Hocus Pocus and All that Jazz

So, this weekend I discovered that I am actually a witch. I'm just now learning how to use my powers to perform an attraction spell which will make two very hot guys fall in love with me which will then leave me with the difficult decision of "which one should I pick?"

Ok, so that's not exactly true. Or really at all. But after watching the entire first season of The Secret Circle in a matter of about four days, you shouldn't be surprised if you see me uttering words in another language under my breath and things magically start levitating or lights magically come on. I mean, it's practically become my reality.

I blame Justin LaValle for this. It's all YOUR fault, Justin! I was doing just fine until he came along with his helpful recommendations of which shows I should become hooked on. But watching this show about witches got me thinking... when did vampires and werewolves and witches become so popular? Sure they've been around for a long time (in stories... I'm not actually delusional enough to believe that they actually exist... at least not in America), but I remember kids getting made fun of growing up for playing "Dungeons and Dragons". Since when did all that 'dark world' stuff become so main stream. The funny thing is it's so addicting.
Twilight began on a Saturday night at 10 pm. I was alone upstairs looking for a movie to watch, while Jake and his buds were downstairs praying to the Xbox NHL gods... in very loud curse words. I decided that this night was a good night to see what all the vampire hype was about since I knew I'd never convince Jake to watch it with me. So I began the first movie which we had recorded on TiVo. Little did I know, 6 hours later, Jake would come upstairs to find me drooling at a still frame of Taylor Lautner's abs. I'd watched the first three movies (all that had come out at the time) and had even resorted to desperate measures to find the second and third ones to stream online. I needed to see what happened....

Eventually, I convinced Jake to watch the series again with me (the next weekend, I'm pretty sure). After that, I read all the books and then watched the series again.And I was still thirsting for more... so we started watching the Vampire Diaries on Netflix, which for those of you who haven't seen it, is Twilight in tv form. Quite literally. As if the vampire-werewolf-girl-torn-between-them love triangle from Twlight hadn't been painful enough, the Vampire Diaries' love triangle involves two vampire brothers and a normal girl who can't decide between the good and the bad brother. My obsession with this show lead to a "sick day" at work in which I came home and proceeeded to watch a whole season of VD on Netflix.

I don't know what it is about all of this mythology stuff, but it's very intriguing. And combined with a thrilling plotline, you'll be begging for more. And you'll be able to find it because this stuff is all over the place. It seems like every show I go to watch has some kind of mythology built into it. Next thing we know, we'll be watching a show about hunting Sasquatch...

Oh, wait! That already exists.

But I wonder what it is about all these shows like this that has the audience so captivated. Is it really the mythology or is it simply the love triangle thing. Because all three of the above mentioned have it... The girl torn between 2 guys, one that's good for her and one that's mysterious and a little bit dangerous. Can we as a group of author's really not break out of this simple formula? Do we really have no other ideas for an intriguing storyline?

Oh! I've just thought of a 'novel' idea. Maybe my next book will be built about the following premise... so there's this guy. And then there are these two girls. One of them is your girl next door type... perfect for him in every way. And then there's this other girl... your typical badass type. And he loves them both, but he can't decide... But wait, that wouldn't work. Who am I kidding? The girls would never wait around, grovelling like the boys in the above-mentioned plotlines. What am I thinking? Guess, I'll stick with the traditional love triangle model.

But I've decided, next time I decide to start a new series that has some kind of witch, werewolf or vampire in it, I'm going to hire someone to sing the national anthem beforehand. Maybe Evanescence. A nice, haunting version of our nation's lullaby. Because an event of this magnitude should be commenced in such a way. And shortly thereafter, I will slowly fall into my engulfed, vegetative state and pray to the mythological gods that, whoever the new guy is, he has abs like Taylor Lautner.