I’ll admit it…I’m a twi-hard! And I am waiting with bated breath for the finale to the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn II.

I never thought I would be—I was certain my tastes were far more sophisticated and that just wasn’t my genre. But a few years ago l boarded a flight from SFO returning to my new “home” of Washington D.C. I perused the available movies to distract me over the six hour flight and finding nothing of interest decided to try downloading a book on my new Kindle app. Overwhelmed with choices and with only a few minutes to make such a crucial decision, I suddenly recalled my daughter’s insistence that I read Twilight.

My issues were many; it’s a KIDS story—and a vampire story, at that—a lastly and most importantly it was fiction! I had stopped reading fiction years before when I decided I needed to be more serious. At the time, I had delved deep into business and felt that giving up reading…and writing of fiction was a bit of a penance for the success I was experiencing.

Baring all reason, and noticing the flight attendants doing their preflight check, I quickly clicked the button and within minutes I was reading on my iPhone…and I was hooked! I fell in love with the author’s storytelling and her rich characters and a mood so thick it was palpable.

Beyond that, Twilight brought back wonderful memories of my childhood. I grew up under the drizzly misery of Seattle’s seemingly constant cloud cover wishing I could hibernate until the blue would break through…sometime in June. Once summer hit, my parents would pack all five kids up and we would head out with our tent for the Olympic Peninsula—near Forks.

I remember sitting in the tent with the rain pouring down on us, playing matchstick poker, while drinking my Orange Crush and munching on chips with French onion dip. There under the extraordinary canopy of old growth forest, the rain didn’t seem quite as oppressive. What a wonderful environment and it smelled heavenly! Besides the fire and food smells, I loved the rich combination of rain forest, ozone and canvas tent—still love that smell. Then I would begin watching with interest the puddle of rain on the canvas roof. I suppose it was a lack of discipline…or maybe the wonderment of childhood that forced me, despite constant warnings, to put aside reason and touch that canvas bubble of water, breaking the invisible seal and releasing the drips on me and into the tent. Still sometimes I noticed that if I didn’t flinch, it could actually be quite refreshing.

The next day the sun would always magically break through. After breakfast we would all run through the campground with its wonderful breakfast smells stepping barefoot over the soft dirt trails of the ancient forest with its million shades of green to the lake and splash into the comfortably cool lake, scaring the tiny fish and upsetting the nearby would-be fishermen.

When I read Twilight, I was transported to that place where the world seemed brighter. My reading that day turned into a two week marathon of all four books, and reminded me how much I love fiction. Oh, the hours of delight I have since spent with new books! The natural progression for me was to begin writing again and from there to the completion of my first novel…and then trilogy. Writing is the most joyful thing I do and to think of the years I pushed that passion aside brings tears to my eyes. I is so pleasurable that I sometimes feels irresponsible spending so much time engaged in it; like I have become undisciplined and again playing with that canvas bubble…knowing the drips will follow. But then I realize that this is what I was born to do. So to my thinking, Ms. Meyers gave me my life back!

Delia

NOTE: One of my greatest pleasures in life, besides writing, is hearing from you! I ALWAYS respond personally to my emails. So please take a minute to say hi and introduce yourself! You can send me a message on Goodreads or go to my website: deliacolvin.com