night. So, I get Twilight out, and I read the prologue, planning to start the book the next day..

Then I go ahead and read the first page. I felt miserable but I just couldn't tear myself away from those alluring words. Before I knew it, I was 60 pages in. I barely was able to set it aside and finally succumb to the rest I needed.

So I guess that no matter how many times you read the books, the words and phrases so artfully strung together by Mrs. Meyer will always have an intoxicating pull on the readers.

I am glad it's been so long since I've read them though because the details are unfamiliar to me again. Oh sure I remember the story and my favorite parts, but all the details are new again. I love that, even though I'll never be able to experience it like the first time I read it.

I've noticed something after having seen Twilight the movie so many times. Now when I read anything in the book that is in the movie too, I keep picturing the scene in the movie. It's somewhat annoying to me! I loved how my imagination filled in the blanks and built all the minute substances and situations. I am trying hard to push those images out of my head. Because although I love the movie, it's Catherine Hardwicke's vision of Forks and how it all went down there, not mine. I want my details back.

I'll keep posting on things I notice. I'm curious to see if I'm so heatedly drawn back into Edward's world with wild abandon, totally forsaking my real life to stick my nose in a book. The fact that there is a (very real) chance that that may happen is a little bit scary. But honestly, it's more exciting than anything and I'm looking forward to it!

Bring on the achy yearning for that glittering vampire manboy!