midnight madness...

A midnight movie on a weeknight. Holy hell, I have become a fan.

I abhor excessively commercial, trite literary pablum - especially when its target demographic is the "young adult" crowd.

Confession: I never read even one page of the boy wizard series.

So imagine my surprise when I finally broke down and read the first installation of the teen vampire novel/saga/enterprise. In one sitting. I became one of those people. I also abhor those people - the ones who gush about each plot twist and discuss these fictional characters with such unbridled enthusiasm with their human counterparts that they positively reek obsessive mania.

OK, so I haven't gone that far over the edge. But when all branches of my local library could not provide a single copy of the second book, I did run to the 24-hour box store and purchase it at oh, midnight yesterday. Then I stayed up til dawn devouring every page. (It's a good thing I didn't have to work today.)

After reading the second book, I promptly purchased a ticket for today's midnight showing.

Hmmm...maybe I have gone over the edge. (The last time I stood in line for a midnight opening was for each installation of the Matrix trilogy.) And damn, if I don't have to work tomorrow...

Somebody shoot me. I have become enraptured by cheesy mass-produced writing. In respect to my dearest friend and other talented souls who can actually write, I won't call this author's works "literature" - but damn, if it's not like word crack. I'm jonesin' for a fix. Now I can finally understand what all those Harry fans felt when they sat mesmerized for hours with each new release, unable (or unwilling) to participate in their life until the last page had been turned.

In my own defense, I will offer these points as testimony to why I am predisposed to liking this otherwise unnamed series:

• I am a bibliophile, a nightowl, and a hopeless romantic (these three are key)
• I am a sucker for beautiful - no, painfully handsome men (what woman isn't?)
• I love stories where I can relate to the heroine (this definitely applies)
• I love to drive fast, take risks, defy authority, and break rules
• I love darkness and loud music* but also tranquility and the outdoors (both are central themes)
• I love drizzly, rainy, gloomy weather (another key to setting & mood)
• I kinda sorta have a deep, dark, twisted, erotic thing for vampires (immortality plus super powers is the ultimate fantasy!)

That said, it is little wonder I responded so overwhelmingly to this series. Come midnight, I will finally savor the silver screen version of my fictional escape, in all its technicolor, surround sound, special effects glory.

I can only hope I won't be disappointed.



*OK, it's mildly creepy to me that the author of this series draws inspiration from many of the same bands I love. The playlists available on her Website are eerily similar to my iTunes collection... Does it annoy me that while we've been listening to the same bands for years, her creative fires led to her six-figure contract and untold royalties from the subsequent movies while I've been writing meaningless blogs and research papers for school? Annoying? Hmmmph...