The Vampire Diaries

First I followed Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and found myself somewhat terrified reading vivid descriptions of the merciless deaths that her undead characters bestowed their unsuspecting victims. Yet I continued to be intrigued with Lestat's personal suffering, the internal conflicts he faced because of his being. It was hard not to admire Anne Rice's literary talents.

Queen of the Damned/Interview with the Vampire
While there were other popular novels about vampires around, I really didn't find enough interest to try reading another one until I heard about Stephenie Meyers and her Twilight Saga. Her vampire series were not as "intense" as Anne Rice's books. In fact, Twilight seemed to "glamorize" vampires more than "spook" us to pieces, as evidenced by the popularity of the series among teenagers and the large number of highly-trafficked blog sites written by fans of the series (book and movie alike).

Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack
Now I hear that The Vampire Diaries (another Young Adult fiction series) by L.J. Smith has been made into a television series. The new series will premiere on the CW network this Thursday, September 10th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

(Hmm...judging from this promo pic, it already looks like this series is geared for Generation Y-ers)
I've never read J.L. Smith's books but I think I'm going to keep my laptop off and turn the TV on for a change tomorrow night and check out this show. I'm curious to know see how this other set of eternally high school-aged vampires are portrayed (even though it may be a slight departure from the way the books were written - as almost all screen/book adaptations are). If it's interesting enough, I might just go to Amazon and order the book set to read. Yes, I do love reading! I saw that they already have a special collection available for it:

The Vampire Diaries Box Set Volume I, II, III, IV (the Awakeing, Dark Reunion, The Struggle, The Fury) (volume 1-4)

Might just have to add it to this year's Christmas Wish List. Guess we'll wait and see!

New Moon Posters featuring the Wolf Pack

DeviantArt has a number of Twilight fans that created some pretty amazing fan art for the movie. I did a little research to see what other creative minds have made as far as New Moon poster ideas go. What I found pretty cool is the growing theme of Quileute Tribe - Wolf Pack movie posters and some surprisingly hot ones of Jacob Black (which make you really wonder what the heck does Bella want Edward's "cold" body for?!)

Interesting blend. However, I think the artist should've continued blending the wolf face a little further down...say maybe keep some fur down to the chin line at least. With the way it looks here, it kinda looks like an eyepatch, though it's still a pretty good, original piece to me.

Source-http://cinemink.deviantart.com/art/New-Moon-Fan-Poster-1-116930628


This one uses the recently released group pic of the Pack, featuring buff and tan young men from La Push donning unique tribal tattoos. I wish I could see the design that was used for the tattoos a little closer. It would be interesting to look into the symbolism of the design. As far as the poster itself goes, it's great eye candy for the giddy girls.

Source -
http://grodansnagel.deviantart.com/art/New-Moon-Wolf-Pack-120133396

This surprised me. I hope a teenager came up with the idea for this one. Otherwise, some adult is having some serious fantasies about a 17-year old boy. Just kidding, it's not that bad. You barely see his shoulder in the pic. Artistically speaking, however, this idea is pretty intriguing and if you didnt read the book, it may make you wonder if the movie is going to show a very dramatic shift of focus to Jacob's changing bod...he IS after all, going to become a fairly large, muscular werewolf.

Source - http://xxgoingblindxx.deviantart.com/art/New-Moon-poster-Jacob-Black-118761575

Now this is what I meant by blending the faces more. Being a photoshop artist myself, I imagine that it might've been a little bit of a challenge to get the wolf's face to fit just right with Jacob's face. In doing so, I'm not really sure that's a wolf or a bear that was used in this blend. I don't want to spoil anything for those that didn't read the book, but there could be a good reason for the artist allowing this to look somewhat like a bear. You have to read the book to know what I'm referring to.

Source -
http://dragonkeeper7.deviantart.com/art/New-Moon-poster-120599212

I saved the best one for last...teehee! This one really took me by surprise. Taylor Lautner really did buff up to make sure he could keep his role in the follow up movie to Twilight and this fan-made movie poster really does an excellent job of exploiting that. Kinda makes me hope that the producers actually use this one because boy, the artist did a really good job on this one.

