The time it was about Twilight’s 10th anniversary

I saw that Stephenie Meyer was going to be at The Grove on the day of the Suzanne Young/Tom DeLonge signing. I had no idea that she was coming to LA, but I quickly rearranged things with Awesomeboss to be able to go.

Keiko and I got up to the store at a decent hour.  We got our books, wristbands, and front row seats and then we settled in to wait.

Stephenie’s publicist came by with notecards and passed them out, asking people to write down questions and they might be answered. Keiko and I both wrote down sort of ridiculous questions that had no idea with writing or her books.

Stephenie came out right after 12. She did some media shots and then Lita formally introduced her and Jake.

S: Thank you all for coming out. They keep telling me that it’s been 10 years and it’s just crazy. I brought Jake along so you guys could have some eye candy.

They then jumped right into the questions.

Will you ever finish Midnight Sun?

I told this story at comic-con. I was working on Life and Death and it was really therapeutic. I did start working on Midnight Sun, but it’s possibly cursed. The day that I opened it to work on it, I wrote 2 paragraphs and the news on the browser was Grey. I immediately shut everything down and put it back in the drawer.

I will say that my mother will kill me if I don’t finish it, but who knows when it will happen.

J: If you’re stuck, I could give it a go.

S: You think I’m joking.  One day I’m going to show up with a laptop and tell you to have at it.

What else are you working on?

S: I am working on something else. I’ve found that if Edward isn’t in the story, no one wants to read it.  This one doesn’t have Edward or anything paranormal in it. I joke and say that only 3 people besides me will read it, but it’s probably true.

Are you ever going to write a sequel to The Host?

I have about 8 chapters written and a very detailed outline. I used to think that people who get writer’s block meant that the ideas wouldn’t come, but it’s not that. I have the ideas, the words just won’t come.

True or False: would The Host movie have been more successful if Jake would have taken his shirt off?

Don’t we know the answer to that? I mean, it happened in the book…

If you could have a tea part with 3 fictional characters who would they be?

Well, I’m going to assume that it means outside of the characters I’ve created.

Me: It does.  That’s my question.

Lita: That’s an excellent question.

S:  Dragonflight, Anne from Anne of Green Gables. {I didn’t catch all of this because I was looking at her while she answered my question instead of typing.}

If you could pick any book land to live in, which book would you choose?

Definitely Dragonflight. I would have to try to get a dragon. I would find my own dragon and never come back.

We vampires hate the Volturi. Can you destroy them in the Jacob story?

There’s a lot of questions in that question. First off, it means that there are vampires here. That’s interesting.  Secondly, will there be a Jacob story? Maybe.  As for the Volturi, I got to have some fun with them in Life and Death. There are some new people who are now in charge. If I continued the story, there would have to be a fight, but that doesn’t mean the good guys would win.

Why are Edith and Edythe spelled different?

Whenever I come up with new names, I like to look at the census. I didn’t like it at first and couldn’t imagine naming a baby girl that, but now I love it. The y made it a little special and I thought she deserved it to be special. Plus, it looks nice.

Can you describe the phone call when you first got published?

When my agent first called, I had written this book and didn’t tell anyone about it. I sent out query letters even though I thought I would get laughed at. 9 of them did laugh, but then I did get the call.

My agent called and said my editor had read it on a plane. She called and told me that we had an offer and turned it down. It was more money than I had ever heard off and figured that I really needed to have a talk with my agent if she was turning down that sort of money. They also wanted 3 and that scared me because I wasn’t sure that I could do it again.

My husband didn’t support me at all. He kept saying “why are you using so many stamps?” so it was satisfying to have an offer come in.

J: You probably inspired a lot of people who write now.

S: Who here writes? {people in the crowd raise their hands} The only experience I had was reading. I took one class and it was poetry. I figured that they couldn’t really grade low because poetry is just about big feelings.

What was your favorite part of Life and Death?

For Twilight I had a bit of a rhythm. When I got to the chapter of chapter 12, it didn’t really match up to 13. There’s a scene that isn’t there and I was intimidated to ask for four more pages. In Life and Death I was able to do it. It is exactly what would have been in Midnight Sun.  I took it right from there and it has to do with when Edward steps into the sun.

The other one is Archie and Beau having the conversation that Bella and Alice should have had in the hotel.

Will you ever write a companion or something about the characters in the future?

I have promised that before I die, if I don’t write something,  I will complete a bullet point list of all of the characters and what they’ve done in the future. But it’ll have no context. It’ll just be like “this person died.”

Life and Death was written to show that they weren’t weak characters. What do you think about Beau?

Beau is also strong in that emotional strength is important for me. I can’t lift 600 pounds, no matter how long I train for it. The strong characters are like Jane Eyre. What does she do in that book?  Nothing. She just stands there and is herself the entire time.

I think Edward and Bella are strong because they know what they want and don’t let it go. Archie and Alice are so weird, but they stay with it.

What’s the name of Esme’s son?

It could be Jake. The reason he didn’t have a name is because he didn’t make it.

This then turned into a discussion about the name. Stephenie asked for suggestions and then took a vote. It was between Joseph and Jeffery and the audience voted Joseph. Stephenie then said it was official and would be added to canon.

From there, we were told how the signing was going to take place. We were allowed to have the Life and Death side personalized and then one additional book signed.  I was so excited to get my busted copy of Twilight signed. They also had a professional photographer there who would be taking photos and then we would be given a card to download the photo.

I handed my books to someone who handed them to someone who handed them to Stephenie.  I stood over by Stephenie and thanked her for coming.  She asked if we had met before because I looked familiar.  I told her that I was at the Grove for The Host signing.  She handed my books back to me and thanked me for coming out and said that it was nice to see me again.

I stood off to the side and one of the girls let me take photos of Stephenie signing since we weren’t allowed to have our phones out when we were getting things signed.

As always, Stephenie was so nice and charming.  I can’t say enough about the people at The Grove.  The events are always amazing and well organized.  I can’t wait to go back up there next week for another one!