Interview with Twilight Author Stephenie Meyer
By Jeff Otto
How did a Mormon housewife go from diapers and PTA meetings to the New York Times Best Seller list? It all started with a dream -- one hot, steamy, fantastic dream featuring vampires, werewolves, and the fantastic landscape that would eventually make up the Twilight universe.
And an extremely popular universe it is. Tween girls everywhere dragged their parents to midnight release parties when the fourth book in the series, Breaking Dawn, was released earlier this month. The first Twilight movie won't be out until November 21 but already fan anticipation has hit a fevered pitch. Its stars -- Rob Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and Cam Gigandet -- have become pinups. Fans are already discussing the sequel. Anything other than a huge box office hit seems hard to fathom.
ReelzChannel.com sat down with Twilight scribe Stephenie Meyer recently to discuss the phenomenon. The unassuming Meyer looks like the suburban housewife she still purports to be -- that is, when she's not flaming the ever-escalating Jacob vs. Edward debate and promoting a movie. She also bears an unmistakable resemblance to the book's heroine, and to Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella in the movie.
"It's a very strange and surreal thing," says Meyer. "Most mornings I get up and don't think about it at all. And then I come some place like [Comic-Con] and I'm not allowed to walk in the front doors. I have a very normal life, so when I have to step out of that and realize that I have all these readers and there is all this excitement, it's weird. It's great, but it's really strange."
Meyer hasn't let the stardom go to head just yet. "My life is pretty much the way it was before. I'm all about my kids. So right now it's getting ready for school and all that. Then, every now and then, I have to step out of my comfort zone and be Stephenie Meyer."
While aspiring authors might not want to hear this, Meyer sort of fell into her novel success. "It was an actual flash. I was not planning to write. I had no aspirations to be a writer. I had this really fantastic dream and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it. Then one day I was hooked on writing -- to take this dream and make it concrete and real. And I could go back and revisit it. I was hooked."
"When I was [first] writing this, I was not writing this for anyone else to ever see. Even my husband didn't know what I was doing. I was just having fun. It was 'What if you could just create your own little world? What if she could see the future? Well, that would rock. What would happen if they played baseball?'" (Laughs)
The Cullen clan may have the largest fan base, yet the author has worked hard to sympathetically present the plight of her villains, who see humans as little more than meals। Which character does she most enjoy writing? "I love them all in different ways and I can totally see Victoria's perspective and James' perspective. I have a really hard time preferring one to the other. Obviously the Cullens get the spotlight most of the time, but I really have a fondness for my bad vampires."

When asked if other vampire tales have influenced her work, Meyer seems almost embarrassed to admit that she hasn't read any. "See, here's the thing," she says while placing her hands on the table for emphasis. "I'm not a vampire person. Before I started writing about them, I'd never seen a vampire movie. I'd seen pieces of them, but I'd never been to a vampire movie. I've never read a book about vampires. I'm really not into horror, so I don't know the genre."
"I think it's why [my books are] different. It's not a genre where I know what the walls are. I break through them because I don't know that they are there. But I think it's more about developing an ordinary person that people can relate to."
Like other authors who have taken the book-to-movie route, Meyer was understandably worried that her words would not be faithfully adapted. "I lost a few nights of sleep over it," she admits. "More adaptations than not turn out badly. There are a few that are amazing, but most of the time it's not a good thing. But then on the other side, I saw the book very visually when I was writing it and to see one scene of it on the big screen, that was alluring. I didn't care about anyone else going to see it, that was about me alone in the theater getting to see it and having it be real. That's what swayed me."
"As an author, you can't try to control that kind of project. First of all, as an author, they won't let you. Second, it's a different medium and I don't know how to work in that medium. I was very much [of the opinion that] Summit knows what they are doing and when they had questions for me, I was ready to answer them and I really loved seeing what was going on. I have not seen the whole thing yet, but from the script and from the days that I was on set, the goal was to make this as close to the book as possible given the time constraints of a film."
Now that Twilight is about to hit the big screen and cast images seem to be everywhere -- especially on the endless Twilight fan sites -- I asked Meyer if it has changed the characters for her. Is she able to stick to her original visions when writing or do cast images compete in her head? "Luckily I got a head start. I'd finished Eclipse before Twilight ever came out in stores. And with Breaking Dawn, I already knew exactly what I was going to write. I had the outline [and] I knew where I was going, so it hasn't been influenced by fan reaction or by the movie. Although, I will admit, when I read it now, I'm picturing Rob and Kristen doing this stuff."
Meyer has three young children, ages six, eight, and 11. Have her kids taken advantage of her "cool factor?" She laughs at the question. "[The 11-year-old] is getting there. He's right on the cusp of being able to say to some pretty little 11-year-old girl, 'Hey there, want a signed book?'"