Stephenie Meyer, author of the “Twilight” series, is far from a publicity hound. When the movie version of “New Moon” came out last year, she agreed to exactly one interview: with Oprah. For Friday’s release of “Eclipse,” she wanted to do something different.
“I feel like all of the basic questions have been answered,” she wrote on her Web site, “and for ‘Eclipse’ I want to focus on the more specific questions of readers. To accomplish that, I’m hosting my own mini-junket with a few fan sites.”
Meyer drew the names of four sites out of a hat and invited two reps from each to attend last week’s fan forum in LA. The winners were beside themselves, but Meyer likely deflated some hopes, especially when it comes to the thing Twihards are most interested in: 12 rough chapters of an unfinished novel called “Midnight Sun.” They retell the “Twilight” story, except this time from Edward’s perspective, not Bella’s.
Two years ago, word of the novel-in-progress leaked. To deflect all the attention it was getting, Meyer simply posted it all on her Web site.
“I know that’s what everyone cares about,” Meyer told bloggers who met with her person. “I also know that the right answer would be for me to say, ‘Oh yeah, it’s done! And it’ll be out next month!’ But that’s not true. What’s true is that I’m really burned out on vampires. And I don’t want to write it badly.
“I want to wait until I’m excited about the material again, and I’m excited about Edward, and that it’s something that’s motivating,” she added. “You know, when a story is keeping me up at night, and I’m waking up at four in the morning and thinking ‘Yes! That is what is what should happen in this moment!’
“So right now it feels like homework, it really does,” Meyer continued. “And when things feel like homework they go very, very slowly for me. You know, I have my share of human stubbornness and I have to tell you, it’s a little bit hard when people are like, ‘This is the only thing you can do, and it’s the only thing we care about!’ And, you’re kind of like a 3-year-old, you want to be like ‘I’m gonna do what I wanna do!’ Yeah. ‘You’re not the boss of me!’ ”
The notion that the modern-day queen of vampire lore, heir to Anne Rice’s crown and heroine to a myriad of readers, is actually sick of pasty little bloodsuckers might seem like heresy. But the bloggers understood.
“When I heard her say this, it totally made sense to me,” says Bekah, co-creator of Letters to Twilight, who prefers to use only her first name to protect her online anonymity. “While she cares deeply and knows her fans want to read this more than anything, she needs to be ready to write it. After selling millions of books worldwide, she has the luxury of making that decision herself.”
Despite all of that success, Meyer still hears her detractors loud and clear. In fact, they’re part of what’s holding her back from completing “Midnight Sun.”
“The people I worry about are the haters — you know, that like to talk about what a horrible writer I am and all that stuff,” Meyer said. “When I do write it, they’re going to say, ‘Oh, this was worse than the first half because now she did it badly!’ No matter what I do, it’s going to be that way. There’s a mental block there.
“You know, sometimes I’ll sit and think about the car chase, that we don’t get to see from Bella’s perspective. I have that one completely mapped out in my head. That one wouldn’t be hard to get down. Stuff like that — it gets exciting. The first car he steals I have picked out, and then the second one. It gets messy! It’s gonna be great! You have to get excited about things!”
What’s actually exciting Meyer right now are two non-“Twilight” projects, one of which focuses on yet another mythical creature — the mermaid.
“She didn’t give us titles or time frames, but she again alluded to a new novel that revolves around mermaids for main characters,” says Elysa Montfort of Twilight Source. “She described it as pure ‘map-in-the-front’ fantasy. She also talked about the possibility of a sequel to her sci-fi novel, ‘The Host,’ though never which she planned on penning first.”
And for those Twi-hards who have gone so far as to make Edward, Bella and Jacob permanent parts of their anatomy, Bekah says Meyer wants to apologize in advance.
“We found out what she thinks of ‘Twilight’ tattoos,” Bekah says. “She’s pretty sure in 10 years those with them will hate her for ‘inspiring’ them to ink their bodies with quotes from an imaginary vampire!”