Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer (born December 24, 1973 in Connecticut) is the American author of the Twilight Saga and several other books.

History

She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona with a large family. She has five siblings: Emily, Heidi, Paul, Seth and Jacob. She "borrowed" her siblings' names for use in her Twilight novels, most notably for the character of Jacob Black, who is named for her automotive expert brother. Meyer attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she majored in English. She met her husband Christiaan, nicknamed "Pancho", when she was growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994; together they have three sons, Gabe, Seth, and Eli. Meyer is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream about a girl and a sparkling vampire sitting in a meadow on June 2, 2003, the transcript of which is now Chapter 13 of the book. After writing and editing the novel, she signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.

The sequel to Twilight, New Moon, had an unintentional staggered release all over North America, beginning in early August 2006. Meyer initially wrote an alternative sequel to Twilight, called Forever Dawn, which she then used as an outline for the remainder of the series. She has stated that the novel will never be published, as it doesn't fall into the genre of young adult. The third book in the series, Eclipse, was released on August 7, 2007. The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, is slated for release on August 2, 2008. Meyer has revealed that Breaking Dawn will be the last book written from Bella Swan's perspective, and stated on her website that there will be more than four books. Meyer has also stated that her other novel, Midnight Sun, will be more of a companion piece to the series than a genuine sequel, as it will describe Twilight from the view of Edward Cullen. A rough first twelve chapters of Midnight Sun have been posted on Meyer's website, because Meyer apparently didn't have enough sense not to show it to people other than her editor, and Midnight Sun has been (hopefully permanently) postponed. The band Muse features prominently in the Twilight series. Meyer is a huge fan, and always includes songs by the band in her playlists for the books. She has also told fans that a concert featured in her third book is a Muse concert, and that some of the main characters are fans of Muse. Muse now has many new fans in the way of rabid fangirls (whose usual music taste include Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers). Many Youtube videos have been made by the fangirls, setting pictures of Robert Pattison and Kirsten Stewert to popular songs by Muse. Massive amounts of headdesking has occured amongst Muse fans due to this. In the upcoming Twilight movie, it is confirmed that the song "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse will be used in the soundtrack, much to the chagrin of the real fans.

Published works

Meyer's first novel, Twilight, was published in October of 2005. By November, Twilight had reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list for young adult chapter books.

Meyer soon published the sequel to Twilight, New Moon, in August 2006. In its first week of release, it debuted at the number 5 position on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Chapter Books. In its second week it rose to the number 1 position, where it remained for the next eleven weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. On May 5, 2007, the special edition of New Moon was released. It included New Moon temporary tattoos, an Eclipse poster, and the first chapter of Eclipse.

On August 7, 2007, Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight Saga, was released. In total, the three books have spent a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

One of Meyer's 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 April 10, 2007.

On May 6, 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 "soul", who are forced to work as one in order to find Jamie and Jared, Melanie's little brother and the love of Melanie's life respectively.

On May 31, 2008, the special edition of Eclipse was released. It contains the cover art and first chapter of Breaking Dawn as well as "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" t-shirt transfers.

Breaking Dawn was released on August 2nd, 2008 in North America. The book was released two days later, on the 4th of August in places outside of North America.

It is unknown just how many brain cells have been killed by any of these books.