Twilight
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 3:10 PM
To all My fellow Twilight Fans here's a blog Dedicated Just to Twilight, the trailer, the books and the actors not to mention the author.Firstly the books, now the author of Twilight to me Is a complete genius... her writing Is so Intense and diary-like. I really enjoyed reading The first book..... I am Now on to the second book Entitled 'new moon' I am only 58 pages into it an I am Already turning to Pages as if It were A competition to see who could read the book the fastest. Christmas is coming up and I can Hardly wait because who knows my aunts and uncles might give me Some cash which will then be use to buy myself the third and fourth copies entitled 'eclipse' and 'breaking dawn'.
Secondly there are the Actors of Twilight;
Thirdly there Is the Author;
Official Biography
Stephenie Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in English. She lives with her husband and three young sons in Phoenix, Arizona. After the publication of her first novel, Twilight, booksellers chose Stephenie Meyer as one of the "most promising new authors of 2005" (Publishers Weekly).
Praise for Twilight:
- A New York Times Editor's Choice
- A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
- An Amazon "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"
- Has been translated into 20 languages
"Propelled by suspense and romance in equal parts [this story] will keep readers madly flipping the pages of Meyer's tantalizing debut."
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The novel's danger-factor skyrockets as the excitement of secret love and hushed affection morphs into a terrifying race to stay alive. Realistic, subtle, succinct, and easy to follow, Twilight will have readers dying to sink their teeth into it."
— School Library Journal (starred review)
Comments about the Book from Stephanie Meyer;
Twilight
The Story Behind Twilight
I get a ton of questions about how I came up with the story of Twilight and how I got it published. I may be killing my FAQ page by doing this, but here is the whole story:
(Warning: there are Twilight spoilers contained in the following; if you don't want to ruin the suspense, stop reading.....now. Warning #2: As you might have guessed from the length of my book, I can't tell a short story—this is going to take a while. You have been warned.)
The Writing: I know the exact date that I began writing Twilight, because it was also the first day of swim lessons for my kids. So I can say with certainty that it all started on June 2, 2003. Up to this point, I had not written anything besides a few chapters (of other stories) that I never got very far on, and nothing at all since the birth of my first son, six years earlier.
I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately. For what is essentially a transcript of my dream, please see Chapter 13 ("Confessions") of the book.
Though I had a million things to do (i.e. making breakfast for hungry children, dressing and changing the diapers of said children, finding the swimsuits that no one ever puts away in the right place, etc.), I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. I was so intrigued by the nameless couple's story that I hated the idea of forgetting it; it was the kind of dream that makes you want to call your friend and bore her with a detailed description. (Also, the vampire was just so darned good-looking, that I didn't want to lose the mental image.) Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering. But I didn't want to lose the dream, so I typed out as much as I could remember, calling the characters "he" and "she."
From that point on, not one day passed that I did not write something. On bad days, I would only type out a page or two; on good days, I would finish a chapter and then some. I mostly wrote at night, after the kids were asleep so that I could concentrate for longer than five minutes without being interrupted. I started from the scene in the meadow and wrote through to the end. Then I went back to the beginning and wrote until the pieces matched up. I drove the "golden spike" that connected them in late August, three months later.
It took me a while to find names for my anonymous duo. For my vampire (who I was in love with from day one) I decided to use a name that had once been considered romantic, but had fallen out of popularity for decades. Charlotte Bronte's Mr. Rochester and Jane Austen's Mr. Ferrars were the characters that led me to the name Edward. I tried it on for size, and found that it fit well. My female lead was harder. Nothing I named her seemed just right. After spending so much time with her, I loved her like a daughter, and no name was good enough. Finally, inspired by that love, I gave her the name I was saving for my daughter, who had never shown up and was unlikely to put in an appearance at this point: Isabella. Huzzah! Edward and Bella were named. For the rest of the characters, I did a lot of searching in old census records, looking for popular names in the times that they'd been born. Some trivia: Rosalie was originally "Carol" and Jasper was first "Ronald." I like the new names much better, but every now and then I will slip up and type Carol or Ron by accident. It really confuses the people who read my rough drafts.
For my setting, I knew I needed someplace ridiculously rainy. I turned to Google, as I do for all my research needs, and looked for the place with the most rainfall in the U.S. This turned out to be the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I pulled up maps of the area and studied them, looking for something small, out of the way, surrounded by forest... And there, right where I wanted it to be, was a tiny town called "Forks." It couldn't have been more perfect if I had named it myself. I did a Google image search on the area, and if the name hadn't sold me, the gorgeous photographs would have done the trick. (Images like these of the Hoh Rainforest (a short drive from Forks). Also see forks-web.com ). In researching Forks, I discovered the La Push Reservation, home to the Quileute Tribe. The Quileute story is fascinating, and a few fictional members of the tribe quickly became intrinsic to my story.
All this time, Bella and Edward were, quite literally, voices in my head. They simply wouldn't shut up. I'd stay up as late as I could stand trying to get all the stuff in my mind typed out, and then crawl, exhausted, into bed (my baby still wasn't sleeping through the night, yet) only to have another conversation start in my head. I hated to lose anything by forgetting, so I'd get up and head back down to the computer. Eventually, I got a pen and notebook for beside my bed to jot notes down so I could get some freakin' sleep. It was always an exciting challenge in the morning to try to decipher the stuff I'd scrawled across the page in the dark.
During the day, I couldn't stay away from the computer, either. When I was stuck at swim lessons, out in 115 degrees of Phoenix sunshine, I would plot and scheme and come home with so much new stuff that I couldn't type fast enough. It was your typical Arizona summer, hot, sunny, hot, and hot, but when I think back to those three months, I remember rain and cool green things, like I really spent the summer in the Olympic Rainforest.
When I'd finished the body of the novel, I started writing epilogues...lots of epilogues. This eventually clued me in to the fact that I wasn't ready to let go of my characters, and I started working on the sequel. Meanwhile, I continued to edit Twilight in a very obsessive-compulsive way.
My older sister, Emily, was the only one who really knew what I was up to. In June, I'd started sending her chapters as I finished them, and she soon became my cheerleading section. She was always checking in to see if I had something new for her. It was Emily who first suggested, after I'd finished, that I should try to get Twilight published. I was so stunned by the fact that I'd actually finished a whole, entire book, that I decided to look into it.
Getting Published: To put it mildly, I was naive about publishing. I thought it worked like this: you printed a copy of your novel, wrapped it up in brown paper, and sent it off to a publishing house. Ho ho ho, that's a good one. I started googling (naturally) and began to discover that this was not the way it is done. (Movies lie to us! Why?! A side note: you will not be able to enjoy the new Steve Martin version of Cheaper by the Dozen when you know how insanely impossible the publishing scenario it contains is.) The whole set up with query letters, literary agents, simultaneous submissions vs. exclusive submissions, synopsizes, etc., was extremely intimidating, and I almost quit there. It certainly wasn't belief in my fabulous talent that made me push forward; I think it was just that I loved my characters so much, and they were so real to me, that I wanted other people to know them, too.
I subscribed to WritersMarket.com and compiled a list of small publishers that accepted unsolicited submissions and a few literary agencies. It was around this time that my little sister, Heidi, mentioned Janet Evanovich's website to me. In her Q and A for writers section, Janet E. mentioned Writers House, among a few others, as "the real thing" in the world of literary agencies. Writers House went on my wish list as the most desirable and also least likely.
