Left is the Media Tie in Book that comes with a exclusive poster, and right is the mass market paperback.

I will be attending Twilight Itacon, the Italian Twilight convention that will be held in Rome, Italy! I’ll be talking about how I created the site, and my experiences on set and red carpet events. Currently there are a few members of the cast confirmed, including Gil Birmingham (Billy Black), Justin Chon (Eric), Alex Meraz (Paul) and Daniel Cudmore (Felix). They are working on getting more talent for the event, we’ll keep you posted! I hope all of you fans in the area will come. I’ve never been to Italy (I live in California) and I’m extremely excited for this.

Let me know below if you are an Italian Twilight fan!

Check out more information at their website.

An “Eclipse” Exclusive:
If you’ve only been watching the “Twilight” movies or read the first two books, don’t be shocked that you have no idea who Bree Tanner is. In fact, don’t be upset if you read “Eclipse” and still have no idea who she is. Tanner is a character introduced a startlingly short amount of time before she dies in “Eclipse” and could be considered (to everyone except Stephenie Meyer) to be a throwaway character.

Dramatic Death Scene:
It turns out Tanner isn’t the best newborn vampire among them all, and she isn’t a big fan of killing innocents and drinking their blood. She tries to join forces with the Cullen clan and adapt to their “vegetarian vampire” lifestyle, but ends up being killed by Felix on the orders of Jane, a member of the Volturi guard (played by Dakota Fanning in the film), in the final battle.

Seattle:
The trouble with the first-person perspective of “The Twilight Saga” is that the reader can’t read what is happening firsthand beyond what Bella Swan sees with her own eyes. Much like “Midnight Sun” gave (some) of the details behind what happened elsewhere in “Twilight,” “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” will show what happened in Seattle with Victoria during “Eclipse.” But since much of “Eclipse” is devoted to the characters wondering what exactly was going on in Seattle, seeing it through the eyes of a secondary character like Tanner is a smart companion piece to the book.

Unseen First Life:
Unfortunately for Tanner, the world will never know what happened to her before she became a vampire. She was introduced into “Eclipse” after she was a newborn and “The Short Second Life” will start off the same way. There is a chance of flashbacks telling about her life before becoming a vampire, but the way Meyer described the novella on her Web site made it seem as though Tanner was the narrator solely so the reader could see what went on in Seattle, not to learn her past.

See the whole list at MTV.

Amid the excitement over the announcement Tuesday morning (March 30) that Stephenie Meyer would be releasing a new “Twilight” novella, “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner,” on June 5, some fans were upset that the book was not “Midnight Sun.” Twilighters shared their opinions with MTV News on Twitter and in the comments, and their reactions ranged from understanding to angry.

“About 90 percent of the fandom is just excited to have anything,” said Lori Joffs, co-creator of Twilight Lexicon. “It’s the small little bit of about 10 percent of fans who are interested in another story. The story that must not be named.”

The “Midnight Sun” controversy started back in August 2008 after half of the novel — a retelling of “Twilight” from Edward Cullen’s perspective — leaked onto the Web. Meyer made a statement on her blog saying she felt personally violated by the fact her work was leaked and that the novel was put on hold indefinitely.

Amanda Bell of Twilight Examiner wasn’t surprised by the “Midnight Sun” outcry after Meyer’s latest book was announced.

“I found it surprising that people initially jumped onto that, but it wasn’t a surprise that that’s where people went eventually,” Bell said. “I kind of expected the ‘Midnight Sun’ conversation to be rehashed by this news, but I didn’t think it would be so immediate.”

She said it’s tricky, because while most fans understand where Meyer’s frustrations came from, they still want the novel to be released as quickly as possible. Fans have been expecting either “Midnight Sun” or the official guide to “The Twilight Saga” to be the next book Meyer released.

But Joffs felt fans weren’t reading Meyer’s post about the novella closely enough, or they would have seen that Meyer had been working on this story since she first finished writing “Eclipse” many years ago. “The Short Second Life” was written to be included in the “Twilight Saga” companion but had grown too large, and the publisher decided to put it out in conjunction with the film.

“I think that that’s where fans are getting upset, because it looks like Stephenie has abandoned writing anything else to write about Bree, and I don’t think that’s what happened at all,” Joffs explained.

This isn’t the first time fans have initially been against a decision in the “Twilight” universe. When Robert Pattinson was first cast as Edward Cullen, fans were outraged, but now he is a global heartthrob who can’t walk down the street without women screaming at him. Bell said she wouldn’t be surprised if “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” followed the same journey.

March 30, 2010

Surprise!

I have a new book coming out. It’s called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Well, it’s more of a novella than an actual book—my version of a short story.

Actually, this has been a surprise to me, too. The reason why it’s a surprise was that I never intended to publish this story as a stand-alone book. I began this story a long time ago—before Twilight was even released. Back then I was just editing Eclipse, and in the thick of my vampire world. I was thinking a lot about the newborns, imagining their side of the story, and one thing led to another. I started writing from Bree’s perspective about those final days, and what it was like to be a newborn.

This story was something that I worked on off and on for a while, just for fun, in between the times I was writing or editing other Twilight novels. Later, when the concept for The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide came up, I thought that might be a good place for Bree. Her story is a nice complement to Eclipse; it explains a lot of the things that Bella never knew. So I dusted it off and finished it up for placement in the Guide.

At the same time, it came in handy for the Eclipse film. Melissa (Rosenberg, the screenwriter) had a ton of questions about what exactly was going on in Seattle, how Victoria managed things, what Riley was like, etc. I let her read what I had then, and later gave the whole thing to the director, David Slade. David asked if Xavier, Bryce, and Jodelle (Riley, Victoria, and Bree) could read it as well, so all the parties involved would end up having a really strong foundation for their characters before the cameras started rolling. I was pleased that this side of the story would make it into the film and was looking forward to including it in the Guide.

Then I got the news: my “short story” was nearly 200 pages long when typeset. It was too long to fit into the Guide—without ending up with a tome as heavy as the Oxford English Dictionary. My publisher approached me with the idea of releasing the Bree story on its own. One of the major benefits of this plan was that it would be out before the movie, so people would get to know Bree before they saw her in the film. That made sense to me, and we decided to go ahead with it.

There was one thing I asked for: since this story had always been an extra for me, and was meant to be released with the Guide, I wanted to be able to offer it to my fans for free. You all have bought a ton of my books, and I wanted to give you this story as a gift. My publisher was awesome and embraced this idea. We still wanted to also produce a physical book with a cool cover (see below) that you can add to your set if you like, but starting at noon on June 7th until July 5th, it will also be available online at www.breetanner.com.

One other aspect of this release is the plan to give a more important gift to people who really need it. One dollar of each book purchased in the US from the first printing will be donated to the American Red Cross for their relief efforts in Haiti and Chile and other parts of the world where people are in great need. We’re going to have an option online as well, so you can choose to make a donation if you want when you read the story online. I hope you will. I think that we can really help a lot of people with this.

I really hope you all enjoy this story. I had a blast writing it. I’m glad that after all this time cooling her heels in my files, Bree finally gets her chance to shine.

Thanks for all the support,

Steph

What do you guys think about this?
Are you excited about Stephenie writing another book for her vampire world?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Source: Stepheniemeyer.com
You can see the press release for the book HERE.