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East of Albuquerque Author's Note
Sep. 1st, 2011 03:07 pm'How strange, I really went to Italy. Did you know I'd never been farther east than Albuquerque?’ – Bella, New Moon
This story came about in one of those truly backward ways. It did not start out as a cross-country road trip with the trio of Edward, Bella and Carlisle. It started only as a ‘what if’ to the question of ‘what would have happened if Bella hadn’t ditched Jasper and Alice in Phoenix?’ The idea intrigued me. I had no notion of where it would go.
I’ll admit; I was just as shocked as the reader when Edward announced that Rosalie and Emmett had a loft in New York. From there, though, I was left with the question: how to get Bella back to Forks before Charlie threw a fit? And then she caught the flu. I didn’t really mean for that to happen. I mean, yes, I adore h/c stories and I write quite a few of them, but I swear I had no intention of landing her in a hospital in Montana. Even though you’ll probably tell me that throwing Carlisle on the plane from Phoenix was a complete set-up. It wasn’t. That’s canon, of a sort.
I took out Emmett for obvious reasons. James was lethal and leaving him to just Jasper and Alice seemed unfair. Likewise, letting Edward run off with Bella on his own seemed equally as stupid. If James caught up before anyone else, Edward would have been left to fight him on his own. [Of course, he manages that quite well in Twilight, but it never hurts to have help.]
I may have taken liberties with the car trip. Specifically the travel time between Cleveland and Chicago. It should not have taken Carlisle as long to drive that stretch as it did. Of course, to make up for it, I got them across North Dakota and most of Montana in about five seconds.
Montana just...happened. I knew they needed a delay before they hit Spokane. The rainstorm wrote itself and then obviously there had to be an accident. And then, clearly, there had to be a hospital involved, because why else would they need another 12 hours to get to Washington? What else was I supposed to do, I ask you? And then, suddenly, I had the perfect set-up for a few well-placed (and completely silly) lines about Edward and his medical degrees that I’d had rolling around in my brain for a few months. Perhaps my brain helpfully wrote a 43,000 word story just so I could use them.
I knew I wanted the story to end at Prom. I knew I had to get it there, but I didn’t want to just skip everything in between like Stephenie did. But obviously Bella needed to spend some quality time with the other Cullens too (except Rosalie) and become a true part of the family. So, yes, the shopping trip was contrived. It’s possibly the only part of this story that was done intentionally to get the plot to the next step. But it was pretty damn fun to research Seattle shopping malls and hotels. And the information is all accurate. From the mall, to the hotel, to the film that Alice and Bella see. And it’s all accurate for the spring of 2005 specifically. [Did you also know there is currently an exhibit on at the Seattle Art Gallery on the Quileute’s?]
The title was the very last thing to occur to me. For 43,000 words this story was named ‘Cross-country’ in my documents folder. I always planned on changing it, but couldn’t figure out a good name that didn’t really give the plot away. Then, out of the blue (like the whole story) I remembered that this was Twilight and that Bella had therefore never been further east than New Mexico (according to the book) and that suddenly taking a trip from Washington to Phoenix to DC to New York and then driving all the way back to Forks would be something rather significant for her. The title embodies the fact that this is new and an adventure for Bella. It implies travel and that most of the story takes place east of Albuquerque. The town in Montana, which is never named but is actually a real town called Livingston, is only about half way across the state and therefore only just west of the city of Albuquerque [Specifically, it is 3.8 degrees west]. So I fudged that one a bit; sue me.
I adored writing this story. Every second of it made me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It made my hand hurt like hell, because 35,000 words of it were done in pen rather than on the laptop. It’s so worth the carpal tunnel I will no doubt develop in a few years. [Though I can probably blame that on my doctoral thesis.] I just enjoyed writing this, and I don’t feel that way about most of my stories. I write them because I have to, not because I want to. It’s a fine distinction that many writers never get, but I know exactly how it feels. This was writing for joy, each and every word.