Source - http://grodansnagel.deviantart.com/art/New-Moon-Jacob-2-121431117

Michael Sheen in New Moon movie

Newsflash! I just found out that British actor, Michael Sheen, who played Lucian (a werewolf) in Underworld, is going to play Aro (the leader of the deadly Volturi vampire coven) in New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2).


Image taken from the Michael Sheen Official Website

That is just so fitting! He has the right kind of look for this new role - a captivating masculine charm yet the ability to carry the terrifying look of evil as the role requires. I can't wait to see him carry out this new role as Aro...my excitement for the next movie installment of the The Twilight Saga is just growing.

See Michael Sheen in Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition). Click Here!

Poor Bella - Torn Between Two Loves!

It think it's so cool what a lot of TWILIGHT fans have created and shared online. I found these two really cute depictions of a poor Bella Swan, torn between her two loves - Edward Cullen and Jacob Black. The second one's the first humorous one I found.


Photo from Blushing Bella's Flickr page

Photo from Liholeti's Flickr page
By the way, I recently joined a Twilight Fan Site that I shared some of my Twilight digital art works on. I thought I'd post a link here for other fans who might be interested in joining as well. There are a number of other fan sites but only a handful of them seem to be updated regularly. One site that is updated frequently is the Twilighters Anonymous page. The widget I have on my sidebar is from that site. Check it out for the latest news and photos on your favorite Twilight movie cast member.

Criticism on the Twilight Critics

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) novel recently made its debut on the big screen as a movie starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. The first of Stephenie's "vampire" series has had mixed reviews. I've read both Anne Rice's "vampire" writings and Stephenie Meyer's book and I must say, these critics who put down Stephenie Meyer's book are forgetting who the target audience is in her series. They criticize her writing style, complaining that it lacks substance. What substance are they looking for? The gory details about the vampire kills and in-depth historical perspectives that you can read about in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles? Would Stephenie Meyer's target teen audience really be interested in reading all that? Or wouldn't the frequent mention of love and crushing stares be more interesting? Right.

I've also read criticism about the conversations between the characters of the The Twilight Saga, remarks that their dialogues were "bland" or "corny". Most of the characters in the novel are teenagers, for crying out loud. I think Stephenie Meyer painted a fairly realistic view of teenagers in her novel by not making them sound too intellectual, yet drawing some emphasis on their unsureness, their "dazzlement" with their desires and physical affection. In the story, both Edward and Bella deal with their growing desires for one another, yet wondering at the same time, why they are so attracted to each other, realizing that there is "something" that is not quite normal or right about the entire situation. It's a theme that successfully keeps the reader wondering where all this will lead to in the end.



Stephenie Meyers is no dummy when it comes to writing. With a degree in English to back her, I think Stephenie Meyers kept her writing style in a manner that holds the target audience's interest very well. Her descriptions are clear and the flow of events is smooth enough to follow along well enough to be able to allow the reader with an active imagination to picture every scene in their minds without feeling overwhelmed by an overabundance of information unrelated to the specific event. Heck, she has even been able to win a very large adult fan base with her vivid descriptions of Bella's thoughts and feelings, the very same things that many young people experience when they fall obsessively in love with someone, not just with a vampire. If anyone who claims to have fallen in love with someone before can't remember how their thoughts always seemed to be forcibly preoccupied by visions of their "loved" one's face, wishes to touch or hold that person, or even fantasies about kissing that person, then they've never felt this kind of "love" that millions of readers and movie-goers have enjoyed for decades in other popular novels and movies. And this is exactly the kind of love that you find in this teenage romance novel which happens to have a vampire for one of the characters.

In all retrospect, I just want to tell the critics who give The Twilight Saga a negative review to read the book first and keep in mind who the intended readers are...then maybe they can have something sensible to say about the whole thing.