SH: You know, it is true. I really can be such a fangirl. And I get so excited when I meet with writers....
SM: On the last tour I got to go out to lunch with Terry Brooks. The first real book I ever read was The Sword of Shannara. I was sitting next to this man who has so much experience--and so many years of doing this--and I'm thinking: This book opened the entire world of reading to me. The gift that this man has given me, unconsciously, is nothing I could ever, ever repay. It was just this really amazing experience.
On Balancing Writing and Life
SH: It took me a long time to admit that I was a writer. I wouldn't give myself permission to take the time--or to take it seriously--for a long, long time. But you started off in a different way. You already had three kids.
SM: I did not call myself an author without making some kind of snide comment for at least two years after the book was sold.
SH: Two years?
SM: I had this really strong sense of paranoia--like it wasn't real, that the whole deal was a practical joke--for a very long time. Because the contract negotiation took a good nine months, so for all of that time someone could have been stringing me along. It wasn't until the check came--and didn't bounce--that I really started to believe it.
SH: Have people changed toward you--family, friends, and acquaintances?
SM: You know, because when I started writing I had a bunch of little babies, we've moved a couple times. And you lose track of people, anyway, so I haven't held on to many of my friends from before I started writing, just because of location.
It's the same way with my college roommates. We're lucky if we get a phone call in once a year anymore. Then I've gotten enormously busy--I've changed--I don't have as much time for social things. And I do think that I probably lost some friends just out of sheer neglect. Because I wasn't going to neglect my kids.
And that summer with Twilight, I couldn't do anything social. Why would I spend my time away from Forks when I could be there?
SH: Yeah.
SM: And that summer with Twilight, I couldn't do anything social. Why would I spend my time away from Forks when I could be there? I'm getting better at balancing it, and I have some really great friends now, which is nice. I have a lot of extended family, too, and they've all been very cool and supportive. But because there are so many of them, we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together. I have seventy-five first cousins on one side of my family, so it's not like we can get together and party very often. Most of us have several kids. My dad had a stepmom with five kids; his dad had seven.... It's just a really big family. [Laughs] A big warm family, and nobody's been uncool about it. It's all been very nice.
SH: I think family is good.... They knew you as an obnoxious young person. [Laughs]
SM: Very obnoxious. Yeah, I'm just Stephenie to them.
SH: I don't think any success I've had has gotten to my head, because I can't really take it seriously, or absorb it, anyway. But if I ever got close, I think my family would be there to tear me back down. [SM laughs] Which is what family's for.
SM: Yeah, my husband's really good at keeping me humble, you know? Because he's such a math person. If something's not quantifiable--if it doesn't fit into an equation--it can't possibly be important. And so, to him, books are like: Oh, you know... isn't that nice? Little fairy stories. To me, books are the whole world, and it's such a different viewpoint. So that helps. And then, like you, I don't trust this to last for a second.
SH: Yeah.
SM: And when negative things happen with my career, I kind of expect them--more than I expect the positive. It's almost like: Yes, this is what I thought was going to happen! I saw this one coming! Because I am a pessimist--raised in a long tradition of fine pessimists [SH laughs] who have never expected anything good for decades. So I come by it naturally. [Laughs] So with every book that comes out, I think: Oh, this is it. This is the last time anybody's going to want to publish me. And maybe it's healthier than thinking: I am the best! I'm so amazing! I don't think that's a healthy way to be. It'd probably be nice to be somewhere in the middle, but... [Laughs]
SH: In some ways, I would love to have that armor--the wonderful author's ego--that I am right, and I know what I'm doing, and I'm brilliant.
SM: Yeah, that might be nice.
I think it's really good for my kids to see that I have my own life outside of them--that I'm a real person.
SH: So, we're both mothers. And I think that mothers are famously guilt-ridden creatures. [SM laughs] I mean, we never succeed--we're always failing at something. So have you had to deal with guilt of, you know, taking the time--allowing yourself to take the time to be a writer, and to pursue this?
SM: Occasionally. It doesn't bother me that often. I think it's because my kids are really, really great. They're good and they're happy. I've seen kids who are treated like the center of the universe, and I don't think that's entirely healthy. I think it's really good for my kids to see that I have my own life outside of them--that I'm a real person. I think that's going to help them when they grow up and have children--to realize that they're still who they are.
And then I am pretty careful about when I write. Now it's mostly when they're in school. When they were little, though, I never shut myself away in an office--I'd always written in the middle of their madness--so I'd be there, and I could get whatever they needed. They know I'm listening. And they're also pretty good about saying: "Okay, Mommy's writing right now. Unless I'm bleeding, I'm not going to bug her."
And I also write at night. When they come home from school, we do homework and I hear about their day and I make them snacks. The nice thing about writing is, you can do it on your own schedule. But you do lose sleep. You know, I feel like I haven't slept eight hours in ten years.
If you start getting a little bit of dialogue in your head, you're doomed--you'll never get to sleep.
SH: It's like having a newborn, writing a book, isn't it?
