Tikatu's Travels Through Time

As a Fan History admin, I’ve been involved in editing the Russet Noon article, and have been talking with my family about the whole phenomenon – mostly about the copyright issues and the Peter David connection - through his satirical round-robin, Potato Moon. (Peter David is a household word of sorts as my husband remembers his work as a comic book writer, and we have some of his Star Trek novels, too.)

So, today the Girl, a Twilight fan, having heard from me about the latest brouhaha surrounding Lady Sybilla and Russet Noon (i.e. the press release), wanted to see the russetnoon.com website and see for herself what the fuss was all about. I pulled it up, vacated my chair, and went off to cook bacon for tonight’s supper.

I hadn’t finished frying the first few slices when my daughter came out to the kitchen, her hands balled up and an expression on her face that made her look as if she had been sucking limes (she’s rather fond of lemons).

“Ewwwwww!” she cried.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s that site! She (meaning Lady Sybilla) has Renesmee all wrong! Renesmee is a self-assured little girl at the end of Breaking Dawn. I don’t see why that should change!”

She shook her head. “I love Renesmee and Jacob to pieces, but if this is from Jacob’s point-of-view, why is it so much about Renesmee? It looks as if the whole book will be about her. And it sounds like she’s approaching Canon-Sue land.”

No sooner had she gone back into the living room, than her next youngest brother (also known as Boy #1, and also a Twilight fan) came in. His fists were balled up and he moved them like Wallace would – but instead of a look of delight on his face (as Wallace would have), he too looked as if he’d been sucking sour fruit – lemons, in his case.

“Ewwwwww!” he said, much as his sister had done. “This Russet Noon thing – it’s like combining sugar and honey in a bowl, then adding it to a combination of margarine, brown sugar and marshmallows in a saucepan. Then adding in some maple syrup and molasses, and dipping a sheet of paper in it and trying to read what is written on it.”

My son loves to cook, and experiment in the kitchen; honey is one of his favorite ingredients. He’d just used it in a loaf of fruit bread and it stuck the loaf to the pan. So I got his drift. He ended his impromptu recipe with, "Renesmee is not bored, and I sincerely doubt she has inadequacy issues.” (Yes, we talk like that in my house.)

I asked my youngest son if he’d read Twilight, and he said no. So, no comment from him.

Going by my own kids’ reaction, I’d say that Lady Sybilla doesn’t exactly have a hit on her hands – should she get past the copyright lawyers unscathed.