The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.

In the interview Meyer said she started writing Twilight after having a vivid dream which became chapter 13 of the first book in the series. The scene is the one where Bella and Edward are in the woods and she reveals she knows he is a vampire.

“I just wanted to remember it so badly, that’s why I started writing it down,” she said — not because she initially knew it was going to become a novel.

Twilight author Stephanie Meyer has revealed plans to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show on November 13 to support the launch of the film adaptation of the second book in the series: New Moon.

The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.

Meyer writes on her web site:

“You know I’ve been doing the hermit thing this last year, in so far as media is concerned, and I’m not changing that now, but I am making an exception.

I’m doing this for a good reason: I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what [director]Chris Weitz has done with New Moon that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him. And since I’m only doing one interview, better make it big. Really big.”

In coalition with the Oprah interview, Meyer has committed to take questions from fans regarding the New Moon film via the website of the series. Questions can be submitted from noon (Eastern Standard Time) on Monday, November 9, through noon Tuesday, November 10. The answers will be posted the following week, on the premiere launch day for the film.

“I’m so very excited that you’ll all get to see New Moon in just two weeks! Then you’ll see what I’m going on about. Until then, think up some good questions for me.,” wrote Meyer.

The author has published other books, notably her adult sci-fi novel, The Host, in May 2008, but it is the Twilight series that continues to garner her the most attention from readers, particularly due to the ongoing film adaptations. More information about the author’s current work is available on Wikipedia.

A number of Australian primary schools have reportedly banned Stephanie Meyer‘s hit Twilight vampire book series because the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs.

In Australia, primary schools teach children up to the age of about 12, after which they move onto secondary school. In some other countries primary schools are described as elementary schools.

The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.

But, reports Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a number of primary schools in New South Wales have banned the series or restricted it to older readers:

“Librarians have stripped the books from shelves in some junior schools because they believe the content is too sexual and goes against religious beliefs … Santa Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural themes  in the books.”

Commentary
I don’t have much idea what books are and aren’t allowed in Australian primary schools, although I would assume that most content which would fall under the Australian ‘M’ classification would not be encouraged, for the simple reason that content at those levels is not recommended for those under 15 years of age. This would preclude all Australian primary school students.

The question, I guess, is does Twilight fall into this category?

If you read the guidelines for the classification of publications in Australia, a task carried out by the Australian Classification Board, it seems fairly clear that literature falling into the unrestricted category (which includes the M rating as an option) must be discreet in its depictions of sex and violence, and such depictions must be low impact.

Does Twilight contain low impact depictions of sex and violence? Undoubtedly, by Australian standards, yes. There are no real overt sex scenes; Twilight is more about romance. And while there is violence in the book, it’s not really graphic; in fact sometimes it’s almost cartoonish (vampires fighting isn’t that scary compared to many modern day movies kids watch).

However, the fact remains that the books do contain some level of sex and violence. Thus, they’re probably not that appropriate, as The Daily Telegraph mentions, for many primary school students.

Of course, some primary school students might consider Twilight a bit lightweight. I remember reading The Lord of the Rings and Ender’s Game when I was 11 or 12. The sorts of content in those books is a lot more psychologically disturbing and adult than you would find in Twilight, although I can’t see them ever being banned. Of course, I borrowed the books myself from our city library or my father’s collection, not from my school.

One final note: it’s not really clear from the article exactly where schools feel Twilight would offend religious beliefs. But I would suggest while banning books containing sexual behaviour could be legitimate, banning books because they go against religious beliefs is a whole other kettle of fish. Touchy ground, that.

Jordan Scott

Another vampire romance novelist has accused Stephanie Meyer of plagiarising sections of Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in her Twilight series.

“In this book, Ms Meyer misappropriated both the ideas and in many instances the text from my client’s book, The Nocturne,” law firm Sedgwick, Detert, Moran and Arnold wrote in a letter dated July 13 to Meyer’s publisher Hachette. The firm represents novelist Jordan Scott.

The letter — posted online by celebrity gossip site TMZ — goes on to outline a side by side analysis of selected passages from the two books, ending by requesting Hachette call the law firm to discuss how Meyer intends to “cease and desist from any copyright infringement” and to compensate Jordan Scott.

TMZ reported that a Meyer representative said:

“The claim that ‘Breaking Dawn’ by Stephenie Meyer somehow infringes on an alleged book by someone named Jordan Scott is completely without merit. Neither Stephenie Meyer nor her representatives had any knowledge of this writer or her supposed book prior to this claim.”

Scott’s website states she is also a musician and singer, and started writing when she graduated high school at the early age of 14. She’s currently attending university in the US.

“I wanted to write a character-driven story with characters who seem to “live and breathe” on the pages,” she wrote. “I wrote The Nocturne with the intent of bringing readers into a completely new world of the fantasy and romance genres. And now I have completed it, after more than three years of intense research, character development, writing, rewriting, editing, and writing a little more! I hope you guys enjoy it.”

The current wave of vampire fiction is almost over and rightly so, English author Neil Gaiman opines in a brief interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“Vampires go in waves, and it kind of feels like we’re now finishing a vampire wave, because at the point where they’re everywhere it’s probably time to go back underground for another 20 years or another 25 years,” states Gaiman. At this point the interviewer asks him if society has reached “saturation point” for vampire fiction.

“I think so,” he adds, “and it definitely sort of feels like classical vampires have been around enough that if they could go back in their coffins 25 years and come out the next time as something really different, that would be cool.”

Adds Gaiman later on his blog:

“(And note that I’m not saying there’s anything bad about vampires, quite the opposite. Just that in a world in which a dozen people immediately write to me on Twitter to point out that I’ve got it wrong, as they are all writing Vampire stories, in which Vampires are now everywhere, is a world in which High Vampire Season is coming to an end). You shouldn’t be glutted with vampires: they should be a spice, not a food group.”

There is no doubt that the popularity of fiction, particularly romantic fiction, utilising vampires in modern day life has increased dramatically over the past few years; the popularity of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series being just the most obvious example. And of course Joss Whedon’s Buffy and Angel series did much to bring vampire ideas back into the popular consciousness.

There are Facebook books devoted to Meyer fans trying to find the next vampire romance book series, and it’s common in mainstream book stores to see one or another series of books advertised as being “the next Twilight“. In fact, some stores have whole shelves of such series.

Interestingly, alongside the Gaiman story, Entertainment Weekly is also running an interview with former head of Warner Books Larry Kirschbaum, who says he was skeptical about Twilight when Meyer was first signed:

“I called the editor and said basically, ‘Are you crazy? This is a first author, no platform, just a housewife, books about vampires. Do people really want to read that?”

Commentary
I don’t think we’ve reached saturation point yet, and in fact I think we’ve still got a fair way to go, judging by how interested Meyer fans are in the vampire romance genre, and how many new authors are focusing on it. I’m hoping, though, that that focus will throw up some real literary gems that will stand the test of time, along with the pulp.