Twilight the movie is releasing on Friday and I'm reminded of how I felt the first time I read the book- anxious, excited, and completely in love with the thought of first love and lust at first sight. There is a certain lust for life you find while you're reading the POV of a girl who has just fallen in love for the first time in her life. She's awakened at the thought of this guy who nearly steals her breath away every time he walks into a room. She's mesmerized by the sight of him. He's all she can think about and really the only person she wants to think about. But yet, he wants nothing to do with her. He avoids her. He's rude to her, obnoxiously rude and hateful and she is still drawn to him. His reaction to her only feeds her need to be near him.

I admit, I'm Team Edward. The very sight of him on page is enough to steal my breath away, to make my heart race in anticipation and a blush to flush across my cheeks. Even when I thought I wasn't supposed to fall for him, I did- hard. He is the bad boy without being the bad boy. He is the villain hero. He's dangerous only because of his capabilities to harm her, not because he chooses to or because he can. Edward sees Bella as his talisman, his salvation from darkness. She is his light.

Love between a hero and his heroine is often passionate, fiery, and all-consuming. I felt that way about the books, felt that way about the characters. My Mattycakes was very aggravated with my all-consuming need to read them as fast as I could. I couldn't put them down long enough to take a breather. I couldn't put them down long enough to have a semi-coherent conversation with him and it was all because of a fictional hero who fascinated me to the point of obsession.

I knew how Bella felt because I had been that girl, with my Edward, falling head first into a love affair that I knew I couldn't be without. And unlike Bella, whose race for the HEA was shot with peril every day of their existence together, I knew when I glanced up from my book, glasses perched low on my nose from falling down, my hero would be staring back at me with a bemused look on his face shaking his head with wonder over my fascination with a book. Little does he know, in my world, I am Bella and he is my Edward and eternity we shall spend together.

Today's song is Too Late by Ashes Divide, which is my official Twilight song.

Anyone else obsess about fictional heroes? Who is your all time favorite fictional hero (this can be book, movie, TV, comics, ect.)? And if you're a writer, how do they compare with the traits you've put into your own hero?