Stephenie Meyer

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Stephenie Meyer
Meyer on her book tour for Eclipse in 2007.
Born	Stephenie Morgan December 24, 1973 (1973-12-24) (age 35) Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Genres	Fantasy, Romance, Science fiction, Young adult
Influences Orson Scott Card, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Maeve Binchy, Brontë sisters, Daphne du Maurier, L. M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Eva Ibbotson, William Goldman, Douglas Adams, Janet Evanovich
Official website

Stephenie Meyer (née Morgan, born December 24, 1973) is an American author, known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have sold over 42 million copies worldwide,^[1] with translations into 37 different languages around the globe.^[2][3] A film adaptation of Twilight was released in the United States on November 21, 2008. Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.

Meyer was named USA Today's "Author of the Year" in 2008.^[4] She was also the biggest selling author of the year, having sold over 22 million books in 2008 alone,^[5] with Twilight being the best selling book of the year.^[6] In 2009, she was included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities, entering at #26 with annual earnings exceeding $50 million.^[7]

Contents 1 Personal life 2 The Twilight series 2.1 Twilight 2.2 Subsequent novels 2.3 Fan following 2.4 Inspiration 2.5 Film adaptations 3 Other works 4 Publications 5 References 6 External links

Personal life

Stephenie Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Stephen and Candy Morgan. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with five siblings: Seth, Emily, Jacob, Paul, and Heidi. She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she then attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she received a B.A. in English in 1995.^[8] Meyer met her husband Christian, nicknamed "Pancho", when she was growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994. Together they have three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli.

The Twilight series

Twilight

Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003.^[9] The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood.^[9] Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the transcript of what is now Chapter 13 of the book.^[10] In a matter of three months she had transformed that vivid dream into a completed novel.^[11] After writing and editing the novel, she signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company for $750,000. The book was released in 2005.

Twilight quickly gained popularity and received numerous recognitions, 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"

The novel reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list for young adult chapter books,^[12] and has been translated into 20 languages.^[13]

Subsequent novels

Following the success of Twilight (2005), Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). In its first week after publication, the first sequel, New Moon, debuted at #5 on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the #1 position, where it remained for the next eleven weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list.^[14] After the release of Eclipse, the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[11] The fourth installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, was released with an initial print run of 3.7 million copies.^[15] Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day alone, setting a record in first-day sales performance for the Hachette Book Group USA.^[16] The novel also won Meyer her first British Book Award, despite competition with JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard.^[17] The series as a whole has sold over 42 million copies worldwide^[2][3] in 37 countries.^[18] In 2008, the four books of the series claimed the top four spots on USA Today's year-end bestseller list, making Meyer the first author to ever achieve this feat and the bestselling author of the year.^[5]

Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective.^[19] Midnight Sun was to be a companion novel to the series. It would be a retelling of the events of the novel Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen (as opposed to Bella Swan).^[20] Meyer had hoped to have Midnight Sun published some time shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn, but after an online leak of a rough draft of its first 12 chapters, Meyer chose to delay the project indefinitely.^[20][21] In addition, since Meyer has decided to pursue non-Twilight related books as a result of the leak, she made the rough chapters of "Midnight Sun" available on her website.^[20]

Fan following

Meyer has gained a following among young adult readers for her Twilight novels, which are set in the small town of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Forks has thus received an unusual amount of attention, and celebrates "Stephenie Meyer Day" on September 13, the date of character Bella Swan's birthday, in honor of the author.^[22]

Fans express themselves in other ways: "[They] dress up like her characters. They write their own stories about them and post their tales on the Internet. When she appears at a bookstore, 3,000 people go to meet her. There are Twilight-themed rock bands."^[11]

Inspiration

Meyer, an avid reader,^[23] cites many novels as inspiration for the Twilight series, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.^[24] Each book in the series was also inspired specifically by a different literary classic: Twilight by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; New Moon by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; Eclipse by Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights; and Breaking Dawn's theme by two further plays of Shakespeare's, The Merchant of Venice^[25] and A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[26] She also says that her writing is strongly influenced by music, and she posts "playlists" (from Playlist.com) on her website of songs which specifically inspired her books. Bands included most often in her playlists are Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, and Linkin Park.^{[27][28][29][30]}

Film adaptations

Summit Entertainment optioned Twilight in April 2007. Catherine Hardwicke directed the film, and the screenplay was written by Melissa Rosenberg.^[31] It stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen.^[32] The movie was released on November 21, 2008.^[33] Meyer makes a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene in the film.^[34] Following the success of Twilight, Summit greenlit a film adaptation of the sequel, New Moon, in November 2008.^[35] Chris Weitz is directing the film,^[36] which has a planned release date of November 20, 2009.^[37]

Other works

One of Meyer's short stories was published in Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of stories about bad prom nights with supernatural effects. Other authors who contributed to this collection are Meg Cabot, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle. Prom Nights from Hell was released in April 2007.

In May 2008, Meyer's adult sci-fi novel, The Host, was released by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company; it follows the story of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer, a young woman and an invading alien "soul," who are forced to work as one. The Host debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list,^[38] and remained on the list for 26 weeks.^[39] In March 2008, Meyer stated that she was "almost done" writing a possible sequel to The Host, entitled The Soul.^[40] If she were to continue the series, the third book would be called The Seeker.^[41]

Meyer mentions having several other book ideas on file, including a ghost story titled Summer House and a novel involving time travel,^[42] as well as another about mermaids.^[43]

On August 28, 2008, it was announced that Meyer had written the treatment for Jack's Mannequin music video, "The Resolution", which she co-directed the following week.^[44][45]

Publications

Twilight series

1. Twilight (2005)
2. New Moon (2006)
3. Eclipse (2007)
4. Breaking Dawn (2008)

Other books

• Prom Nights from Hell (section, 2007)
• The Host (2008)
• The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide (supplement to the Twilight series, December 2009)

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stephenie Meyer

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stephenie Meyer

• Stephenie Meyer's official website
• The Twilight Series's official website
• Exclusive Stephenie Meyer video & interview
• Stephenie Meyer at the Internet Movie Database
• Cover art and reviews of each Twilight novel
• Works by or about Stephenie Meyer in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

v • d • e The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer Novels Twilight · New Moon · Eclipse · Breaking Dawn Other books Midnight Sun (unpublished) Film series Twilight (soundtrack) · New Moon  · Eclipse Characters Bella Swan · Edward Cullen · Jacob Black · Other characters