Forks Washington

I have no shame in my game. Two years ago, we took our oldest daughter to Forks Washington because she loves all things Twilight... I mean really loves all things Twilight. Now honestly, I was never a fan myself, but her pure love for it reminds me of my love for all things Star Wars... So her excitement is infectious and fun. Before the whole Twilight craze totally dies, we wanted to take her and the rest of the kids to the place where it all takes place one more time, Forks Washington. I mean who am I to tell her what to like and not like, if she likes it, then I'm going to support her happiness.

For all the hype that surrounds the town, it's a tiny place with a few hotels, one primary road, a few diners and a smattering of essential shops. But packed in this three thousand person town is a myriad of tourist destinations made famous by the books and movies. For those in the know, there's the Swan's house, The police station, the high school (sign), the hospital, Bella's workplace, and the Native American Indian reservation of  La Push, to name a few.

We went with all three kids, Liz's sister, Jen, her daughter Autumn, and her son, Noah. Oh and we brought Luna. So everything was crazy, all the time. But you know, for all the craziness that went on, it was a great time and no one had any issues or problems... it was somehow a pretty stress free trip (yes with five kids and a puppy) and we had a wonderful time seeing the cheesy landmarks, shopping for the last hold outs of Twilight souvenirs, and eating at the places that were either in the movie or had Twilight themed food. (I will say that the Bella Burger and Twilight punch at Sully's is the best thing to eat in town.)

So in short, our trip went like this: We arrived on Friday around dinner time, we ate at the diner where Bella and Charlie ate in the first movie, Liz and I went to the Grocery/Hardware store where Bella apparently worked to get some snacks and beer. The next day was Twilight mania day. We visited and  took pictures at Bella's truck at the Chamber of Commerce, visited Dr. Carlile's parking spot at the hospital, back to both of Bella's apparent workplaces, the high school, the last two remaining Twilight-esque stores, the police station, the "Cullen's house" (which is a B&B) lunch at Sully's Burgers, then to First Beach in La Push where Jacob is from. We spent some time at the beach then went to the "treaty line" where we had dinner. By Sunday, we were pretty worn out but went to Port Angeles to have lunch where Bella and Edward had their first date but sadly it was only open for dinner, so we went to the apparent bookstore where Bella got vampire books and had lunch at a surprisingly pretty good spot called Smuggler's Landing. A whirlwind of a mini-vacation but a great time had by all. And we have pictures to prove it!

 

The Grown Ups in front of Bella's Truck

 

Luna Running on First Beach at La Push

 

The kids at Dr. Cullen's parking spot at the hospital. Noah is doing his own thing.

 

Lizzie, Luna and I at First Beach

 

At the "Treaty Line"

 

The kids at Bella's truck

 

There are two hardware stores in Forks. Both claim that Bella worked there... This one had her vest, so naturally, Kaya posed for a picture.

 

Trystan at First Beach in La Push.

 

The view at first beach. I think it looks like a scene from The Goonies.

Twilight at Forks Washington

So Elizabeth Darvill and I went for a very not normal trip for me. We went to the Twilight, (yes the movie/books) capital of the world, Forks, WA. We took a very enthusiastic fan (and self proclaimed wife of Edward Cullen) and went on an adventure.

First off, I need to say that I'm seriously impressed with the town of Forks and their unashamed embrace of the books and movies that made their town famous. Nearly every store had Twilight paraphernalia in the window regardless of the type of business. So it was totally normal for the Chinese restaurant, the lock and key store and the hotels to have posters and even merchandise on display. Also, there were tons of places that had Twilight themed food and beverage items. (Many were surprisingly good!)

Being in Forks for 3 days, we thought it would be best to just jump into the fandom head first and have no shame about any of it. Here's a quick rundown: The Bella Burgers and Twilight punch at Sully's Burgers are to die for. It's a diner/drive in kind of place and seriously, the burgers are awesome. The Twilight punch is nothing more than lemonade with strawberry and again it's really good. (Best meal in town if you ask me)

We also ate at the diner and sat at the same table where Bella and Charlie eat all the time. (The Forks Coffee Shop) The burgers were pretty good but the real star was the Berry Cobbler that Charlie eats all the time. I picked some up for breakfast and it was truly awesome.