I hope you got as much pleasure out of reading it as I did out of writing it.
Eldanna, 2011
This story came about in one of those truly backward ways. It did not start out as a cross-country road trip with the trio of Edward, Bella and Carlisle. It started only as a ‘what if’ to the question of ‘what would have happened if Bella hadn’t ditched Jasper and Alice in Phoenix?’ The idea intrigued me. I had no notion of where it would go.
I’ll admit; I was just as shocked as the reader when Edward announced that Rosalie and Emmett had a loft in New York. From there, though, I was left with the question: how to get Bella back to Forks before Charlie threw a fit? And then she caught the flu. I didn’t really mean for that to happen. I mean, yes, I adore h/c stories and I write quite a few of them, but I swear I had no intention of landing her in a hospital in Montana. Even though you’ll probably tell me that throwing Carlisle on the plane from Phoenix was a complete set-up. It wasn’t. That’s canon, of a sort.
I took out Emmett for obvious reasons. James was lethal and leaving him to just Jasper and Alice seemed unfair. Likewise, letting Edward run off with Bella on his own seemed equally as stupid. If James caught up before anyone else, Edward would have been left to fight him on his own. [Of course, he manages that quite well in Twilight, but it never hurts to have help.]
I may have taken liberties with the car trip. Specifically the travel time between Cleveland and Chicago. It should not have taken Carlisle as long to drive that stretch as it did. Of course, to make up for it, I got them across North Dakota and most of Montana in about five seconds.
Montana just...happened. I knew they needed a delay before they hit Spokane. The rainstorm wrote itself and then obviously there had to be an accident. And then, clearly, there had to be a hospital involved, because why else would they need another 12 hours to get to Washington? What else was I supposed to do, I ask you? And then, suddenly, I had the perfect set-up for a few well-placed (and completely silly) lines about Edward and his medical degrees that I’d had rolling around in my brain for a few months. Perhaps my brain helpfully wrote a 43,000 word story just so I could use them.
I knew I wanted the story to end at Prom. I knew I had to get it there, but I didn’t want to just skip everything in between like Stephenie did. But obviously Bella needed to spend some quality time with the other Cullens too (except Rosalie) and become a true part of the family. So, yes, the shopping trip was contrived. It’s possibly the only part of this story that was done intentionally to get the plot to the next step. But it was pretty damn fun to research Seattle shopping malls and hotels. And the information is all accurate. From the mall, to the hotel, to the film that Alice and Bella see. And it’s all accurate for the spring of 2005 specifically. [Did you also know there is currently an exhibit on at the Seattle Art Gallery on the Quileute’s?]
The title was the very last thing to occur to me. For 43,000 words this story was named ‘Cross-country’ in my documents folder. I always planned on changing it, but couldn’t figure out a good name that didn’t really give the plot away. Then, out of the blue (like the whole story) I remembered that this was Twilight and that Bella had therefore never been further east than New Mexico (according to the book) and that suddenly taking a trip from Washington to Phoenix to DC to New York and then driving all the way back to Forks would be something rather significant for her. The title embodies the fact that this is new and an adventure for Bella. It implies travel and that most of the story takes place east of Albuquerque. The town in Montana, which is never named but is actually a real town called Livingston, is only about half way across the state and therefore only just west of the city of Albuquerque [Specifically, it is 3.8 degrees west]. So I fudged that one a bit; sue me.
I adored writing this story. Every second of it made me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It made my hand hurt like hell, because 35,000 words of it were done in pen rather than on the laptop. It’s so worth the carpal tunnel I will no doubt develop in a few years. [Though I can probably blame that on my doctoral thesis.] I just enjoyed writing this, and I don’t feel that way about most of my stories. I write them because I have to, not because I want to. It’s a fine distinction that many writers never get, but I know exactly how it feels. This was writing for joy, each and every word.
I hope you got as much pleasure out of reading it as I did out of writing it.
Eldanna, 2011
