Here is a video of Stephenie’s visit to Spain. Granted there is a lot of Spanish spoken, but you don;t need to be fluent to get the gist of what is happening. From what I can tell it features several of our good friends over at Crepúsculo, the Spanish version of the Lexicon, who are also posters here. I feel like I was playing Where’s Waldo, but I think I spotted our joint members Edward Cullen, La Tua Cantante, and  Alice.

Edward Cullen AKA Javier from the Spanish version of the Lexicon Crepusculo wrote up this chronicle and La Tua Cantante AKA Laura polished the translation.  There are also plenty of links to pictures found here.

I’ll begin this chronicle from the previous days to the interview that Tuesday 13th we were able to do with Stephenie in the cafeteria of the Hotel where she was staying.

We decided to meet some days before to prepare the questions we wanted to ask her, trying to make them original and new in order not to repeat the ones she had answered before to her American fans.

Surrounded by delicious muffins and cups of Starbucks coffee, we prepared the complete questionnaire that we dictated to Laura (La Tua Cantante) while she translated it right on the spot to English, that’s why she wants to study translation and interpretation that I know that hahaha it must be said that she’s a professional and that she does her job quite well When we finished, we had dinner and then went home to type up the questions on the computer.

Apart from the questions for Stephenie, the previous week to the Crepusculo week, we met with Mayte (from La Casa del Libro) and María (from Alfaguara) to organize the games for the party that was going to be celebrated on Friday 16th: chose the words for the pictionary, saw which words were the most appropriate for the tabu, prepared the questions for the trivia, the hours when Stephenie would come, what would be the prizes, that is EVERYTHING

Some days after the interview with Stephenie took place. It must be said that since the very moment she arrived, she went from interview to interview mornings and afternoons, answering to all the questions the journalists asked her (both TV and written press).

On Tuesday 13th we met two hours before the interview to organize for the last time the questionnaire and divide the questions that each of us was going to ask. We had talked to Imogen, (one of the administrators of the Lexicon, that came all the way from England to meet Stephenie) so she could come with us to interview Stephenie. At 11 o’clock (and after having gone to “El Corte Ingles” to buy batteries and a tape for the recorder) I arrived to the Starbucks where I met with Laura (La Tua Cantante) Clara (Marion in crepusculo-es), Carlota (Bella in crep…), Keko (John Proctor in crep…) and Imogen.

Again while having some coffee; we finished the last details like “how do you say this in English?” Or “ok I m making this question, I think it’s very funny”

At 12:30, we left Starbucks to meet Stephenie.

We arrived at 1:00, only a couple of minutes before her and Maria, who was accompanying her. Sincerely, my first reaction was “Oh my gosh… she’s here, I can t believe it shall I give her two kisses? The hand? A hug? Do I jump and begin to scream like a hysterical fan??? All of this in just a couple of seconds, but it was her who approached, asked for our names and when she recognized me, we shook hands and she said she was pleased to meet me, and then she did the same with the rest.

During the interview, we passed from the most nervous situation, to the most relaxed in which we laughed, she told us anecdotes and we would laugh a lot…. until she had to leave for lunch because she had an interview with the radio after.

We went to eat to a restaurant in La Gran Vía, to buy the t-shirt for Friday and home, but that same afternoon we had to suffer desperately because she wouldn’t appear on the radio at the hour everyone thought she would, we had to listen to the whole program, we’ll have to wait till Monday.

The next day (Wednesday 14th) we met with the group of fans from crepúsculo-es in “la Plaza Callao” in order to go together to la FNAC where Stephenie would sign the books. When we arrived the queue was huge (we’re sorry guys..) but we had a great time laughing and making photos and watching the pedestrians stop and ask what was happening there or who was Stephenie Meyer (uncultivated ha-ha) Some of them would even go to the shop, where they would buy the books and wait patently in the queue in order to get their books signed too. There came people from all of Spain ¡That’s what being a good fan means!