SM: It is. Well, because you lie there in bed--and, oh, heaven help you if you start thinking about plotline. If you start getting a little bit of dialogue in your head, you're doomed--you'll never get to sleep.
SH: It is so true. I can sleep pretty well at the beginning of the night. If, for whatever reason, I wake up--or my son comes in and wakes me up anytime between the hours of two and five--and if my mind, for one second, goes back to the book I'm writing right now, I'm done for the rest of the night. I can't go back to sleep, because my mind starts working over and over it. I've had to train my brain to do that, on purpose, so that I'm always writing, even when I'm not.
SM: You at least put things in the back of your head, so that you're solving the problems.
SH: Exactly--so when I sit down to write it's more productive, because I've been working over it in my brain. But, like you say, when you do that in the middle of the night, you're doomed.
SM: Well, one of my problems right now is that I have not committed to a project at this point in time, and I'm waiting to be done with the publicity. And that's never really going to happen, so I need to just commit to one. I have about fourteen different books, and every night it's a new one. And I'm coming up with solutions for this one point that really bothered me in one story. I thought maybe I couldn't write it because of this one point. But then I'll wake up at four o'clock in the morning with a perfect solution, and then I can't go back to sleep.
SH: I have found if I just write it down, then my mind can stop working over it.
SM: Exactly.
On Reading and Writing for Young Adults
SH: So far, all of your stories have something of the fantastic in them. You don't read only fantasy, though.
SM: Oh, I love mainstream fiction, and there are a lot of books that I really love that are without absolutely any fantasy elements. But, for me, the fantasy ones are for writing. There's an extra amount of happiness, that extra oomph, in getting to make your own world at the same time that you're writing it. I like that part...
. Megalomania... You know, having control over an entire world? [Laughs]
SH: That's funny. Like we were talking about earlier, when you're a writer there's so much that can happen to ego, both good and bad and everything in between. But young-adult authors tend to be pretty down-to-earth, don't you think?
SM: Well, I think writing YA keeps you humble. Because everybody says to you: "Oh... you write for children. Isn't that nice?" It can be so patronizing sometimes, and, absolutely, it keeps you humble. It makes it so you can't possibly become the "I am an author" author. There's no way to do that when you write for children. [Laughs]
And one of the little "icing things" of this career is to have these kids come up to tell me that this is the first book they've ever read for pleasure.
SH: I think there's also an element of: It isn't all just about me. We've both written adult books. I think, when you're in the adult market, it's all about how many books you sell and what awards you get. But when you're writing in the children's market, it's about the children, too. And you're part of this team--with librarians and booksellers and parents and teachers--and you're promoting literacy and some good stuff beyond just: I'm writing a book, and now pay me for it. So I think people tend to be more even-tempered and more balanced in the children's world.
SM: Because I didn't set out to write for children, I would never have thought that my books would promote literacy. Someone would have to be a real reader to ever pick one of these up, just because they've run out of everything else. [Laughs]
And one of the little "icing things" of this career is to have these kids come up to tell me that this is the first book they've ever read for pleasure, and that they've moved on. Now they've read this other one, and they've read that one, and now they're so excited about some other book they've found. And to have written the first book that got them excited to be a reader--oh, that's an amazing gift.
I wish I could give everybody that gift--to find the book that does it for you.
SH: It is. The best compliment that I ever get is not that my books are their favorite, but that mine was the first that made them fall in love with reading.
SM: And now they've gone on. You know, I had a great childhood, and one thing that made my childhood so special was that because I loved to read, I lived a thousand adventures--and I was a thousand heroines, and I fell in love a thousand times. And now, to open up those worlds for somebody else... I know how great it is, and I wish I could give everybody that gift--to find the book that does it for you.
I did an interview for The Host once, and the camera guy who was setting everything up said: "So this book is about aliens?" I said: "Yeah, kind of." And he said, "Well, you know, I think I've read three books in my life. I hate reading, ever since school--it was such a torture." And I just thought: How sad! There's some book out there that's perfectly tailored for him, and he doesn't know.
SH: Right.
SM: But he's not going to pick it up, because he had a bad experience. I really feel like one of the important things you can do for kids in school is not just give them the classics that teach them about excellent form and really great writing style, but also throw in a couple of fun things that teach them that reading can be this amazing adventure. Let them love some story, so at least they know not all books are "hard" or "difficult," but that they can just be fun.
SH: I agree so passionately about that. And I think some of the key is to have a lot of variety. Because not every genre, or every storytelling style, is going to be right for everyone.
SM: Some people are going to latch on to Shakespeare, and they're going to be like: [gasps] "The insights!" And then some people are going to need an action story with car chases and gunfights--they're going to need that to get them started.
SH: Every student should have a chance to find at least one book they fall in love with. Then they'll be more likely to go on and keep reading for life.
SM: Exactly. When I was in school I had some really great teachers. And lucky for me, I had already discovered books that I really liked. The classics came easily to me--I read them early, and so it was familiar ground: Oh, good. I'm doing Jane Austen again. Whoo! But a lot of kids come into it and they're hit in the face with a great big difficult-to-understand text--if they don't have the background to appreciate the experience, it just sours them on the whole thing. And it's sad.
