Time magazine published a fantastic article today about the Twilight books and movies. I think the most interesting part is about how Stephenie Meyer wound up writing the books:
The story begins with a dream. It wasn’t the Great American Dream–Stephenie Meyer, then a 29-year-old Mormon housewife living in Arizona, wasn’t sitting at home trying to figure out how to be the next mega-best-selling author. It was a different kind of dream.
On the morning of June 2, 2003, Meyer woke up with the fading afterimage of a vision in her head, of a young woman and a vampire, talking, in a meadow. She didn’t want to forget it, so she wrote it down. Then she kept on writing. Sometimes you have the dream, and sometimes the dream has you.
And how the publisher ended up acquiring it:
The woman who would publish meyer, Megan Tingley, was handed the manuscript in November 2003, right before she got on a cross-country flight to California. She wasn’t expecting great things. She’d never heard of Meyer. Nobody had. She wasn’t a vampire fan either.
But she spent the entire flight riveted by that 600-page bundle of paper. “I kept thinking, Well, she can’t possibly sustain this,” Tingley remembers. “The whole book is going to fall apart. She’s a first-time writer. I was with a colleague, and he was trying to sleep, and I kept pulling him awake and reading passages to him.”
Even though it was an early draft–back then Bella and her undead boyfriend Edward actually got married at the end–by the time she got off the plane, Tingley was desperate to buy it. But it was a Friday, and everyone was gone for the day. “So I just left a bunch of insane messages back at Little, Brown and with the agent and said, ‘Call me Monday. We have to talk!'” she says. “I pre-empted it on Monday from a street in San Francisco on my cell phone.”
But most of America will be talking about this little gem, from the original Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke:
By all accounts, the chemistry between the two leads was intense, maybe too intense. “After I cast him, I told Rob, Don’t even think about having a romance with her,” Hardwicke says. “She’s under 18. You will be arrested.” It was the beginning of the real-life are-they-aren’t-they, did-they-didn’t-they speculation that is now an ongoing subplot of the Twilight story. “I didn’t have a camera in the hotel room. I cannot say,” Hardwicke says. “But in terms of what Kristen told me directly, it didn’t happen on the first movie. Nothing crossed the line while on the first film. I think it took a long time for Kristen to realize, O.K., I’ve got to give this a go and really try to be with this person.”
Soooo, is this a confirmation or what? I mean, I guess I don’t need Catherine Hardwicke to confirm anything for me, I’ll just go ahead and state the obvious: These two people have had sexual intercourse. Duh. But are they a couple currently? Who knows, but this will for sure get people talking … even if Kristen won’t. Anyway. The whole article is fascinating — a highly recommended read.
Here are pics of our darling little Twilight kids at a fan event in Madrid today.
Haha, can you imagine them having sex? She’s probably stoned, he’s drunk & dirty……..HOT.
The only thing “fascinating” about that article will have to be how the columnist praises Meyer’s work without going straight to Writer’s Hell.
Those books are so badly written it’s painful.
I’ve actually never read them, but I find the history behind how they were created and how they became such a sensation really interesting.
And all this time I thought it must be a deal with the devil. Seriously.
I read the hell out of those books, but I do it knowing they suck and not missing even one plot hole. Yet I keep reading them!
That must be some kind of black magic, right?
I completely agree with you! I’m usually such a snob about books that I won’t read one that you can pick up in the checkout line at the grocery store. But I LOVED Twilight, despite how much I was well aware of its flaws.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this. I’ve been wondering what category of Twilight reader I fall in. I read it, I love reading it, but I know it’s crap.
I’ve said before that I think it’s the literary equivalent of Charmed. (which I also love)
I’m not sure that excuses this strange addiction I have to these horribly written books.
Read em Beet! Alzaetia’s right. You want to kill yourself and Stphanie Meyer–and yet you read…
ayuh, those books are indeed poorly written. I tried reading them, just because everyone raved about them. Cannot.finish.series.
it took me four months to read one of them.
