Love Affair With A Vampire
Sun Herald
Sunday December 23, 2007
The creative reworking of a horror legend has won cult status, writes ROBYN DOREIAN.
STEPHENIE MEYER'S oldest fan is 86. At an East Coast book signing in the US, the grandmother, her daughter and granddaughter were among the screaming, hyperventilating teenage girls who are fanatical about the American author's vampire love saga. "They were very cute," Meyer, 33, says, "because reading my books was something they were doing together as a family and I thought it was very nice."Having sold 3.5million copies worldwide, Meyer's Twilight series, Twilight, New Moon and the most recent instalment, Eclipse, tells the story of Bella Swan, a 17-year-old student who lives with her policeman father, Charlie, in Forks, Washington. At high school, Bella meets and falls in love with Edward Cullen, a "godlike" 17-year-old vampire. She also makes friends with Jacob Black, a 16-year-old werewolf who develops strong feelings for Bella. A love triangle ensues, vampire battles erupt and Bella decides she wants to become a vampire and join Edward in immortality. In 2003, the story idea came to Meyer in a dream. Obsessed by the plain girl and striking vampire who meet in the rainy woods, the next morning she moved her roll-top desk into the middle of her Arizona home so she could keep an eye on her three sons - now aged 10, seven and five - and began to write. Three months later Meyer had finished a 500-page book. Even though it was her first creative writing experience, her older sister Emily convinced her to submit it for publication. "I knew the story was interesting to me," she says, "but when Emily persuaded me to send it out, I was sure people were going to laugh in my face as I didn't think it was that good. Instead they said they loved it and wanted to represent me. It took me a long time to believe that it wasn't a practical joke, that it was true."An advance of $800,000 followed and upon publication in 2005, Twilight spent a year on The New York Times bestseller list. A script for the movie is almost complete. "I sold the film rights long before Twilight was successful," she says, "but it was never about the money. "The story was always very visual, and I really wanted to see it on the screen."Meyer researched for historical accuracy. For Edward's father, Dr Carlisle Cullen, born in the 1650s, she found appropriate paintings to adorn his dark-wood office. To find a name for Edward's brother, she went through Confederate Army rollcalls from the 1860s and found the name, Jasper. But for Edward, Meyer did not research vampires."I am not into horror novels and have never been a horror fan," she says. "So when I was writing Twilight with no view to publication, just to entertain myself, I played with the basic vampire legend. Research might have meant I couldn't have as much fun with it."After her first novel, Meyer maintained a furious writing pace, completing four books in a year. A typical day involved dropping her sons at school, working out in her home gym, completing the day's errands and then writing until her children returned. Once they were in bed, she'd put on her headphones and listen to music - including British trio Muse - and write until she was "about to pass out". "For one thing, it blacks out other sounds so I can concentrate," she says, "but music sets the pace for my writing. Themes come from the songs I hear."In the US, her book appearances are often staged as proms, where at a local gym 1300 excitable girls wearing everything from ball gowns to T-shirts bearing quotes from Meyer's books, live out the Twilight fantasy world. They also ply her with gifts. "Last night a woman gave me a box of Christmas ornaments," she says. "They were dolls of Edward, Bella and Jacob. While I can't always keep the gifts, I can't throw them away either. "Boxes of letters and presents line the backs of our closets and reside in our garage. I am a terrible hoarder."Despite the omnipresence of the vampires in the series, Meyer's books are moral. Bella remains a virgin, Edward is polite, responsible and well-dressed, and there is no swearing, drinking or drug-taking. The characters' morality reflects Meyer's upbringing. "It impacts on the way I look at the world and that in turn affects my writing," she says. "My novels may be about vampires but they are not dark. I like to take things that have turned dark and make them into something as light and as beautiful as possible. That comes from my religious side."Born in Connecticut, Meyer is one of six children in a family with a lineage of devout Mormons. Church was a big part of her early life and her homemaker mother and businessman father provided a very "sheltered" upbringing.After high school, Meyer attended Utah's Brigham Young University on a scholarship, and majored in English. She aspired to a career in law or editing but instead she met Christiaan, nicknamed "Pancho", got married, worked as a receptionist and then started a family."We had known each other since we were four but didn't connect until we were in our 20s," she says. "He served at a church mission in Chile for two years and I was at college, but when he came back he looked good. There was instant chemistry and we started dating in May and were married in December."Since Meyer's phenomenal success (combined rights to the Twilight books have been sold to 60 countries), Pancho has retired from accountancy to help run the household. He's a teacher's help at their sons' school and when she's away, ensures they get to soccer practice. Meyer says he isn't emasculated by her success. "You don't dwarf Pancho," she laughs. "Out of the two of us he's the one that has a lot of charisma, personality and confidence. Those are the things that drew me to him in the first place. I've always felt like I was in his shadow."At present, Meyer is two-thirds through her fourth book in the Twilight series. She has also completed a science fiction novel, The Host, which will be published next year."When I was growing up my favourite authors were Orson Scott Card and Douglas Adams so it was a very natural genre for me," she says. "It was during a 12-hour drive from Phoenix to Salt Lake City that I came up with the idea of an alien invader, Wanderer, who inhabits the human body of Melanie. Melanie's spirit refuses to disappear and instead fills Wanderer's head with the man she loves. It's a very human story." Meyer says writing has given her confidence. "It's validating to have people say they love your book," she says. "That's given me a lot of belief in myself. Also, it's given me this fantastic world that I get to be a part of. That's the best part."Eclipse is published by Atom, $22.95.
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