I caved. You can follow me on Twitter @jackiejones11

Well, I spend way too much time lately reading Twilight fic when I should be grading my students' essays or picking up after my tazmanian devil of a toddler. When I'm not reading ff, you'll usually find me reading Shakespeare, Austen, or Bronte, though I'm partial to just about anything British and Victorian. If the TV is on at my house, it's usually playing Lost, the Office, or dvds of Anne of Green Gables or Arrested Development. I have an amazing husband of nearly twelve years, with whom I share a large number of inside jokes, good intentions, and missed opportunities.

The grammar rule that I'd like to teach everyone: A comma surrounds any name used in a direct address. It really does make a difference. "I know, Edward" and "I know Edward" are NOT the same. If that makes me a comma Nazi, so be it.

I wrote a character study (Mike Newton) for The Lazy, Yet Discerning Ficster. You can check it out, if you want.

Ooh! "Unto a Heart of Stone" was recommended on "The Little Known Ficster" blog. Check it out!

Jennyfly was generous enough to rec my story on A Different Forest here. ADF is definitely my favorite Twific site - if you haven't checked it out, you certainly should!

"Unto the Heart of Stone" is up for a Vampie Award! More information can be found here.

I'm realistic enough to acknowledge that not everyone has read the same books as I have, so the historical and literary references peppered throughout "Unto a Heart of Stone" may be off-putting to some. To minimize that, I've posted notes with links to information on any references or background information that I think is interesting or might be helpful. I'm housing them on my Live Journal page because I really hate the pseudo-links that Ff.net forces us to use at the end of chapters. So, if you're interested or curious or confused, try checking out my LJ page, "You Kiss by the Book" (and, yes, that's a literary reference in itself - to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet).

To give you a little background on my multi-chaptered fic, this story flows out of questions I've been asking myself since I finished reading the Twilight Saga:

How much are vampires' special talents determined by genetic predispositions, as opposed to life experience? (nature vs. nurture)

In Twilight, while sitting at the lunch tables after their dinner in Port Angeles, Bella seems offended when Edward suggests that his feelings are stronger than hers because he's "trying to say goodbye" for her own good. She seems to imply that she too is capable of making great sacrifices for the ones she loves. Would she really? If the roles were reversed, would she even think leaving to be what is best for Edward?

We know that Bella is the first woman that Edward has found himself attracted to, but given the period in which he "died", one can only assume that there were plenty of girls wishing and hoping that he'd give them a second look. Bella is given an alternative to Edward in the Saga (whether you like it or not, she does have to choose between him and Jacob), but Bella seems to have no competition for Edward's affections. Would his love for Bella have been strengthened or weakened by a legitimate alternative?

Given his conviction that vampires are categorically damned, would Edward have chosen to be changed in order to spend forever with Bella?

Got a minute? Visit the Twilighted thread for Unto a Heart of Stone and chat with me!