I sent out around fifteen queries (and I still get residual butterflies in my stomach when I drive by the mailbox I sent the letters from—mailing them was terrifying.). I will state, for the record, that my queries truly sucked, and I don't blame anyone who sent me a rejection (I did get seven or eight of those. I still have them all, too). The only rejection that really hurt was from a small agent who actually read the first chapter before she dropped the axe on me. The meanest rejection I got came after Little, Brown had picked me up for a three-book deal, so it didn't bother me at all. I'll admit that I considered sending back a copy of that rejection stapled to the write-up my deal got in Publisher's Weekly, but I took the higher road.
My big break came in the form of an assistant at Writers House named Genevieve. I didn't find out until much later just how lucky I was; it turns out that Gen didn't know that 130,000 words is a whole heck of a lot of words. If she'd known that 130K words would equal 500 pages, she probably wouldn't have asked to see it. But she didn't know (picture me wiping the sweat from my brow), and she did ask for the first three chapters. I was thrilled to get a positive response, but a little worried because I felt the beginning of the book wasn't the strongest part. I mailed off those three chapters and got a letter back a few weeks later (I could barely get it open, my hands were so weak with fear). It was a very nice letter. She'd gone back with a pen and twice underlined the part where she'd typed how much she enjoyed the first three chapters (I still have that letter, of course), and she asked for the whole manuscript. That was the exact moment when I realized that I might actually see Twilight in print, and really one of the happiest points in my whole life. I did a lot of screaming.
About a month after I sent in the manuscript, I got a call from Jodi Reamer, an honest to goodness literary agent, who wanted to represent my book. I tried really hard to sound like a professional and a grownup during that conversation, but I'm not sure if I fooled her. Again, my luck was tremendous (and I don't usually have good luck—I've never won anything in my life, and no one ever catches a fish when I'm in the boat) because Jodi is the uber-agent. I couldn't have ended up in better hands. She's part lawyer, part ninja (she's working on earning her black belt right now, no kidding), a pretty amazing editor in her own right, and a great friend.
Jodi and I worked for two weeks on getting Twilight into shape before sending it to editors. The first thing we worked on was the title, which started out as Forks (and I still have a teeny soft spot for that name). Then we polished up a few rough spots, and Jodi sent it out to nine different publishing houses. This really messed with my ability to sleep, but luckily I wasn't in suspense for long.
Megan Tingley, of Megan Tingley Books, of Little, Brown and Company, read Twilight on a cross-country flight and came back to Jodi the day after the Thanksgiving weekend with a preemptive deal so huge that I honestly thought Jodi was pulling my leg—especially the part where she turned the offer down and asked for more. The upshot was that, by the end of the day, I was trying to process the information that not only was my book going to be published by one of the biggest young adult publishers in the country, but that they were going to pay me for it. For a very long time, I was convinced it was a really cruel practical joke, but I couldn't imagine who would go to these wild extremes to play a hoax on such an insignificant little hausfrau.
And that's how, in the course of six months, Twilight was dreamed, written, and accepted for publication.
Things keep getting crazier, what with the movie deal and all the pre-publication attention that Twilight continues to receive. Though I've gotten impatient from time to time, I'm glad I've had the last two years to try to come to terms with the situation. I'm greatly looking forward to finally having Twilight on the shelves, and more than a little frightened, too. Overall, it's been a true labor of love, love for Edward and Bella and all the rest of my imaginary friends, and I'm thrilled that other people get to meet them now.
Twilight — Forks
Forks is a real place and I was there!
[September 2008 edit: check out this link to a story about how the Twilight series has positively affected Forks: 'Vampire tourism' breathes new life into small town
--Seth
The Forks, WA Chamber of Commerce recently added a great new page to their site called "Twilight Points of Interests." Click here to see it.
The Forks Forum is also a great place to visit.
In the summer of 2004 I snuck up to Forks to check it out; it was the first time I've ever been to any part of Washington. I took my sister Emily with me—she was a really great sport considering that she was seven months pregnant at the time. We flew from Seattle to Port Angeles in a "puddle jumper" (another first for us both) and then rented a car and made the drive down to Forks. I was afraid, as we left Seattle, that I was going to be disappointed. My Forks had become such a real place in my head that I was sure the reality would have some kind of jarring difference. It wouldn't look like the pictures, maybe, or there would be some huge flaw that would make my story impossible in that setting. But as we flew in, low over the densely green hills with the incredible Cascades Mountains touching the clouds to the south, I stopped worrying.
Of course it was raining when we landed. It rained both days that we were in Port Angeles. However, the sun shined the entire time we were in Forks. I'm still not sure if that was a good omen or a bad one. Every local we spoke to commented on our rare luck.
Being in Forks was the most incredible experience. There were a few small differences: the logging presence was much more evident than I'd pictured it—the clear cuts put a bit of a lump in my throat, and the constant, gigantic log haulers barreling down the wet highway made driving a thrilling adventure—and it was sunny, as I've mentioned. Otherwise, it was eerily similar to my imaginings. Walking down Main Street, shopping at the Thriftway (I still have that receipt!), driving up side streets until we found a house that could have been Charlie's, and then turning the car around only to find a beat-up, once-red, early-fifties Chevy truck parked across the roadÂ… The word surreal gets overused a lot, but this really was like walking around inside of a dream. We spent half a day at La Push, and that was even more uncanny. Unlike Forks, there were no differences between my imaginary La Push and the real thing. I spent the morning expecting every minute that we would turn a corner and run into Jacob Black.
We had to leave much too soon. I have vowed to return and take my entire family with me (my boys are going to love that beach! (I have a glass jar full of the rainbow colored rocks I collected at First Beach sitting on top of my computer desk as talismans against writer's block.)). Next time, I hope it rains.
I have a few surviving pictures from my trip. Sadly, the rest were lost in the great computer crash of February '05, along with a year's worth of birthday parties, Halloween costumes, and family portraits (back your computers up, people. Do it now). Here are the survivors-enjoy, but know that they don't do it justice.
Frequently Asked Questions: Twilight
- Is there a sequel to Twilight?
- Are they going to make a Twilight movie?
- Can you get me an audition for a part in the movie?
- Did Edward bite Bella at the end of the book?
- Will Bella and Edward's story be a trilogy, or a longer series?
- What's with the apple?
- Why did you pick the title Twilight?
- I'm confused by the preface; who is the Hunter?
- Why do all the guys at Forks High like Bella if she's supposed to be average-looking? Is she pretty or not?
- Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
- What advice would you give to someone who wants to be published?
- Got any recommendations for books I can read while I'm waiting for the next book to come out?
- How can I get a signed copy of Twilight?
- What does Bella look like?
- What do you mean you're switching narrators? Are you crazy?
- In the outtakes, you described Bella's prom dress in so much detail. Do you have a picture of it?
- Can you post Forever Dawn, or send me a copy, or give me a summary, or email me the outline...?
- Can you come to my town on your next tour?
- What CD is Bella listening to in Chapter Seven?
- Is there anyway to hurry the release of the sequel?
- Is Twilight autobiographical?
- What if my question isn't answered here?
Is there a sequel to Twilight?
Yes, there is a sequel! For more information on the sequel, click here.
Are they going to make a Twilight movie?
Yes! Click here to read about the latest movie news.
Can you get me an audition for a part in the movie?
