Help Send AngstGoddess003 to Comic-Con

Are you going to be at Comic-Con in San Diego in July? Do you read FanFiction and worship the ground that Wide Awake author AngstGoddess003 walks on? Would you like to know that she's also at Comic-Con and you might actually get a chance to meet her?

AG has been asked to cover the New Moon panel as an admin for the TLYDF blog. However, she lives across the country and we would like to help get her out to SoCal. She'll obviously have airfare, transportation costs and room and board expenses, so I'll be accepting donations to help offset those.

If you'd like to help me in this endeavor, please send any amount ($1, $5, $20, ??) using PayPal to the email address 1cali4me@gmail[dot]com (be sure to put a "." in place of [dot]). I'll be accepting donations up until July 22nd, so I can present her with the full amount collected at Comic-Con the next day. We'd love any amount you can provide and I'm sure when she hears about this she'll be very grateful for your support.

Let's show her how incredible our readers are and thank her for being such an amazing friend to The Twilight Sisterhood.

TLYDF: Exploring the Jasper Factor

Not long ago, our good friend AngstGoddess003 turned to the Twilight Sisterhood for a little research assistance. We're always glad to help when we can, so I was thrilled to see the results of that with her excellent essay for TLYDF called Exploring the Jasper Factor.

AG delves into the concept of Jasper being the next truly "acceptable" star of fanfiction's future. There are literally thousands of fics about Edward and Bella and recently there has been a surge of next generation fics with Jasper taking the reigns.

She breaks down the different variations of Jasper that we're seeing such as Vampsper, Texsper, Darksper and, one that scares me a bit, Edsper. AG explores what it is about these characterizations, in addition to others, that are so appealing to the readers and what the thought process is behind them from the authors themselves.

Beyond that, AG enlisted the help of the Twilight Sisterhood and others with some questions which I presented to those on our forum. First, she wanted to know if we imagine actor Jackson Rathbone, who played Jasper Hale in the movie adaptation of Twilight, when we read/write Twilight fanfiction. If not, she was curious who we do picture in that role. Then she wanted to know our opinions on which we thought was the cooler power, Edward's ability to read minds or Jasper's power of empathetic manipulation.

Here is the Jacksper breakdown and some of our contributions. I know who these "random" readers are. Can you find your input here?:

Jasper is Jackson : 11
Jasper is Jackson, with physical alterations : 5
Jasper is not Jackson : 3
Jasper is Joe Anderson : 1
Jasper is Tatum Channing : 1

Random Reader comment from The Twilight Sisterhood: As for the powers... I think they are both incredibly intrusive; you're either invaded by their thoughts or their emotions. I think I’d have to go with the thoughts, because it is the lesser of the two. I think Edward learned to ignore and tune out the chatter all around him, but they never said anything about jasper being able to ignore emotional surges around him. I’m a very empathetic person, and I know how hard it is not to succumb to the emotions of others when they're running high. I imagine most of the time he's not even sure how he himself feels, he is so inundated with the thoughts around him.

Random Reader comment from The Twilight Sisterhood: The "cooler" power is relative... I think the mindreading thing is cool, but not sure I'd want to live like that the rest of MY life or live with someone else who had that power...so I'd have to choose empathetic manipulation, although I'm a moody bitch, so I'd have to choose C - none of the above...if I had a choice, I'd choose seeing the future like Alice...she has the ability to change the future based on her visions! Way coolest power!

This is such a fun, insightful piece that you must check it out and show AG some love. She did a great job dissecting all of the aspects of The Jasper Factor.

The Lazy, Yet Discerning Ficster

Welcome Readers!!!

Bienvenue! Willkommen! Benvenuto! Multumesc! Huan Ying! Karibu! That would be a great big WELCOME to our vast and diverse reader pool!

Although we are a very young Twilight blog, we are so pleased to see our readership expanding daily with visitors from over 35 countries with the top 4 represented below. We are jazzed to see that what we're doing here is reaching so many people all over the world.

