The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part One: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion

Check it out! The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part One: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion is now available for pre-order! It will be released December 13th 2011.



If you’ve never read the Twilight series, check out these other Twilight books, music, and movies:

Twilight
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
The Twilight Saga Complete Collection
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide
Twilight: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
The Twilight Saga: New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
Twilight Soundtrack
Twilight: the Score
New Moon Soundtrack
New Moon: the Score
Eclipse Soundtrack
Eclipse: the Score
Twilight DVD
The Twilight Saga: New Moon DVD
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

The Nomads in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

Stephanie Meyer goes into greater detail about the Nomad Vampires in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide. They are such minor characters in the Twilight Saga that their character development is minimal. Makenna is probably the most interesting of them. She comes from a long family tradition of having vampires as protectors. Every other century one of her family members was chosen to become one of those protectors. She was honored and resigned to the fact that she had been chosen…until she met Charles. Charles was a law student in Barcelona when they met and fell in love. Because Makenna didn’t want to give up Charles or her heritage, he decided to join her and become a vampire. They live together as mates, but still visit Makenna’s family often.

Peter and Charlotte are another couple of nomads who travel as mates. Their stories are shared by Jasper in Eclipse, but not well developed. They were both transformed by Maria during the time when she was creating her newborn army. Peter was Jasper’s assistant in babysitting the newborns and he developed a close relationship with Charlotte. When Jasper was ready to ‘dispose’ of the vampires who were no longer of interest to him, Peter and Charlotte ran away together. Very few other details are shared about their physical characteristics and backgrounds. Peter is tall, Charlotte is petite. They enjoy travelling alone, but welcomed Jasper into their little coven for a short period of time. One tidbit that was not shared in Eclipse was that Charlotte was tempted to join up with Alice and Jasper to make a coven of four, but Alice’s dietary restrictions stopped her.

Have you read The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide yet? What’s your opinion?

Complete book review of The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide:

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide is here!

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (Review and Opinions, Part Two)

Third Day's Thoughts on The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

Day Four of Reading The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide - The Volturi Guard

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (Inside the Volturi lair, then South to visit the Amazon Coven)

From Twilight to Breaking Dawn: Religious Themes in the Twilight Saga

Discovering Alaska in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

Exploring the Egyptian Coven in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

Journey to Ireland with The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

James, Victoria, and Laurent in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

The Mexican Coven in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

The Seattle Newborns in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

A Few More Newborn Vampires in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

The Romanians in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

Questionnaire to Evaluate Your Level of Addiction


If you’ve never read the Twilight series, check out these other Twilight books, music, and movies:

Twilight
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
The Twilight Saga Complete Collection
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide
Twilight: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
The Twilight Saga: New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
Twilight Soundtrack
Twilight: the Score
New Moon Soundtrack
New Moon: the Score
Eclipse Soundtrack
Eclipse: the Score
Twilight DVD
The Twilight Saga: New Moon DVD
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of The Host by Stephanie Meyer

I just finished reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer, and I had a hard time putting it down! That’s pretty typical of me when I’m reading a good book. I was apprehensive about reading it. Although I’ve loved every book from The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, the first time I picked up The Host I was less than impressed. I was standing alone in a bookstore in a mall and flipped through it. It didn’t look like anything I wanted to read. I asked others who have read it what they thought of it, and I kept hearing similar responses; if you can get through the first couple of chapters, you’ll love it.

I disagree with the people who have told me that the first few chapters are boring! They are background information, yes. But, they are the foundation for the story. When watching movies, I pay very close attention to the first five minutes. I can almost always predict the ending of a movie based on that alone. I’m always impressed by a movie that can stump me and cause me to not be able to predict the ending. That’s probably why I like M. Night Shyamalan movies so much. They always have a twist at the end! I didn't think that The Host had any real twist. What I did find was that it is a good idea to re-read the first few chapters after you’ve gotten to about chapter seven. You will have ingested a great deal of information at that point, and it will help to make it more understandable. I will tell you…things get a little romantic after that! That being said, and knowing most of you won’t re-read those chapters, I’ll give you some tidbits that might help clarify some things:

When they refer to a Soul, these are the ‘aliens’ that have been inserted into human bodies. At the start of the book, there are very few humans left on earth who do not have one of these aliens inserted into their bodies. The few that are left are on the run, scared of the aliens, have watched their fellow humans taken over; they are very much alone. Among the Souls, a Healer is the equivalent of a doctor, a Seeker is roughly like a police officer who is charged with finding leftover humans and giving them a Soul, and a Comforter is like a counselor or therapist. Soul’s have strange names that represent something about how they lived prior to coming to this (human) host body. Wanderer (the main character) was named such because she has lived now on six other planets but has not chosen to stay on any of them after her host body died. At the beginning of the book, she is ‘inserted’ into the body of a woman named Melanie. Melanie is one of the few remaining humans on earth, and is considered by the Souls to be an insurgent. They think she is one of many who are living in hiding and plotting against the Souls. The reason the Souls insert Wanderer into Melanie’s body is to try to glean information from Melanie’s memories, and hope that it will lead them to the insurgency. In reality, Melanie has lived on her own with just her little brother and her boyfriend, and is not part of a larger group. She was caught by the Souls while trying to locate her cousin, who she thinks is still human. In this respect, she is of little help to the Souls. Or is she…

There were several interesting themes to The Host. One of which, the ‘end of civilization’ theme reminds me of The Hunger Games in a way. The way the Souls operate is like collective thinking. It reminds me of how we think of the pre-mortal existence and/or the stories from the Garden of Eden. There is no betrayal or loyalty, the concept had no meaning. Kind of like in the absence of choice there is no good or evil. Everyone is perfectly honest. They don’t pay for things with money; they scan the items just to take ‘inventory.’ They have unity; they’re all working together collectively in perfect harmony toward one goal. However, they are only in harmony with each other, not with humans.

