Author Name: Stephenie Meyer
Date of Birth: December 24, 1973
Where From: Hartford, Connecticut
Books:Twilight Saga
- Twilight (2005)
- New Moon (2006)
- Eclipse (2007)
- Breaking Dawn (2008)
Others Books:
- Prom Nights from Hell (section, 2007)
- The Host
- The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide (2009)
Links:Website:
www.stepheniemeyer.comShort Bio:Stephenie Meyer was born December 24, 1973 in Hartford, Connecticut to Stephen and Candy Morgan. She’s an American author, known for her vampire romance series Twilight. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with five siblings: Seth, Emily, Jacob, Paul, and Heidi. She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. She then attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she received a B.A. in English in 1997. She met her husband Christian, nicknamed "Pancho", when she was growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994 when they both were 21. Together they have three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli.
She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has stated that she is "straitlaced" about her beliefs, and does not drink alcohol or smoke. She had never written even a short story before Twilight, and had considered going to law school because she felt she had no chance of becoming a writer; she later noted that the birth of her oldest son Gabe changed her mind, saying, "Once I had Gabe, I just wanted to be his mom." Before becoming an author, her only professional work was as a receptionist in a property company.
The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition, won multiple literary awards and sold over 70 million copies worldwide, with translations into 37 different languages around the globe. A film adaptation of Twilight was released in the United States on November 21, 2008. She is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.
Stephenie Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003. The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, she wrote the transcript of what is now Chapter 13 of the book. In a matter of three months she had transformed her dream into a completed novel, though she claims that she never intended to publish Twilightand was writing for her own enjoyment. Her sister's response towards the book was enthusiastic and she persuaded Stephenie to send the manuscript to literary agencies. Of the 15 letters she wrote, five went unanswered, nine brought rejections, and the last was a positive response from Jodi Reamer of Writers House. Eight publishers competed for the rights to publish Twilight in the 2003 auction. By November, she had signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.
Twilight was one of 2005's most talked about novels and within weeks of its release the book debuted at #5 on The New York Times bestseller list. Among its many accolades, Twilight was named an "ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults," an Amazon.com "Best Book of the Decade...So Far", and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.
The highly-anticipated sequel, New Moon, was released in September 2006, and spent more than 25 weeks at the #1 position on The New York Times bestseller list.
In 2007, Eclipse literally landed around the world and fans made the Twilight Saga a worldwide phenomenon! With midnight parties and vampire-themed proms the enthusiasm for the series continued to grow.
On May 6, 2008, Little, Brown and Company released The Host, Meyer's highly-anticipated novel for adults which debuted at #1 on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. The Host still remains a staple on the bestseller lists more than a year after its debut.
On August 2, 2008, the final book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawnwas released at 12:01 midnight. Stephenie made another appearance on "Good Morning America" and was featured in many national media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, People Magazine and Variety. Stephenie headlined the Breaking Dawn Concert Series with Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer of Blue October) to celebrate the release in four major markets across the US. Breaking Dawn sold 1.3 million copies in its first 24 hours.
Stephenie Meyer indicated that Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective. 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). She 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, she chose to delay the project indefinitely.
Her twilight saga is inspired by several novels such as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; New Moon by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; Eclipse by Emily Brontė's Wuthering Heights; and Breaking Dawn's theme by two further plays of Shakespeare's, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontė and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. She also has an inspiring playlist for every book with bands like Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, Linkin Park and several indie bands.
Twilight, the first book in the series was optioned by Summit Entertainment in April 2007, directed by Catherine Hardwicke with a screenplay written by Melissa Rosenberg and starring Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) and Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan), was released on November 21, 2008. Twilight debuted at #1 at the box office with $70 million, making it the highest grossing opening weekend for a female director. Stephenie Meyer does a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene in the film between Charlie and Bella. A day after twilight’s release Summit greenlit its sequel, New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz. Adding to its cast names like Michael Sheen (Aro), Dakota Fanning (Jane) amongst others. In February 2009, Summit announced that Eclipse would be directed by David Slade.
One of her 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, her adult sci-fi novel, The Host, was released by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company, where we can see 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, and remained on the list for 26 weeks. In March 2008, Stephenie stated that she was "almost done" writing a possible sequel to The Host, entitled The Soul. If she were to continue the series, the third book would be called The Seeker. She has also mentioned having several other book ideas on file, including a ghost story titled Summer House and a novel involving time travel, as well as another about mermaids.
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.
In 2009, Meyer teamed with the skateboard and clothing company Hobo Skate Company to produce her own clothing line, consisting of a line of T-shirts and skateboards related to her science-fiction novel, The Host. On September 2009, it was announced that The Host was on it’s way to the big screen, by the hand of Andrew Niccol
Stephenie currently lives in Arizona, with her family.
Review:As crazy as it sounds, Stephenie Meyer’s books have become an addition, hope and a different way of viewing things for me. I was instantly hooked just by reading a few words and haven’t stopped since then. Her style of writing and narrating is so good that you imagine everything that goes around Bella and her world. She has given us a vampire in shiny Volvo and a desire to visit a place that never crossed our minds, Forks. I thank Stephenie Meyer for a wonderful story and all the good things that came with it (a shout to those amazing people
)
Author Forum Discussion:
http://forum.openbooksociety.com/stephenie-meyer/
Author