This is the original, extremely rough draft of my submission to the fan fiction contest. I'm allowed to chose two characters, and it can be a maximum of 400 words...this one is 741 =( I'm not really looking forward to editing myself super harshly, but I figure it'll be great practice for my (hopeful) future as a published writer. ;)
Enjoy and feel free to comment!
(edit 2/1/09: I've decided to use this as a sort of mental exercise, so I come back here occasionally and mess with this story, fleshing it out a little since I don't have to worry about word limits anymore.)
Leah & Renesmee-
The weather outside the Cullen house was horrible. The muscles between Leah's shoulders twitched irritably, flicking raindrops from her thick gray fur. She shifted her hind legs, trying to find a more comfortable position in the miserable wind and wet. Inside, Renesmee slept in the room her "grandparents" kept for her there.
If you could call them that, she snorted lightly at the thought.
It was more out of habit than any real attempt at malice that she thought about Fork's resident vampires. Over the past year she had come to have a working relationship, if not quite friendship with the Cullens.
That hasn't changed the awful smell, she though, sighing inwardly.
That smell was the reason she was in wolf form, miserably sitting in the driving rain. It just wouldn't go away. She'd showered twice already today in human form, in an attempt to lessen it even a little bit. It hadn't had any noticeable effect.
Jacob had told her time and again that it wasn't that bad if she would just quite harping on it all the time. Harping! As if she had ever harped on anything in her life!
I probably am dwelling on it a bit more than I might, she thought quietly, and then quickly looked around out of habit to see which wolf had heard her. But no one had. Seth was staying with their mother for a few days, which meant he was in his human form.
Jacob wasn't in wolf form either. Jacob was driving some ridiculously expensive looking car from the Cullen's garage, following Alice in her bright yellow Porche to Seattle. Thinking about that made her shoulder muscles quiver again, this time in apprehension.
From the stories on the news lately, Jasper thought that a newborn had wandered into the city, with no one to keep it reigned it. Alice could see something with her peculiar gift, but nothing clear, and she was getting frustrated. They decided to go to Seattle to investigate, and all of the Cullen's were supposed to go with her. She knew Jacob was supposed to go too because everything quite suddenly disappeared at the same point in her vision. She had seen that much. And that Renesmee had to stay behind.
Bella had not been happy about that development. If all of them left, that meant that Leah was in charge of watching Renesmee by default. As Jake's second in command, his so-called Beta, the pack's responsibilities were left to her when he was away. As far as responsibility went, Renesmee was his most important one, and therefore Leah's as well.
Shifting again against the wind, she remembered Edward's assurances to Bella with a dour face.
Leah would never let anything happen to Renesmee love, because of her sense of honor and responsibility to her Alpha, if nothing else.
Bella hadn't been wholly satisfied with his reasoning, but Alice told her she'd clearly seen all of them returning together. Bella had settled on Edward's promise that one of them would check back after a week if they still had not found the newborn. Alice had seen them leaving and coming home again, but she had no idea how long they would be gone, and the thought of weeks away from Renesmee had made Bella almost physically ill. Though it had been more than a year since the Volturi had left, Bella still hated leaving Renesmee for any reason.
Leah gave herself a brisk shake and turned to go back inside and check on the still sleeping Nessie. Staring down at the stunningly beautiful little girl, she couldn't find it in herself to blame Bella one bit. There was just something about that child...
Once again Leah wondered to herself if she would ever, could ever, know the feeling of watching her own son or daughter sleeping before her.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Stephenie is my Inspirational Dream-Chasing Guru
So I've basically spent the day reading old interviews with Stephenie Meyer on the internet. And, as impossible as it would have seemed to me just this morning, I'm more obsessed than ever. That woman gives me so much hope it's almost criminal. I get goosebumps reading her articles, and once (*sigh*) I actually had tears in my eyes. I just really get this amazing feeling of...possibilities...when I read about her and how she started writing.
Most of my life, I've wanted to be a writer. I assumed that I would really have an impossibly hard time accomplishing that after I dropped out of high school and consequently missed college. Then came marriage, kids...free time? Non-existent. So my dreams of writing felt like they had taken up residence behind an insurmountable mountain.
But they haven't!! And that sentence really deserves the two exclamation points on the end. Because this is my life dream being brought back into reality. It's really going to happen.