Other stuff we hit that was fun:
Forks Outfitters (where Bella works and has an Employee of the year plaque) They also have Twilight themed coffee which so far is really good. The Cullen's house: Its a bed and breakfast that has the cap and gown art on the inside and sports a daily sign from the caretakers telling where the Cullens are that particular day.
The Swan's House: It's a private residence that pimps itself as the home of Bella and Charlie Swan. Really, there's nothing more than a sign in front of someones house but you can pull up and take pictures.
The Forks Police Station: Yes you can go to Charlie's workplace and take pictures with the cop cars and even walk in where there's a small Twilight display.
The Forks Chamber of Commerce: This place has Bella's truck(s) out front (one from the movie and one from the book which apparently is a different model) so you can take pics there and when you go in, there is Twilight posters, and merch everywhere. Also, the people that work there are insanely awesome and nice and will tell you all types of good info.
First Beach (La Push, WA): Fifteen miles away you can go to the beach where Bella and Jacob walked on the beach. It's kind of indistinguishable from the movie, but worth a very cold dip in the water.
The Forks High School: Yep. it's there too although this is not the same one that's in the movie. It has the same sign but isn't the actual place where the school scenes were filmed.
Dazzled by Twilight: This is their Twilight one stop shopping experience. The store is everything Twilight. You name it and they probably have it.
Three Rivers Resort: It's only a resort to those that want to camp in nifty little cabins. Half way to La Push, you'll find Three Rivers Resort with was a place with a full Twilight menu. We had the Werewolf Burgers (Which were good and HUGE) but still not quite as stellar as the Bella Burgers back in Forks.
Bella Italia: This is the place where Edward took Bella on their first date. It's 57 miles away in Port Angeles, WA, but a fun drive through the national park. The restaurant was surprisingly good. Yes we had the Mushroom Ravioli that Bella ate and while it was good, the carbonara was better.

Coffee Stops:
There are three main coffee stands in town. I got Mocha's at each and sadly none of them had Twilight themed stuff. Gathering Grounds, Mocha Motion and Shot in The Dark. The best was Gathering Grounds in case you're wondering.

The funny part:
I'm not even a Twilight fan yet I had a blast doing all the touristy things and just living life. Being this free is a wonderful part on life 2.0. There's also something awesome about small town charm that I really liked as well.

Okay, Pictures:

Me with Bella's truck


Twilight Punch (They come with fangs)


At First Beach


Vampire Threat Level


Werewolf Burger!


The Cullen's House (B&B)

Woke up to some awesomeness

Team Victoria
I'm currently in Washington heading toward the small town mecca of sparkly vampires with my insanely awesome, inspiring, talented sexy girlfriend Elizabeth Darvill... no kidding. I'm super excited to jump head first into the touristy goodness that is "Bella's Blend", "Jacob's Java", and "Edward's Espresso"... Yes those kind of sound dirty but I promise they're not... I think. Also, I'm sort of looking forward to gathering a Little inspiration for a sort of far off project I'm going to be working on where I'm thinking about throwing a little of the local Forks flavor into the story.

The Coolness
So this morning I woke up to some total coolness. Someone I met last year at my first bookfest ever wrote an amazing and insanely nice post on SWAG steampunk writers group. Check this out: http://steampunkwriters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/blame-it-on-nick-valentino-and-thomas-riley Yeah, how bad ass is that? Like my comment said, it really does make my year to read stuff like this and I will forever be so happy that I inspired someone. That's what life's really about right?

Taking the Mystery Out of EBooks

I'm honored to have Pam Ripling as the super star of my blog today. I have to say that Pam's views are shared by me as well and not only is there value and quality in her thoughts, but there is also invaluable experience that should not be ignored by writers and readers alike. So, enjoy... Pam's expert views will shed new light on the subjects of Ebooks.