Nope. If, for any reason, I do come into possession of knowledge concerning open auditions for any of the parts, I will post that information on the movie page.
Did Edward bite Bella at the end of the book?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about the last line of Twilight. For that, I apologize. In my defense, I can only say that sometimes a writer loses a small battle here and there with her editor, and it wasn't entirely my idea to leave the ending so ambiguous. But let me assure you that it is only Edward's lips that are pressed into Bella's throat at that particular point in time. At the beginning of book two, Bella is still very human and Edward is still very stubbornly determined to keep her that way.
Will Bella and Edward's story be a trilogy, or a longer series?
I have no intention of quitting at three. Firstly, Bella and Edward would never forgive me. Secondly, the next two books would have to be 1000+ pages apiece to get the story to any place that felt like a true resolution. Thirdly, there are other stories to tell here, and, though the narrator might change, the story will continue. I just have way to much fun living in Forks (in my head) to stop anytime soon.
What's with the apple?
The apple on the cover of Twilight represents "forbidden fruit." I used the scripture from Genesis (located just after the table of contents) because I loved the phrase "the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil." Isn't this exactly what Bella ends up with? A working knowledge of what good is, and what evil is. The nice thing about the apple is it has so many symbolic roots. You've got the apple in Snow White, one bite and you're frozen forever in a state of not-quite-death... Then you have Paris and the golden apple in Greek mythology—look how much trouble that started. Apples are quite the versatile fruit. In the end, I love the beautiful simplicity of the picture. To me it says: choice.
Why did you pick the title Twilight?
Twilight was not the easiest book to title. When I started sending out queries, I called it Forks for lack of a better idea. The first thing my agent advised me was that the title was going to have to change. We played around with a lot of different titles, and nothing seemed to convey the right feel. We brainstormed through emails for about a week. The word twilight was on a list of "words with atmosphere" that I sent her. Though these words were meant to be used in combination with something else, the word twilight stood out to both of us. We decided to try it out, and, after a little adjustment time, it started to work for both of us. It isn't absolutely perfect; to be honest, I don't think there is a perfect title for this book (or if there is, I've never heard it). When I look at the titles other countries have used (examples: Germany: Bis zum Morgengrauen which is "Until Dawn" or "Bite" if you add an "s" to make it "biss" (if you look at the German book cover on the Twilight International page); Finland: "Temptation;" France: "Fascination;" and Japan, which has split it into three separate books: "The Boy Whom I Love is a Vampire," "Blood Tastes Sadness," and "The Vampire Family in the Darkness."), it seems like I might be right about that. (Both New Moon and Eclipse were much easier to title, and the titles also fit better.)
I'm confused by the preface; who is the Hunter?
(Warning: if you haven't read Twilight, this will spoil the ending! Stop now!)
Sometimes, things in the story are so clear to me that, when I write them, I don't flesh them out or explain them well enough. Usually the editor will catch these kinds of thing. However, if it's just as clear to her, then confusion slips through. Some people get the preface, and some don't. So, to clear it all up: James is "the hunter." I think this term has caused some of the confusion, because later, he is a "tracker." But he is hunting Bella, so, in that moment, that is how she thinks of him. The moment occurs in the dance studio, near the end. The preface is one second of Bella's thoughts as James begins walking toward her from the back of the room. So here's the preface:
I'd never given much thought to dying—though I'd had reason enough in the last few months—but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.
I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.
Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.
I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.
The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.
And here's the part where it fits in, on page 444 of the book:
I turned slowly. He was standing very still by the back exit, so still I hadn't noticed him at first. In his hand was a remote control. We stared at each other for a long moment, and then he smiled.
***INSERT PREFACE HERE***
He walked toward me, quite close, and then passed me to put the remote down next to the VCR. I turned carefully to watch him.
I could have flashed-back to the preface here, but, like I said, it was so clear to me that I didn't realize the need. My apologies to those who were confused!
Why do all the guys at Forks High like Bella if she's supposed to be average-looking? Is she pretty or not?
Some parts of Bella's experiences are modeled after real life (my life, to be exact) in order to ground the fantasy aspects of the story in solid reality. Ironically, many of the details that are one hundred percent reality are the ones that are called into question the most (as illustrated by some of my angry Amazon reviews). In this particular case, I modeled Bella's move to Forks after my real life move from high school to college. (Personal story alert!) I mentioned in my bio that I went to a high school in Scottsdale, AZ, which is Arizona's version of Beverly Hills (picture the high school in the movie Clueless). In high school, I was a mousy, A-track wall-flower. I had a lot of incredible girlfriends, but I wasn't much sought after by the Y chromosomes, if you know what I mean. Then I went to college in Provo, Utah. Let me tell you, my stock went through the roof. See, beauty is a lot more subjective than you might think. In Scottsdale, surrounded by barbies, I was about a five. In Provo, surrounded by normal people, I was more like an eight. I had dates every weekend with lots of really pretty and intelligent boys (some of whose names end up in my books). It was quite confusing at first, because I knew there was nothing different about me. (Side note: don't ever let anyone tell you that high school is supposed to be fun. High school is to be endured. College is fun.)
Back to Bella. Here's a short excerpt from a character study I did recently (I wrote the first chapter of Twilight from Edward's point of view; it turned out really cool, and, eventually, Midnight Sun will be published so that everyone can read it.), which shows Bella's first day a school as seen by Edward's mind-reading perspective. It explains the excitement over her arrival:
Today, all thoughts were consumed with the trivial drama of a new addition to the small student body here. It took so little to work them all up. I'd seen the new face repeated in thought after thought from every angle. Just an ordinary human girl. The excitement over her arrival was tiresomely predictable—like flashing a shiny object at a child. Half the sheep-like males were already imagining themselves in love with her, just because she was something new to look at.
Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
Beware: I can only give writing tips for my style of writing, because I don't know how to do anything else!
My focus is the characters--that's the part of the story that is most important to me. I feel the best way to write believable characters is to really believe in them yourself. When you hear a song on the radio, you should know how your character feels about it--which songs your character would relate to, which songs she hates. Hear the conversations that your characters would have when they're not doing anything exciting; let them talk in your head, get to know them. Know their favorite colors and their opinions on current events, their birthdays and their flaws. None of this goes in the book, it's just to help you get a rounded feel to them.
I think outlining--in a very non-structured, free-flowing form--can really help. I didn't have to do that with Twilight, but it was very necessary for the other two books. I changed my outlines often as the writing led me in other directions--the outline is just a tool, not something mandatory that you have to follow.
Some of the best advice on writing I got from Janet Evanovich's website. She said if you want to be a writer as a profession, then treat it like a job. Put in the hours. Set aside time for writing, and then make yourself sit down and do it. Sometimes it's easy--the words flow and you can get a lot done. Other times it's hard, and you might only get one sentence done in an hour. But that's better than nothing.
Here's a tip that really helped me with book two and three: forget writing in order. With New Moon and Eclipse, I wrote out whichever scenes I was interested in, rather than starting at the beginning and working through to the end. I wrote most of the books in scenes, and then went back later and tied the scenes together. It cut out a lot of writer's block to write whatever part I was most interested in at the time. And it makes it easy to finish. By the time you get around to writing the less exciting transitions, expositions, and descriptions, you already have so much done! You can see a full novel coming together, and that's very motivating. (But you really need an outline to work that way--to keep from getting lost!)
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be published?
