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From Stephenie Meyer’s Introduction on the TwilightMOMS site 12/28/07:
Hi, my fellow moms
I've been lurking this site for a while, and I promised Lisa that I would finally register. She gave me a password that I've totally forgotten to prove that I am who I say I am. (I'll get back to you on that one, Lisa.) Yeah, so I'm Stephenie Meyer, believe it or not at your discretion.
Anyhoo, I really enjoy reading through the posts here---
So, carry on with the good work. I may comment occasionally, but probably not too much. I tend to hang out on message boards when I'm procrastinating (right now I have the last The Host edit to get through, and a Sunday School lesson to prepare--ugh!! Anybody have some brilliant thoughts on the book of Revelations? Do cookies and hangman count?). Eventually, I have to smack myself and get back to work.
It's just so cool that I'm not the only 30+ mom and wife in love with fictional underage vampires and werewolves. I feel much less pathetic.
TM: Did you marry your "Edward" or your "Jacob"?
Steph:
I'm very jealous of all of you who found Edwards and Jacobs. People often ask me if my inspiration for Edward comes from my husband, and I don't even bother trying to keep a straight face anymore.
Pancho is Pancho. There is no other description. We might have been childhood friends/sweethearts which is sort of Jacobian, except that we couldn't stand each other until we were both over 20. Then we got together relatively quickly when we actually began talking to each other, which is sort of Edwardian, except that it wasn't, ha ha.
The thing about Pancho that he shares a teeny bit with Edward and Jacob is that he is the most self-confident person I've ever met. Being an always insecure person, I was immediately drawn to his absolute surety. Another nice thing about him is that, thanks to his mother, he expects the woman in his life to have interests and opinions and a mind of her own. He can handle the fact that I am a least as strong a person as he is, and that I am smart and capable and often right. Not that he always admits that. Nor does he always fulfill his end of a losing bet.
I think one of the most frustrating things about my confident, self-assured husband is that he is not in the least bit threatened by my devotion to Edward and Jacob, though I have told him many times that if either one of them showed up at the door, I would leave without looking back. Pancho just grins and says, "You do that, Steph." Just because they're fictional doesn't mean he should be so danged sure of himself! Gah! Men.
TM: From a discussion on Stephenie Meyer's & Bella's favorite books...
I need to read The Count of Monte Cristo. Someday! I can't read classics on planes, though, because I have to take a lot of Dramamine, and Dramamine makes me loopy, and I can't concentrate enough for heavy reading. Since I only read on planes anymore, I end up reading a lot of crap.
As for WH, I'm completely on Edward's side of that argument. Not my favorite. And yet, I can't deny that the story has always stuck with me. There are archetypes in that book that I've never found anywhere else, but that ring true. I guess the moral is that even evil people fall in love, and that's certainly an interesting premise to explore.
I think I'm going to take advantage of this forum to recommend some books that I don't endorse elsewhere. A lot of my fans are twelve, and many of them LDS, and there are books that I can only recommend along with a caveat of "reader beware." At the same time, I seriously loved these books.
An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green. InSANEly funny. Brilliant. Endearing. And yet, there are language issues and one fairly graphic sex scene.
City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare (and the sequel, City of Ashes which doesn't come out until March--make friends with booksellers! They share advanced reading copies!). I am totally intrigued with this series, at the same time there is one particular issue that messes with me. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't specify. It's not BAD, just really, really uncomfortable. I thought she'd put it to bed in book one, but then it was there stronger than ever in book two. I think she's going to try to resolve it in book three, but HOW? HOW CASSANDRA?? (Ha ha, sorry). I need to find a City of Bones forum to vent! The thing that really gets me about City of Bones is that it is about 200 times better than Wicked Lovely, but Wicked Lovely is the one that gets all the accolades and the prominent shelving in the bookstores. Yes, WL has a wickedly lovely cover, but just go google the City of Bones cover. OH. MY.
This Lullaby, by Sarah Dressen. An absolutely adorable YA love story, and there's really nothing overtly objectionable in it. And there is Dexter!! Who I now love. So darling, that Dexter. My problem with this novel is a personal pet peeve with YA novels in general. I just really hate the subtext you'll find in 95% of YA romance. That subtext is this: ALL teenagers are sexually active. ALL teenagers drink. ALL teenagers do drugs at least casually. ALL teenagers do not smoke, but they've all at least tried it a couple of times. And the worst part: ALL of this is totally normal, fine, and unavoidable. I really hate that message going out to high school kids. Drives me crazy. You should see my horde of sweet babysitters, both male and female. These kids are squeaky clean, and they don't need to be told that there is something wrong with this. Rant over.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Life changing. It so deserved the National Book Award this year. You will not believe the depths and highs of this book, and you will be amazed at the stereotypes that are kept and broken. That being said, there is some teenage male thought process stuff going on here that keeps me from letting my kids read it.
Yay. I love sharing books.
TM:
This may be a nosey question, please forgive me. I believe I read on your site once that Victoria was named in honor of said mother-in-law. So, is she more of a nice mother-in-law for imbedding this expectation of women in her son's head, or is she more of a wicked mother-in-law, since you named the villainess of your books after her? Just wondering...such an intriguing comment!
Steph:
Said evil vampire was actually named in honor of Queen Victoria of England. Sometimes with minor characters, I give them names and attributes that tie them to their former lives (not that Victoria is QV, or related to her, just that she was born during the reign of a queen in England. The red hair is a nod to Elizabeth the first. My MIL's name is actually just Vicky--it's not a nickname for Victoria.
As for the questions about the MIL, I plead the fifth as I do not want to incriminate myself. I will say that she was really, really good at making her children strong, confident people. And she taught my husband to clean up after himself, do dishes and laundry, and put the seat down.
