On April 13, author Stephenie Meyer will publish the paperback edition of her best-selling sci-fi book “The Host.” Meyer, the author behind the “Twilight” series of books, will include in the coming version of “The Host” a never-before seen “bonus chapter.” “The Host,” Meyer’s first novel for adults, tells the story of body-snatching aliens who invade the earth. One of these extraterrestrials, who goes by the name Wanda, develops an unusual relationship with Melanie, the woman whose body she has taken over.

To read the excerpt, go HERE.

Via Twilight Lexicon

I can report some forward progress on the movie version of The Host, Meyer’s first adult novel which she optioned last fall to producers Nick Wechsler and Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz–the trio behind the terrific screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Steve Schwartz tells me that Andrew Niccol is working on the third draft of a screenplay which he’s writing in close consultation with the author.

Because the producers used their own money, they were not hostage to choosing the flavor of the moment, but rather the right guy. Schwartz said the search went like this: “We asked Stephenie what her favorite science fiction movies were, and one of them was Gattaca,” he sald. “We spent time with Andrew, listened to his vision, introduced Andrew to Stephenie and she responded. There is very good chemistry in this group. Stephenie is a very smart collaborator, and she had an intuitive strong hunch he would be the right guy. Based on the script we’ve seen, we think she was right. We’re thinking this will be shot in early 2011.”

Source: Deadline.com

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.

Good news: The Host paperback is now available for pre-order. I have just heard from the publishing company that the paperback release will have a Reading Group Guide that includes the following:

• New, never-before-published “bonus chapter”
• An interview with Stephenie
• Discussion topics and questions
• Stephenie’s annotated playlist

It will be released on April 13, 2010. As always, I highly recommend The Host to anyone who has not yet read it. Have a great day!

–Seth

You can pre-order your copy HERE.

“The pair even wanted “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and “Twilight” scribe Stephenie Meyer to present the adapted screenplay category, but Rowling was unavailable because of scheduling conflicts and Meyer, who is a Mormon, does not work on Sundays.”

The text of your original novel is boiled down so carefully that it doesn’t feel like anything is missing. Were you the one who did that?

I was definitely involved. I didn’t do the original “script” for the book, so to speak. But when I got the dialogue with the images, I did a lot of tinkering. In a couple of places, I asked for missing scenes to be inserted. For example, the conversation in the car that Bella and Edward have after she faints in Biology.

When this project is done, are you done with Twilight?

I can’t say that I am done with Twilight forever. I’m not working on anything new Twilight-related now, and probably not for a while. But there’s still a possibility that I’ll go back and close some of the open doors.