When we got in, they gave us apples and roses and to those who didn’t  know English, they would give them earphones where they could listen to a translator telling them what Stephenie was saying. Thanks to María, the webmasters of crepusculo-es and some other lucky ones were able to be on the first row ^^. The presentation was really funny and the questions the fans asked were very interesting. After that, Stephenie signed the books she was given and posing for zillions of photos.

Some of us stayed till the end and apart from answering Lucia’s questions (one of Alfaguara’s editor) about the web, we were able to take some more photos with Stephenie now with not so many people as before, and we were able too to arrange a meeting for the following day and show her a little bit of how Madrid looks like

On Thursday 15th we met with Stephenie and Elisabeth (her publicist) at the Retiro’s main gate, just in front of La Puerta de Alcala, where we began our promenade. While we walked, we told her the little we know about the park (at the beginning there was just Clara and I. Luckily she was there and she knew a little bit more, because Stephenie and I decided  that the statue that was in front  of the lake with the boats was king Arthur with Excalibur hahaha) it was really, really funny, we decided too that there were mermaids under the waters that would only go out from time to time and that the anchor next to the lake belonged to an antique ship that that ran aground when the tie came down Look Madrid on a map and you’ll how crazy we went with our deductions.

A while after, Elisabeth had to leave because she didn’t t feel well and Laura united us. The four of us (Stephenie, Laura, Clara and me) we continued our promenade towards the Crystal palace that made us think it would be a perfect place to shoot the crepsuculo trailer: the Cullen mansion, a pity they wouldn’t t let us take photos while being inside. Then we crossed to the other side of the lake, where there were the statues of the mermaids, place where we took loads of photos with them and with other statues.

Our next destiny was the statue of the artichoke and then the Fallen Angel’s one. Along the way we didn’t t stop talking about Disney about the soundtracks, books, about Orson Scott Card (Hurray for the Orsonists!!!) and about Jane Austen (here I stood aside as I don t like it very much, sorry girls 😛 And then Carlota arrived (our salvation as a touristy guide, but it is to be said that Clara and Laura did it rather well and much more compared to my explanations, there is no doubt about that, if not, ask Stephenie lol.
   
When we were the five of us, we went to the subway to take Stephenie to the opera so she could see it along with the Royal Palace, she was really impressed by its beauty. She told us we were really lucky to live in a city like this, and she told us that she’d come one day with Pancho and her children ( we ll be waiting for you!!) From there we went to the Madrid de los Austrias where we showed her la Plaza Mayor, and there we got some water ( we were so thirsty!) and we showed Stephenie a recording of ourselves so she could listen to  what we do when we are bored lol! And we continued in our way to Sol, Callao and the Gran Vía again. Once there, before leaving Stephenie  healthy and safe in her hotel, we took a photo in front of the shop window of La Casa del Libro where you could see her book in a very beautiful arrangement (a very kind man took it and then congratulated Stephenie when we told him she was the author ^^)

The most awaited day, the day of the party in La Casa del Libro, began with a little bit of stress when we found ourselves without some of the most important things we needed for the games: a dice for the trivial, blue tack for the cards for the trivial  and some more words for the tabu. But as we always do, the managed to solve it before the beginning.
Half of the groups came with me and Angela to play the Crepusculo tabu, while the other half stayed with Carlota and Clara to play pictionary. Sincerely I had a great great time watching how the groups tried to guess the words, some of them would get stressed and remained white staring at their companions with their eyes shouting “guess it at once!” like any of those present could read their mind like Edward lol…
When we finished, and to untie an inexistent tie, the two winning groups had to do a race carrying an apple between their heads, it was funny to see them move over there doing wonders in order not to let the apple fall.
   
The two winning groups (2 from the tabu and other 2 from the pictionary) fighted against each other to be the winning group. I stayed with the rest to talk about the typical topics that we all worry about : how will the series end? Will Bella ever become a vampire? And it must be known that I was able not to say a single spoiler from New Moon, not a single one. We played with all the suppositions you all made

     
A while after, and after finishing the trivial, Stephenie arrived. We gave the prizes to the winners ( a box with New Moon, a T shirt and a poster) and then Stephenie began to sign one by one all the books the fans had brought. There were a lot of people there, and the queue ascended over the stairs. An hour later it was finished and the Crepusculo-es team approached to have our books signed and to give her our own souvenirs: an apple with the nicknames of the 80 top users on the crepusculo-es forum, a picture of the managers of the web disguised as vampires, the DVD of High School Musical (this has a story ha-ha) and a T shirt. The director of La Casa del libro gave her a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers. Then the farewell hour came and to get in our way to go to the dinner Alfaguara gave to three fans.
       
Along the way, we stopped in el Corte Ingles where Stephenie asked the salesmen how the sales were going. The restaurant where we went after was inside the hotel Bauza, Goya street, and the table was arranged in a spectacular way. A while after, the lucky fans that won the contest arrived and then we began the dinner. The food was delicious, but there were some courses “nouvelle cuisine” like that we didn’t t dare to taste (above all Stephenie ha-ha) but the rest was absolutely delicious: jam, pâté, cheese… and as second course fish during the dinner we talked about a thousand things always among laughter and we learned English some, and the other Spanish, mythical was the story of  “estoy caliente” (I’m hot) that has been forbidden to tell, sorry, maybe another time lol!

Then they brought us the dessert menu and most of us chose the lemon cake, with which we had some funny problems: the exterior cookie was as hard as stone and you almost had to use a hammer to be able to divide it ( you could see that Stephenie after so many writing had her wrist string because she was the only one able to cut it without any problem ha-ha, the rest of us had to use almost both hands to divide it into pieces, I asked to help me with mine, but she told me I had to do it alone.

When we finished our dinner, we got out and said our farewells to Stephenie and Elisabeth among some tears and a lot of sadness we hope she comes back soon, we ll miss her a lot.

Although I ve said this before, I wanted to thank Alfaguara for how good the dinner was and the opportunity they gave the fans to get to know the how wonderful it is the sensation to hear Stephenie behind a micro or in a table signing so all those books.

My best regards, Javier

PS: From the shadows, Elisabeth(Stephenie’s publicist) is an amazing woman, you can’t stop laughing with her.

PS2: Stephenie almost became blind because of all the flashes she had to stand.

[And now the last note of the translator, who’s going to make  a shorter chronicle than the one before translated: I think I speak for all of us when I say it has been one of the most special and wonderful experiences of my life , to meet you, Stephenie (and Elisabeth too), because of your kindness and how warm you are, you have the ability to fill us with happiness with your jokes and laughter, both of you are light, and for a week, Spain has had ever more light than usual, thanks for coming and I really hope you come back someday,  we ll be waiting for you with our arms open]
(And to all of those who have read aaall of this, you really deserve a prize)

I’m back in the UK now, but had a great time in Spain – meeting Stephenie and the gang from Crepusculo-es during the earlier part of this week. Thanks to Edward Cullen, La Tua Cantante and everyone else who was so kind to me when I was visiting. Thanks especially to Maria for letting me squeeze in to events on the spur of the moment. Everyone has been so very kind!

Wednesday is the last day I’ve got to report on. That day, Stephenie did a talk and answered questions at the FNAC in Madrid to loads of fans. The queue was actually so big that all the chairs needed to be taken out of the place in order to get everyone in there.

The talk was fun, and all the translations were done through the use of headsets. I was stunned at the speed of the translation – there was only a short pause between each bit. It was funny as an English speaker though, because a few of us would laugh at the jokes, then a few seconds later everyone else would laugh as well. Very disconcerting for Stephenie!

Some fun t-shirts were there; all of my photos can be found here. They had roses and apples to give out to the fans, and the whole platform was strewn with rose petals. It looked gorgeous.

My blog for the trip is here. If you’re after general photos of Madrid, you’ll find them here!. It’s a beautiful place and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re after somewhere to visit.

