Twilight Film - Hidden Easter Eggs

(Warning: Twilight Spoiler Alert!)

So I just saw the Twilight film for the third time today (yes, I know, I'm a sad, sad case) and I've been obsessed with finding little Easter eggs that the filmmakers put in for the very observant to find. Here's what I've found so far. Please let me know if I'm missing any!

1) Okay, my favorite first. When Bella is researching online the Quileute legends that Jacob told her about on the beach, she pulls up a Google book search and then clicks on a list of places the sell the book she's looking for. Just ABOVE the bookstore she clicks on from that list it says, "Little Brown" which is the publisher of the Twilight books.

2) Stephenie Meyer makes a cameo appearance in the diner that Bella and her father are eating at. She's sitting at the counter on her laptop and the waitress delivers her a plate and says, "Here's your veggie plate, Stephenie."

3) At the end of the film, after Edward leaves Bella alone at the prom and Jacob comes to talk to her, Edward says to her, "I leave you alone for five minutes and the wolves descend." Clearly this wolves reference is a foreshadow of the sequel in which Jacob turns into a werewolf.

4) In the cafeteria, when Bella drops an apple and Edward picks it up and hands it back to her, there's a close up on the apple being offered in Edward's two pale white hands. This is a reference to the cover image of Twilight.

5) Wolf picture in Bella's room - Toward the beginning of the movie, when Bella first comes home to her dad's house in Forks, she walks into her new bedroom and behind her, on the wall, next to the door, is a picture of a wolf. Total foreshadow of book 2, New Moon and the forthcoming film adaptation.

6) Vegetarian Soul mates - So this easter egg (or small detail) is unique to the movie. It is not in the book. But I noticed that in the four times Bella is seen eating (twice with her dad, once in the cafeteria, and once with Edward in the restaurant), she is eating something vegetarian. Veggie burger, spinach salad, mushroom ravioli, etc. I think the filmmakers added this detail (in the book she eats meat) to mirror Edward's so-called "Vegetarianism" (the fact that his family doesn't eat humans).

Any others? I'm dying to see if other fans found some that I missed!

Guest Star: Saralee Rosenberg

Today my guest is Saralee Rosenberg, the author of DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD, a comic novel about two warring neighbors who put the Desperate Housewives of Wysteria Lane to shame!

Here's a brief summary of the novel and my interview with Saralee!


Nora Ephron Hates Her Neck. Big Deal! Mindy Sherman hates her whole body.

In Mindy's yoga-obsessed, thirty-is-the-new-wife neighborhood, every day is a battle between Dunkin' Donuts, her jaws-of-life jeans, and Beth Diamond, the self-absorbed sancti-mommy next door who looks sixteen from the back. So much for sharing the chores, the stores, and the occasional mischief to rival Wisteria Lane.

It's another day, another dilemma until Beth's marriage becomes fodder on Facebook. Suddenly the Ivy League blonde needs to be "friended," and Mindy is the last mom standing. Together they take on hormones and hunger, family feuds and fidelity, and a harrowing journey that spills the truth about an unplanned pregnancy and a seventy-year old miracle that altered their fates forever.

Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead is a hilarious, stirring romp over fences and defenses that begs the question, what did you do to deserve living next door to a crazy woman? Sometimes it's worth finding out.

Interview with Saralee Rosenberg

Q. What comes first? The title or the idea?

A. For DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD, the title came to me only a few months before publication and trust me, by then I was in a total panic. The original title, based on the very earliest draft, was ALL IN THE CARDS, but everyone agreed that was kind of boring. Then I submitted a list of twenty titles, some interesting, some wacky, some that would never fly because they involved curse words. Here is a sampling: Hot, Hungry and Hormonal; Ask Your Doctor if Stress Is Right for You; Same SH-T, Different Zip; If Lucy Hated Ethel; and one of my personal favorites, The Bitch Next Door. No, no, no, my editor said to all of those. Then I came up with Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead and she smiled. We have a winner!!! And I must admit, it’s a beauty. Everyone gets it. No need for an explanation. As for my novel, CLAIRE VOYANT, that title came to me years ago and it took me a while to create an entire story based on the premise that a girl named Claire would have super natural abilities.

Q. Do you put friends in books? Have any of them recognized themselves?

A. I get asked all the time by family and friends to be in one of my novels, but I tend not to go there unless they’re willing to buy several dozen books in appreciation for being immortalized (if Girl Scout Moms can bribe, so can I). Once I did give in and named a character after a friend, only to describe the character as a philandering shoplifter. She was horrified and wanted to know how I knew? I didn’t know, I made it up, but boy did that make things interesting afterwards... Also, my husband’s business partner had been prodding me for years, to which I would say that a character who sold insurance, played golf and visited his grandkids in Florida would not exactly be memorable. But finally, in Dear Neighbor, to get him to stop bugging me, I did name a minor character Steven Hoffman. I made him a lawyer in Portland, and it really made Steve’s day... then he asked why he wasn’t a major character and could I feature him again in the next book? Men!!!!

Q. When deadlines hit, what happens in your house?

A. Let me put it this way. Please don’t ring my bell unless you’re bringing fresh baked cookies because I don’t want you to see that the dining room looks like a mini landfill. And that’s before you reach the piles on the stairs (I swear there is one that has been there since Clinton was President). The clothes in the dryer go round and round for days because I keep hitting wrinkle remove, we run out of milk, the shows saved on Tivo go unwatched, calls from my kids get answered with, “Make it quick and NO CRISIS’s today”. Also I look like hell and probably need of a touch up. As for dinner? The family is on their own... although they would tell you I say that every day. Basically it’s every man/child for himself and don’t give me a hard time about anything... This is why I write all the time, otherwise I’d lose my privileges, lol.

