When Sarah, JT & I got there, we were pretty close to the front [Picture of Line In Front of us Which is surprisingly short] [Picture of Line Behind us The line went behind that half wall & snaked around the whole backside of the school!], lots with fan shirts & cameras & stacks of books! We sat around for awhile, people occasionally walking by with their video camera, showing how long the line was. We got stopped by 2 Lexicon Lurkers with a video camera when they asked us ‘Edward or Jacob?’ Sarah screamed ‘Jacob!’ & I go ‘Edward!’. They saw our awesome shirts & sent a shout out to the Lex. I turned around & they read off the usernames on the back.
A little later, we saw a man drive by the front of the school in a volvo. I don’t think he thought he would attract much attention, judging by the confused look on his face, but soon enough fans ran to the car asking for pictures. He said ok as a line formed.
At about 5:30pm, some Barnes & Noble employees ran down the line, putting our names on post-it notes & placing them inside the cover so the books would be ready for Stephenie to sign & personalize them.
At 6:00pm, we were allowed to enter the school, the air conditioning was very refreshing as Sarah & I ran to the seating in front of the stage. We sat on the isle, center, 5th or 6th row back. We knew we had amazing seats.
As the high school cafeteria filled up, a couple of girls walked up to us asking for our picture because of our Lexicon shirts. We felt famous. Here is a Picture of the Front of the T-shirt & here is the back.
A few minutes before 7:00pm, a man came on stage & introduced Stephenie. She walked out & everyone started screaming & taking pictures like crazy.
Once the crowd settled down, she had a short introduction & then began answering pre-submitted questions. (These are paraphrased, but very close to what she has actually said. On some questions, there are videos to go with it. Please remember that I was in an audience & they are not always quiet or make comments while filming.)
In her introduction, Stephenie said that she was happy to be in Houston, the turnout was amazing. She said that she was invited to a party with George Clooney & several other celebrities on May 9th also, but felt that she couldn’t let her fans down which brought an immediate *aww* from the crowd.
(Video Link)
Next she talked about how she likes doing the Q&A because it’s stuff that she knows the fans want to hear about. She talked about when she goes on tours she likes to do public events rather than school events because those are kids that have to be there, not necessairily want to be there.
(Video Link)
She then began her Q&A portion.
If they made the Host into a movie, Which actors would you like to play the main roles?
-She said that she likes to cast the characters in her head as she writes. She imagined an actress portraying Wanderer. She said ‘It would look like Golumn!’. She thinks that Matt Damon would be a really good Jared.
(Video Link)
Do you have a playlist for the Host?
-She said she was embarassed that her playlist wasn’t posted yet, but she does have one & she intends to email it to her brother to post it on her site after the book tour.
(Video Link)
Have you ever been involved in a love triangle?
-She said, surprisingly, yes. While in college, but she was the only one who knew about it & her three boyfriends were clueless.
(Video Link)
Do you write for a target audience?
-She said no. She writes her stories the way she pictures them & her agent says ‘I think this is an adult novel.’ & Stephenie just goes with it.
(Video Link)
What if you have a story people will be upset with?
-She said ‘I think this was a New Moon reference.’ She said she writes the way she thinks it will happen because if she tried to make everyone happy, it would be impossible. She keeps seeing the ‘If Stephenie does this, I will burn the book.’ or ‘If Stephenie doesn’t do this, I will burn the book.’
(Video Link)
Was that your eye on the cover of the Host?
-She said no. People get paid to be beautiful for the covers. And it’s not her hands on the cover of Twilight either. She says she has little or no input on the covers. The only real control she has over her books is what’s inside. The Twilght cover was to represent choice. ‘Should I eat the apple or not?’ Because it could be poisionous, everything has risks. The cover of New Moon has no symbolism, her agent just thought it would be pretty. She was actually in on the cover of Eclipse. The ribbon represents Bella trying to cut herself off from her human life in order to become a vampire. The few strands still connected to the other half represents that it is not as easy as she thought & there were still somethings she wanted to hold onto. She also says she was very involved in choosing the cover for Breaking Dawn.
Is Breaking Dawn the last book of Twilight?
-Stephenie said that this is one of her most difficult questions to answer because there is no ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to it. Breaking Dawn will be the last book from Bella’s point-of-view, but not necessairily the last of Bella & Edward or the Cullens.
Will there be a sequel(s) to the Host?
-She said she has thought about it, but she is not sure yet. She wants to take a year off after Breaking Dawn & write about anything that pleases her if it may be mermaids or whatever. She doesn’t know if everything she writes will be published, but she knows she will have more published works.
What is the hardest part of your job from the writing to going on tour?
-Stephenie says the hardest part is the editing which can take months & goes through the process several times. She said she first thought that an editor’s job was to go through & check her grammar & punctuation, but she was wrong. During editing, they give suggestions on the characters, plots & everything. When she was first editing Twilight, some of the editors thought that Edward should be invisible. They also thought that Renee should have been killed off.
What did you mean when you said that parents would understand Twilight better?
-Stephenie said that she meant that parents would be able to see Twilight like she did when writing it. Like ‘Why is Bella running around with this vampire?’ not ‘Edward is so hot!’
Within the mythical creatures, How does your religion influence your writing?
-Stephenie says that she doesn’t use her books as a form of discussion for religion, she writes from her personal experiences. Her life has always dealt with religion though.
(Video Link)
How does the movie compare to the book?
-She said she gets tons of questions about the movie & she felt like she should include this one because she knew we would all be fairly interested. She said that she would love it if the movie could be like Pride & Prejudiced as a movie, 6 hours long, word for word, but it can’t. It’s an hour & a half hour long movie so scenes will be combined & so will some characters like Ben & Eric unfortunately. Though some changes had to be made, she thinks the movie will turn out great.
How did you come up with the idea for the Host?
-Unlike Twilight she did not have a dream inspire this story. She was driving through the desert with no one to talk to & it just came to her. This is why the majority of the story is set in the desert.
After the Q&A, Stephenie left for the theater where her signing table was set up, expecting hundreds of Twilighters with their copies of her books.
The first couple of rows went filed slowly into the theater, the rest of us sat in the cafeteria untill it was our row’s turn to get in line (which seemed to take forever when you sit there.
We sat & talked to the people around us, reading random parts of Eclipse, to pass the time.
Once we were called up, it didn’t seem to take so long to get into the theater. Inside was a cart filled up with gifts for Stephenie.
Sarah went first, Stephenie noticed her ‘colorful arms’ from marker wars at school. Stephenie commented back "Looks like you lost!".
I brought my books up next as one of the helper’s noticed my shirt that said ‘Twilight Lexicon’. ‘Look, Lexiconers!’ she pointed out to Stephenie. ‘That’s really cool!’ Stephenie said back looking at me & Sarah’s shirts.
JT went up next, Stephenie first commented on how she thought it was brave coming to a public signing for Twilight/The Host. She said it was ‘awesome’ to see Twilight Guys!
After leaving the stage, Sarah & I joked about how we were going to cry & we actually ended up crying because we were overwhelmed that the most exciting thing had just happened to us.
We left along with many other Twilight fans, very excited with what we got.
Follow Us!