Love Letter to Letters to Twilight

Good morning, Twi-hards! It’s been a while since our last post…turns out A isn’t as good at multi-tasking as she might have thought she’d be. Anyhoo, today we received the best motivation ever to be the best Twi-site we can be: our good friends at Letters to Twilight got the ultimate Twi-shout out. In her first post in months, Stephenie Meyer herself called out LTT and thanked UC and Moon for the laughs. Ummm, really? REALLY??? How freaking amazing is that?!!

Seriously. Let’s talk about this. THE Stephenie Meyer. The one who wrote Twilight. The one who dreamt of Edward and Bella and thus gave us all a reason to live and blog! THAT Stephenie Meyer called out LTT!! A was so excited when she read the post that she screamed. Loudly. (Sorry, neighbors!)

Because we at ATWIM wanna be just like LTT when we grow up (blog-wise…age-wise we’re already a wee bit past that possibility), we thought we’d compile a list of shout-outs we’d settle for. Kind of like, if the Queen of England shouted out LTT (as the queen is prone to do), we’d settle for a high-five from Prince Harry. Or even Charles. Ears and all…

1. Melissa Rosenberg, screenwriter, The Twilight Saga movies. She may not have written the concepts, but she does a damn good job of translating them to the big screen. (That “spider monkey” line wasn’t hers, so she remains in our good graces. Cathy Hardwicke on the other hand, well you know how we feel about her). We’re thinking maybe Mel would like to write our names into Breaking Dawn. Maybe some of those random vamps could get new names. We’d be happy with Zafrin-A and Senna-M. Ok that one was a stretch.

2.  Solomon Trimble, the exotic-looking but confused girl who thinks she’s Sam Uley. Ohh, Solomon. We feel your pain. You were namelessly cast in Twilight, decided you must be Sam Uley (though again, it’s never mentioned onscreen), and ran with it. A quick viewing of your IMDB profile shows that you’ve got nothing else on the books right now. Well, how about this: next time you’re out and about promoting your supposed appearance in Twilight or Quileute dance ceremonies or what have you, what say you throw us a mention? It could def increase your 15 minutes. If only on our site.

 

My sister, Sam.

 

 

3. Seth Meyer, webmaster of StephenieMeyer.com/brother to Steph. This wouldn’t have to be anything major. We know Seth’s a busy guy, what with updating the site and being the name-spiration for Seth Clearwater. But what about just a little mention? Something to the effect of “those girls from Awesome Twilight Musings need to stop emailing me about mentioning them on this site” would be fine by us. (PS A has a crush on SNL’s Seth Meyers, so if he mistakes this post to be about him, we’d be fine with that.)

4. 100 Monkeys. Though most of the time, we aren’t entirely sure what you’re singing, we like to think that if you threw the words “ATWIM,” “ATM,” “M” or “A” in one of those jumble-y songs of yours, we’d catch it. Just do something so we know to listen for it. Like make a crazy face or wear a crazy hat. Ohhhhh wait…

 

Dance, Monkey!

5. Kellan Lutz. Kellan, you know how much A loves you. You must. She talks about it enough. So help a sister out and give her a little name drop. We heard you had a meeting with Summit this weekend. Was it about those racy running photos? Perhaps you should issue a public apology, explaining that the reason you were so, um, visible, was because you were thinking of A. Or had left your boxer briefs on her bedroom floor that morning. Or, if you’d prefer to shout her out in a less public forum, a name-drop in the throes of passion would be fine. As long as she’s in the room to hear it.

 

Come and get it, A!

Welcome to the Twilight Zone

During one of our frequent “just in case RPattz shows up” pub crawls (which have become more and more frequent—like every night frequent—now that New Moon has wrapped filming), Co-Creator A and I found ourselves mingling with the skinny jean-wearing crowd at a local dive bar, waiting for the band-of-the-night to come on stage.  With Co-Creator A wearing her usual KStew plaid and ’80s sunglasses and me looking like her Nikki Reed sidekick (I mean, you can never be too prepared when stalking Rob), I couldn’t help but notice that we weren’t the only ones in the crowd who resembled the Stephenie Meyer-imagined characters. (Though it’s safe to say we were the only ones doing it on purpose.)
 
My face went from confused Jasper to excited Alice when I noticed that beside me stood Laurent and across the room was Carlisle.  What were they doing there?! Especially when Canada is so far away! Their filming schedule certainly wouldn’t permit them the travel time.  But then it (breaking) dawned on me that the two were not who I’d thought they were, and I was quickly transported back to the real world. 

Since then, both Co-Creator A and I have continued to see our favorite Twilight characters around town.  Just the other day, Co-Creator A laid poolside next to Quil Ateara, and we both could have sworn that Charlie was buying wind chimes at a Saturday afternoon festival (and we thought he was only into sports and fishing!). 

