This Project Never Should Have Happened...

I'm very new to the fanfic world, and never thought I'd be part of it. Then I read Twilight, to see if it was appropriate for my daughter to read. At first, I couldn't see what was the draw. I didn't see the motivation. Why should Edward care who Bella was? It didn't make sense. Then I read Midnight Sun. Aaahh, there's his motivation.

Also, unfortunately, I was hooked. I read New Moon and Eclipse in quick succession. Then came Breaking Dawn. Friends who had read it already, cautioned me. "It's not the same!" they said.

I should have listened...

I enjoyed the first 80 pages or so of Breaking Dawn. The rest of it absolutely broke the Twilight spell. It was horrible. I was only able to finish by chanting "It's just a comic book. It's just a comic book." over and over again.

After sputtering into silence about the errors and impossibilities I said "what the heck? If this could get published how hard could it be?" I started writing. And it just kept coming...thus was born Cygnus Rising.

So here I am, a middle-aged father, reading Twilight, writing fanfiction. Call the man-police? Pfftt!! Go ahead, this is who I am, Twi-geek and proud!

Now on Twitter: @_rel8tivity_

Why Do I Boggle at the Demon Spawn?

RenFailmee is in the book, so it's canon, right? It's SM's world and she can write it the way she wants, right?

Well, sure she can. During the creation process, the sky's the limit. But if she wants it to make a modicum of sense, and not grab you by the throat and yank you out of the reading experience, she needs to follow the rules she wrote. Vampires have crystallized into living rock, their bodily fluids have been replaced by venom, and they've ceased to grow or change. They don't even re-grow hair because there's no cellular growth. Those are SM's own words, recorded for posterity at the Twilight Lexicon.

For me, this meant that vampire/human hybrids were WRITTEN OUT OF THE TWI-UNIVERSE! Yah, I know SM said she was only talking about females when she said vamps can't have babies. But how much sense does that make? She eliminated cellular growth from vampire properties, EXCEPT in their testicles? C'mon, pull the other one, it's got bells on.

Furthermore, the venom affects all the tissues of a vampire's body. That includes any sperm a male has in his body at the time of transformation. This places it under the "no growth or change" rule of SM's. Well guess what? Sperm has to change to merge with an egg. So from beginning to end, the vampire reproductive cycle that SM thinks she's wiggled through, still doesn't work.

I've read sci-fi/fantasy books since I was in high school, and I think my suspension-of-disbelief muscles are pretty well developed. But the rules that the author establishes when they create their world are what make it special. And when the author says the sky is green in one chapter, then the sky is blue the next, with no plausible explanation, sorry, my bullcrap meter starts ringing off the wall.

I guess this means I'll never write fic with RenFailmee in it. Sorry. :)

Cygnus Rising Has a Banner!!!

I have no words to express my thanks, but out of the blue, ysar created a banner for Cygnus Rising! You can see it here:

https:///file/d/0B9hv1H9sqZJGeE9FUnNZT1o4MDg/edit?usp=sharing

Isn't it lovely? I'd never thought about getting a banner before this, so I'm so very touched! Ysar is so sweet, I can't say thank you enough!!!

It's Official

I've been corrupted. Wrote my first entry to a Twi-fic contest: The Canon Tour. The interesting thing I've noticed about Twi-fic: there's so many AH stories!! Don't get me wrong, because some of them are quite awesome. But aren't vamps the whole point of Twi-fic? So thankful to SolarEclipses for running the contest, to bring more vamps back to Twi-fandom.

Fandom for Oklahoma

A big thank you to everyone who donated to the Fandom for Oklahoma cause! Together we raised more than the target goal! This effort raised money to support three organizations aiding the recovery in Oklahoma City: The Red Cross, the ASPCA, and The Salvation Army. I've posted the outtake I donated from Cygnus Rising now. Hope it adds some insight to Edward's story!