Stephenie Meyer's life changed dramatically on June 2, 2003.
The stay-at-home mother of three young sons woke up from a dream featuring seemingly real characters that she could not get out of her head.
"Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering."
Meyer invented the plot during the day through swim lessons and potty training, and wrote it out late at night when the house was quiet. Three months later she finished her first novel, Twilight. With encouragement from her older sister (the only other person who knew she had written a book), Meyer submitted her manuscript to various literary agencies. Twilight was picked out of a slush pile at Writer's House and eventually made its way to the publishing company Little, Brown where everyone fell immediately in love with the gripping, star-crossed lovers.
Twilight was one of 2005's most talked about novels and within weeks of its release the book debuted at #5 on The New York Times bestseller list. Among its many accolades, Twilight was named an "ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults," an Amazon.com "Best Book of the Decade...So Far", and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.
The highly-anticipated sequel, New Moon, was released in September 2006, and spent more than 25 weeks at the #1 position on The New York Times bestseller list.
In 2007, Eclipse literally landed around the world and fans made the Twilight Saga a worldwide phenomenon! With midnight parties and vampire-themed proms the enthusiasm for the series continued to grow.
On May 6, 2008, Little, Brown and Company released The Host, Meyer's highly-anticipated novel for adults which debuted at #1 on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. The Host still remains a staple on the bestseller lists more than a year after its debut.
On August 2, 2008, the final book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn was released at 12:01 midnight. Stephenie made another appearance on "Good Morning America" and was featured in many national media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, People Magazine and Variety. Stephenie headlined the Breaking Dawn Concert Series with Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer of Blue October) to celebrate the release in four major markets across the US. Breaking Dawn sold 1.3 million copies in its first 24 hours.
The Twilight movie, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, was released on November 21, 2008. Twilight debuted at #1 at the box office with $70 million, making it the highest grossing opening weekend for a female director.
Stephenie lives in Arizona with her husband and three sons.
Interview By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
CAVE CREEK, Ariz. — Stephenie Meyer is the most famous writer you've never heard of.
But not for long. Meyer's growing popularity is like a flashing billboard on our pop culture landscape.
The 34-year-old creator of the Twilight teen vampire series is so sizzling hot, it's not a stretch to suggest she's heir apparent to J.K. Rowling, who gave the world Harry Potter.
The self-assured Meyer doesn't seem rattled by the comparison.
"There will never be another J.K. Rowling. That's a lot of pressure on me, isn't it?" says Meyer, curled up on a leather sofa in her comfortable and airy adobe-style home in this sun-scorched desert community north of Phoenix. "I'm just happy being Stephenie Meyer. That's cool enough for me."
Meyer may be cool and composed, but her ravenous fans are in a frenzy. They've devoured the first three Twilight saga novels and are ready to pounce when Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book, goes on sale Saturday at 12:01 a.m. amid midnight-party madness befitting … the final Harry Potter book.
And they're already overheated about Twilight the movie, which doesn't hit theaters until Dec. 12.
What's all the fuss about?
It starts with an otherworldly love triangle: human teenager Bella Swan, her hunky vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen and Jacob Black, the irascible werewolf who also loves her. Fans are waiting to find out who Bella chooses, and if her choice means that she, too, will become a vampire.
The numbers tell the story:
• After three years, nearly 8 million copies of Meyer's first three books are in print in the USA; Twilight, the first in the series, was published in 2005.
• The first printing of Breaking Dawn is 3.2 million, the highest yet for a Meyer book.
• Meyer has dominated USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list this summer. Twilight is No. 1 this week; the second and third books, New Moon (2006) and Eclipse (2007), are Nos. 2 and 4. Her first adult novel, The Host, a story of aliens published in May with 930,000 in print, is No. 15.
Further proof that Rowling may be handing her magic wand off to Meyer: Last summer, Meyer ended Rowling's reign at No. 1 when Eclipse knocked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows off the top spot on USA TODAY's list.
Meyer's road to literary fame is taking on the legendary quality that surrounds Rowling's rise. Rowling says the idea for Harry Potter simply "fell into (her) head" while she was on a train in England. Meyer says her inspiration came from a dream about a vampire she had five years ago.
The stay-at-home mom was so moved by the dream that she began writing Twilight that day. She submitted the manuscript to literary agencies whose addresses she found online. Twilight was plucked from one agency's slush pile, submitted to publishers and bought by Little, Brown, which paid $750,000 for three books.
