staff writer
Good news for the fans of the wildly popular Twilight book and movie series: Stephenie Meyer is publishing a novella.
Prior to the last book’s release Breaking Dawn, Meyer had been in the process of writing a fifth and final novel titled Midnight Sun. Midnight Sun tells the tale of Bella and Edward meeting, the same as in Twilight – but instead of from the point of view of Bella, as the other four novels are written, Midnight Sun is written through Edward Cullen’s point of view.
However, a partial copy of this novel was illegally released online. After this, Meyer posted what she had written of Midnight Sun on her Web site (www.stepheniemeyer.com) and decided to indefinitely halt the writing of the novel.
Tuesday, to the surprise of her fans, Meyer announced she will write another book, “a kind of novella”, she called it. The story is about a Bree Tanner, very minor character in her third book, Eclipse, who is one of the “newborn” vampires that the antagonist, Victoria, converts from human to vampire to fight the Bella, Edward and his family.
In Eclipse, Bree is the only vampire on Victoria’s side to survive the battle with the Cullens.
According to Meyer, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is going to be more of a short story rather than her usual 400-plus page books.
“The reason why it’s a surprise was that I never intended to publish this story as a stand-alone book,” Meyer said on her Web site of the release of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. “I began this story a long time ago—before Twilight was even released. Back then I was just editing Eclipse, and in the thick of my vampire world. I was thinking a lot about the newborns, imagining their side of the story, and one thing led to another. I started writing from Bree’s perspective about those final days, and what it was like to be a newborn.”
Meyer’s new book will be released June 5. Meyer said she is not doing this to make more money.
“You all have bought a ton of my books, and I wanted to give you this story as a gift,” Meyer said on her Web site.
However, if fans do choose to purchase the book, one dollar of each book will be donated to the American Red Cross. On June 7, the book will be online at www.breetanner.com for free reading.