So, once again, thank you Mrs. Meyer. You are my inspirational dream-chasing guru. =)
Most of my life, I've wanted to be a writer. I assumed that I would really have an impossibly hard time accomplishing that after I dropped out of high school and consequently missed college. Then came marriage, kids...free time? Non-existent. So my dreams of writing felt like they had taken up residence behind an insurmountable mountain.
But they haven't!! And that sentence really deserves the two exclamation points on the end. Because this is my life dream being brought back into reality. It's really going to happen.
So, once again, thank you Mrs. Meyer. You are my inspirational dream-chasing guru. =)
Friday, October 17, 2008
Midnight Sun(set?)
I'm one of those people who is always reading a book. It's just what I do. Right now, in preparation of the release of the final book, I'm rereading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. But since I'm buying the books as I read them, instead of borrowing them like I did the first time I read them, I'm currently waiting on the next book to come in the mail. While I'm waiting, I'm reading Twilight. Again. For the third time, actually, in as many months.
It's quite a bit different this time around, in a good way. A very good way; in between the second time and this time, I've read Midnight Sun twice. Any self respecting Twilighter has read Stephenie Meyer's unfinished, unfairly leaked draft of Edward's side of Twilight. As every Twilighter hopes and prays that one day she can find that special place in her mind where Forks resides with its palely beautiful inhabitants, and finish the story from our favorite vampire's point of view.
As I've said in other entries, I simply cannot imagine what it must be like for Stephenie Meyer, as an author, to have a trust breached and an unfinished first draft released for the world to see. Especially considering her obvious love for the character Edward...it must be kind of how movie stars feel when the papparazzi stalk them while they're out with their children. The inbred instinct to protect that child at all cost warring with wanting to keep faithful fans happy.
(Of course, I know nothing of either situation, and can only guess to the feelings involved. I could be horribly wrong on all counts.)
Thankfully for Twilighters, she decided to let us read her chapters from her own site, without the guilty feeling we would surely have to live with from searching out other illegal versions online. Which we surely would have done in our desperation for any and all things Twilight.
I'm so glad she did. That overhanging sense of guilt would have marred the enjoyment of such a wonderful story. And it is truly a story to be enjoyed. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the first twelve chapters of Midnight Sun. I think I've said this before, but, the love she has for Edward is something almost tangible, something that almost reaches off the pages and into the brain. After I read it I felt like Stephenie Meyer understood his character better than Bella's. Perhaps there was more of her in Edward, so she better expressed him. Or maybe there is too much of her in Bella for her to completely love her, the way most people have a problem with loving themselves as much as they should. She relates too much to Bella to be as involved and intimate. Or maybe it's just me.
Whatever the reason, it turned Midnight Sun into a beautiful, touching story, showing us Edward in a new light. We learn what he is thinking, what he is feeling, giving a whole new scope to tale of two lovers. When, before, he seemed slightly aloof, and completely in control, we learn that he is a wreck of raging emotions and conflicting thoughts, making him all the more "human" to us. We find out the moment when he falls in love with Bella, which is much sooner than we learn of her love for him in Twilight. And that moment seems much more monumental to me from his point of view than hers. She is, after all, human, and falling in love is human nature. He, however, has been wandering around for almost a hundred years feeling nothing like he does for her. Him falling in love is like me finding out I can read minds, perhaps. A completely dormant thing, which seems impossible until it happens, and then is undeniable in it's reality, because it's engraved in who I am.
(By the way, how cool would that be to suddenly discover a dormant psychic power?!)
And Edward's character isn't the only one we're given more insight into. Through his mind-reading ability, we get to know the rest of the Cullen's better as well. And Bella's classmates as well. Jessica in particular really stands out to me, perhaps because I had no idea how truly shallow and vile she was until Edward gave us a glimpse into her twisted little head. Poor girl, I could almost feel sorry for her. Emmett grew a lot for me as a character through Midnight Sun. In Twilight I couldn't help but pigeon-hole him into the "jock" persona, and he really is so much more than that.
Reading Twilight this time has been more enjoyable to me than the first time because now I know Edward. I know that while Bella has been sleeping restlessly, Edward has been watching her sleep. I know that the feeling of not being alone when Bella wakes up after falling asleep outside is because she was not actually alone; Edward watched her dream in the sun, and stayed still as a secret statue when her still sleepy eyes seemed to stare right at him.