SH: I meet so many adults who stopped reading for years. And they tell me that a friend pressed them to read a book, and more often than not it was Twilight... and then they find that they do like to read, after all, and they go on to read other books.
So, Stephenie Meyer, thank you. For changing the world--making it a better place--and reminding so many people that we love to read.
SM: I do what I can. [Both laugh]
Vampires, the central supernatural creatures of the Twilight Saga, have existed in myths and local lore for centuries. While the Saga's vampires share certain similarities with the vampires of legend, they have many more unique characteristics and supernatural abilities that are specific to the world of Twilight.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
In the Twilight universe all vampires were originally human. As vampires, they retain a close physical resemblance to their human form, the only reliably noticeable differences being a universal pallor of skin, a change in eye color, and heightened beauty.
REACTION TO SUNLIGHT:
In direct sunlight, the disparity between human and vampire becomes more obvious. The cellular membrane of the vampire is not as soft or permeable as in a human cell; it has crystalline properties that cause the surface of vampire skin to react prismatically, giving the vampire a glitter-like shimmer in sunlight.
"EDWARD IN THE SUNLIGHT WAS SHOCKING.... HIS SKIN, WHITE... LITERALLY SPARKLED, LIKE THOUSANDS OF TINY DIAMONDS WERE EMBEDDED IN THE SURFACE."
--Bella (Twilight, Chapter 13)
BEAUTY:
The common factor of beauty among vampires is mostly due to this crystalline skin. The perfect smoothness, gloss, and even color of the skin give the illusion of a flawless face. The skin reacts differently to light, creating an angular effect that heightens the perception of beauty. Additionally, the stonelike firmness of the vampire body creates a look similar to muscle, making any size human appear more fit as a vampire. Like humans, vampires are drawn to beauty. When choosing a human for the transformation process, vampires are as likely as humans to be motivated by a beautiful face and body.
PALLOR:
Pale vampire skin is a product of vampire venom's transformative process. The venom leeches all pigment from the skin as it changes the human skin into the more indestructible vampire form. Regardless of original ethnicity, a vampire's skin will be exceptionally pale. The hue varies slightly, with darker-skinned humans having a barely discernible olive tone to their vampire skin, but the light shade remains the same. All forms of skin pigmentation--freckles, moles, birthmarks, age marks, scars, and tattoos--disappear during the transformation.
EYE COLOR:
While all vampires have similarly pale skin, they can have a certain variety of eye colors. Vampires who haven't fed for a few weeks will have solidly black irises. Recently fed vampires will have deep red eyes if they drank human blood, and medium gold-colored irises if they drank animal blood. Vampires who have been newly transformed will have very bright red irises, regardless of diet. It is possible to disguise this feature with colored contact lenses, but the lubricant in vampire eyes breaks the contacts down quickly. One pair will last only a few hours. Vampires also universally exhibit dark circles under their eyes. These circles, like the changing irises, denote thirst in a vampire. They appear darker and more obvious when the vampire has not recently fed.
"While vampires are frightening and deadly, they are also alluring. They can be beautiful; they can be sophisticated; they have qualities that we actually aspire to: eternal youth, strength, and intelligence. The dual side to vampires makes them hard to resist." --Stephenie
Vampire teeth appear the same as human teeth; the canines are not longer or more pointed than human canines. However, vampire teeth are unbreakable, razor sharp on their edges, and strong enough to cut through almost any substance, including vampire skin.
MOVEMENT:
Less noticeable than these physical features is the vampire's tendency toward stillness. Unlike humans, who grow uncomfortable after holding one physical position for a time, vampires are most comfortable when perfectly motionless. A common vampire reaction to stress is a statue-like immobility.
Vampires breathe reflexively, as do humans, but they have no need for oxygen. They are able to consciously stop breathing for an indefinite period, but they find the sensation uncomfortable. Vampires rely on their sense of smell above other senses, similar to many animal predators. The lack of smell is what causes the discomfort from not breathing.
PETRIFICATION:
Some very old vampires are visibly different from others because of this stillness. If a vampire remains unmoving often enough over thousands of years, dust actually begins to petrify in response to the venom-like liquids that lubricate his eyes and skin. Eventually, a vampire's skin begins to appear thin and translucent, like the skin of an onion--though the strength of the skin is not compromised. A milky film covers the eyes, making the irises appear pink in color. Again, the vampire's eyesight is not compromised.
FLUIDS:
Internally, the vampire's system contains many venom-based fluids that resemble, and in some cases perform the same function as, the human fluids that were replaced. Only the saliva-like liquid in the vampire's mouth is venomous. A fluid similar to this venom works as a lubricant between the hard cells of the skin, making movement possible. Another lubricates the vampire's eyes so they can move easily in their sockets. However, vampires do not produce tears, as tears exist to protect the eye from damage by small foreign objects, and those objects would not be able to harm a vampire's eye. Throughout the body, this pattern is repeated, with venom-like fluids performing the functions that are still necessary to the vampire. Most notably absent is the circulatory system.
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide Page 6