Here are my recommendations on getting published: first, finish your book completely. And try not to focus on the publishing part while you write—tell yourself a story that you really love. After you're done, read through it several times and fix anything that doesn't feel right. Then, if you're brave, have someone you trust (who also has good taste in books) read through it and give you constructive criticism. After you've got the manuscript cleaned up, go to the library and check out a big book called "Writer's Market" (or you can get an on-line subscription for something like three bucks a month at WritersMarket.com, which is what I did). Search for agents who specifically represent the kind of literature you write--YA, children's, mystery, whatever. Research these agents as much as possible--find out if they just want a one page query, or a two page synopsis, or a whole chapter (there's lots of information about how to write a query on line--here's a good one: http://www.carolynjewel.com/craft/query.shtml.) You have a better chance of getting someone to look at your query if you give them exactly what they want. Be brave, even when you get rejections. All bestselling authors got rejections. All it takes is one person who wants to look at your manuscript.
Good luck with your writing ambitions! I wish I would have believed in myself and started writing sooner.
Got any recommendations for books I can read while I'm waiting for the next book to come out?
Amazon has a list of all my favorite books here.
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How can I get a signed copy of Twilight?
Changing Hands Bookstore is usually the best way to get a signed copy if you can't make it to a signing. But, they are currently sold out of signed copies. Please check back in the future for changes.
What does Bella look like?
I left out a detailed description of Bella in the book so that the reader could more easily step into her shoes. However, so many people have asked this question, I have decided to tell you what she looks like to me. But I want to stress, Bella's looks are open to interpretation.
In my head, Bella is very fair-skinned, with long, straight, dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Her face is heart-shaped—a wide forehead with a widow's peak, large, wide-spaced eyes, prominent cheekbones, and then a thin nose and a narrow jaw with a pointed chin. Her lips are a little out of proportion, a bit too full for her jaw line. Her eyebrows are darker than her hair and more straight than they are arched. She's five foot four inches tall, slender but not at all muscular, and weighs about 115 pounds. She has stubby fingernails because she has a nervous habit of biting them. And there's your very detailed description.
What do you mean you're switching narrators? Are you crazy?
There seems to be some anxiety over my statement that, eventually, the story of Bella and the Cullens and all my other Fork friends might be narrated by someone besides Bella. Please, don't worry. I promise that Bella will get to tell her whole story. But when her story is more or less resolved, there are other stories left to tell. Bella and Edward will always have their roles. Don't fret—those two aren't going anywhere.
In the outtakes, you described Bella's prom dress in so much detail. Do you have a picture of it?
I did! Unfortunately, it was lost in the Great Computer Crash of '04. I've searched through pages and pages of google images for Paris fashion week 2003, but I haven't been able to recover it. (I also used to have pictures of Alice's and Rosalie's, also from the runway). Sorry!
**update** A fan named Michelle—who also happens to be quite a sleuth—tracked down (using only my description in the outtakes and the clue that I found the pictures in 2003 Paris Fashion Week slides) the exact photographs that I used in creating my prom dresses for Bella and Alice. I am quite stunned that she was able to find Bella's dress, since I never mentioned that in the original photo the dress was light yellow rather than blue. Here they are:
Can you post Forever Dawn, or send me a copy, or give me a summary, or email me the outline...?
Ever since I put up my "craptastic covers" page and included the cover I made for Forever Dawn (the original sequel to Twilight), I've been getting different versions of this question. First of all, here's the reason why Forever Dawn will never be published: it doesn't fall into the young adult genre. I wasn't thinking about my audience yet when I was writing it, I was still just writing for my own amusement. When I knew that I was going to have to write another sequel, with a more YA focus, I went ahead and finished Forever Dawn so I could give it to my big sister for her birthday (how many of your sisters have ever written you a 600+ page book for your birthday?). Now, eventually, in the distant future, I will probably put up sections of Forever Dawn like I did with the Twilight outtakes. The reason I can't do this for a long time is because the plot line of Forever Dawn is still working as a loose skeletal outline for the rest of the series. In other words, it's chockfull of spoilers. So I won't be able to put any of it here on the site until I'm past that point in the story. After Eclipse is out and we get a little closer to the release of Breaking Dawn, I'll be able to reveal the first pieces of Forever Dawn.
Can you come to my town on your next tour?
I actually have no control over my tour schedule. I just go where Little, Brown & Co. tells me to go. At this point in time, I have no idea where they'll be sending me next fall. As soon as I know about any events I'll be at, I will post them in the calendar section of this website.
What CD is Bella listening to in Chapter Seven?
I took that information out because I wasn't sure how long it was going to take to get Twilight published. If it took ten years, would the band still be cool, or would it be embarrassing? Lucky for me, it didn't take that long, and the band is still quite cool (in my eyes, at least). Bella is listening to Linkin Park. As I am at this very moment.
Is there anyway to hurry the release of the sequel?
Sadly, no. That's not in my hands. New Moon will come out in August of 2006, and Eclipse will come out on August 7, 2007. No matter how fast I work, that's how it will be—it's the publisher's decision to have the books come out one per year.
New Moon
"Shoot," I muttered when the paper sliced my finger; I pulled it out to examine the damage. A single drop of blood oozed from the tiny cut.
It all happened very quickly then.
Edward threw himself at me, flinging me back across the table...
I tumbled down to the floor by the piano, with my arms thrown out instinctively to catch my fall, into the jagged shards of glass. I felt the searing, stinging pain that ran from my wrist to the crease inside my elbow.
Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm—into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires.
****
For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning...
Legions of readers entranced by the New York Times bestseller Twilight are hungry for the continuing story of star-crossed lovers, Bella and Edward. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.
Frequently Asked Questions: New Moon
**Warning! Spoilers ahead**
Q. How come Alice and Jasper can affect Bella with their supernatural powers, but Edward and Aro and Jane can't?
A. This question comes up at every single signing! The answer is explained in Eclipse, but I'm going to tell you all anyway, just so there's less confusion.
Bella has a very private mind. She can't be touched there. What Edward and Aro do is clearly a mental thing; Jane, also, works inside the head (Jane doesn't actually inflict pain on anyone's body, she just puts the illusion of pain inside her victim's head. It's a very effective form of torture). Conversely, what Jasper does is no illusion. He affects the physical body, slowing the pulse and upping the endorphin levels to calm someone, for example, or raising the pulse and pumping out the adrenalin to excite them. Alice, also, works outside the mind in the realm of possible realities. She doesn't see the thought process behind the decisions, just the outcomes.
Q. Was Edward somehow psychically connected to Bella with the whole hearing-voices thing?
A. No. So powerfully was Bella's subconscious knowledge trying to break through her wrong-headed notions, that it produced some very convincing delusions. I'm not surprised that people thought, in the beginning, that Edward was somehow there (wishful thinking on all our parts). However, I AM surprised that people continued to think this after a certain event that made it impossible to believe that Edward was aware of Bella's circumstances. Can you guess what it was? Laurent, in the meadow. If Edward had had any inkling of the fact that Victoria had returned for Bella, no matter how far away on the planet he was, he would have been back in Forks within twenty-four hours.
Q. What did Edward break in the living room after the vote?
A. Edward ripped into halves a sixty inch plasma TV that the Cullens had shipped in from Korea because it's not available in the states yet. Emmett was a bit annoyed.