It is with new eyes that I'm finishing Twilight this time, feeling even closer to my favorite vampires, and vampire-to-be. And I think that the same could be said of anyone who reads Midnight Sun, and then rereads Twilight. It is my sincerest hope that Stephenie Meyer can find that peace and ability to finish it, so that we can see the rest of the story from Edward's eyes. I cannot think of a companion book so desperate for publication, so perfectly executed. And that is only the first twelve chapters of a very rough draft!
Stephenie Meyer, hear my prayers: Please continue to gift us with your amazing ability and your vision of love that cannot be and yet still is. Please show us the rest of your amazing tale.
Please.
It's quite a bit different this time around, in a good way. A very good way; in between the second time and this time, I've read Midnight Sun twice. Any self respecting Twilighter has read Stephenie Meyer's unfinished, unfairly leaked draft of Edward's side of Twilight. As every Twilighter hopes and prays that one day she can find that special place in her mind where Forks resides with its palely beautiful inhabitants, and finish the story from our favorite vampire's point of view.
As I've said in other entries, I simply cannot imagine what it must be like for Stephenie Meyer, as an author, to have a trust breached and an unfinished first draft released for the world to see. Especially considering her obvious love for the character Edward...it must be kind of how movie stars feel when the papparazzi stalk them while they're out with their children. The inbred instinct to protect that child at all cost warring with wanting to keep faithful fans happy.
(Of course, I know nothing of either situation, and can only guess to the feelings involved. I could be horribly wrong on all counts.)
Thankfully for Twilighters, she decided to let us read her chapters from her own site, without the guilty feeling we would surely have to live with from searching out other illegal versions online. Which we surely would have done in our desperation for any and all things Twilight.
I'm so glad she did. That overhanging sense of guilt would have marred the enjoyment of such a wonderful story. And it is truly a story to be enjoyed. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the first twelve chapters of Midnight Sun. I think I've said this before, but, the love she has for Edward is something almost tangible, something that almost reaches off the pages and into the brain. After I read it I felt like Stephenie Meyer understood his character better than Bella's. Perhaps there was more of her in Edward, so she better expressed him. Or maybe there is too much of her in Bella for her to completely love her, the way most people have a problem with loving themselves as much as they should. She relates too much to Bella to be as involved and intimate. Or maybe it's just me.
Whatever the reason, it turned Midnight Sun into a beautiful, touching story, showing us Edward in a new light. We learn what he is thinking, what he is feeling, giving a whole new scope to tale of two lovers. When, before, he seemed slightly aloof, and completely in control, we learn that he is a wreck of raging emotions and conflicting thoughts, making him all the more "human" to us. We find out the moment when he falls in love with Bella, which is much sooner than we learn of her love for him in Twilight. And that moment seems much more monumental to me from his point of view than hers. She is, after all, human, and falling in love is human nature. He, however, has been wandering around for almost a hundred years feeling nothing like he does for her. Him falling in love is like me finding out I can read minds, perhaps. A completely dormant thing, which seems impossible until it happens, and then is undeniable in it's reality, because it's engraved in who I am.
(By the way, how cool would that be to suddenly discover a dormant psychic power?!)
And Edward's character isn't the only one we're given more insight into. Through his mind-reading ability, we get to know the rest of the Cullen's better as well. And Bella's classmates as well. Jessica in particular really stands out to me, perhaps because I had no idea how truly shallow and vile she was until Edward gave us a glimpse into her twisted little head. Poor girl, I could almost feel sorry for her. Emmett grew a lot for me as a character through Midnight Sun. In Twilight I couldn't help but pigeon-hole him into the "jock" persona, and he really is so much more than that.
Reading Twilight this time has been more enjoyable to me than the first time because now I know Edward. I know that while Bella has been sleeping restlessly, Edward has been watching her sleep. I know that the feeling of not being alone when Bella wakes up after falling asleep outside is because she was not actually alone; Edward watched her dream in the sun, and stayed still as a secret statue when her still sleepy eyes seemed to stare right at him.
It is with new eyes that I'm finishing Twilight this time, feeling even closer to my favorite vampires, and vampire-to-be. And I think that the same could be said of anyone who reads Midnight Sun, and then rereads Twilight. It is my sincerest hope that Stephenie Meyer can find that peace and ability to finish it, so that we can see the rest of the story from Edward's eyes. I cannot think of a companion book so desperate for publication, so perfectly executed. And that is only the first twelve chapters of a very rough draft!
Stephenie Meyer, hear my prayers: Please continue to gift us with your amazing ability and your vision of love that cannot be and yet still is. Please show us the rest of your amazing tale.
Please.
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