Meyer still has a way to go to achieve Rowling's stratospheric heights: 140 million copies of Rowling's seven Potter books are in print in the USA. So far, the money, the news media attention and the rock star reception from her fans haven't gone to her head.
"I think that after 30 years of being the most normal person in the whole world, it's really hard to become ungrounded," says Meyer. "When I'm not out on tour or doing photo shoots, I tend to just forget about it all."
And home is where she prefers to be, says the Mormon mother of three young sons.
"The nice thing is that 95% of the time, I'm just Mom, and we're just doing the normal thing, and I'm here, and it's good."
The biggest change is that Pancho, her husband of 13 years, quit his job as an auditor to care for Gabe, 11, Seth, 8, and Eli, 6, when Meyer is on the road.
Her Mormon faith, she says, is of intense interest to the news media, but to her, it's just who she is.
"It seems funny that it's still a story," Meyer says, "because you didn't hear people saying, 'Jon Stewart, Jewish writer,' when his book came out. I guess being a Mormon is just odd enough that people think it's still a real story. Obviously, to me, it seems super normal. It's just my religion."
Right now, fans are more focused on her new book. Unlike the final Potter book, copies haven't leaked out.
Details are scarce, but Meyer, who says she finds it hard to keep secrets, has released a few.
The most startling: Her editors asked her to tone down the violence in Breaking Dawn, which she did, and discussed putting an age warning on the book, which she says she supported, although it didn't happen.
"I was for an age limit of 15 or 16 and a warning," says Meyer. "I think the content is just a little harder to handle, a little bit more grown-up for really young kids. I have 9-year-old readers, and I think it's too old for them. Some of it's violence, and some of it's just mature themes."
Not that the first three books — told from Bella's point of view — have been particularly bloodthirsty. Forget Dracula or Anne Rice's metrosexual creatures of the night. Meyer's good vampires, like Edward, satisfy their blood lust by hunting wild animals. No human blood for them.
And — SPOILER ALERT! —Entertainment Weekly reported this week there's a wedding scene between Bella and Edward in Breaking Dawn early in the novel. But Meyer tells USA TODAY that fans shouldn't draw conclusions.
"I guess there's a conditioning from fairy tales that the wedding is the end of the story, but I think most of us know it's another kind of beginning," she says. "There are actual things in the story that I was worried about being spoilers, but the wedding isn't one of them. That's the basic beginning of the story, and then that's when all the trouble starts."
Meyer knows that however she wraps up the series, she won't satisfy all her fans.
"There's no way to please everyone," she says. "The (e-mail) messages I get say, 'If Bella doesn't end up with Edward forever, I'm going to burn this book,' and the next one I get will say, 'If Bella doesn't end up with Jacob forever, I'll burn this book.'
"So that's a problem, but this is the ending I wanted all along. That's the important thing. I think people will be happy, though."
Booksellers are turning Breaking Dawn's release into an event. More than 1,500 bookstores will stay open late Friday to host parties, contests and games.
Meyer is limiting her appearances to a handful of venues that can handle thousands of fans — if they were lucky to snag a ticket. Events in New York and Los Angeles sold out in 45 minutes. "Fans just can't wait to find out what happens in the last book," says Diane Mangan of Borders. "That's exactly what we experienced with Harry (Potter) 7."
Who personifies the typical fan is surprising. Little, Brown publishes the series under its Books for Young Readers division, but many adults are fans.
"I was instantly hooked," says Lisa Hansen, 35, of Utah County, Utah, a married mother of children ages 5 and 9. She discovered the series last summer, then created twilightmoms.com, a fan site where thousands of adults discuss the books.
"I feel an emotional connection with the characters," says Hansen. "It's almost like a realistic relationship that you would have with somebody."
For younger readers, the appeal is "the combination of the love story, the action and the danger," says Marie Southard, 17, of Forked River, N.J., who was obsessed with Potter before she became hooked on Twilight.
Meyer says she owes a lot to her fans, but when the hoopla surrounding Breaking Dawn and Twilight the movie settles down, she's looking forward to doing what she loves best — writing more books.
In the works: Midnight Sun, a retelling of Twilight from Edward's perspective. She's thinking about two sequels to The Host and is working on a ghost story.
"I'm just going to try and stay home and write five books next year," Meyer says. "It may not happen, but that's my goal. And I'm not going to let anyone see them. It's just going to be about sitting home and writing."
