Luna nueva / New Moon (Paperback)

On June 2, 2003, Stephenie Meyer, a mild-mannered Mormon housewife living near Phoenix, AZ, had one of the most prolific and profitable dreams of all-time. Meyer dreamt of a darkly handsome vampire whose love for a comely young lady was constantly threatened by his unearthly desire to suck her blood. Even though she was raising three children under the age of five at the time, Meyer somehow managed to extend her vivid dream into a popular book for teens, TWILIGHT, published in 2005. By 2008, the four books of the TWILIGHT series were the four top-selling books of the year, according to USA Today, an unprecedented feat that has never been accomplished by any other author. The four main books soon spawned countless companion guides, a network of related websites, a blockbuster film series, and an emerging genre of TWILIGHT-related alternative rock, led by artists recommended by Meyer through playlists on her website. ||While her lucid nocturnal hallucination has now evolved into an international multimedia phenomenon, Meyer herself has remained firmly grounded in her family and her faith. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1973, but the Meyer family settled in Phoenix when Stephenie was only four years old, and she has lived there ever since. She and her five siblings--two sisters, three brothers--quickly grew tired of the BRADY BUNCH comparisons they were inevitably bombarded with (Stephenie, the middle sister, would have been Jan). A National Merit Scholarship paid her way to Brigham Young University, where she earned a degree in English, though she focused on reading literature, rather than writing it. While at BYU, Meyer "met" and married her husband, "Pancho," though they had actually known each other as acquaintances since they were toddlers. Meyer and her family are observant Mormons, which means she does not drink alcohol or caffeine (though she admitted to Time magazine that she sneaks an occasional Diet Pepsi), and she does not watch R-rated films. Luckily for her, TWILIGHT, the film version of her book, was rated PG-13.