04 April 2010

When writers sell their souls

So, it was announced this past week that Stephenie Meyer will release a novella this June called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a character introduced in the third novel in the vampire series, Eclipse. Told from the point of view of Bree, it chronicles the newborn vampire army's journey as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens.

This seems just pandering in many ways. While Meyer has chosen not to write another novel in her Twilight series for a while, someone threw a lot of money at her to write this what is probably forgettable tale of a minor character who appears in the upcoming third film due this June. This reminds me of Ann Rice, who got stuck writing one vampire novel after another. Every time she tried to write something else, her vampire reader fans turned their heads. So, she just started writing vampire tales based on other characters to make her fans happy. While that's not so bad, it does show that perhaps sometimes its best not to listen to them all of the time.

Meyer, who by the way, has never explained how much money she's giving to the Mormons to suppress gay rights in the US, seems to be heading in that direction. While her adult sci fi novel The Host did well, it never reached the level of her four book Twilight series.

What's next, a vampire tale about an unknown Cullen cousin?

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