Q. Which scene or scenes in the book did you love writing?

A. I am crazy about writing dialogue and would spend days working on a scene between Mindy and Beth to make sure that I got the tone, the phrasing, the timing and the subtle nuances just right. There was so much that they wanted to say to each other after eight years of making each other crazy, I just had to let it out a little at a time, like air coming out of a balloon. But the scene I loved writing the most was the one where they are in a hotel room and Beth confronts the fact that she might be pregnant. It is a funny, poignant moment where both characters reveal their greatest joys and misgivings of motherhood and I remember when I sat at my computer, the words just poured out and I had to sit still to hear every last word coming through. I realized at the end that they had just broadcast my own conflicts and vulnerabilities about being a mom and it was whoa... where did that come from?

Q. What was the inspiration for Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead?

A. Of my four novels, DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD is the only one that was inspired by, well, me! This story is based on my first novel, ALL IN THE CARDS, which was never published, but did take a very exciting journey to Hollywood. Back in 1997, Bette Midler optioned it for a feature film (she was looking for a follow up comedy to “First Wives Club”). Exactly! Wow! First time out and it’s a homerun. Sadly, the reason you never heard of it is because ultimately, Bette and her partner couldn’t get financing or find the right screenwriter to adapt it. Bye bye Bette... Now fast forward to a few years ago. My novels, A LITTLE HELP FROM ABOVE, CLAIRE VOYANT and FATE & MS. FORTUNE had done very well but were about single women looking for love in all the wrong places. I wanted to write about my “peeps” in the suburbs and pitched my editor on letting me rewrite ALL IN THE CARDS. She was hesitant because she wasn’t sure Avon was the right publisher for a suburban/soccer mom story with bickering neighbors. Then came “Desperate Housewives” and suddenly it was, get me suburban/soccer mom stories with bickering neighbors. Timing is everything.... So although DEAR NEIGHBOR is an incarnation of my earliest novel, it is a much richer, deeper, funnier story and is resonating with readers of all ages.

For more information about Saralee and her novels, please visit her website: www.saraleerosenberg.com

The Fidelity Files moves up to #25 in WhSmith UK

Last week the WhSmith Travel shops in the UK had THE FIDELITY FILES displayed as the number 52 bestselling paperback...and this week it's up to 25! And according to this picture, copies are selling out fast! (I swear, I didn't remove the rest of the copies before the picture was taken.)

Very exciting!

I knew I loved the Brits for more than just their accents and yummy tea sandwiches!

New 30-Second Trailer for WhSmith

Exciting news! WhSmith travel stores in the UK want to show the book trailer for THE FIDELITY FILES on the tv screens in all their stores! That means, any of you on the other side of the pond could be passing through Victoria station, picking up a newspaper and a Dairy Milk chocolate bar and see my trailer playing! How cool is that?

There was one stipulation, though. I had to cut a 1:30 minute trailer down to just 30 seconds. And any of you that have gotten through all 400 pages of my novel, know how hard it is for me to cut. So that's what I did ALL day yesterday and here's the final result. Of course, it'll look all that much cooler when you're seeing it while waiting for your flight at Gatwick airport!

Guest Star: Kelly Parra!

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be part of a fantastic new community of authors called the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit where we host members on our blogs to help them promote their books!

So my very first hosted member is the fabulous, Ms. Kelly Parra who writes edgy YA novels. Her first book, Graffiti Girl has done extremely well and her latest release, Invisible Touch just hit bookstores this fall from MTV Books! I was fortunate enough to be able to ask Kelly some questions about herself and her writing process. And here they are!


1. How do you come up with the names for your characters?

Good question. I'm actually a pretty visual writer. I like to picture the characters in my mind, and then find the perfect fit with a name. Sometimes if I can't come up with something unique I'll scan the Internet or even the phone book to make the right match.

2. What's your favorite part about the publishing process? Your least favorite part?

Besides writing the book as my favorite part, I LOVE reading the galleys for the first time and seeing how the book's layout will potentially look in published form. My least favorite part is promotion, it takes a lot of hard work and lots of savvy to pull off good promo. :)

3. If your book were to be made into a movie, who could you see playing the lead role?

Kara would be possibly be Vanessa Hudgens.
Anthony would be a younger Milo Ventimiglia.

4. Since becoming a writer, what's the most glamorous thing you've ever done?

It might not seem very glamourous to some writers, but to a simple gal like me it was attending the Romance Writers of America RITA ceremony. The dresses were glam, the show fab. It was an experience to remember.

5. If you could be a superhero, what would you superpower be?

It would be transport anywhere by just a thought. That would be so cool. New York, no problem. Hawaii, just one second. :)

More information about Kelly Parra and her novels can be found on her website: www.KellyParra.com. Check it out!

The Fidelity Files is a bestseller in WHSmith in the UK!

So I just got back from an amazing trip to London and I bring with me some exciting news. The Fidelity Files has only been out for a little over a week in the UK, but it's doing extremely well!

WHSmith Travel shops (the ones in the train stations, tube stops and airports) display their books according to their own in-house sales chart and The Fidelity Files is number 52!

Here's the proof! This was taken from the WHSmith store in Waterloo station in London!