Q. What happened to Lauren's hair?
A. Ha ha. I had fun imagining this one—I only wished that it had fit into the book somewhere. Lauren fell victim to the "model discovered in the mall" scam. An alleged modeling agent approached Lauren in a mall in Victoria, B.C., and told her she was a natural model. Lauren ate it up. The agent told her that if she did something edgy with her hair, and took some high quality head shots, her future was assured. Lauren followed the instructions—dropping fifteen grand on the pictures taken by the agent's partner—and waited for her career to begin. She's still waiting. Snort.
Q. Why did Edward leave? WHY?
A. Read here for the story behind New Moon.
Q. What kind of flower is that on the cover, and what does it mean?
A. That is a ruffled tulip. As for the meaning... If you've read the Twilight FAQ, you know that the apple cover had a lot of meaning for me, and I was an active part of the covering process. However, that experience is more the exception than the rule in the publishing world. Something to keep in mind if you intend to embark on a career as a writer: lots of things you might expect to be under your control are not. Covers, for example. Those are mostly up to the publisher and the marketing and sales departments. So I don't know what the tulip means—I didn't have anything to do with this one.
Q. What does the title refer to? Is it a werewolf reference?
A. Nope. The term "new moon" refers to the phase of the moon opposite a full moon. It is when the sun is on the opposite side of the moon from us and thus the bright side of the moon is not visible from earth. This is the darkest kind of night. New Moon is the darkest period of Bella's life.
Q. How far along are you on Eclipse? Midnight Sun?
A. Book three in the Twilight Series, Eclipse, is in the final stages of editing. This means that it's pretty much done, with just a few minor fixes to go. We're on schedule and Eclipse will be released in the fall of 2007.
Midnight Sun is only a side project. Which means I have to do my real work before I can play with it. Right now, my real work is book four, so Midnight Sun will have to wait for a while. I have no idea when it will be released, because I have no idea when it will be finished. I'm only on chapter twelve right now.
Q. Is it true that there will be no advanced readers copies of Eclipse?
A. Yes.
Eclipse
"BELLA?"
Edward's soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.
This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine—like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.
* * *
As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?
Frequently Asked Questions: Eclipse
**Spoilers contained below**
These questions are the ones I've been answering most during my tour Q and A events. Some of them are the questions as they were asked to me verbatim. Others are distilled from a lot of questions into a more universal and concise form.
Q. Did Jacob imprint on Bella?
A. No. And this is how you can be sure: in New Moon, after the first time Jacob becomes his wolf phase, he is mean to Bella. He won't tell her what is wrong. He says he can't see her anymore. If he'd imprinted on Bella in that moment (and it happens the first time you see the person after you've phased), he would have answered all her questions. Pretty much, he would have given her anything in the world she wanted. (When he's staring at her on the bottom of page 173 in Eclipse, he's trying to make himself imprint on her. But that's not something you can force.)
Q. Who was in Bella's house—the scent no one recognized?
A. It was Riley. He is not a totally wild newborn—he's past his first year and better able to keep his perspective. If he'd been as strong as the younger newborns in the clearing, Seth might not have won that fight. Also, Victoria prepared him very carefully for the foray. He was (to phrase it delicately) quite well fed before he went to Forks.
Q. What is the most pivotal plot development that happens in Eclipse?
A. In both Twilight and New Moon, Bella commits to becoming a vampire without once really examining what price she'll pay. In Eclipse, Bella fully comprehends that price. And then she chooses to pay it. Every aspect of the novel revolves around this point, every back story, every relationship, every moment of action.
Q. What are the characters' biggest mistakes in Eclipse, their tragic flaws?
A. Bella's is a lack of self-knowledge; she never would have pursued her friendship with Jacob if she had realized how much more than friendship it really was. You don't give up your friends when you fall in love; however, you do give up your other romantic interests. If Bella had understood herself better, she could have saved everyone a lot of heartbreak. Sometimes that happens when you try to do the right thing.
Edward's big mistake is overreaction. It's in his nature to be too extreme (see: New Moon). He's a very all-or-nothing kind of person, and it makes him unreasonable. In the beginning of Eclipse, he's too overprotective. When he sees the error of his ways, he goes too far in the other direction. He could have chosen a middle ground—maybe admitted to his jealousy and asked Bella to choose him, rather than watching her get in deeper with Jacob. Of course, he has other issues that make forcing this issue problematic. What if Jacob is better for her? What if Bella could have a more complete life with him? Should Edward really insist that Bella give everything up for vampire life? Or would it be better to let her make a fully informed choice? Can you see his dilemma? Part of Edward wants Bella to choose Jacob (and life).
Jacob doesn't have a tragic flaw. He has one goal and one hope. His goal is to save Bella's life. His hope is that he'll win her heart in the process. He fails at both. But that doesn't mean he regrets trying. If he could do it over again, he'd do the same thing. Jacob couldn't live with himself if he didn't give saving Bella his best effort—he knows it's going to hurt when he loses, but he knows it would hurt worse if he didn't try. Does he do everything right? Heck, no! But he's sixteen and he's making it up as he goes along. Those who are upset by some of his tactics should consider his youth and the fact that he is, after all, right. Bella is in love with him. (In the end, it's truly healthier for her to be aware of this as she goes forward with unalterable decisions.)
Q. What's the deal with Bella just falling in love with Jacob in the eleventh hour of Eclipse? Don't you believe in true love anymore? What happened to blacken your soul, woman??
A. First of all, let me say that I do believe in true love. But I also deeply believe in the complexity, variety, and downright insanity of love. A lucky person loves hundreds of people in their lives, all in different ways, family love, friendship love, romantic love, all in so many shades and depths. I don't think you lose your ability—or right—to have true love by loving more than one person. In part, this is true because you never love two people the same way. Another part is that, if you're lucky, you learn to love better with practice. The bottom line is that you have to choose who you are going to commit to—that's the foundation of true love, not a lack of other options.
Next, Bella does not fall in love with Jacob in Eclipse. Bella falls in love with Jacob in New Moon. I think it's easy to understand why this fact doesn't occur to her. Bella has only fallen in love one time, and it was a very sudden, dramatic, sweep-you-off-your-feet, change-your-world, magical, passionate, all-consuming thing (see: Twilight). Can you blame her for not recognizing a much more subtle kind of falling-in-love?
Does this love devaluate her love for Edward? Not for me. For me, it makes that perfect true love stronger. Bella has another option. She has a really good one. An option that's easier in many ways, that takes nothing—like her family, present or future—away from her. She would have love, and friendship, and family—an enviable human future. But she chooses Edward over all of this. This makes it real for me.
Allow me to quote from Steve Oedekerk's brilliant Star Wars parody, Thumb Wars:
Loke Groundrunner: "I will go with you and fight!"
Oobedoob Benubi: "Oh, big sacrifice; everyone you knew is dead! Glad you could tear yourself away!"
Q. Can a werewolf imprint on a vampire? What happens if a vampire bites a werewolf? Will Renee and Charlie flip out about the engagement? Is Jacob gone forever? Will Bella have a superpower as a vampire?
A. I'm not going to comment on any speculations about future events. No matter what the answer is (ex: *snort* "No, that's crazy!"), I'm still giving you something about the future. I don't want to spoil anything about book four.
Q. Can you get book four out faster?
A. Ha ha ha ha ha!
No.
(Seriously, I'll be lucky to get it out on schedule.)
