thebookseller.com has some great news about Stephenie and the saga!

Children’s author Stephenie Meyer was the biggest selling writer in the US in 2008 selling a massive 15 million books over the year, according to data from Nielsen BookScan US for the year ended 28th December 2008.

Meyer had the top two bestselling books of the year in the US. Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the successful Twilight series, was number one, with the first book Twilight nestling in at two, despite having been published two years earlier. New Moon, the second title was fifth, one ahead of Eclipse, the third.

Read full article.

Stephenie posted in her official site the same news about Taylor being in New Moon, with a personal comment.

I’d just like to add that I was very much a part of this decision. My first priority was always what was best for New Moon—what was going to give us the best possible movie. I’m truly thrilled that Taylor was the one who proved to the director, to Summit, and to me that he is the best possible Jacob we could have. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing what he’s going to bring to Jacob’s character this year.

- Steph

Have a great birthday!

Thanks to spikeslustylove at lion_lamb, we know that Stephenie was named Author of the Year by the USA Today.

Last year, our book of the year was J.K. Rowling’s wonderfully satisfying final Harry Potter title, Deathly Hallows. This year, we’re giving a big shout-out not to one book, but to one author — Stephenie Meyer, queen of the teen vampires.

Her four-title “Twilight” series — about a teen girl smitten with a smoldering (but honorable) teen vampire — took a huge bite out of book sales this year, and the hit movie version of Twilight confirmed Meyer’s status as a pop-culture phenomenon. Her Twilight books claimed the No. 1 spot on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list a dominating 18 times in 2008. Meyer, 34, wasn’t satisfied with making just her teen readers swoon: She also had an adult best seller with The Host, a science-fiction tale of aliens subjugating the human race. Not bad for a Mormon mom with a (chaste) taste for blood.

Picture and Source.

Tathy and I were thinking that we have to do something to celebrate the women who created the wonderful Twilight saga 35th birthday. We came up with the idea of putting together a scrapbook, but we need your help. We need all of Stephenie’s fans to submit an entry to the scrapbook. Your entry can be a letter, artwork, poem, song, video, ect to wish Stephenie a happy birthday and to tell her what her Twilight saga means to you.

Submit you entry to: project@lionandlamblove.org

But hurry, Stephenie turns 35 December 24!

The I-Tunes UK Store has a new section on our favorite author. If you are a I-Tunes customer from the UK, you can now find all four audiobooks of the Twilight Saga and The Host for sale on the homepage. Enjoy!

Seth update the Stephenie Meyer Homepage:

December 17, 2008

Stephenie’s publicist Elizabeth asked me to post the following announcement:

It has come to our attention that there are several people on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook pretending to be Stephenie. The only site besides StephenieMeyer.com that Stephenie has is a MySpace site at www.myspace.com/stephenie_meyer. Only announcements on this website and Stephenie’s official MySpace page should be considered legitimate. Please note, due to the overwhelming number of e-mails she receives on her MySpace page, Stephenie is unable to answer e-mails.

Also, Stephenie is aware of the numerous Twilight conventions happening next year. It is exciting to see so many fans wanting to celebrate the books together. However, these conventions are not authorized or endorsed by Stephenie and she will not be attending any of the conventions. We hope that fans enjoy the conferences, but wanted to make this distinction so people weren’t spending money under the assumption that Stephenie would be in attendance…

Read everything

Time just release their 2008 list of People Who Mattered, and Stephenie Meyer is on it.

Maybe Americans aren’t ready for a Mormon presidential nominee yet. But they’re more than ready to anoint a Mormon as the best-selling novelist of the year. The hero of Meyer’s Twilight series — and hit movie — is a vampire named Edward who doesn’t kill people and declines to sleep with, or bite, his girlfriend Bella. Meyer’s religious upbringing taught her something few writers grasp, that fantasies can be about restraint as well as excess. Sometimes nice girls do finish first.
Read the full list here

Congratulations Stephenie! You really deserves.

Hey everybody, sorry for the lack of update of my part today, I’m sick but we just got a very important new, and I had to share with everybody fast. Stephenie has updated her site confirming that Chris Weitz will be the director of New Moon.

Hey guys,

There’s been a lot of worry and speculation on the boards lately, and I want to let you know what’s going on.

First of all, like you, I’m sad that Catherine is not continuing on with us for New Moon. I’m going to miss her, not just as a brilliant director, but also as a friend. She has such a distinct, authentic voice that did amazing things for Twilight. I’m looking forward to every movie she does in the future.

And she didn’t leave us empty handed. We still get the benefits of her amazing casting and the beautiful visual world she created. This foundation puts us in a good place for New Moon.

Summit Films is moving forward with a new director for New Moon. They’ve asked Chris Weitz, director of American Pie, About a Boy, and The Golden Compass, to join us, and I am very pleased to announce that he’s agreed to be a part of our Twilight world. I’ve had the chance to talk to Chris, and I can tell you that he is excited by the story and eager to keep the movie as close to the book as possible. He is also very aware of you, the fans, and wants to keep you all extremely happy. (Torches and pitchforks are not going to be necessary.)

I’m excited to work with Chris and I think he brings a lot to the table, not the least of which for me is that he wrote the screenplay for and directed one of my favorite movies of all time, About a Boy. I’m really looking forward to seeing his vision for New Moon.

Stephenie also has a letter from Chris to all fans and some pictures of her in the premiere of Twilight. Go here to read the letter, and here to view the pictures.

Thanks to Jules for sending one ‘new’ old photoshoot of Stephenie, she also sent two more pics from another shoot, all of them in HQ *.*
Thanks again Jules!

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