Oooh! You have a treat in store. It was just something I imagined Barney watching : ) jx

Camilla11,

You know, I do agree with you. Maybe my husband is rubbing off on me. Don't tell him I told anyone - but he watches the movies with me and he'll yell at Jacob, "Ahhh don't put up with that man! C'mon!" But I am in agreement with you Edward was way too understanding in Eclipse. I rather liked that he pulled the whole "Mrs. Cullen" thing at the campsite. Jacob needed to know. Anyways, while I do try to keep my Edward truer to cannon - I for sure felt that after nine months away he wouldn't be in the mood to be overly accomidating. He gave them space, allowed them to talk, but when she said "no" he came barreling in like a Terminator. Haha!

Thank you for the review and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

~anyanka jenkins~

Even worse after Elena got her talons into him. Sigh.

Thanks, had to be done!

Maybe he will one day. Maybe after Kate tries some kinky fuckery on Elliot...

Thanks for letting me know.  The site is acting up.  I've just posted again.  The chapter seems to be there, but the story isn't moving up in the category as updated.  So frustrating!

This is a take on the characters but doesn't follow them exactly so Ed has green eyes.  And this is a "story"  so there is information.  I doubt that the information Bella googled was on the internet in Twlight either.

I've been trying to cut anything that doesn't move the story.  I'd planned to do a summary of the day, maybe as Kaylee told her mom about it, and then keep Sam's discovery about Edward.  Some readers don't like "fluff" and the fair had a lot of fluff.  

The Quileutes have a history where they were nearly wiped out by a vampire.  I guess I can understand some of their issues.  At least the Volturi didn't show up.  Seeing what happened to Bella would have been proof that Chip was dangerous and needed to be destroyed.  I actually had to change the story from what I had originally.  I'd had Edward make the call to Leah, to come and take Chip to safety.  In this edit I realized Edward never would have done such a thing, not with his family there, and not considering how dangerous he believes the Quileutes are.  Having someone watch the house seemed a lot more reasonable.  

I think a lot of porcelan dolls are creepy.  It's hard to do faces, especially teeth, and not make them look inhuman, or demonic.  I think Rosalie had a fantasy of how her life should have turned out.  I wanted the dolls to reflect that idea of perfection that never quite lives up to expectations.  

Your comments about the nunnery, and "tasting the desperation and yearnings of women who ... craved motherhood," have stuck with me.  Being a mother is the one thing I wouldn't trade for anything.  Considering how women used to be pressured into becoming nuns, it's a sobering thought that they had to give up something so coveted.  Must have been cold comfort to sew clothes for a baby they'd never get to hold.  

I'm glad to see that stuff doesn't happen to me alone.  I'm definitely not of the technological age.  

Thanks for seeing the complexity of what I've written.  Sometimes, trying to stay true to the characters is difficult when my own feelings are so strong.  Black and white are difficult for me to write.  

Wow, congratulations!  I know how hard it is to wrap up a story.  (This beast resisted wrapping up far too long.)  That's quite an accomplishment.  Do you have your next tale in mind?  I love starting a new story; it makes finishing a story all the sweeter.  I'm halfway through an original story I hope to publish.  I just found out my husband is a great copy editor.  He may not like romances, but he just plowed through the first hundred pages, noting missed punctuation and misspellings my spellcheck didn't catch.  Like an editor, he said I tend to ramble....you think?  (Smile) 

Thanks for following my story and letting me know something was wrong.  When I posted chapter 8 I got an error message.  I tried two more times to post it, and got the same error message.  In the manage stories it looked like the chapter didn't post, but when I pulled up the story, it showed it had been updated three times, all with the same chapter!  So I tried to delete the last chapter, and it wiped out the whole story -- everything!  I sent a message to the admin, and they said they don't keep back-ups, and I'd have to start all over.  So... I've lost my first 22 reviews, my first thousand reads, and whatever those five coffee cups stand for.  Live and learn, I guess.  This still feels better than losing everything from ffnet; at least this was my mistake.  

When I wrote that scene, I thought it was too much like a sit-com.  But I've sort of fallen in love with it now.  It shows how much bolder Edward is now than before.  

Thanks again for all your help.

It's always easier to give advice than to take it.  Bella just doesn't see herself the way she sees Mark and Denise.  She imagines she's more like her neighbor, Mr. Sanderson.  She always did have a hang-up about her age.

Yeah, imagine how hard it is to tell Leah what to do.  

Yeah, imagine how hard it is to tell Leah what to do.  

It surprised me how long I dragged this out.  And yet, I can't see it going faster, though maybe I didn't need to write every little detail.  

Exactly!  One of the caveats of chapter by chapter posting, is resisting the temptation to minimize conflict to please readers.  It took me a while to realize, no one really wants a conflict free story.

