Beautiful!

Author's Response:

Thanks so much! I loved that chapter. I get all misty-eyed about his scene with Esme and his scene with Bella. And it's about time Bella got to help him for once. :) Books

What a creative take on Edward's story?! Thank you for continuing.

Author's Response:

I'm so glad that you are enjoying it pomme_de_terre! The next few chapters are going to be a lot of fun. Thanks so much for your review and your support of this story. :) Books

And I love to hear from Starched Shirt Edward.

So, I've been given a lot to think about here. The more I learn about this legend behind the land (which is beginning to sound a lot more about the whole alpha thing that I realized), the blood-relation between Edward and Carlisle and... that ring from Benedict... which incidently has the same 'swan' motif.)

Can I say... maybe... that it's setting up to be something really interesting and awesome. Maybe Edward and Bella were destined from the start... before they EVER even realized it. Before, perhaps, they BOTH existed. That's the kind of romantic nature that I ~LOVE~ in a fiction. True Love and Destiny doesn't happen often in stories, much less the same sentence.

Author's Response:

All I can say is that I am stingy with clues but will be dropping more in the next few chapters. Ones that I hope will help everyone fit things together. I've heard lots of very good guesses.

http://www.allfamilycrests.com/c/cullinane-family-crest-coat-of-arms.shtml

 

I've pasted in what the coat of arms looks like.

Thanks for reviewing you evil woman that made me laugh you. That image you sent me...was so funny.. :) Books

WOOW holy shit that is the best revenge anyone anywhere ever had! hahaha! that should have been the plot of kill bill! and john tucker must die!

 

fucking mike sure as hell had it coming! wish i had tanyas balls.. figurative balls.

Author's Response:

If you like revenge then you'll love what I do to him later. Swear. Thanks so much for your review. :) Books

i wonder..did you realy hate jacob black so much? and bella's parents? haha i have to say the brain damage was brilliant, noone could possibly fall as mch as bella, brain injury makes perfect sense.

let's see..billy black ordered jacob to take bella as his bride. jacob thinks somehow doing this will take the tribe back from the clearwaters? and bella dreams of red eyed people. hmm..interesting.

let me also add that today was the first beutiful 90 degree day and i spent the whole day in here reading this!

Author's Response:

Hi there Redsoxlove!

When I first started writing this, Jacob really was a cardboard character. I didn't like him much in the books although I felt he got used by Bella and bent over by SM in stripping him of his memories and that whole quasi-child abuse plot-line with imprinting on an infant. Ew. Jacbo will not be imprinting on children (or anyone else) in CC.

Oxymoronic8 is a friend of mine, and she was looking over a scene I had penned and told me that I needed to make Jake more human, that he really was in CC just a 15 year old kid. And I listened. So in CC, Jake doesn't really love Bella. He doesn't even like her. He does not actively dislike her mind you, but his Dad has always pushed him saying that he will be marrying Bella one day. And CC Jake has poor social skills. And his Dad never really explained just "how" that whole marrying Bella deal would come about, he did make it pretty clear that if Jake didn't do it, he would consider Jake a failure as a son. If I were in Jake's place, I'd be a bit resentful too. Jake takes it out on Bella rather than his Dad.

In regards to Bella's parents, I didn't have much use for her Mother. And neither, apparently, did SM despite telling us that Renee was Bella's "best friend". I decided instead that I wanted to characterize Bella as having an emotionally remote relationship from both parents. Not because either parent was evil or cruel or malicious. Renee is a dingbat and self-absorbed and is all about her new husband who takes up most of her emotional energy. Bella felt that Renee's marriage had a better chance of surviving if she gave her Mother and Phil time alone. Hence that's one reason she came to Forks. In regards to Charlie, he's more complicated. To me, he's shy, just like his daughter. And with her living several states away, and him being awful at communicating in person, much less long distance, he has stayed the absentee Father. When Bella was little, in CC I have her basically spending all her summers (and many Christmas breaks) with her Grandparents and Great Uncle Liam when they were alive. After they died, she spent her time with the Clearwaters with whom she was all but raised as siblings during the summers. So Bella's parents, to me, neglect her emotionally, but I'm not trying to portray them as evil. Just misguided. Charlie will do some growing in the story. Renee? Not so much.

I thought the whole fainting at the drop of a hat and falling every ten seconds without some kind of explanation was kind of silly in the books. It humanized Bella, but not enough in my mind. So I wrote her has having had a serious brain injury as a means of showing how she got close to the Cullens. The Cullens took over taking care of her when she was vulnerable and literally had no one. And Carlisle told her the truth about her brain where her parents had lied to her all her life not out of cruelty, but simply out of misguided choices. THe Clearwaters had their hands full with their children who were at death's door. So I'm slowing time down in the next few chapters to show how Bella could form (as a shy person) such a strong connection with the Cullens.

And there is a strong mystery component to this story that explains the background and the future at the same time. I hope you enjoy it. :) I have had a ball writing it.

squeal wow next chapter looks to hold a bundle of knowledgible information!  I am so excites that silly sarah is bouncing up and down like Alice but sad sarah is worried about Edward suffering from seperation anxiety!  Squeal great chapter these long ones always make me swoon so much information and detailing goes into this...you really must do alot of research or have a higher education then that of a mere mortal LOL!