Even though we know it’s all in our head, we will blissfully continue to pretend that we live in Forks, if only to find ourselves a Taylor Lautner look alike that’s a little closer to our own age.

That is, until we see the likeness of Renesmee.  That would totally freak us out.

 

 

Our version of Quil welcomes a break from the rainy LaPush weather.

Wolf Crush

My name is Co-Creator A. And I have a wolf crush.

I know, I know! It’s sacrilege to abandon my beautiful, perfect Edward, but Taylor Lautner makes a pretty convincing arguement. Now, I can’t speak for Co-Creator M (who, to be fair, has been Team Jacob from the get go…when she’s not Team Jasper, WTF?), but I have loved only Edward from the beginning (ok and Emmett, but whatevs). Despite Stephenie Meyer’s obvious attempts to make us all fall for Jake’s wolfy ways, I remained ever true to Edward, just as Bella did. (Except for that one stupid kiss. Seriously, Bella?) Not to mention, I’ve always thought Rob was way hotter than Taylor (possibly because he’s much closer to my age), but after last weeks’s Entertainment Tonight coverage, I am starting to answer the siren song of Team Taylor. 

From the moment he leapt off that porch calling Bella’s name in the New Moon footage, my heart was torn in two, and I finally understand Bella’s conundrum. Sure, sure, Edward is romantic and beautiful and completely devoted (with the obvious exception of the New Moon break-up), but have you seen Jacob’s abs? No really. Have you??

Not to mention, the casting of the rest of the pack is only making my wolf crushing more intense! All those very tan, very toned, super serious looking dudes? What’s not to like? Put them in formation behind Jake and it’s enough to raise MY temperature to 108! 

With this wolf crush comes intense excitement for New Moon. I will be honest, on my first reading, I hated New Moon. I thought it was a useless book that did nothing but make me long for Edward and wish I’d never left the comfort of Twilight. The second time I read it, I liked it a little better. Ditto the third. Last night, I finished it for the fourth time (I work from home, I have a lot of time on my hands) and I have to say, I was sad to put it down. Worse yet, I was sad to see Bella go to Italy, knowing it meant the end of her free and easy days with Jacob. (Though technically those ended after the three-way movie date night.) 

Now I’m left with the same hole Bella nursed in the book, though mine is empty for a wolf fix. How will I ever wait 7 months to see Summit’s interpretation of what has become my favorite of the four books? Maybe if *I* start doing crazy things, I will hear Taylor Lautner’s voice in my head. Or I could just watch Entertainment Tonight every night for the next 28 weeks and I’d probably get the same results.

I know it would be silly to reread the book every week until the movie comes out, but that doesn’t mean I’m not considering it.

Family Matters

In what might prove to be a fatal mistake for the company Blackberry, we set our google alerts to tell us whenever something related to Twilight hit the web. We included such search criteria as Stephenie Meyer, Robert Pattinson, Bella Swan…even Forks, WA made the cut (did you know they’re rennovating Forks High School? We did.). Between all the email alerts clogging up our computer inbox and the beeping coming from our phones, it’s been a busy (and noisy) time around the ATWIM offices.

As obnoxious as all this might seem (moreso to our not-so-Twilight-friendly pals than to us), it has helped us realize we have a problem. (No, not that we’re too addicted to Twilight…that’s not possible, duh!) In fact, all this news flashing has proven to us that we like our Twilight facts, folks and figures contained. We like to keep it all in the (Cullen) family. For instance…

Yesterday, we received an email letting us know that Summit Entertainment has announced Rob Pattinson will star in “this generation’s Love Story,” a film called Remember Me, written by the heralded screenwriter of Rachel Getting Married. 

Sure, sure, this is great news for RPattz. He’s finally going to be more than just Edward Cullen…a Hollywood leading man in his own right. His career will benefit exponentially. But that’s just our problem. We don’t want him to be anything other than Edward. Don’t get us wrong, we love the guy and wish him all the success in the world, but only if it comes by delivering lines like “you are my life now.” If he takes the summer off to shoot this new film (which, thankfully, wraps in time for him to return to Vancouver to shoot Eclipse), we lose our Edward fix for three whole months! He will remove himself from his proverbial Edward suit to don a new persona with a questionable dialect and that just doesn’t sit well with us. 

We can’t stress this enough, we wish nothing but the best for the whole cast and crew of Twilight, but couldn’t they achieve that by sticking close to Forks? (Hell, even the Cullens found a way to stay there!) And you know you agree. Did you read Stephenie Meyer’s other book, The Host? We didn’t either. But we, like you, are on red alert (as is our Amazon account) waiting for the loooooooong-awaited release of The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide. Who wants to read about the other voices in SM’s head? Not us!

