I'm currently working to evaluate the world of Vampire fiction (especially those geared towards teen audiences) for an academic study to be discussed at a convention in the Spring. The platform work is of course Twilight, as it is the phenomenon for the year (and the basis for the conference). In addition to that I am reading the following:

Vampire Academy - haven't been able to get too far into it.

The House of Night series (Marked, Betrayed and Chosen) - think Potter meets Twilight with a Mean Girls twist

Vampire Kisses - quick read. Really light in the subject content.

I have a stack of other books but I of course would love to compare these to more of the Vampire classics like

Dracula and those written by Anne Rice.

There are several different subject matters I am studying them all for:

1. The role of the female narrator and her reliability: specifically Bella Swan, though most of the new vamp fictions seem to be told by a female. I think Rob Pattinson brought up the best point about Bella's view when he was asked how he felt about trying to play the perfect "man." His response was that Edward Cullen isn't perfect, Bella is just  a teenage girl in love, and all teenage girls think their crush is perfect.

It's hard to compare this narrative approach without reading the opposite approach, so any recent vampire novels you can suggest where the narrator is a male or third person would be helpful.

2. The Twilight vampires and their characteristics vs. other vampires in fiction. I.e. vegeterian vampirism vs. human blood drinkers. The different effects that the elements have (silver, sun, etc).

3. The classics mentioned in Twilight and how they affect the stories of the sage.

4. Fantasy books and how they cross age ranges.

So any suggestions for reading or just some of that awesome knowledge you all have would be greatly appreciated. As I get some actual writing done on these studies I will try to post them so you can discuss on them and help expand or debate the ideas for me.

Thanks!

It's been just over a  year so here's an update of where I've been and what I've done.

Jan: Starting running the storeroom at Toys. Learned a lot about freight and store operations. Picked up a lot of swingsets. Gained a lot of muscles. Started checking out books at bookstore to find new ideas and ways to relax.

Feb: Bought Joey a HDTV with my savings from my 90 hour work weeks during the Christmas season. Fell in love with a book because of the amazing cover. Refuse to buy the book just because it's pretty.

Mar: 1st wedding Anniversary. Spent it around town. InnerSpace Caverns. Dinner at the Oasis on the Lake. Ate year old wedding cake for dessert. Still want same book, consider branching out but don't. Buy a couple of classics that I lost after HPU people "borrowed them."

Sidenote: I actually barely ate the cake, because I forgot to defrost it so it was hard and cold. Instead I had ice cream while husband at half of the cake.

April: Started a new project at Toys. Apparently understood the project better than most people. Got offered positions with every manager that came to view our status on the project. Freaked out about the potential of being a life-long Toys kid and started interviewing other places.

May: Left Toys to the sadness of everyone in the district/BOH training world. Started recruiting and marketing at the new job. Moved into a new apartment on the green belt of Austin, excited about hiking and other exercising possibilities. New apartment...AMAZING. Finally buy that book I wanted. Less than 36 hours later finish the whole series, completely obsessed. Start over immediately.

June: Introduce everyone I know to the book series I love. Randomly reconnect with "Brack Pack" friends from junior high/high school through the sharing of the book. Friendships grow to same level they used to be over 10 years ago. Batman...wow! Seriously sat in the theater to make sure they paid respect to Heath at the end.

July: New store finally opens. Fun process of learning how to open new stores. Celebrate Harry Potter's birthday by rereading the series. Also reread new book series in honor the end of the series release coming out. Plan for the release by cutting hair into a shorter textured look.

Aug: Birthday. Book premiere. Obsessive nature takes over. Start to really ruin husbands day with the nonstop talk about the book. Begin working on my third book for the year. Actually share the works with friends. Then put all three aside and stop writing as usual. Finally reconnect with the pack in person. Rename pack to the poven! Best birthday in years because it's shared with the newly named poven.

Sept: Florida trip, no husband with me (boo). End of an era as the clubs at Pleasure Island in Disneyworld get shut down forever. Get to spend time with Laura Magoon for first time in forever. Fly across country to spend time with people from san Antonio.

Oct: Harry Potter gets moved back to the summer, seriously, what the crap! Dress up as Juno Eclipse for Halloween. Make husband a Starkiller costume and acutally get him to dress up. Only to have him forget the directions to the party and go nowhere for Halloween. Begin planning Poven weekend.

Nov: Poven weekend. Joey's birthday overshadowed by the movie premiere. Seriously see movie 3 days in first 2 days. Get to drive around with baby sister in baby sister's car...really really old feeling. Start work on 2 more books that of course are still sitting on the computer on touched. Almost made Thanksgiving dinner...but alas, Father in law freaked at the thought of a the holiday with just me and the husband and changed plans.

Dec: Brings us to now (movie count for those wondering: 7, but hopefully that changes soon). Still at the new job. Think I want to become a teacher, specifically for the Harry Potter school of Austin (obviously not the real name/subject matter of the school). Car broke down. Christmas non-existant because of the fixing costs.

Basically year highlights:

Left job out of fear of taking the next step and being stuck.

Started new job.

Fell in love with a new book series.

Rekindled the best friendships I have ever had.

Became increasingly unhappy with where I live because it's not with the above friends (and current living situations comes with no friends but husband).

Did a lot of writing, but not enough to finish my Great American Novel (ha ha).

Became obsessed with the new book series.

And then realized that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and then find out how to do it (still working on this).

Hope that's enough for those who may have missed me = )

The countdown is slowly coming to an end. The busiest shopping day is rapidly approaching. Meeting after meeting. Schedule after schedule. And now the day is almost here....see you on the flipside as I will be stepping away from my computer tonight and probably will not be able to return until it's over.