Post again soon my screen awaits like a blank canvas for the authors artistic word.

Author's Response:

The next one is with my beta. Swear. I'm still tweaking on Edward freaking out about being away from Bella and then I'll get it up once she says it's ok. But I'm delighted that you are enjoying where I'm taking this story. I can promise you that you are going to need a seat belt for the next few chapters. Swear.

I like research, but I also am lazy and fall back on stuff I know. I have done a lot of research on the plants and trees and history of the Olympic National Park. I think I did the most research for Bonkers because I had to learn about windows and insulation. But it really does warm my heart to see that you appreciate it. The risk I take in putting stuff like that in there is that some readers can feel like they are being a) bored, or b) lectured. And I wanted to avoid both. :) Books

I like the progress this story is making.  It's sooooo funny.  Edward is utterly ridiculous, and Bella is adorable.  The "hot" and "package" and pop culture stuff is really funny too.

Author's Response:

Hi there Kiwi!

I wanted to show how with this part of the story you do see some interesting changes if you go back and re-read the front arc. In shameless hussey when Charlie thinks that Edward is opening up a strip club and Edward conveys this to Carlisle, he calls him "Pimp Daddy." Somewhere along the way, Edward is going to start educating himself on pop culture although he will probably not always use it correctly. I had fun with the pop culture because I wanted to use it as a device to show his arrogance as well as his isolation (he never bothered to pay attention to anything beyond slang terms for vampires). And having Carlisle know more about pop culture than Edward? Had to go there, too. So thanks for your review!

You made my day. :) Books

Possessive Edward, gotta love him!  Great job.  sorry I dont ever say anything earth shattering in my reviews. This story is really good!

Author's Response:

I had so much fun breaking Mike Newton's legs. I guess that makes me a sick person. :) Glad you enjoyed that chapter. I've a fondness for the last line. :) More fun with Mike ahead. :) Books

I like your story, but you've gotten really off-topic from the beginning. Remember, you said you would use "a few chapters" to explore Edward's past with Bella. Now that has become the whole story. Could you please get back to where you were? You know, leading up to the wedding, the whole deal with Tanya, etc.

Author's Response:

Hi ccrawford92,

I've left an AN somewhere several chapters ago saying that I was expanding the backstory. And sorry, but until this is done, I will not be getting to the point that we once were, as that is the final arc of the story. It's several chapters down the road. The method to my madness is that this is setting up the wedding and the conflict surrounding it in order to give what I originally wrote more meaning. In order for the readers to understand why Edward is so hesistant to "confess" to Bella, and why Bella, for her part is keeping secrets from him, they need to know what they are in the first place - and I have a different plot than the Twilight Saga. So this section, frankly IS the story, and always has been. The Tanya conflict was intended as the spark to make him reflect about changing his life. What I had originally written, alas, was squashed into a few chapters and had I posted it probably would have made sense only to me it was that bad.

Thanks for your feedback.

Best,

Books

Is Tanya for hire?  Another superb chapter. 

Author's Response:

Alas, she is not, but if you amused her enough she'd do it for free. She's like that, our Tanya. :) Books

The scene where he is talking with Jugurtha, trying to have Billy Blacks death penciled in on his calendar and realizing that mayhem and death would have to wait until homework was done, made me laugh so hard I cried.  Honestly, I had tears running down my cheeks.  Good stuff.

Author's Response:

Thanks so much, you just made my day. :) I've got  more scheduling conflicts lined up I had so much fun with that idea. I like the idea of the predator as his time manager. :) Books

Dear Books,

I have just had the worst Monday, so coming home to a new chapter of Cullenary Coupling was the best gift I could ever receive. Well, along with Starched Shirt Edward saying "trousers". He needs to say that again and again. 

Love, Stacy

Author's Response:

Dear Stacey, this strange human woman has allowed me the opportunity to use her keyboard to send a message to you. I will be praying to Saint Joseph the patron saint of laborers as well as to saint Jude as a just in case on your behalf. And I very much look forward to attending the first communion with you next weekend. I will pray for God to be at your side.

Peace in Christ,

Starched Shirt Edward.

P.S. trousers. trousers. trousers. that strange woman made me type that three times for exercise.

I love that even though Edward is constantly thinking that he ought to court her, he's still pretty clueless when it comes to human emotions - "At vampire pitch, all my family cautioned me that I had to be careful with her: advice I ignored at it was painfully obvious. I wouldn't break her ribs while holding her. I knew better by now how to be careful." Although at least he had the good sense to be ashamed at having teased Bella about Wuthering Heights, after learning that the book had belonged to Genevieve. And it is nice to see him trying to get to know her, as well as trying to talk to other humans.

I'm not sure if you intended it this way or not, but I enjoyed the line "Knowing Charles' penchant for avoiding reality..." since Edward unknowingly suffers from the same thing. He sees reality as he wants to, but he's shielded himself from so much that he misses a lot of what goes on around him. Like Bella's feelings.

