Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer (née Morgan, born December 24, 1973) is the American author of the Twilight saga and The Host. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her family.

Personal life
Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with five siblings: Emily, Heidi, Paul, Seth and Jacob, all of whom are mentioned in the Twilight series. Meyer attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she majored in English. She met her husband Christian, nicknamed "Pancho", while growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994. They have three sons, Gabe, Seth, and Eli.

Writing
Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream. After writing the novel, she signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.

The sequel to Twilight, New Moon, had an unintentional staggered release all over North America, beginning in early August 2006. Meyer initially wrote an alternative sequel to Twilight, called Forever Dawn, which she then used as an outline for the remainder of the series. She has stated that the novel will never be published, as it doesn't fall into the genre of young adult. The third book in the series, Eclipse, was released on August 7, 2007. The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, was released on August 2, 2008. Meyer revealed that Breaking Dawn will be the last book written from Bella Swan's perspective. Meyer was also writing Midnight Sun, a companion piece to the series that would describe Twilight from the view of Edward Cullen, but has put the project on hold due to a leak; she said she would continue writing it when two years have gone by without hearing or seeing anything about it.

Muse
The band Muse features prominently in the Twilight series. Meyer is a huge fan and always includes songs by the band in her playlists for the books. The song "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse is included in the Twilight movie, and is on the film's soundtrack.

Another song by Muse is "I Belong to You" which is also in the New Moon film and on the New Moon soundtrack. She included an acknowledgment to Muse at the end of New Moon, which reads:

And, finally, thank you to the talented musicians who inspire me, particularly the band Muse - there are emotions, scenes, and plot threads in this novel that were born from Muse songs and would not exist without their genius.

Twilight series
Meyer's first novel, Twilight, was published in October 2005. By November, Twilight had reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list for young adult chapter books.

Meyer soon published the sequel to Twilight, New Moon, in August 2006. In its first week of release, it debuted at the number 5 position on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Chapter Books. In its second week it rose to the number 1 position, where it remained for the next eleven weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. On May 5, 2007, the special edition of New Moon was released. It included New Moon temporary tattoos, an Eclipse poster, and the first chapter of Eclipse.

On August 7, 2007, Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight Saga, was released. In total, the three books have spent a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

On May 31, 2008, the special edition of Eclipse was released. It contains the cover art and first chapter of Breaking Dawn as well as "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" t-shirt transfers.

Breaking Dawn was released on August 2, 2008 in North America. The book was released two days later, on the 4th of August, in locations outside of North America.

On March 30, 2010, it was announced that Meyer had written a 200-page novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. The book was released on June 5, 2010, by Atom and was also available for free between June 7 and July 5 on the official website.

Other works
One of Meyer's stories was published in Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of stories about bad prom nights with supernatural effects. Other authors who contributed to this collection are Meg Cabot, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle. Prom Nights from Hell was released April 10, 2007.

On May 6, 2008, Meyer's adult sci-fi novel, The Host, was released by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company; it follows the story of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer, a young woman and an invading "soul", who are forced to work as one in order to find Jamie and Jared, Melanie's little brother and the love of Melanie's life, respectively.

Behind the scenes
She made an appearance in the Twilight film, as a woman in the diner, presumably writing on her laptop. The waitress addresses her as "Stephenie" and hands her a vegetarian plate of food.

Stephenie also made an appearance in Breaking Dawn - Part 1, as a wedding guest.

Criticism
Meyer has been criticized for ignoring traditional vampire lore and altering the abilities and weaknesses of vampires in her book series Twilight. Her writing style has also been criticized, with Stephen King stating: "the real difference [between Rowling and Meyer] is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer, and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good." However, King understood the appeal of the series, adding, "People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual."