Stephenie Meyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stephenie Meyer (born December 24, 1973) is the author of the book Twilight and its sequel New Moon.
Meyer was born in Connecticut, the second eldest of three sisters and three brothers, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.
Meyer attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she majored in English. She met her husband Christiaan when she was growing up in Arizona and married him in 1994; together they have three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli. Meyer belongs to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003, the transcript of which is now Chapter 13 of the book. After writing and editing the novel, she signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.
The sequel to Twilight, New Moon, had an unintentionally staggered release all over North America, beginning in early August 2006. The third book in the series, Eclipse, is currently slated for an early August 2007 release. The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, will be published in fall 2008, though we are not sure if she will end the series at four books. Midnight Sun will be more of a companion piece to the series,(if published) rather than a genuine sequel. The first chapter of Midnight Sun has been posted on Meyer's website. The book will be Twilight in Edward's, the male vampire heartthrob, point of view.
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[edit] Published Novels
Her first novel, Twilight, was published in October 2005. By November 2005, Twilight reached #5 on the New York Times best seller list for young adult chapter books[1]. The book also quickly gained recognition and won numerous honors including:
- A New York Times Editor's Choice
- A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
- An Amazon.com "Best Book of the Decade...So Far"
- A Teen People "Hot List" pick
- An American Library Association "Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults" and "Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers”
- Translation into 20 languages [2]
Stephenie Meyer soon published the sequel to Twilight, New Moon, in August 2006. In its first week of release it debuted at the number 5 position for young adult chapter books on the New York Times bestseller’s list [3]. It remained in the number 1 position for the next eleven weeks. Even after relinquishing its number one spot, New Moon stayed on the list. As of March 18, 2007, it had been there for twenty-eight weeks.
On August 7, 2007, Eclipse, the sequel to Twilight and New Moon will be out in stores. In spring of 2008, Stephenie Meyer's adult sci-fi novel, The Host, will be published by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company; it follows the story of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer, two women sharing a single body, who are forced to work together in order to save Jared, the fugitive man they both love. Meyer has confirmed that The Host is the beginning of a new sci-fi trilogy.
In fall of 2008, Breaking Dawn the tentatively-titled fourth novel in the Twilight series, will be published. Meyer also hope to have Midnight Sun — which is Twilight written from Edward's perspective — published in the Spring of 2008 or 2009.
She also has a story in Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of bad prom nights with supernatural affects. The other authors that have contributed with a story in this book are Meg Cabot, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle. Prom Nights from Hell will be released April 1, 2007.
[edit] Fan Following
Meyer has gained a following among young adult readers for her novels centered around a teenager named Bella Swan and her vampire love, Edward Cullen. The novels are set in the small town of Forks, close to Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. The Olympic Peninsula is recorded as having the most rainfall in the United States. Thanks to Twilight and New Moon, the city of Forks has received unusual attention and has even hosted an "I Love Edward" party in honor of the author.
Numerous fansites, such as The Twilight Lexicon[4] and Myspace Group: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, have popped up on the Internet to allow fans to share their enthusiasm for Edward and Bella and the "modern" vampires of the world Meyer has built.
The first book in the series has been optioned to be made into a motion picture, but there is still uncertainty as to if and when this will happen.
[edit] Vampires
Meyer's books have opened up a whole new type of vampires. These "modern" vampires are sometimes known as Twilight Vampires. Those who drink animal blood instead of human blood, have golden eyes, while the regular ones have red eyes. They also move with such a grace it looks like they're dancing, though some of the "regular" vampires are considered "catlike" in how they move. Both have eyes that turn darker when they're "thirsty" (or angry); have pale, granite or marble-like skin, are almost painfully beautiful, have super strength and have inhuman speed; and some, like Edward, are also known to have special abilities (mind-reading, controlling people's feelings, seeing the future and so on).
Twilight vampires defy most popular beliefs about vampires. They show up in pictures, have small fangs, and can go out in the sun, but their skin shimmers like thousands of crushed diamonds so they have to stay away from humans on sunny days to avoid controversy. They also cannot turn into bats, as vampires in various other stories do. As for the wooden stakes, Meyer says, "You try shoving wood through granite."
And as for the issue between vampires and the cliche garlic? While it does not protect humans from them, no "human" food appeals to vampires, mud to a human being is like human food to a vampire(however, they can eat human food). Vampires also have purplish bruise-like shadows beneath their eyes. They have incredible senses of smell, hearing, and sight. They are extremely fast and are astonishingly strong. Nothing can kill them, bar another vampire or the Quileute werewolves. To kill a vampire, one must rip them to shreds and burn the pieces.
The special powers that the vampires have are traits that are intensified from their human life. A vampire is created by being bitten but not drained entirely of blood. The venom from a vampire has the ability to change a human into a vampire. It is a long, painful process that lasts for about three days. A new vampire will have bright red eyes for around a year. Some vampires have a great attraction to the scent of a particular human's blood. The scent of the blood is extremely appealing to the vampire. In the book New Moon this appeal is used with the word "singer", as the blood of that particular persons blood "sings" to the vampire in question.
Vampires are frozen in a state of time, therefore, they cannot sleep or grow hair or grow old but remain exactly as they were at the time of their change to a vampire. If they eat human food, they'll have to (basically) throw it up later, as otherwise it causes an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach and remains in the stomach forever. Most vampires are nomads, and travel in small groups of one or two. More than that is an extreme oddity. Vampires such as the Cullens are very rare, for many vampires do not choose their type of diet (animal instead of human). Also, some vampires are trackers, which are vampires who are greatly attracted to a human and track them until they can strike.