Q. Read anything good lately?
A. Yes, I have. Lots of flying = lots of reading. I've been reading mostly advanced reading copies, so none of them are available in bookstores yet. I really enjoyed Dragonhaven
by Robin McKinley, a fantasy so realistic you start to believe it's nonfiction (and plan your trip to Smokehill National Park). I also loved Runemarks
by Joanne Harris, a core fantasy much like the stories of David Eddings or Terry Brooks, with a cool twist on Norse mythology. And my very favorite recent read was Book of a Thousand Days
by Shannon Hale. Her narrator, Dashti, has made her way into my top ten favorite heroines of all time, along with people like Elizabeth Bennett, Anne Shirley, Jane Eyre, Harriet Morton, and Jo March.
Q. Are you going to post outtakes and extras for Eclipse?
A. Outtakes, no. Why? Because I don't have anything good. I didn't cut anything major or funny this time.
Extras, not for a while. I do have a couple of fairly large extras I want to do, but I can't work on them until I'm done with book four. Eventually, I'm planning to write the story from Bree's perspective—how she met Riley, how life was amongst the newborns, how she found and lost love in the middle of the chaos, how the Volturi were involved, etc. I'd also like to write the alternate ending that I once considered for Eclipse, back when I was under pressure to end the series at three books. I'm looking forward to writing these both up, but don't hold your breath; it's going to be a while.
Q. Are you going to publish Midnight Sun?
A. Yes, when it's finished. I have to get book four done first, though. After all, you all know what happens in Midnight Sun; the end isn't exactly a surprise.
Breaking Dawn
Book Four in the Twilight Series
(This is from Stephenie, so don't just skip over it thinking that it is another boring message from the webmaster.)
It's almost August, and I'm counting down to the release of Breaking Dawn just as anxiously as you are! I can't wait to finally be able to discuss everything that happens in Breaking Dawn with you. I want to give a heads up to everyone going to the Breaking Dawn Concert Series events in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle: I am going to talk about it all, so bring earplugs if you haven't finished reading Breaking Dawn by then! (If you're going to the first event in New York, it will be spoiler free.)
Speaking of spoilers, I want to ask you guys for a favor. As we saw with Eclipse (not to mention that last Harry Potter book), there is always the potential for copies of the book to be leaked early. My publisher is doing everything they can to prevent this, but there is only so much that can be done. This is the favor: if someone, somewhere, somehow, gets a copy early, I'm asking you to please not post any spoilers on the internet. And if you see something, please don't spread it around. Breaking Dawn was meant to be experienced in a certain way, and I would hate for someone to get that experience ruined by seeing something online they didn't want to see. My fans have been super cool about this in the past—last year in particular you guys went above and beyond to protect Eclipse until the release date—and I hope that we'll have the same positive experience this year.
If somebody does post a spoiler (and remember there will be a lot of hoaxes out there—do not believe everything you read: Bella gets eaten by a polar bear, anyone?), I'd love your help in getting them taken down. My publisher has set up a special e-mail account, bdcopyrightviolation@hbgusa.com, for fans to alert us to spoilers that appear online. PLEASE only send links to spoilers. E-mails about events, contacting me, etc. will not be returned.
Another thing you may notice close to the release of Breaking Dawn is that the message boards on several fansites will be taken down. They are doing this as a favor to me because I want to protect you all from stumbling upon something that could ruin the book for you. There will be plenty of time to discuss all the details of the book after August 2nd.
Finally, I don't think I could ever thank all of you enough for being so devoted to this series. You've proved over and over again that you are the best fans in the world. I hope that together we can make sure everybody gets to experience Breaking Dawn the way it was intended — on August 2nd [or the 4th if you live outside North America].
We're almost there!
--Steph
Frequently Asked Questions: Breaking Dawn,
These are the most popular questions that I got while on tour. This page is thick with explicit spoilers, so I would recommend not reading this if you have not yet read the book but are still planning to.What does the cover mean?
Breaking Dawn's cover is a metaphor for Bella's progression throughout the entire saga. She began as the weakest (at least physically, when compared to vampires and werewolves) player on the board: the pawn. She ended as the strongest: the queen. In the end, it's Bella that brings about the win for the Cullens.
What does the title mean?
The title Breaking Dawn is a reference to the beginning of Bella's vampire life.
What does the Book I prologue refer to?
These are Bella's thoughts about Renesmee, during the time when her life was in serious danger from the pregnancy.
Why the big build-up for a fight that didn't happen?
I'm not the kind of person who writes a Hamlet ending. If the fight had happened, it would have ended with 90% of the combatants, Cullen and Volturi alike, destroyed. There was simply no other outcome once the fight got started, given the abilities and numbers of the opposing sides. Because I would never finish Bella's story on such a downer—Everybody dies!—I knew that the real battle would be mental. It was a game of maneuvering, with the champion winning not by destroying the other side, but by being able to walk away. This was another reason I liked the chess metaphor on the cover—it really fit the feel of that final game. I put a clue into the manuscript as well. Alice tore a page from The Merchant of Venice because the end of Breaking Dawn was going to be somewhat similar: bloodshed appears inevitable, doom approaches, and then the power is reversed and the game is won by some clever verbal strategies; no blood is shed, and the romantic pairings all have a happily ever after.
What was the other book besides Midsummer Night's Dream that you said influenced Breaking Dawn?
As noted above, it was The Merchant of Venice.
What happened to Marcus's wife?
Once upon a time, a fairly young vampire (he had only been a vampire for a decade and a half) named Aro changed his young sister Didyme, who had just reached adulthood, into a vampire in order to add her to his growing coven. Aro always wanted power, and because he himself had a potent mind-reading gift, he hoped his biological sister would also be gifted in a way that would help him rise in the vampire world. It turned out that Didyme did have a gift; she carried with her an aura of happiness that affected everyone who came near her. Though it wasn't exactly what he had hoped for, Aro pondered the best ways he could use this gift. Meanwhile, Aro's most trusted partner, Marcus, fell in love with Didyme. This was not unusual; given the way she made people feel, lots of people fell in love with Didyme. The difference was that this time, Didyme fell in love herself. The two of them were tremendously happy. So happy, in fact that, after a while, they no longer cared that much about Aro's plans for domination. After a few centuries, Didyme and Marcus discussed going their own way. Of course, Aro was well aware of their intentions. He was not happy about it, but he pretended to give his blessing. Then he waited for an opportunity to act, and when he knew he would never be found out, he murdered his sister. After all, Marcus's gift was much more useful to him than hers had been. This is not to say that Aro did not truly love his sister; it's just that a key part of his personality is the ability to destroy even what he loves in order to further his ambitions. Marcus never found out that Aro was responsible for Didyme's death. He became an empty man. Aro used Chelsea's gift to keep Marcus loyal to the Volturi, though not even Chelsea's gift could make Marcus show any enthusiasm for it.
How different is Breaking Dawn from Forever Dawn? What changed, what stayed the same, and why? Will you ever post extras from Forever Dawn?
The basic story is the same. Bella and Edward get married and go to Isle Esme for their honeymoon. Bella gets pregnant with Renesmee. The birth just about kills Bella, but Edward makes her a vampire in time. Jacob imprints on Renesmee. Alice has a vision of the Volturi coming to destroy the Cullens with the "immortal child" as their excuse. Alice bails. Bella's shielding abilities turn the tide in the Cullen's favor, along with Alice bringing home another half-vampire to prove that Nessie isn't a danger.