Whether you found us through a search engine with some crazy request like:

"how did twilight get nominated for an mtv award" - The Fandom United!
"when nikki reed meet jackson moose" - March 31st
"where can you find wide awake by amanda bell" - You can't! But, here's her Interview with the author.
"who is bobby longs manager" - That would be Phil Taylor
"what sam bradley says about robert pattinson" - He cooks great beans?
"what is a snuggy party" - A little slice of heaven
"how to meet robert pattinson in person in las vegas" - I promise this wasn't my own personal search, but I'd still love to know the answer to that one myself. *grins*

Maybe you found us linked through another blog site, or were sent our link from a totally awesome friend, but no matter how...we welcome you with open arms, thank you for checking in and invite you to come back over and over again.

Here's how some of the traffic stacks up during different time periods throughout the day. You'll notice the first map has pretty good coverage over both US coasts including Canada & a light spattering in other countries. The next shows a much heavier concentration over in the UK, France & Germany. The third shows that we've added some readers in Africa and Saudi Arabia while the Canadians have nodded off to sleep or something.We like to think that the return visitors in British Columbia are the cast keeping tabs on us here at the Sisterhood. That or possibly Sam Bradley after getting a Google alert on his name. We'd love to have you all stop in, stay awhile, make yourselves at home and feel free to comment or contact me directly. Oh, and...Rob, just so you know, we have Hot Pockets! ;o)Thanks, again, we love each and every one of you! Come back soon...ya hear?

Twilight Fanfic: Interview with author ilsuocantante

In my Wide Awake stupor, I went in search of more...luckily, on The Lazy, Yet Discerning Ficster (TLYDF) blog there was a little fanfic called Answering Bell featured in their Dumpster Dive Treasure Find. Here is what they had to say about it:

Mission: Find a story that doesn't require a bleach chaser.

Parameters: New, Intriguing, Under Appreciated
The Pearl: Answering Bell

Summary: After her divorce, Bella is broken. She moves away from Forks and resolves to move on with her life. With the help of some new friends, can she find love again? AU/AH, slightly OOC. I suck at summaries, but give it a shot.

Twilight - Fiction Rated: M - English - Hurt/Comfort/Romance -

Why I Read This: First of all, even though this summary contains those words that I typically run away from, I gave it a shot. What I found was a well-planned, well thought out story that deserves far more attention that it has. I do admit to being confused in the beginning, but by the time I got to the second chapter, things made much more sense. I like a Bella who has the strength to make changes in her life and plow forward, doing what she needs to do even if that means leaving her comfort zone. After 5 chapters, the author has introduced us to the main players in the story and I'm more than just a little bit interested in seeing where she intends to take the story. It is definitely worth the read and the time.

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Well, that peaked my interest and I was quickly hooked. Answering Bell's author, ilsuocantante, granted me a little interview.

How long have you been writing and what led you to focus on Twilight related fanfiction?

When I was in middle/high school I would write really bad short stories and angsty poetry. This is the first time I've written anything and actually let other people read it though. It's been a little nerve wracking for me, but overall a good experience.

Before Twilight, I really had no idea that fanfiction existed. I'd heard murmurings of Harry Potter stories, but figured it was mostly Snape on Harry smut or something, which I had no interest in since I thought of those characters as kids.

With Twilight... well, I'm probably going to take some heat for this, but I really didn't enjoy the books that much. I got bullied into reading it by a coworker, and became fascinated by the concept but found the writing in general lacking. I was left with a lot of questions, and started making up stories in my head to answer them. Then I stumbled on fanfiction, became obsessed, and decided to try my hand at writing them down. And there my first two short stories were born.

Who or what has been your biggest inspiration?

Character-wise, Edward. I find his mind fascinating; so dark and tortured. I really wish Stephenie Meyer had expanded on him in the books. Midnight Sun was great, but again I was left with a lot of questions. I really hope she finishes it.