I'm not sure if 25 years would make this much difference, but maybe deciding to finally be all in would.  I did take certain licenses with the characters, but I couldn't write them as pasive as canon.  I'm glad you like it.  

Thanks again.  That fertility issue is one of those things most of us who write for Twilight have had to tackle.  I've written it a couple different ways myself.  Here, they use condoms because the little swimmers don't die.  In another story, I wrote that there was enough venom to make condoms unreliable, though they work at first.  In that one, the venom was the risk, as well as pregnancy.  I've even written that the females were fertile, if they could remove an egg and find a hybrid surrogate.  What's funny is that most vampire stories typically choose one route, either they're using supernatural magic, or they rely on strange science.  Meyer didn't choose.     

I'm starting to see readers are realizing what a marathon story this is.  I've been editing like crazy, but there's just enough plot woven through the excess, I'm having difficulty cutting.  I do think there are some sacrifices to be made ahead.  I'm also trying to consider how to make two books out of this--wrapping one up and making the other self-sufficient.  Thanks for being so faithful.  

You're absolutely right; writing in installments is a different beast than writing a novel that will be read cover to cover.  I wrote an original story, and posted on fp.  Now that I'm editing it to e-publish, I'm having to get rid of the cliffhangers, and change the pace a bit.  It's not as critical that a chapter stand alone, and I don't have to keep reminding readers of what's gone before, since it will be fresher in their minds.  Concise is good.  If I could contain an idea better, I could write short stories and maybe publish in magazines.  But no... they all want to become epics.  I'm learning to prune the epic, but I probably need a machete instead of a scalpel.    

Parenting is another area where Europe significantly differs from the US.  Here, the legal drinking age is mostly 21, and so parents tend to guard their kids and try to keep them from "going out," at least until they leave for college/uni.  It's part of that "all or nothing" mentality, and a lot of the attitudes relate to religious morality.  It results in kids being kept artificially young, or those who do go out, tend to binge drink and make bad choices.  It's like you can be "good" or "bad" and there's not much in between.    

I got the same kind of upbringing you gave your son, and I did all my drinking and fooling around before I was legally allowed.  I wasn't out of control, but there were a lot of opportunities to mess up and get into trouble.  I think it was a bit more innocent back then.  I didn't have to worry about date-rape drugs in my drinks, some gang initiation putting me at risk, or any of my exploits being recorded and posted online.  Now that I'm the mother, I know there's a balance between knowing and trusting your kids, and giving them freedom to grow, and being wary of the world around them.  Europeans, it seems, have more baby steps to independence than we do.  Here, they're legally adult at 18, and they get all the rights and responsibilities (except for drinking,) dumped on them at once.  It's like they're expected to be children until that magical age, then they're free do do whatever they want.  

I've been a little overprotective, but I know I'd never forgive myself if something happened to them because I left them at risk.  Samantha is only 13, so her dad wants to keep her a little girl a bit longer, while Bella is letting her take those baby steps.        

Who would have thought one thirteen year-old girl could have such an impact?

It's bad, because I forget what happens sometimes.  The story is too stinking long!

I always see Jasper with a dangerous edge.  Maybe it's his history as a preditor, or his scars, or maybe it's just because Rathbone has it.  Mix that up with a touch of genteel southern charm, and his charisma... 

I'm one of those people who believes most people are redeemable.  Mike has his issues, but he's not a complete jerk.  I've been married for half as long as you have, but maybe fear of custody fights made me a little less likely to throw in the towel when we had conflicts.  Once you share a child with someone, they're in your life, whether you divorce or not.  

This beast is so long, I've forgotten a lot of it too.  If breaking it into two or more books wouldn't require a bit of a rewrite, I'd split this.  I just don't think I"m up to rewriting the second part to make it stand alone.  I'm trying to write an original novel, as well as editing and uploading two here.  

Does anyone go scot free when they tangle with a vampire?  Thanks againe.

The bachelorette party is a relatively new thing, coming about in the last twenty or thirty years.  It's sort of a female take on the bachelor party, and usually reserved for younger women.  The bridal shower is more traditional, and it's usually a social, with household gifts for the bride.  One tradition is for the bride to save the bows and ribbons from the gifts.  She fastens them to a paper plate to use as her bouquet for the wedding rehearsal.  It's also said that every broken ribbon represents a future baby for the couple.  I had both when I got married, though my bachelorette party didn't involve any men, just lots of drinking games.  

As to Halloween... since I was a kid, it seems it's gone from a minor childish holiday, to a major production rivaling Christmas, for adults.  Some people really get into Halloween, while others just roll their eyes and wonder wny.  I believe it's because so many are falling away from religious faith and Christian celebrations.  Not that I believe Halloween is a celebration of Satan and evil as some fundamentalists do.  But it is a non-religious holiday that has all the fun of parties, food, and excess, without any of the guilt and religious significance of traditional Christian celebrations.