The things that are different:
- Jacob and Bella are not nearly so close. None of the events of New Moon or Eclipse exist; Edward never leaves, so Bella and Jacob never bond. Jacob's feelings for Bella remain at crush level.
- Due in part to Jacob being a smaller character, the werewolf pack is only sketchily developed. It exists as a whole, but there isn't much information about the individuals. Most of the wolves do not have names.
- The entire story is written in Bella's perspective. Because of this, there is a lot more emphasis on the pregnancy phase.
- Jacob isn't there at the delivery, naturally, so he imprints on Renesmee a few weeks later when Bella is visiting Charlie.
- With no New Moon or Eclipse, Victoria and Laurent are both still alive. Laurent stays happily with Irina and sides with the Cullens in the confrontation with the Volturi. It is Victoria rather than Irina who informs on the Cullens to the Volturi. She creates a new friend, Riley, to make the actual accusation. She doesn't want Aro to know about her agenda—or the fact that the baby is only half-vampire, of which she is aware.
- The wolves kill Victoria. She is the only casualty at the final confrontation.
- The last chapter ends the same way, but there is an epilogue. It involves Max (J. Jenk's assistant). Bella's initial interaction with him is a little bit longer and, feeling she owes him a favor, she gives him her number and tells him she will help him out in return if he ever needs a favor of his own. Max gets himself into some trouble, and Bella gets to play Superman.
I may post some extras someday if I ever have time to go back through the Forever Dawn manuscript—it's just as long as Breaking Dawn. There are a couple of things that family members told me they particularly missed, so I would start there.
Why the name Renesmee?
Well, I couldn't call her Jennifer or Ashley. What do you name the most unique baby in the world? I looked through a lot of baby name websites. Eventually I realized that there was no human name that was going to work for me, so I surrendered to necessity and made up my own. I don't approve of such shenanigans in real life, I don't even believe in getting creative with spellings for real kids! But this was fantasy, and no human name fit, so I did the best I could. I named Renesmee so long ago—Fall 2003—that the name now sounds really natural to me. It wasn't until people started mentioning it that I remembered, "Oh, yeah, it is a weird name, isn't it?"
What's the deal with "shapeshifters"?
What is the definition of a werewolf? Is it a man who changes into a wolf? Or is it a man who, once infected by a werewolf bite, changes into a wolf during a full moon? If you go with the basic description, then the Quileutes are werewolves. It's not a distinction that really matters on a normal day. During the standoff with the Volturi (not a normal day), Edward sees that Caius is going to use the treaty with the werewolves as an excuse to attack. He's aware of the distinction between these wolves and the more traditional kind, and though it's only a technicality, he is able to use it to deflect the attack. Technically, the Volturi aren't at war with these wolves and Edward stresses the word "shapeshifter" in order to make the distinction clearer to the witnesses. The Quileutes weren't aware of the existence of a different species of werewolves, but Carlisle and Edward were. There was a hint about this at the end of Eclipse when Edward says to Victoria (referring to Seth), "Is he really so much like the monster James tracked across Siberia?"
What happened to Leah?
Leah is currently pretty satisfied with life. She's free from Sam's pack, which is a very happy thing for her. She's the "beta" in Jacob's pack, which she can't help but be a little smug about around her pack brothers (its kind of a big deal in wolf terms). Jacob has become the reliable friend that she's been needing for quite some time, and he's a real comfort to her, though they conceal their fondness for each other with constant bickering. She has absolutely no romantic interest in Jacob, and the whole Nessie thing only bothers her in that it ties her to the vampires.
What happened to Sam's father?
Sam's father disappeared when Sam was very young. He wasn't a great person, and the stress of providing for a family was too much for him, so he skipped out. This is one of the reasons that Sam is mature beyond his years. He picked up a lot of the slack.
Is Billy actually Ephraim?
No, Billy is not Ephraim. Billy is Ephraim's grandson.
Who is Embry's father?
I don't know who Embry's father is. I'm aware that this lack of knowledge is annoying to some people. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to explain myself in more detail—that's one of the drawbacks of interviews. You don't know what you will be asked, you don't have much time to come up with an answer, and if you give an answer that is too long, they cut it down into a form that doesn't make sense. So you have to think on your feet and speak in sound bites. I'm not great at either.
I'm going to try to explain what it means when I say that I don't know something, or that a character hasn't revealed some part of himself to me. Those statements are both shorthand answers for a long and complicated explanation that doesn't work for a sound bite or a stage presentation. No two people write the same way, so I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else.
When I write a story, I start out with infinite possibilities. As I describe any character or plot point, I make those characteristics finite. For example, once I decide Bella is a brunette, all of her blonde and redhead possibilities disappear. Once I decide Bella lives in Washington, all the other places she might have lived are gone. There's this huge universe of options that I slowly whittle down into a more focused reality. Until I need to know a certain fact about the character, all the possibilities stay open out there in that universe of possibilities. If I set something in concrete prematurely, it could be a stumbling block later, so I try to keep an open mind about details until they become necessary to the story. If I explore a character too early, that can lock me into a situation that might be difficult to work with later.
So, I haven't explored the three main options for Embry's father this deeply yet. Someday, if it becomes necessary to a story, I'll comb through each character, look at his history and his present, and see which option makes the most sense. I'll more fully sketch out the internal workings of Billy, Quil Sr., and Samuel Sr. and see whose character supports this backstory best. That's what I mean when I say that the characters haven't told me yet. I haven't dug into them deeply enough to see if this information rings true with who the character is.
Someday, if I continue with the Twilight universe, maybe it will become necessary for me to know who Embry's dad is. I'm not to that point, and I don't want to just give a glib, "Oh it's ___________" kind of answer, because I might regret it later.
Vampires and pregnancy: when did that idea occur to you? How does that work?
The first seed (no pun intended) was planted when I did Bella's computer research in chapter seven of Twilight. Bella reads about several real vampire legends—the Danag, Estrie, Upier, etc. In the novel, I only mentioned a few of the many legends I read through. One that I didn't mention at this point was the entry on the Incubus. The unique feature about that legend was that the incubus could father children. Hmmm, I said, and I filed that kernel of an idea away for later. When I decided to write the first sequel to Twilight (Forever Dawn), I knew it was going to revolve around a hybrid baby from the outset.
When my editor and I decided to go back and really develop Bella's last year of high school, I did so with the knowledge that it was all going to end up with the events in Breaking Dawn. Everything I wrote was pointed in that direction.
I was always very careful when I answered the "Can vampires have babies?" question, because I didn't want to say anything incorrect, but I also didn't want to make the future super-obvious. I focused my answers on the female half of the equation—female vampires cannot have children because their bodies no longer change in any aspect. There is no changing cycle to begin with, and their bodies couldn't expand to fit a growing child, either. I purposely evaded answering the question, "Can a male vampire get a human female pregnant?" to preserve a tiny bit of surprise in the last book. There were many statements on this subject purported to have come from me, but I never made those comments because, obviously, I knew where this was going.