It’s this same logic that permits us to follow the oft-buzzed about love triangle between RPattz, Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart, but makes us scream into our pillows when we read about his rumored exploits with the likes of Paris Hilton and Natalie Portman. We like when the stars keep it in the family…it perpetuates the Twilight world we’ve created (and occasionally choose to live in) in our heads. We love that the cast goes out together. We love pics of KStew, Nikki and Taylor Lautner shopping together. We can’t get enough of the cast spottings at Jackson Rathbone’s band’s shows or Nikki’s BFF’s Dill’s concerts. And knowing that they were all hanging out together in their Canadian hotel rooms playing music and possibly Twittering  makes us happier than Edward on his wedding day…or Alice behind the wheel of her Porsche 911 Turbo! But then we had to go and read that Taylor might be dating Selena Gomez, who we needn’t remind you, has no role in anything Twilight-related. (In fact, she plays a wizard, not a vampire. Not even a werewolf!)

Is the solution to end our Google alert subscription? No way! Then we’d never know that Kellan Lutz likes to consider Rob his brother when filming their scenes together so he can properly portray their bond and that reading the never-published ‘Emmett and the Bear’ chapter of Twilight helped him understand the relationship. Is realizing that these are just actors portraying characters from a book the key? Heck no! We’d never have anything to talk about if we went and did something silly like that.

No, we think the answer is simple: the cast and crew of Twilight should accept the fact that they are and always will be just that. If only in our minds. 

Is that so much to ask? We didn’t think so.

It’s Hard Out Here for a Fan

It truly is hard out here for a fan. First there’s the alienation. Friends who haven’t read the books don’t get it: it’s a teen romance novel, how lame. They don’t understand that it’s more than that! Plus, this makes it tough to include quippy Twilight references in everyday dialogue. When I say I am drinking my coffee Jacob, they don’t know that I am referring to Jacob Black (get it? I’m pretty proud of that one!). When I predict what’s going to happen in any given situation and get it right and call myself Alice, there’s no laughter. Only confused looks and eye rolling. Awkward.

And while my close friends do love the series, none of them share my extreme obsession with it. (If Twilight was Bella, they’re Mike Newton and I’m Edward. It’s a totally different level of devotion! BTW, if you laughed at that joke, you can be my BFF!)

None of them understand why I am on my fourth (not kidding) round of reading the books. (To be fair, I have purchased other books in recent months, but none of them hold my interest and I always return to Forks to catch up with  my old friends. Plus, my Twilight bookmark just reminds me of what I’m missing!) None of them get why I spend every Sunday morning calling every Toys R Us, Wal-Mart and Target in a tri-county area to find the board game (though they are willing to play it if I throw in a drinking game or two).

And that’s another thing! I’m running out of products! Now that the DVD has been released (I currently own 4 copies of the movie. That’s too much even for me.) and I’ve read all the books, there’s nothing left for me! Sure sure, the board game is out there somewhere (though no one seems to have it in stock, nor be able to tell me when I can get it), but until Stephenie Meyer’s next book (The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide) comes out (there’s currently NO release date! WTF?!) or until the new movie releases on November 21, I’m out of Twi-lectibles and Twi-life experiences! (Well, there is the convention this summer, but they have yet to approve ATM for press passes…a fact that keeps me up nights. That and my re-reading hobby.)

And while I was hoping to meet new Twiabetic friends at the DVD release the other night, I have to admit, the crowd was a little more teen than 20-something. The only adult options were an overzealous soccer mom who was so fervent about her Twilight trivia responses that I thought she was going to pull a hammy, and a really creepy 40-something guy with a mullet who, if he hadn’t been so good at answering the trivia questions, I would have assumed would be starring in a future installment of To Catch a Predator.  The whole thing was enough to send me into a Twi-abetic coma (sorry if that was offensive, Bret Michaels and Nick Jonas. Have you two met, BTW?).

In closing, I’d just like to remind all of you non-fans and lukewarm fans that we Twi-hards have feelings too. And just because our (not-so) guilty pleasure comes in the form of a teen romance novel in which vampires sparkle in the sun and dote on their human paramours, doesn’t make us any less cool than those of you who love to play Rock Band or watch South Park. Now if  you’ll excuse me, I have some toy stores to call and some reading to do.

King of Vampires

If you’re anything like us (and we know you are), you spend more time defending your obsession with the Twilight books to non-believers than you do reminiscing about Bella and Jacob’s first kiss (for better or worse). Your roommate, your co-worker—hell, any boy for that matter—they just don’t understand how the written word could be so captivating that we hole up in our bedrooms reading for hours. (WTF! You don’t hear us questioning your subscription to Playboy!)