As far as inspiration from the fanfiction world, the first fic I read was Spiral Static by Coquettishness. I found it and thought, hell yes! Someone else who needed the 'fade to black' parts filled in. That really inspired the first one-shots I wrote.

Overall all, I find AngstGoddess003's Wide Awake incredibly inspiring, as well as tara sue me's The Submissive/The Dominant... and of course, anything that Withthevampsofcourse and Jandco have written. Mskathy's The Discovery of Bella Swan and The List by Laura Cullen are also favorites.

What have your stories and growing fan base brought out in you personally?

I think it's a little too early to say I have an actual fanbase, but thanks haha :) the process in general has reaffirmed my love of writing, and the response I've gotten has boosted my confidence in my ideas and technique more than I can say. I was really nervous when I started Answering Bell; I'd never written anything more than a few thousand words other than for school, so it was definitely a big step for me and I'm really enjoying the experience.

What do you hope to accomplish through your stories?

To be honest, I'm just having fun testing my creative waters. I dont have an agenda with my stories, other than hopefully entertaining the reader.

You're putting a lot of heart and soul into Answering Bell right now. Do you intend it to be a long story or do you already have other storylines swirling in your head fighting to get out?

Like I said, this is my first time attempting anything like this... so i'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants here! I have a definite direction that I'm heading in, but can't tell you for sure how long or short this is going to be. I am estimating about 20 chapters at this point. I do have a couple other storylines that I'm kicking around at the moment. One will be canon, post-BD, but may turn into a one shot since it's a very specific scene I have in mind. the other could be either AU or AU-AH, I haven't decided yet. i will most likely wait on those until Answering bell is completed.

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Well, just to let you know, you ARE building quite the devoted fanbase here with The Twilight Sisterhood & Team Moose! Keep up the great work and thanks for taking some time out to talk to us.

On her profile you can see her cast of characters for Answering Bell as well as what they're wearing throughout the story. It's still a work in progress, but she just posted Chapter 8 yesterday and is working diligently on more. You can also find her one-shots there, The Good Fight and Sex On Fire, but keep in mind these stories are written for Mature Audiences and RATED M for a reason!

AngstGoddess003 "Rocks Our Socks" with 'Wide Awake'

Okay, so I have to admit that just like with the Twilight bandwagon, I was a little late to jump on the one for Wide Awake. It followed the same pattern of constantly hearing friends and people in my groups praising the story and me being skeptical about how good it could really be. My Bad!

I started by reading my friend, Amanda's, exclusive interview with the author for the Examiner. Then my girls here at The Twilight Sisterhood hopped on, grabbed my hand while I dragged behind for a bit, but I finally got my footing and never looked back! Thanks ladies for feeding my addictions, I love you!

So, now I'm fully engrossed in Wide Awake which is a new take on the Edward & Bella love affair. Although, not all of the characters are present, they are all human which is a surprisingly refreshing touch. As much as I love the perfect Edward Cullen of the Twilight Saga, I think I love WA's "Dark Edward" even more. The characters are flawed and fragile, with real human emotions and reactions to situations...Take THAT, Stanley!

AG does an excellent job of bringing them all to life so perfectly with her vivid descriptions and details. Robert Pattinson mentioned in his interview for April's GQ magazine that he really enjoyed reading the fanfic and was pleasantly surprised by the talent out there. I'm not sure that all of the actors would enjoy how their new characters are portrayed here vs. Twilight, but I tend to think that Rob would really like this one.

So, Rob, if you're reading this (LOL!), be sure to check out AG's Wide Awake next time you need a good read, you'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll fan yourself when it gets steamy. Visit her site http://angstgoddess003.livejournal.com/ and scroll down to where it says Wide Awake on the left. Each chapter is numbered and named after a cookie (Scooby Snacks had me laughing so hard I was crying!).

WARNING: The material is strictly for Mature Audiences for sex, drugs, and profanity that would shock a sailor!

P.S. We love you, AG, and are all anxiously anticipating the next chapter...but you already knew that!