In Bella's nightmares, are the red eyed people definitely vampires? Or could they be something else?

The deer blood/Capri Sun comparison was hilarious, I read that in the forum too and loved it.

I'm a bit surprised that Edward was so calm to learn that he and Carlisle are blood relatives. I would have thought that Edward would have wanted that information, and tie to his human past. Will that play a part later in the story? Are they related to Benedict?

Since SSE was astute enough to point out "Because she is more important than the actual things and her drool for that matter. You are so busy collecting that you are neglecting to focus on her. She is the source of all those things you collect there therefore deserves our undivided attention. We want to marry her not the desk, her drool, or your shirts." - Does that mean that Edward himself is coming to that conclusion as well, even if incredibly slowly?
This was another great chapter, which could go without saying, since I've said it so often now. :)

Author's Response:

I swear Chloe9, I squee when I see that you've reviewed. You are very observant. :)

To me a key element of CC Edward is his social isolation and his selective listening. He has lived around humans with their thoughts buzzing around for decades, but while monitoring them with half an ear to detect threats he had ignored them, aside from collecting old music. Hence, his cluelessness about pop culture references. To me that is a device to illustrate his arrogance/sheltered view of humanity. It hurt too much to hear the thoughts of couples who loved one another, so he tuned it out and ignored their courting.  In his day, at 17 he was considered to be a man. In his mind modern human teenagers are flighty. So you add THAT into that pesky being a vampire and keeping people at a distance so he doesn't dine on them AND being able to read minds and to me it's the perfect trifecta for making Edward Cullen socially isolated from everyone. Throw in the guilt and the role he thinks he's playing of the shy person (his dreams involving his mother are showing that he was in fact a shy person while alive), then you have him being isolated from his family. So in HOD part two you see a miserable Edward living in a self-constructed prison. The story arc of HOD will be about him breaking out of it and realizing that he does indeed love Bella and about us learning more about how Bella came to love him in return. And it's going to be a bumpy ride and I won't be following the path SM did.

 

So to me I wanted to show dramatic irony with Edward pointing out the faults of others while he himself has the same ones (in some cases even worse e.g. Jacob the stalker). I wanted to show how Edward really is shy in thinking about courting her because it's the most socially complicated 'performance' he's ever attempted. He knows what the norms were in his day and he has to a certain extent abandoned some of them (Women couldn't vote until 1920 - to me he's much more of a feminist than men of his time - but much less of one for this era).

I'm glad you caught the Wuthering Heights - it was something special to both Genevieve and Liam and in that moment he remembered how they died and thought of how much that must have hurt his human since her idiot mother would not even allow her to say goodbye. And perhaps a teensy part of him remembered Genevieve slamming Emmett against his beloved jeep and wondered why she hadn't smacked him around when he had teased Bella about it before. It's the first time, really, that he has something on an emotional level in common with Bella. She lost everyone at once and so, too, did he. And both of them did not have the chance to say goodbye. The Charlie line was, as you said done on purpose, but I also wanted to show that despite being the chief of police he had no idea his parents were murdered. He never investigated it because he just knew they had died and he was told it was from asthma. End of story in Charlie's mind. He was too busy mourning.

You will find out the answer to your question about the red-eyed people in the next chapter. What I CAN tell you is that Bella can't see them. She's never allowed herself to. I'm glad you liked the Capri Sun - I was trying to show that slowly but surely Edward is becoming aware of a few more things about humans (like Victoria's secret underwear on sale 4 pairs for....29.99) and now he's even bothering to pay attention to what human food is.

Go back and re-read how Edward behaved when he woke up from Jasper's vision with Carlisle and thought for a brief fleeting moment in time that he was human. To me, Edward's behavior right then was consistent with the iron control he's exercised over his emotions. He loves Carlisle and craves his respect. And He can't point a finger at Carlisle for lying to him by omission because he's been lying to Carlisle all along. And Carlisle hinted that he would have told Edward but was waiting for him to remember it on his own, so the doctor in Edward understands what his father was trying to do. They are indeed related by blood on his maternal Grandmother's side. Her maiden name was the old form of Cullen. And Edward never really bothered to trace his human past because it was too painful. Now he's starting to do that. And yes, Edward's past will keep coming up and will be woven into the story. To me, Edward has to understand not only who he is NOW, but who he was and where he came from. He's been worried that he's tarnished the Masen name without really remembering what the Masen name represented. All I will say about Benedict is that he's wearing the ring. You will learn more about him although it will be gradually.

And I am glad you noticed Starched Shirt Edward's observation about how Bella was more important. And yes, you are correct that because SSE is noticing it that it's percolating around in Edward's brain. Edward's progress might drive people a bit bonkers, but realistically he's only been around Bella (when you subtract the month of the EdBargo) for about a month at this point in the story. In my mind, that is not enough time for Edward to realize much about himself or Bella. He's going to need a bit more time and B-52 bomb strikes from the Almighty and Genevieve of course to get his attention.

 

As ever, thanks so much for your review. It made my day. :) Books