Words fail me …

These come today on the heels of some more STEAMY still images of Rob Pattinson in Remember Me (Please note: Shower!)

Leave your thoughts on these new images in the comments!!

Remember last month, when all anyone could talk about after the Hope for Haiti telethon was Rob Pattinson’s beard?

Turns out the scruffy facial hair is, in fact, for his role in the upcoming movie Bel Ami:

Robert is chatting in a London hotel room and he doesn’t look like his famous vampire character because he has grown a beard for new film Bel Ami. He admits for the first time in two years he’s been able to walk around his home city largely undetected.

“I would like to do an audition with no one knowing who I am and see what would happen though,” he laughed.

Read more with Rob about his other projects at the UK Daily Record.

Rob’s facial hair is also evident in preview photos from his upcoming Details Magazine cover (shown here), though these photos were likely shot awhile ago (before the telethon).

Seriously, who doesn’t love getting free books?

We’ve got multiple chances for you to win free books through our sister site, Novel Novice.

First up … we’re giving away THREE copies of My Soul to Save by Rachel K. Vincent. (See that button on our sidebar over there? –> Yep! That’s where you click!) There are multiple chances for you to enter this giveaway; just head over to the contest page HERE for details. The contest runs through Feb. 19th.

Meanwhile, you can check out the book trailer for My Soul to Save below:

We’re also giving away a signed copy of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, along with a collection of other Beautiful Creatures swag. It’s part of our Book of the Month feature at Novel Novice. You can enter HERE through the end of the month.

Check out the Beautiful Creatures book trailer below:

* An interesting Op-Ed in the New York Times today about how the Quileute Nation has benefited very little (if at all) from the Twilight phenomenon, despite the massive use of their tribal identity:

The Quileute are likewise eager to share their tribal culture, even if the interest in it was created primarily by Hollywood. The Quileute welcome outsiders, as my own interactions with them have confirmed. When hordes of “Twilight” fans showed up in La Push in 2008, the tribe, as a sovereign Indian nation, could have closed its reservation, but tribal members chose not to do so.

At the same time, like indigenous peoples around the globe, the Quileute want to be meaningful participants in the treatment of their own cultural property. This means, first and foremost, having their sovereignty and their culture respected by outsiders. The Quileute’s Web site tells visitors about the tribal laws that govern Quileute territory. One of these laws specifies that burial grounds and religious ceremonies are “sacred and not to be entered.” Had MSN acknowledged the tribe as a sovereign government, it might not have broken that rule. The Quileute believe that respect for Indian tribal sovereignty could likewise bridge cultural gaps between other Indian communities and outsiders.

Read more here.

* And here’s something right up our alley — a class at Cambridge University is now studying Twilight:

According to the BBC, the Twilight series’ heavy impact upon this generation’s youth (as well as that of other series such as Harry Potter and other industries like video games, comic books, and more) is a useful study tool for understanding children.

“Academics argue that books, films and other media, reach children in a way that their teachers and parents cannot.”

The series is thusly to be incorporated into a new set of curriculum for Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education.

Says the BBC, “The faculty’s current teaching programme covers material including ABC books, folk and fairytales, as well as classics like Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.”

Read more at the Twilight Examiner.

* Pre-Super Bowl, Taylor Lautner and Kellan Lutz took part in the Celebrity Beach Bowl. And it looks like Taylor made it to the big game, too!

* It looks like Twilight is boosting sales of certain models of Volvo.

* It looks like the Burger King endorsement will continue with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse according to the Twilight Examiner.

* The folks at Edward’s Meadow are working on a new New Moon spoof (a sequel to their Twilight spoof), and they’ve released this preview clip:

You can also check out the full trailer:

A new update today via Twitter from Eclipse director David Slade, telling us about the promise of more EDWARD in the movie:

Yay! Read more about what this means at the Twilight Examiner.

* Check out this preview of Rob Pattinson’s Details Magazine cover shoot:

* Also from the world of RPattz, is yet another “Ask Rob” video for Remember Me:

* Taylor Lautner has been cast as “Stretch Armstrong” in a movie adaptation of the popular toy.

I want to remind you about our January-February Fan Fiction Challenge — going on now!

For this challenge, we want you to:

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Write a story about two characters in love.

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* The story can take place at any point in time — before Twilight, during any of the four books, or after Breaking Dawn.

* The story must fit within canon.

* You may write about any of the characters from the Twilight Saga (vampires, humans, wolves, etc.), but the pairing must fit within canon.

* You may write from any POV/perspective (1st person-any character, 2nd person, 3rd person).

Get creative!

There’s a lot of love going around in the Twilight Saga.  How about a story about Charlie and Renee and the early days of their marriage?  Billy and Sarah Black?  A member of the Volturi?  One of the nomadic vampires we met in Breaking Dawn?  Charlie and Sue?

Your story can be sweet, romantic, funny, or whatever strikes your muse, as long as it’s a love story between two characters.

Entries are due by midnight (PST) on Monday, March 1st.

E-mail submissions to christie.novelnovice@gmail.com as a Microsoft Word (.doc) or plain text (.txt) attachment.

See HERE for complete rules & details!

* While it’s nice to see Kristen Stewart performing her civic duty & reporting for jury duty, it’s unfortunate that the incident has landed a couple of security guards in hot water. From E! news (via the Lex):

[Kristen] appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this week to serve jury duty. Apparently, one of the security guards was a Twi-hard and asked K.Stew to pose for a quick camera-phone photo. Obviously, she was in the giving mood, she obliged.

However, it appears that perhaps K.Stew shouldn’t have been so generous. The guard’s pal (who was also there) then allowed his wife to post the picture on the Internet…and now the two men could lose their jobs because of it.

* Jessica Alba talks to MTV about the movie Valentine’s Day, and shares her thoughts on Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift

* Jackson Rathbone appears in a new TV spot (set to air during the Super Bowl) for his upcoming movie The Last Airbender: