Last night my daughter and friends attended the “Forks Prom” Twilight DVD release party at Hastings.  She told me that there were not near as many people there as she expected and while there was some dressing up  (prom dresses and twilight moms in there Twilight t- shirts), there were no drinks named after the movie characters as had been rumored.  They had free something that looked like fruit punch which daughter declined – going for a purchased frappe instead.  They also served CiCi’s pizza and pimento cheese roll-up somethings with veggie chips. “Alice Cullen” would have been appalled (it’s a Twilight thing).  I don’t know if all parties across the country were as lame as this one or if it os just here.

I still love the series and the movie but what I love more is the whole story of a Mormon mom having a dream and then writing a story from that dream.  The story becomes a book, the book becomes a series and a series of movies and a cult following grows.  There are at the very least, forty blogs that follow anything and everything Twilight series.  There are forums, fanfiction sites devoted to nothing but variations on Twilight, merchandise related to Twilight, and a huge and strongly opinionated fan base.  Stephenie Meyer is even in the 100 finalists for Time magazine’s most influential people of 2009 – she beat out Oprah!

If Kristen Stewart says something in an interview that can be taken out of context – the twilighters will start duking it out, completely polarized into a love/hate group.  If Robert Pattinson buys a microwave and nukes hot pockets, it’s hot and everyone wants pictures and if there is video?  It’s feeding frenzy time.  There is secrecy and security at filming locations or they will be mobbed by teens who will travel across the country to get a peep and swoon over Rob Pattz.

When there were rumors that Taylor Lautner would not be cast as Jacob in New Moon, the fans went crazy writing letters, blogging, and basically pitching media fits and the next thing you know the kid is working out and bulking up to better fit the part of a larger than life, more mature Jacob.

How did Stephenie Meyer get here?  It fascinates me that a story became such a THING!  How does a person begin a story that ends up spanning four books and leave people wanting more.  The movie came out in theaters in November and tonight there are parties all over the country to celebrate the release of a dvd of a movie that everyone has already seen  The dvd is supposed to have extra scenes, most of which have already been leaked on the internet.  There is the soundtrack which is already available on cd.  Not much new here but still – there is all this excitement.

Did her husband ever yell at her  “quit sticking your head in that darn computer and just come to bed already?”  She says music was a big inspiration when she was writing – did she listen using head phones or ear buds?  I don’t see the family sleeping through Muse playing “Massive Black Hole” and if I didn’t have a teenager I’m not sure I would even know who Paramore is.  Just for the record the best music in the movie is the soundtrack composed by Carter Burwell.  I would go see the next movie just for the soundtrack if he is the composer for it as well.  We were watching another movie recently and I said “doesn’t that music sound like…” and daughter and I said Carter Burwell? at the same time.  As always, at our house, someone was  on the computer and googled it, and sure enough, he had done the soundtrack for that movie as well.  Beautiful!  He is also the composer for the score for two of my favorite movies – Serenity and The Band Played On. Did the book inspire the music?

Where did all the words come from?  I often have trouble getting a decent blog post written!  Would I have the commitment and imagination to write an entire book or even one chapter?  Would I have a story in me that would be compelling enough that someone would actually want to hang around long enough to read the whole thing, never mind care enough to have an opinion about it?  Did Stephenie ever dream that her life would change so much?  I’d love to just sit down with her and talk over a cup of coffee.