Stephenie Meyer life and biography

Stephenie Meyer (born December 24, 1973), née Morgan, is an American author best known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition, won multiple literary awards and sold over 100 million copies globally, with translations into nearly 37 different languages. Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.

Meyer was the biggest selling author of both 2008 and 2009, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 alone, with Twilight being the best-selling book of the year. She sold an additional 26.5 million books in 2009, making her the first author to achieve this feat. Meyer was ranked #49 on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in 2008", and was also included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities in 2009, entering at #26. Her annual earnings exceeded $50 million.

Personal life

Stephenie Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Stephen and Candy Morgan. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with five siblings: Seth, Emily, Jacob, Paul, and Heidi. She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. She then attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she received a B.A. in English in 1997. Meyer met her husband Christian, nicknamed "Pancho", when she was growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994 when they both were 21. Together they have three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli. Christian Meyer, formerly an auditor, has now retired to take care of the children.

Meyer is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has stated that she is "straitlaced" about her beliefs, and does not drink alcohol or smoke. Meyer had never written even a short story before Twilight, and had considered going to law school because she felt she had no chance of becoming a writer; she later noted that the birth of her oldest son Gabe changed her mind, saying, "Once I had Gabe, I just wanted to be his mom". Before becoming an author, Meyer's only professional work was as a receptionist in a property company.

Meyer currently lives in Cave Creek, Arizona, and also owns a home on Marrowstone Island, Washington.

Twilight series

Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003. The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the draft of what is now Chapter 13 of the book. In a matter of three months she had transformed her dream into a complete novel, though she claims that she never intended to publish Twilight and was writing for her own enjoyment. Her sister's response to the book was enthusiastic and she persuaded Meyer to send the manuscript to literary agencies. Of the 15 letters she wrote, five went unanswered, nine brought rejections, and the last was a positive response from Jodi Reamer of Writers House. Eight publishers competed for the rights to publish Twilight in a 2003 auction. By November, Meyer had signed a $750,000 three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.

Twilight was published in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies. It reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books within a month of its release, and later rose to #1. Foreign rights to the novel were sold to over 26 countries. The novel was named the Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Editor's Choice.

Subsequent novels

Following the success of Twilight (2005), Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). In its first week after publication, New Moon reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the #1 position, where it remained for the next eleven weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. After the release of Eclipse, the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. The fourth installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, was released with an initial print run of 3.7 million copies. Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day. The novel also won Meyer her first British Book Award, despite competition with J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. In 2008, the four books of the series claimed the top four spots on USA Today's year-end bestseller list, making Meyer the first author to ever achieve this feat as well as being the bestselling author of the year. The Twilight novels held the top four spots on USA Today's year-end list again in 2009.

In August 2009, USA Today revealed that Meyer broke J.K. Rowling's record on their bestseller list; the four Twilight books had spent 52 straight weeks in the top 10. The books have also spent more than 102 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective. Midnight Sun was to be a companion novel to the series. It would be a retelling of the events of the novel Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen (as opposed to Bella Swan). Meyer had hoped to have Midnight Sun published some time shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn, but after an online leak of a rough draft of its first 12 chapters, Meyer chose to delay the project indefinitely. Since Meyer has decided to pursue non-Twilight related books as a result of the leak, she made the rough chapters of "Midnight Sun" available on her website.

Film adaptations
Summit Entertainment optioned Twilight in April 2007. Catherine Hardwicke directed the film, and the screenplay was written by Melissa Rosenberg. It stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen. The movie was released on November 21, 2008. Meyer makes a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene. Following the success of Twilight, Summit greenlit a film adaptation of the sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, in November 2008. Chris Weitz directed the film, which was released on November 20, 2009. Summit greenlit an adaptation of the third book in the series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, in February 2009. David Slade is directing the film, which has a planned release date of June 30, 2010. Summit also obtained the rights to Breaking Dawn in November 2008, but has not yet greenlit the adaptation. A decision by Meyer and Summit Entertainment to film Breaking Dawn as an individual motion picture or a two-part production has not yet been made.

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