I second that. My red pen lost all its ink correcting Twilight alone.
those books suck. no pun intended.
I love the books!
I read the books. I liked them enough to read the whole series except New Moon. I wasn’t very fond of the Jacob character. In fact, I think the movie wasn’t as good, but that’s usually the case with books and movies. I def. think Meyer’s background story is really interesting. I’m a stay at home mom and reading her story is like reading an insane dream come true. Not many authors get their books turned into movies let alone ones with as many fans as Twilight. I mean, yes I have to agree, her writing was no Jane Austen. It was more like really good fan fiction. Amatuer writing, but the story I think taps into the teen girl in everyone that likes the dark mysterious men. It was like getting into a really good romantic novel. Those novels your ashamed to tell anyone you actually read. So yeah, thanks Beet for this post. I think it goes to show that if you give something a try, something really good might come of it. :)
That’s funny. Jacob is the only character that I think is believable or good. He’s the entire reason I kept reading the series.
Well, I have to say he did grow on me at the end. I just didn’t like the idea of him and Bella getting all smoochy.
I really don’t get it. There are tons and tons of good books out there – fantasy books, vampire stories, etc – and I don’t mean obscure classics with niche markets. I mean contemporary books that could easily be turned into popular movies that both teens and adults would enjoy. And yet… we get Harry Potter and Twilight taking over the world.
I’m not saying they’re terrible, but they’re not brilliant, and there are much more deserving authors out there who never made it big and probably never will. Luck of the draw I guess.
I completely agree with you (except that I put Harry Potter way above Twilight…with the agreement that HP was overhyped). There are so many wonderful YA books out there. Disclaimer: I did not read Twilight, but read enough excerpts and reviews to know that it wouldn’t make my list of books to read.
What amazes me to no end are the number of adult women who are absolutely gaga over Twilight…to the point of orgasm.
Um, yeahhhh. My older sister (who is over 35) recently took a vacation to Forks, Washington (the setting for Twilight). Yeah. I was slightly ashamed. It has really gotten out of hand, especially considering that Stephanie Meyer completely ripped off both Charlaine Harris (who writes the Sookie Stackhouse books) and Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire). Hmmm…. a selectively telepathic character, and vampire children? Nope, never seen THAT before. Ugh. Stephanie Meyer disgusts me.
Not to mention the love triangle between the human girl, the dog/wolf and the vampire.
Hey, now. Don’t diss the HP. The books are very well written, and deserve all the hype they get.
J.K. Rowling is like Pixar. All ages, yo.
I totally agree with you. HP is definitely a cut above Twilight. They are very well written, and maybe since I was a starry eyed pre-teen when I read them, but they totally transport you to a whole world when your reading. The Twilight series is definitely not the same. Sure, the story is quite interesting and you read because you want to know what happens next, but they don’t quite captivate you like HP series. They’re not very well written, and a lot of the book is quite boring, althought it does have some catchy parts.
Anyway my point is, don’t hate on Harry Potter. Those books were amazing!
Um yea, I don’t get the whole “Twilight” movie popularity. I saw the movie and started drawing on my hand halfway through it. Yes, I would rather disfigure my hand for a matter of 3 good hand washings than watch the movie. With soap mind you!
And.. who really thinks Kristin and Robert are a couple? Maybe it’s a teen age awkward thing but they look about as romantic as brother and sister. I don’t mean brother and sister in backwoods Arkansas either.
Um yea, I don’t get the whole “Twilight” movie popularity. I saw the movie and started drawing on my hand halfway through it. Yes, I would rather disfigure my hand for a matter of 3 good hand washings than watch the movie. With soap mind you!
And.. who really thinks Kristin and Robert are a couple? Maybe it’s a teen age awkward thing but they look about as romantic as brother and sister. I don’t mean brother and sister in backwoods Arkansas either.
These two had sex,and everybody knows it. Even if they are not dating.