Personal Correspondence 8

This is for the various bits of info that Stephenie is kindly sending us for the write ups in the different sections. It will be added to again as we get more info!

Q: If someone’s bitten with loads of venom right by the heart, how quick is the conversion and is it more painful than a regular conversion? Were some of the Cullen’s transformations worse than others?

A: About the conversion process… If there is a lot of venom in the human’s system, the pain is more intense to begin with. Like fire, the venom burns through the body. So, with fire in more places, there is more pain at the outset. When Bella was bitten by James, the fire was only in her hand. Painful enough, but not as bad as if she had several bites. Of course, this is only at the outset. If James’ venom had been allowed to spread through Bella, it would have over time made its way through her whole system, and the pain eventually would have been just as intense as if she’d been deliberately infected with multiple, well-placed bites (jugular, wrists, ankles, etc.). So, all that early pain as the venom wound through her system is extra–an added portion of pain that doesn’t in anyway cut down the time or the intensity of the greater pain. The greatest pain begins when the venom is all the way through the body, through the heart, and it starts meeting itself in the veins again and then burning them dry. It moves slower than blood because it’s thicker. Each beat of the heart can only push it so far. The changing/burning process is slow. The venom has to leak through to every cell before it ends. It took Carlisle a little more than three days because his bites were not deliberate or well-placed. It can be as short as two.

Q: Do your vampires have any restrictions, like traditional vampires can’t enter a house without being invited in?

A: Almost all–well, I think ALL, actually, but I’ll play it safe–of the superstitions about vampire limitations are entirely false in my world. Vampires don’t really have any limits, other than the self-imposed guideline to keep their existance a secret. No unconscious periods, no problem with sunlight, crosses, garlic, holy water, wooden stakes, etc… These are all myths–deliberately placed in earlier centuries to mislead impressionable humans and make them feel safe. Vampires need no invitation to enter any house.

Q: Is there any more information you can give us about the Cullen house?

A: Something to remember, these rooms are ginormous. This is a really BIG house. Also, there’s a lot of unaccounted for space on the third floor euphemistically dubbed the “library.” This is where they do things that are technically illegal–like document forgery and computer hackery and all kinds of other shady stuff. There’s also a basement where they keep illicit things. It’s hard to get to, if you’re not a vampire.

It’s not a large window on the South wall–the South wall IS a window. It’s glass from bottom to top, all three stories.

Jasper and Alice do sort of share a room, but since Alice’s personality is stamped all over that room, and Jasper has his study, everyone thinks of it as Alice’s. Since no one sleeps anywhere, the room thing is a little vague.

In the living room, there is a gigantic flat screen television on the wall between the living room and kitchen/dining area. A grouping of couches/chairs faces the tv, and then there are other clusters of seats for conversation scattered throughout. There are a couple of computers along the wall that curls around the dining room to separate it from the living room.