Well faithful ATM reader(s)/Twilighters, no longer will you have to defend, lie, or steal (unless, of course, you’re pirating the movie to play the ATM-patented Twilight Drinking Game ™ )in order to get your Twilight fix.  Our hometown hero (and we’re not talking about Pee Wee Herman) went on record to admit reading Twilight.   That’s right.  Stephen King, Mr. New York Times Best Selling Fiction Writer himself has endured the same Bella-Edward-Jacob-Mike-Jessica love rollercoaster that we have.  Who cares if he hated it. Just saying the words, ” Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn,” means that he has personally read the book to make such a claim. *

Wow…stars really are like us!  He, like us, has curled up on the sofa late at night reading the book. Okay, so maybe he was wearing jeans that were a few inches too short (same hometown, remember? There are just some things we know here at ATM…that’s why we have our own blog.) and we looked hot wearing our fresh from the Outback new knitted knee-high Uggs while reading. But that’s beside the point.

If Stephen King can spend his days writing novels that scare the socks off you and his nights engulfed in Twilight, then why can’t we come home from work and share a bottle of wine with our fictional best friends, too? So to you boys that question our sanity every time we utter the words, “I sooo wish I was a vampire,” consider this:  while we’re off saving money for our boob job and bleaching our hair (Hef is still into blondes, right?), the least you could do is glue a little glitter to your face when we go outside. I mean…come on.

*Editors note:  While it is apparent that our loyalities lie with the Twighlight saga, it should be noted that in no way has our opinion of Mr. King swayed.  If someone would have asked us our opinion, we here at ATM, being the literary genuises that we are, would have agreed with Mr. King’s sentiments regarding Mrs. Meyers’ writing skills.  In fact, Co-Creator A has drafted an account of her average evening in the voice of Mrs. Meyers, proving that with a few key (and over used) phrases, anyone can sound like a best selling author.

Twilight in Atlanta

Hot on the heels of Stephen King’s recent Stephenie Meyer remarks, we got to thinking. Sure, she’s no, well, Stephen King. Hell, she may not even be Danielle Steele, but Steph’s own personal brand of fiction-writing may very well be the best literary thing to happen to us since “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret.” (Yeah, we said it.) Thus, in tribute to Stephenie Meyer (and all the readers who love her), co-creator A will now try her hand at a journal entry, documenting her Wednesday goings-on in the voice of Bella and Edward’s creatoress. We proudly bring you….

Twilight in Atlanta

Prologue

I hadn’t given much thought to what I would eat tonight—though I’d had reason enough in the moments leading up to dinnertime. But even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

The Only Chapter

I woke up in my bed and listened for the sound of the rain. It was silent. A perfect sunny day in Atlanta. The Weather Channel had been wrong. As I stood up to walk to my bathroom, my hands curled into fists at my sides. I knew it was silly to be disappointed, but I’d planned to wear my new rain boots today and now my footwear was left in question. “Heels or flats?” I breathed to my reflection in the mirror.

As if the universe were trying to answer, I tripped over a pair of flats on my way back to the closet. I picked them up and stared at them. Their shiny patent leather was too perfect. Too shiny. It was almost unfair that any shoe should be so shiny. I smiled to myself, knowing they were my shoes. Forever.

After getting dressed, I headed to Starbucks for my morning beverage. Not heeding the baristo’s warning, I took a gluttonous sip of the rich liquid, and pulled back, breathless. The coffee was delicious, there was no doubt, but I knew I had to be careful. He would want me to be careful. The baristo I mean. Stunned, I remained parked in front of the drive-through window. He popped his head back out and smiled. “Be careful, please,” he whispered.

“Sure, sure,” was all I could manage.

The day dragged on. 

It was nearly seven o’clock when I realized I still didn’t have anything for dinner. Begrudgingly, I picked up the phone to order sushi.

The voice at the other end of the line was as familiar as my own. “Two tuna avocado rolls, one avocado cheese roll?” he asked. I could hear him smiling. How did he know? How was it possible for him to reach into my mind and pull the order out from my deepest thoughts without even knowing who I was? Oh right, he saw the caller ID.

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. “Yes please,” I whispered. Then to my chagrin, he added, “same thing every time.” He hung up laughing.

My hands curled tightly into fists at my sides and I reminded myself to breathe. The man was only doing what he thought was right. And it was. He knew my order like I knew my own mind. We had been through this enough times for him to know exactly what I wanted before I placed the order. But it never failed to excite me and to infuriate me all at once.

When the delivery came, I held my breath. Opening the boxes that contained the beautiful red fish and startlingly green avocado was by far the most exciting part. My throat burned as I stared into the tiny plastic boxes. The most perfect, delicious sushi on the planet sat before me. And it was mine. Plain, ordinary Co-Creator A. How did I ever manage to find such a miracle of food? I hadn’t given much thought to what I would eat tonight—though I’d had reason enough in the moments leading up to dinnertime. But even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.