Here we are to finish documenting the 2023 excursion to Forks, Washington. (Here you can read all the other posts documenting my Twilight journey).
When last seen I had made it back to my favorite small town for my third time at the Forever Twilight in Forks festival and second time working alongside the Volterra Coven. But yes…there is more.
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations and to Part XI of the Twilight Travels series! It truly never ends, does it?
courtesy of Giphy.com
Anyway, before going any further you may want to go back and read (or at least skim cause there is a lot) of the other posts in this series chronicling my Twilightjourney.
Admittedly, last time we left in a rather dismal place. I thought at the time I would be unable to attend 2023’s Forever Twilight in Forks Festival, where in 2022 I had the privilege of working as a volunteer for this outstanding and unique event that has become another home. It’s a long and stupid story, but somehow a miracle dropped out of the sky…and I got to come back after all. When Doctor Carlisle Cullen said “We’ll come back, we always do” he wasn’t kidding. So here we are once again, doing my way too in depth recap. (If we had a special interaction and it didn’t make it into the blog post I am so sorry I was trying to cram everything in and I’m sure I forgot something along the way. I still love you I promise).
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations and the Twilight Travels series!
So you all the drill…over the last year and a half I’ve poured my heart out telling my Twilight story…check out my other posts in this series for the rest. I’m guessing if you’ve made it this far you know about my second pilgrimage to Forks, Washington to work as a handler for the Volterra Coven as part of the Forever Twilight in Forks Festival. In the last post I chronicled the special moments of the days in the Portland area and Forks leading up to the actual festival. Silly me, I thought I’d be able to chronicle the whole thing in one post but my long-winded sentimental butt is stretching this out into two. So without further ado, the fond memories from the actual festival.
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been a little busy.
If you’ve poked around this blog at all you know all about my Twilight Travels series, chronicling my epic journey with the Twilight Saga from falling in love with the story, leaving the story, returning with a vengeance, making the pilgrimage to Forks, Washington for 2021 Forever Twilight in Forks Festival, and a little bit of everything in between. (Read the rest of the posts in this series here),
If you didn’t know, the Forever Twilight in Forks festival takes place every September the weekend closest to September 13th, the canonical birthday of the story’s heroine, Bella Swan. One of the features of the festival is the cosplayers who dress up and interact with the festival guests in character (like meeting the characters at Disney World except you’re meeting vampires). As of today there are three groups from the series represented at the festival, The Olympic Coven (aka the Cullens), Cousins From Denali (aka the Cullen’s fellow “vegetarian” vampire friends), and the squad I ran with: The Volterra Coven (aka The Volturi) who collaborate with ShAro di Volterra, who portrays Aro, leader of the Volturi.
If you want more information about the festival, I recommend either the below documentary, this episode of the podcast The Big Hit Show featuring yours truly in that and this episode (for more of that story read part VIII, you can also hear me in the introduction of their first episode) or the official Forks website. I attended the festival for the first time last year, and the experience altered my life in the best way possible, giving me a whole new family and community and memories I will cherish for the rest of my life.
This year, I had the extreme honor of returning to the festival, town, and fandom I love to work behind the scenes at the festival as a handler for the Volterra Coven, (fancy word for a behind-the-scenes helper) and spend a couple days before the festival in the Oregon area exploring the filming locations from the first Twilight movie with the incomparable Regina, aka Heidi (the “royal fisherman” who rounds up unsuspecting people for the Volturi to eat) of the Volterra Coven.
I’m not going to do a step-by-step chronicling of the entire trip like I did last time around, but I am going to take some time to highlight some of the beautiful moments from the entire excursion.
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Y’all probably thought that would be the end of the Twilight Travels series for a while…and to be honest, so did I. But as Carlisle Cullen says in Breaking Dawn Part II “Well come back…we always do”. The months following Forks turned out to be full of a lot of fun, shenaniganry, and most of all surprises regarding Twilight and my life in general. I thought I’d do a recap for my benefit and your entertainment pleasure should you wish to read. And in my own cheeky fashion, I’m going to format this post the way Stephenie Meyer documents the months passing in NewMoon during Bella’s depression, though the later months of my year were not so bleak thank goodness.
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations! I hope you all had a happy holiday season and are on your way to a happy new year!
courtesy of giphy.com
Surprise! I’m not talking about Twilight this time. (Well, okay, maybe a little).
There’s this trend on Tik Tok of people going back and talking to themselves from the past to give them a pep talk, give them some insight, etc. I thought that was an insanely cool idea, but while I love watching other people’s videos and content on Tik Tok, I’m just not tech-savvy enough to do it myself on that platform. So here I am with a blog post!
For the purpose of this post, this is to be a conversation between myself now, at age twenty-seven in December 31st of 2021 who will be referred to as “Deb” and myself ten years ago at age seventeen, December 31st, 2011 who will be referred to as “Deborah”. Admittedly this is a bit self-indulgent but so be it. And any bits/conversations that come up that may need clarification will be in italics.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations and the final (for now at least) post in the Twilight Travels series! Check out the rest of the series here if you haven’t already.
courtesy of tenor.com
Today we finish up my time in Forks and Washington state (for now anyway) and I offer some probably too cheesy and sappy reflection and a whole lot of feels. You have been warned. And funny enough today is the sixteen year anniversary of Twilight being published, the six year anniversary of Life and Death being published…and the one year anniversary of me returning from my long-awaited trip to Minnesota and committing for sure to making the Forks trip happen. (More about that in Part IV).
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations and the Twilight Travels series! Be sure to read the rest of the series here.
courtesy of giphy.com
This week we dive into the next chunk of the festival…maybe we get everything else done in this blog post but knowing how long winded and detail oriented I tend to be (sorry not sorry) I have a feeling there will be one more after this…but only time will tell!
When last left off I’d arrived in Seattle, driven to Forks, and had a most triumphant first day at Forever Twilight in Forks. Made some new friends, met some internet friends for the very first time in person, interacted with some of my favorite fictional characters, seen some beautiful sites, and already had the time of my life…and that was just the beginning.
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are linked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not linked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations, and Part V of the Twilight Travels series. (Be sure to check out the other posts in this series if you haven’t already).
courtesy of giphy.com
If you’re reading this and you’re not my mother I take it that by some miracle you’re not sick of hearing me go on and on about my trip to the Pacific Northwest to celebrate that one book series about vampires. But hey now we move on past my chaotic history of loving Twilight, leaving Twilight, returning to Twilight, and get to the part where left behind my life for almost a week to celebrate and geek out with people over Twilight.
Quick note: All Twilight characters listed here are liked to the character’s bios on the amazing (and author-approved) website Twilight Lexicon. Any character/coven information not liked to there is liked to the official Wiki Fandom site for all things Twilight.
Welcome back to Deb Declamations, and Part IV of Twilight Travels. (Check out the entire series here).
courtesy of giphy.com
We’ve taken a deep dive into my upcoming trip to Forks Washington, aka Twilight capital of the world, my initial obsession with the Twilight Saga, and my disconnection from Twilight. And now…we discuss what brought me back.
Deb Declamations 