At one point in the book, Wanderer realizes that she is not social, which is not normal among her kind. She ponders that this may be why she has constantly left host planets and gone on to a different planet. She wonders if this planet (earth) has changed her…or revealed her for what she really is.

One quote I really liked was on pages 96-97 “I allowed myself to see the prison that was life without a body. To be carried inside but unable to influence the shape around you. To be trapped. To have no choices.” It reminds me of why we (as human souls) came to earth (to obtain a body), yet what Wanderer is really referring to is how Melanie must feel living inside the body that now belongs to her. Melanie is stuck there and now has no choice what happens to her. Normally a host body does not still contain the ‘spirit’ of the human it once held; it is merely a shell. Wanderer is confused to find that she can communicate with Melanie, and that makes the difference of how she relates to her host body compared to how the rest of her species relates to theirs.

Just when I thought I hated the way The Host ended...it changed. It didn't end. It kept going. Several more chapters in fact. I loved the ending, and I can see why Stephanie may someday write a sequel. Did you know that she's considering that? I saw an interview a while back where she mentioned that. She also knows how The Twilight Saga continues. But that's a story for another day...


My favorite M. Night Shyamalan movies:
The Sixth Sense

Signs

The Village


If you’ve never read the Twilight series, check out these other Twilight books, music, and movies:

Twilight
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
The Twilight Saga Complete Collection
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide
Twilight: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
The Twilight Saga: New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
Twilight Soundtrack
Twilight: the Score
New Moon Soundtrack
New Moon: the Score
Eclipse Soundtrack
Eclipse: the Score
Twilight DVD
The Twilight Saga: New Moon DVD
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Confessions from Inside a Bipolar Mania

I just got home from seeing my psychiatrist. I knew that would get your attention! My doctor is amazing. He sees things that others don’t. Where others see a happy-go-lucky girl who’s bouncing off the walls with excitement and grinning from ear to ear, he sees a woman who is at the high point of a mania episode. He has also seen me at my worst, on the other end of the spectrum.

I have the opportunity to see him every three months whether I need to or not just to get a refill on my prescription, which I would not live without if you forced me to! I always get a kick out of the way no one in the reception room is willing to look one another in they eye. It’s as if they are morbidly embarrassed to be seen in a counseling office. Having a mental illness is nothing to feel embarrassed of; it’s something to get treatment for. You wouldn’t hesitate to sit in your physician’s office for an annual check-up, or to treat a really bad sinus infection. Why not go to your psychiatrist or therapist to help get through an equally, if not more so, debilitating condition?

I have Bipolar Disorder. There, now you know. Many of my friends and family already know that about me and just brush off my occasional irrational behavior. Most people see me in my ‘up’ stages, and only my family ever sees me in my ‘down’ cycles. Part of that is due to the fact that my depressive cycles tend to primarily happen late at night, but the main reason is that I'm now so well controlled by medication that most people probably don't even realize that I have issues. I have been known to have moderate anxiety attacks (which are different physiologically from panic attacks by the way, but that’s a completely different topic of conversation), and have also been found curled in a ball in the corner of the bathroom crying uncontrollably. Thankfully, you (as the reader of this article) will probably never see me in that state. What you will probably see is someone who can’t sit still if I try, rarely sleeps enough hours, and is always having grandiose ideas that rarely come to fruition.

Today, I was excited to tell my doctor all about the novel that I just wrote. He politely asked me all the right questions about the plot and characters, and what my plans were for the book’s future. I made sure to reassure him that I recognize that it is most likely to be rejected by the publishing companies, and that I have mentally prepared for that. No one wants me to crash into depression because I expect the book to be published with no road blocks. Statistically, it is highly unlikely to ever get published, and I’m aware of that. That doesn’t mean I can’t hope.

You know what he was most concerned with? That I wasn’t getting enough sleep! He’s right, of course; I’m not getting enough sleep. I write in my sleep. I wake up half way through the night sometimes and go downstairs to turn the computer back on so that I can get my thoughts ‘on paper’ so to speak. He explained to me that not sleeping will negatively affect my ability to control the mania (which he clearly recognized) and make it that much more difficult to handle the inevitable crash. So, once again, he is an invaluable addition to my life. If you suspect that you have any type of mental illness, please, take my advice and see a psychiatrist or therapist. Trust me on this one. And I will make this promise to you: I will try to sleep…as soon as I’m done writing this next novel.

Need advice on Bipolar Disorder or Mental Illnesses? Check out these books:

The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide, Second Edition: What You and Your Family Need to Know
Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder
Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A 4-Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability