Love at First Bite

Were you surprised when Twilight was purchased for over $500,000, and its film rights were sold?

It felt very strange, like some sort of practical joke for quite a while. And now, I still don't believe it. It's kind of surreal to me every time I hear somebody say, “Wow, I really loved it.”

How would you describe the story?

I have a hard time with that. Because if I say to someone, “You know, it's about vampires,” then immediately they have this mental image of what the book is like. And it's so not like the other vampire books out there—Anne Rice's and the few that I've read. It isn't that kind of dark and dreary and blood-thirsty world. Then when you say, “It's set in high school,” a lot of people immediately put it in another pool. It's easy to pigeonhole with different descriptions.

This is the first vampire book I've ever read, and I couldn't put it down.

I do like to say it's a vampire book for people who don't like vampire books.

How did the story come to you?

It feels kind of funny, but I had this dream. I even remember which day it was, because I had swim lessons starting that day and all kinds of other stuff going on. It was early in the morning. I woke up and it was just so vivid. It was pretty much as it is now, chapter 13 of the book. It's the scene in the meadow. So I really got the whole character of Edward just entirely laid out for me. He was there. Bella took a little bit more development. I just kind of sat down and wrote the book from that scene through to the end, and then I went back and wrote the beginning to make sense of it.

When you were a teen, did you fall hard for somebody, like Bella falls for Edward?

Yes, I did once, and it wasn't one of those happy things.

Was it difficult to portray vampires sympathetically?

They ended up being vampires in the way they are because I have strong opinions on free will. No matter what position you're in, you always have a choice. So I had these characters who were in a position where traditionally they would have been the bad guys, but, instead, they chose to be something different—a theme that has always been important to me.

Twilight's emotional intensity reminds me of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.

I love Austen and the Brontës. L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books were also a big influence on me, and Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite authors. Shakespeare is a big influence. I'm always coming back to things he has done.

How did you juggle writing a novel with raising three young sons?

I did a lot of writing at night, because after they were in bed was the best time to concentrate. But during the day, I really couldn't stay away from the computer; so I was up and down a lot. I'd sit down and write a few lines, and then I'd get up and give somebody juice, then sit down and write a few more lines, and then go change a diaper.

Twilight is a 498-page novel. Did the story pour out of you?

It gushed. On a good day I would write 10 or 12 pages, single-spaced. That's a good chapter and then some. So it was coming very fast. And then there were other parts that were slower, but it pretty much flowed. I began June 2, 2003, and I finished by the end of August.

What are you working on these days?

Right now, I'm actually working on sci-fi. But again, it's sci-fi for people who don't like reading sci-fi.