Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
BD vent (spoilers)
I had read that some of you wanted to throw BD at the wall, and I now partly understand why. I've only gotten to Jacob's narrative (basically Chapter 2), but I'm so ticked at the narrative change. I would have thought that an author wouldn't change the flow in the last book of the series. And she might be prego? WTF?! She's (edit: SM) taken liberties with the vampire legends, which is fine, but how on earth would someone who is technically dead be able to procreate?!
Don't tell me what happens next - just needed to vent to people who would understand why I'm frustrated.
DH is reading Twilight (he's a little less than half way through), and he's bored. LOL, I TOLD him it was mushy but promised that the end had some action.
Thanks for reading
Re: BD vent (spoilers)
Ditto.
Ditto this ditto!
~~Our Family Blog~~
Whoa! You seriously missed a lot of stuff if you skipped this part. It was mostly about Bella, Edward, and the Cullens, just from his perspective.
I'm not a Jacob fan either, but you really miss alot if you skipped his portion.
As for the original poster, I ended up liking the Jacob portion. I was sick of whiney Bella by this time, and Edward's POV would have probably been a little too suicidal for my taste. I think telling that portion of the story from an outsider's POV was a great move. I actually appreciated Jacob's character after reading it.
At least his chapter titles are funny, right?
.. When Edward swallows the wedding cake, where does it go? Vampires poop?
We'll get to sperm later.
Mindy
<a href="http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a373/melindacromwell/?action=view
Poor guy - he had to yack up his wedding cake later.
That was my favorite part of the entire book!!!!
I thought the transition from Bella's perspective to Jacob's was a little annoying, but I agree that atleast we got the "whole" story from his view. I think I would have liked to have had those chapters from Edwards POV though!
About the vamp pregnancy thing from SM:
The first seed (no pun intended) was planted when I did Bella's computer research in chapter seven of Twilight. Bella reads about several real vampire legends?the Danag, Estrie, Upier, etc. In the novel, I only mentioned a few of the many legends I read through. One that I didn't mention at this point was the entry on the Incubus. The unique feature about that legend was that the incubus could father children. Hmmm, I said, and I filed that kernel of an idea away for later. When I decided to write the first sequel to Twilight (Forever Dawn), I knew it was going to revolve around a hybrid baby from the outset.
When my editor and I decided to go back and really develop Bella's last year of high school, I did so with the knowledge that it was all going to end up with the events in Breaking Dawn. Everything I wrote was pointed in that direction.
I was always very careful when I answered the "Can vampires have babies?" question, because I didn't want to say anything incorrect, but I also didn't want to make the future super-obvious. I focused my answers on the female half of the equation?female vampires cannot have children because their bodies no longer change in any aspect. There is no changing cycle to begin with, and their bodies couldn't expand to fit a growing child, either. I purposely evaded answering the question, "Can a male vampire get a human female pregnant?" to preserve a tiny bit of surprise in the last book. There were many statements on this subject purported to have come from me, but I never made those comments because, obviously, I knew where this was going.
Now, on to the "how is this possible?" question. First of all, of course it's not possible. None of this story is possible. It's a fantasy story about creatures that don't actually exist. Within the context of the fantasy, however, this is how it works:
Vampires are physically similar enough to their human origins to pass as humans under some circumstances (like cloudy days). There are many basic differences. They appear to have skin like ours, albeit very fair skin. The skin serves the same general purpose of protecting the body. However, the cells that make up their skin are not pliant like our cells, they are hard and reflective like crystal. A fluid similar to the venom in their mouths works as a lubricant between the cells, which makes movement possible (note: this fluid is very flammable). A fluid similar to the same venom lubricates their eyes so that their eyes can move easily in their sockets. (However, they don't produce tears because tears exist to protect the eye from damage, and nothing is going to be able to scratch a vampire's eye.) The lubricant-venom in the eyes and skin is not able to infect a human the way saliva-venom can. Similarly, throughout the vampire's body are many versions of venom-based fluids that retain a marked resemblance to the fluid that was replaced, and function in much the same way and toward the same purpose. Though there is no venom replacement that works precisely like blood, many of the functions of blood are carried on in some form. Also, the nervous system runs in a slightly different but heightened way. Some involuntary reactions, like breathing, continue (in that specific example because vampires use the scents in the air much more than we do, rather than out of a need for oxygen). Other involuntary reactions, like blinking, don't exist because there is no purpose for them. The normal reactions of arousal are still present in vampires, made possible by venom-related fluids that cause tissues to react similarly as they do to an influx of blood. Like with vampire skin?which looks similar to human skin and has the same basic function?fluids closely related to seminal fluids still exist in male vampires, which carry genetic information and are capable of bonding with a human ovum. This was not a known fact in the vampire world (outside of Joham's personal experimenting) before Nessie, because it's nearly impossible for a vampire to be that near a human and not kill her.
I didn't get into all of these details at my signings because it's a long, complicated mouthful. Also, it's hard to be clearly heard with all the screaming. Mostly, though, I waited to do this in writing because I have an immature, Homer Simpson-like tendency to giggle when I say the words "seminal fluids" in public