Now, on to the "how is this possible?" question. First of all, of course it's not possible. None of this story is possible. It's a fantasy story about creatures that don't actually exist. Within the context of the fantasy, however, this is how it works:
Vampires are physically similar enough to their human origins to pass as humans under some circumstances (like cloudy days). There are many basic differences. They appear to have skin like ours, albeit very fair skin. The skin serves the same general purpose of protecting the body. However, the cells that make up their skin are not pliant like our cells, they are hard and reflective like crystal. A fluid similar to the venom in their mouths works as a lubricant between the cells, which makes movement possible (note: this fluid is very flammable). A fluid similar to the same venom lubricates their eyes so that their eyes can move easily in their sockets. (However, they don't produce tears because tears exist to protect the eye from damage, and nothing is going to be able to scratch a vampire's eye.) The lubricant-venom in the eyes and skin is not able to infect a human the way saliva-venom can. Similarly, throughout the vampire's body are many versions of venom-based fluids that retain a marked resemblance to the fluid that was replaced, and function in much the same way and toward the same purpose. Though there is no venom replacement that works precisely like blood, many of the functions of blood are carried on in some form. Also, the nervous system runs in a slightly different but heightened way. Some involuntary reactions, like breathing, continue (in that specific example because vampires use the scents in the air much more than we do, rather than out of a need for oxygen). Other involuntary reactions, like blinking, don't exist because there is no purpose for them. The normal reactions of arousal are still present in vampires, made possible by venom-related fluids that cause tissues to react similarly as they do to an influx of blood. Like with vampire skin—which looks similar to human skin and has the same basic function—fluids closely related to seminal fluids still exist in male vampires, which carry genetic information and are capable of bonding with a human ovum. This was not a known fact in the vampire world (outside of Joham's personal experimenting) before Nessie, because it's nearly impossible for a vampire to be that near a human and not kill her.
I didn't get into all of these details at my signings because it's a long, complicated mouthful. Also, it's hard to be clearly heard with all the screaming. Mostly, though, I waited to do this in writing because I have an immature, Homer Simpson-like tendency to giggle when I say the words "seminal fluids" in public.
Why did you decide to end the saga?
The Twilight Saga is really Bella's story, and this was the natural place for her story to wind up. She overcame the major obstacles in her path and fought her way to the place she wanted to be. I suppose I could try to prolong her story unnaturally, but it wouldn't be interesting enough to keep me writing. Stories need conflict, and the conflicts that are Bella-centric are resolved.
How do you feel about the Breaking Dawn controversy?
It makes me sad, of course, but I was expecting it. The negative was more than I was braced for, but that was because the book sold a lot more copies than I expected. It was bigger than I thought it would be on both the positive and the negative sides.
It's inevitable that the bigger your audience gets, the bigger the group who doesn't like what they're reading will be. Because no book is a good book for everyone. Every individual has their own personal taste and experience, and that's why there are such a great variety of books on the shelves. There are lots of very popular books that I don't enjoy at all. Conversely, there are books that I adore that no one else seems to care about. The surprise to me is that so many people do like my books. I wrote them for a very specific audience of one, and so there was no guarantee that any other person on the planet besides me would enjoy them.
When I publish a book, I know that it's not going to be right for every person who picks it up. With Breaking Dawn, the expectation was so huge and so intense that I knew the negative reaction was going to be especially bad this time. In the end, it's just a book. No book—or album, or movie, or tv show, or any other kind of entertainment—can answer to that level of expectation. Oh, it might do it for some people, it might be exactly what they were looking for. But there's always going to be another group who was looking for something else.
It's a hard thing to have people unhappy with you, but there's nothing I can do. Either Breaking Dawn entertains you or it doesn't. If I could go back in time, knowing everything I know right now, and write the whole series again, I would write exactly the same story. (The writing would be better, though—practice makes perfect.) This is the story I wanted to write, and I love Breaking Dawn. It's everything I wanted in the last novel of my saga. People's reactions don't change that.
I've heard you say that you think Breaking Dawn should be two movies. Why? Also, that it might be impossible to film. What does that mean?
If Breaking Dawn were ever made into a movie, it's hard to imagine it fitting into ninety minutes. The book is just so long! I can't imagine how to distill it—if I could, the book would be shorter. But maybe a screenwriter can see a way to do it and still cover the crucial plot points.
When I said that Breaking Dawn might be impossible to film, it's because of Renesmee. You can do almost anything with CGI these days—realistic dragons and dinosaurs and endless amounts of nonexistent creatures that blend right in with the real elements. Some of them look so real you forget they're not. However, the one thing that I've never seen is a CGI human being who truly looks real. An actress can't play Renesmee, at least not when she's a few days old; she's the size of a baby, but her expressions are totally controlled and aware. She would have to be a construct, and CGI isn't quite there yet. Of course, they develop amazing new technologies everyday, and we've got a little time left.
Is Bella an anti-feminist heroine?
When I hear or read theories about Bella being an anti-feminist character, those theories are usually predicated on her choices. In the beginning, she chooses romantic love over everything else. Eventually, she chooses to marry at an early age and then chooses to keep an unexpected and dangerous baby. I never meant for her fictional choices to be a model for anyone else's real life choices. She is a character in a story, nothing more or less. On top of that, this is not even realistic fiction, it's a fantasy with vampires and werewolves, so no one could ever make her exact choices. Bella chooses things differently than how I would do it if I were in her shoes, because she is a very different type of person than I am. Also, she's in a situation that none of us has ever been in, because she lives in a fantasy world. But do her choices make her a negative example of empowerment? For myself personally, I don't think so.
In my own opinion (key word), the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose. The core of anti-feminism is, conversely, telling a woman she can't do something solely because she's a woman—taking any choice away from her specifically because of her gender. "You can't be an astronaut, because you're a woman. You can't be president because you're a woman. You can't run a company because you're a woman." All of those oppressive "can't"s.
One of the weird things about modern feminism is that some feminists seem to be putting their own limits on women's choices. That feels backward to me. It's as if you can't choose a family on your own terms and still be considered a strong woman. How is that empowering? Are there rules about if, when, and how we love or marry and if, when, and how we have kids? Are there jobs we can and can't have in order to be a "real" feminist? To me, those limitations seem anti-feminist in basic principle.
Do I think eighteen is a good age at which to get married? Personally—as in, for the person I was at eighteen—no. However, Bella is constrained by fantastic circumstances that I never had to deal with. The person she loves is physically seventeen, and he's not going to change. If she and he are going to be on a healthy relationship footing, she can't age too far beyond him. Also, marriage is really an insignificant commitment compared to giving up your mortality, so it's funny to me that some people are hung up on one and not the other. Is eighteen too young to give up your mortality? For me, any age is too young for that. For Bella, it was what she really wanted for her life, and it wasn't a phase she was going to grow out of. So I don't have issues with her choice. She's a strong person who goes after what she wants with persistence and determination.
What are you going to do next? Will you continue with the Twilight universe?
I think I need a break from vampires. At this exact point in time, I don't feel like I will go back to Forks. However, I also don't feel comfortable with telling people what I had planned for further novels. Maybe part of me is protecting those secrets because I'm not ready to leave my vampires behind. Or maybe it's just habit from five years of compulsory secrecy. I'm sure it will be a while before I figure out which one is the real reason. Things will probably be clearer after I've been away from the stories for a while.
I really enjoyed working on The Host, doing something totally different, and I'd like to have that experience again of starting a new world from scratch. I have several other stories that I've been waiting to work on. At this moment, I'm torn between two, but I'm planning to commit to one of them very soon.
Below is the Trailer of the Long awaited blockbuster I Want to see, well actually my bestfriend Cynthia and I have already made a promise that as soon as Twilight is released in the cinemas we're going to watch it on the first day too (we hope)... I can hardly wait for that too....