This just might be a timely topic for some. For me, not so much. My first electronic book was released in 1998. Yawn.

For many people, likely the larger part of the U.S. population, digital content is brand new and maybe suspect. Their confusion is understandable, their fears many. After all, as a society, we’ve been turning paper pages for centuries. Baby boomers and older, in particular, are a paper-dependent populace. We’ve already had to endure the vinyl-to-tape-to-disc-to-digital journey in the music industry. We’ve suffered the Beta vs. VHS, the rabbit ears, the cable, the satellite dish wars.
It’s a small wonder, then, that people can be seen virtually hugging their heavy, hardcover copy of THE DEFECTOR to their chest and screaming, “You can’t take books away from me! My real books!”

Calm down. Paper books are not going away, not anytime soon or ever, so please exhale now. Ebooks, however, are also here to stay, so it might not be a bad idea to become familiar with how they work, just in case. Like, someone might give you a Kindle for your birthday, and then where would you be? Feeling a bit uneasy. Uninformed. Behind the times.

So as much as I’d like to extol the virtues and benefits of ebooks, I will, instead, endeavor to explain how they work, via a brief FAQ made up from queries/comments I’ve received from my readers.

1. I can’t sit in front of my computer long enough to read a book. Good news! You don’t have to. There are a myriad of devices now available, and several under development for release in the coming year. Readers with some smartphones can already read ebooks and probably don’t know it! Even Nintendo’s DS can be outfitted with software that will read books.

2. I’m a zip when it comes to downloading stuff from the computer. Too many cables, too many programs. More good news. You can go completely wireless with a device like Amazon’s Kindle, which doesn’t require a computer at all. The upcoming offering from Plastic Logic will utilize a wireless connection from a cellular carrier. More will follow.

3. I’ve heard ebooks are expensive. Not true. They average a much lower retail price than their paper cousins.

4. I like to give away my books after I’ve finished reading them. How can I give away an ebook? As a royalty-earning author, this is a touchy subject for me. Sadly, your generosity eats into my income. However, you cannot give away an ebook unless you no longer keep a copy of it on your device(s). That would be akin to making a copy of a paperback book and giving it away. A big no-no.

5. I read lots of books. I can’t afford a Kindle or any other ebook device I’ve seen. Make a quick list of the last fifteen or so book purchases you’ve made, the prices you paid. Then compare the prices of the same books in electronic formats. Over time, the savings will pay for the reader, while at the same time you are going green, big time! Consider TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyer, at Amazon: Hardcover: $12.73, Kindle edition: $6.59. Savings=$6.14 plus shipping!

6. I don’t want to add another device to my ever-growing pile of technology-I already have an iPhone, a Palm Pilot and a netbook! You are in luck. You can read ebooks on any one of these devices—no new hardware required!

7. What about all those formats? I’m lost in a sea of alphabet soup! Yep – PDF, HTML, LIT, DRM, Mobi, Palm, etc. Unfortunately, the variety of formats doesn’t help the cause. Once you are interested in a specific device, find out if it supports the more popular formats before you buy.

8. I really love and need the smell and feel of paper when I’m reading a book. Can’t help you here. Am thinking about marketing an aerosol spray called, “That New Book Smell.” What do you think?





If you’re serious about adding ebooks to your virtual shelf, see if you can get your hands on an ebook reader to try out in a store. When I had a chance to play around with Sony’s Reader Digital Book at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, I was sold. You might be, too. Don’t be afraid to explore the new electronic book frontier!

Additional resource: http://knowsomethingproject.com/literature/0609ebooks.html

Pam Ripling, who also writes as Anne Carter, is the author of paranormal romantic mystery, POINT SURRENDER, from Echelon Press, Amazon, and for your Kindle, iPhone or other e-formats, Fictionwise. Visit Anne at BeaconStreetBooks.com.