TM:
I've recently been wondering if Carlisle still has an accent or if it has long since faded I hope he still has the accent!
Steph:
He still has it, but he can turn it off if he needs to. When he's alone with his family, the accent is there.
TM:
Did you always intended for Twilight to be young adult? Or more so, how much did twilight change once it became a young adult publisher?
Steph:
I did not intend for Twilight to be YA--I intended it to be for ME. During the editing process the YA/Adult-ness of it didn't change at all. It was always a very innocent story.
TM:
I would beg her to put out the manuscript for Forever Dawn she gave her sister under her sister’s name or something just so we could finally have it!
All the best parts of Forever Dawn are in Breaking Dawn. I even cut and pasted a few lines in. Again, the YA/Adult-ness of the novel is unchanged through editing. (They wouldn't have let me get away with Breaking Dawn as a YA novel if it was the first book in the series. But pretty much nobody argues with me these days. And I'm not talking about smut (sorry! I know that disappoints), I'm talking more about adult issues that go along with (some of) the characters growing up.)
TM:
I want to know what is the whole story behind Sam scratching Emily? What made him loose control to change that close to her that it ruined her face?
Steph:
That's something I may write up eventually. The conversation involved Leah, and Emily's opinion of Sam as a cheating slime. She was putting on a front, though. A large part of her antagonism came from the fact that she was ridiculously attracted to Sam and feeling guilty as sin about it. The line that pushed him over the edge was something close to, "I will never, never, never like you, love you, or even respect you as a person. Go to hell." But probably meaner.
TM:
I am curious who she meant when she had Edward say:
"You're too desirable for your own good. Do I have to send a petition around to get you to believe? Shall I tell you whose names would be on the top of the list? You know a few of them, but some might surprise you."
From page 445 in Eclipse.
Who the heck is she talking about that would surprise her? I heard a weird rumor/therory somewhere that Jasper had a secret thing for her! I can't imagine that but when I reread this part it made me wonder a bit. HMMMMM.
Steph:
Ha ha! No, it was not Jasper he was talking about. It was the general male populace at FHS, including a member of the faculty.
TM:
How hard is it to keep secrets?!?!? You know what happens in Breaking Dawn! Is it really hard to keep it to yourself? We all know you can't say anything so we won't ask but is it hard to keep it to yourself?
Steph:
It is MISERABLE to keep secrets. It kills me. The only people I can talk to are my agent and editor and mom. Not. Enough. But then, after certain Eclipse-leak situations, I'm also hyper paranoid about everything I say. It would make it a whole lot easier to hang out with my friends if I felt safe sharing the manuscript. I drift out of conversations all the time with book-related ideas, and then I can't explain where I've been.
TM:
Have your read Amy16’s fanfiction? Do you worry about what your readers think? Does it influence your writing or do the characters tell you what is going to happen and you can't do anything about it (like with Edward leaving)?
Steph:
Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to read fanfiction for various reasons. Amy's sounds good.
I do worry a lot about my readers. The lists of "things that will cause me to burn Breaking Dawn" really upset me. I want everyone to love what happens. But honestly, it doesn't affect the writing. It's just a painful after fact. I've known the end of this story since 2003, long before anyone had chimed in on what they would like to see happen. I can't change it--to me, it's more like history than fiction. This is simply how it went down.
TM:
What is your home life and how it has changed since the rave of the books.
Like, at church, do you get asked to give talks or Enrichments Nights a lot?
Do your brother and sisters get bothered a lot by fans?
Do they go out and read and view the fanfic and youtube stuff? (since I heard you don't have much time for that anymore)
I was just thinking how crazy it must be now....from going from a SAHM to FAME in a matter of just a few years. WOW! AND you still has little boys to raise. Amazing that you can do it all.
Steph:
I don't have to do Enrichment nights a lot. People are pretty nice about respecting my time. I do have to sign books every time I go to church, though. Even though I sign in the halls only, it feels a little blasphemous. But I would feel like a huge jerk if I said no.
Nobody in my family gets bugged by fans. Writing-fame is a very obscure kind of fame. I only get recognized once in a blue moon (and most of the time I've been pleased with the locations--Ok Go concert, the temple; look, I'm cool AND righteous! JK. But then there was the one time that my brother talked me into seeing Beowulf with him (which was hilarious, btw). How shameful to be caught there!). My sister in Utah gets a lot of babysitting offers, but I don't think she minds.
None of my sibs watch youtube stuff or read fanfiction (that I'm aware of). One of them only just started reading my books (and then he was insultingly surprised to find out that he liked them).
Really, life is so much more normal than anyone ever believes. I do have a new house, and that is cool. That's really the biggest change, though. Unless you count touring, which I don't even like to think about. So I'm going to stop thinking about it right now.
TM:
When Edward and Bella are getting ready to hike to the meadow she sees that his shirt is unbuttoned and is "pierced though with sadness". It seems like it takes her quite a few moments to recover. Is she really just feeling insecure because he is too perfect? Or is she also worried about going into the meadow with him? He is so confused by her reaction, I just wasn't sure.
Steph:
This was an insecurity thing. Imagine that you (not some fictionalized version of you, or you 10 years ago before children, or the Bella you imagined, but YOU) were walking into that forest with someone who looks better than a cross between Henry Cavill and Steven Strait. Wouldn't you feel like you must have imagined that he could ever like you at all--that you had made it all up? He's so out of your league. He can never be yours. Yeah, and I'm about to start crying now.
TM:
Who is Harry's grandfather?
Steph:
Harry Clearwater is a Black on his mother's side. (Sue Clearwater is a Uley on HER mother's side.)
TM:
Did Victoria change Riley?
Steph:
Yes.
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