Hello, Lady Rheia! I've been perusing your comments with interest since you started posting them. My work on Black Hole Sun is a couple of years old now, at least, haha. However, I have gotten a few requests that I keep moving on with it. You can probably tell that I tried to change as little as possible from the original work, sometimes to it's detriment, so if I did make another book for a 'New Moon' I'd want to incorporating more ideas and veer off course slightly from what happened in the original. If you don't mind waiting a while for me to finish a chapter on Carnival of Rust, I could start work on the first chapter of Book Two <3
However, I'd love to know your thoughts on the last chapter for Charlie's birthday. What are your thoughts there? Some folks thought I added *too much* homophobia on Bella's side, so I'm intrigued that you would have wanted a tad more of it. I also found it therapeutic to write, especially considering some ideas related to what Renee's mom believed that led to their strained relationship before Bella's grandmother died, so that would probably be coming up at some point in the next novel.
Also, I love Dad Jokes and puns. Please keep them coming, I will never write 'Ed-ified' the same way again.
I don’t mind waiting at all. Honestly if anything I’m inspired to try something on my own.
I suspect ppl were avoidant of the homophobia bc it makes the story less “one to one” with the original, and also bc ppl like to imagine worlds where homophobia isn’t an issue, and also also, people enjoy the power fantasy of being in love with a vampire and being implicitly untouchable for everyone else as a result. Addressing the existence of homophobia weakens bella and slows down some of the crazy inherent to the twilight books.
That said, the reason I appreciate it all the same is that facing homophobia grounds Bella to the real world pleasantly.
One of the problems I have always had with twilight is the way that the second two thirds of the novel take place in a sort of hazy dream setting adjacent to school. Once Bella is done meeting Edward, the fact that she’s in high school becomes an accident almost. The whole thing feels unpleasantly unreal, which, in my eyes, cheapens the intensity of the relationship. It doesnt mean anything that the relationship is moving so quickly if we can’t appreciate the scale of time outside the relationship, and as a result it feels almost too fast and too slow at the same time.
Facing real homophobia from the world around her and being required to interact with the world anyway has several benefits.
It takes up time. Time that might otherwise have to be spent will she won’t she-ing between Edythe and Jacob (though I would enjoy a version where she is ‘just friends’ with Edythe and comp-hets her way into “dating” Jacob (read, sometimes spending time with him on both-Dad sponsored “dates” and telling Edythe how confused she is about not feeling much.)
It also gives the high schoolers (whom she never calls by their full names in contrast to “real characters) something to do, and reason to be in interesting scenes, where like, maybe one tries to get her to admit she’s gay “for her own good”, or maybe one where she gets accused of being a dyke, perhaps a teacher engages in disproportionate enforcement of dress code violations to punish her for dating a girl. Lots of options.
Idk, it just… it really is a tiny town. Anyone can visit just by going to google maps. And while IRL, I’m sure everyone there is lovely… Thematically, the idea of everyone just being okay with her being a f*g with literally zero time to think about it doesn’t make sense.
Plus, we can have the visiting vampires be homophobic or specifically not homophobic, but Bella thought they were homophobic at first,
We can have Bella get stolen away during the conflict and they refuse to give her back because women dating is a sin. Many cool options.
Also, it just, lets bella be upset about something real, instead of engaging in her bad habit of getting upset over something imaginary. (To be fair, I probably would mind this less if the entire fantasy romance genre hadn’t taken on this habit so eagerly)
Anyway, I ramble, a lot, I apologize. I should really clarify, I am incredibly glad twilight exists and incredibly glad to have read this fanfic. There is lots that I would get excited about in a retelling, but your retelling brought me incredible joy exactly as it is.
To comment on the homophobia being disliked, the one commenter eluded to having gone through internalized homophobia in their life, so they didn't want to be reminded of that in something they were reading and couldn't finish the story. I wanted it in there because I went through/going through it myself and I wanted to show that Bella has a journey to get put of it.
I think part of the reason I enjoyed Twilight (besides the music and scenery being captivating) was because I was told that Stephanie Meyer wrote this inspired by a dream she had. I've had tons of weird, cool, kinda creepy dreams and if I wrote them down they'd be equally strange and unrealistic. So, I guess that helps me process all the parts feeling hazy and not grounded in the real world. Like, if thus whole story was a fever dream from smacking her head on the kitchen cabinet it would make perfect sense. It's been hard to balance between the "dreamy" feel of Twilight and the realism the book could have benefitted from to help Bella become a more relateable/immersion character. If I'm making sense.
As far as the pacing goes for time going by, I know for BHS (Black Hole Sun) I tried to follow the timeline of the original novel, but in CoR I've had trouble balancing the succession of events. It's like working in photoshop and having layer upon layer upon layer and trying to navigate how soon something should happen and when it should happen and what things to discard or save for a later chapter. My problem tends to be that I can write 'too much' and it overwhelms people sometimes. I am working on that and I hope I did a good job in the original chapters toward the end of BHS.
With regard to the "everyone's okay with it", I wanted the book to have a happier ending simply because of how much lesbian portrayal in media tends to be dour. Metaphorically, I can find ten lesbian romances that end in: heartbreak, death, or even jail, before I find one movie that ends on a cheerful note. It's not an exact math thing, naturally, but I wanted to show that two women could have a happy end. Even if it's only happy *for the time thus*.
I didn't want to go into a deep dive on why Bella has internalized homophobia until it was truly necessary for that root to be dug up, but if I work on a second book, I did leave the breadcrumbs/foreshadowing in BHS specifically for that emotional confrontation with herself on this long healing journey.
Edythe has her own internalized belief system that has a lot of toxic roots, so Edythe will be going through a lot of change in book two as well and is very likely to isolate before she is ready to deal with that herself.
I also ramble a great deal, it's my second language really, so your talking a lot isn't unwelcome. If anything, I find talking about things with you to be calming and edifying. Lol. If you would like to talk to me, I am on discord and I'd love to talk with you about any story ideas. Fanfiction or otherwise. I'm hoping to write my own book and it's helpful to bounce ideas off of someone else who has a different frame of reference than yourself.
Honestly, I'm just proud and happy that my story inspires you to write. I think that would be enough for me, even if I never write something that could sell well enough that I could make a living.
Thank you, and let me know if you want to become better friends. I appreciate all your comments and thoughts, they give my Leo heart some sparkles of dopamine. Yeah. That made sense.
Comment on Black Hole Sun, Twilight - An alternate telling
Belavula on Chapter 27 Wed 10 Jul 2024 09:19PM UTC
Comment Actions
Lady_Rheia on Chapter 27 Sun 14 Jul 2024 02:58PM UTC
Comment Actions
Belavula on Chapter 27 Sun 14 Jul 2024 11:19PM UTC
Comment Actions