Needless to say, it was brilliant to meet and chat to Stephenie. Those of you who’ve met her already know how lovely she is – and those of you who haven’t need to get to a book signing soon!

Imogen 🙂

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I’m posting this morning to nip a massive rumor in the bud.  I got two messages yesterday from fans I consider to be "in the know" about how Stephenie has already signed to publish books five and six.  Folks – this is NOT TRUE.  I e-mailed her right away to check this out and she told me it could be traced to a problem with the language translations.  She has a contract for book four – right now the title is Breaking Dawn – but that’s it.  As she has said in several Q&A sessions, she will wait until book four has been written before she decides to try for book five and six.  She wants to see how she feels and if the story is still "fresh" before she agrees to more books.  So please, pass this on to your friends that as of this moment Stephenie only has a contract for FOUR books. 

Imogen is in Spain with the folks from Crepusculo-es and has been kind enough to give as a run down of the Q&A session they had with Stephenie.  You can find it listed in our PC section.  From what I understand, the Crepusculo-es folks will have transcript of an audio version of this posted at their site as soon as they can manage.  But for now you can read about it here.  She’s also made a blog entry about her time in Spain so far.  How jealous am I?

Imogen also has taken some pictures of the event Have a look here as well as some of the beautiful sights of the area. 

Huge thanks to everyone at Crepusculo-es for inviting me along, and to Stephenie for such an entertaining interview. The guys at Crepusculo are doing a full on transcript of the interview, but these are the notes I made. Unless it’s in quotes, it’s paraphrased from what Stephenie actually said.

Is Edward based on anyone?
Edward is all himself, and has always been himself. Much as Stephenie’s husband might want to claim it’s based on him, it’s not. The characters come completely formed. Edward is Stephenie’s version of the perfect man.

Is Emmett going to have a more important role in future novels?
Emmett has become a side-character – not intentionally, but because he’s so straightforward. He’s a very open character with no secrets. More will be revealed about both Rosalie and Jasper in ‘Eclipse’.

Will ‘Midnight Sun’ be published?
Stephenie is currently up to writing chapter 12, which isn’t very far into the story of ‘Twilight’. New bits of the story (not in Twilight) will be seen in this version of the story, for example the car chase at the end of the book when Bella is trapped by James. Stephanie mooted the possible publication dates of Spring 08 or 09.

Why does Bella have so many dreams?
Dreams are things that can change your life, and the subconscious can bring things out that aren’t clear in daily living. Bella puts things together through her dreams. Interestingly, Stephenie pointed out that if Bella becomes a vampire then she won’t be dreaming any more as vampires don’t sleep.

Where do werewolves come from?
The backstory to the werewolves is coming in ‘Eclipse’. It’s a longer book than ‘New Moon’ and Stephenie says that the books are getting progressively longer.

Does writing dialogue come naturally?
It stems from the fact that Stephenie is really shy. She said she was shaking during the TV interview in Madrid. As a consequence of being shy, she had a lot of internal dialogues with herself, especially during high school.

Are any of the houses in the books real?
Yes. Bella’s house in Phoenix that Alice sees through the vision is the home that Stephenie grew up in. The ballet studio is also real. Everything else is either made up or Googled on the internet. The whole world was created, but Phoenix is obviously from her own personal experience.

The question was about the blank pages in ‘New Moon’ when Bella stopped living after Edward left.
Stephenie explained that originally they didn’t exist, but the shift in time was just too stark and abrupt. She needed something to give a sense of time passing and just how long it was. The idea of these pages with just the months on them evolved gradually over time.

What’s your favourite phrase from the books?
Stephenie’s least favourite quote is the one that’s on the back of ‘Twilight’: ‘About three things I was absolutely positive…’

From ‘New Moon’, she likes the line: “I was like a lost moon—my planet destroyed in some cataclysmic, disaster-movie scenario of desolation—that continued, nevertheless, to circle in a tight little orbit around the empty space left behind, ignoring the laws of gravity” and also talked about “I bet she’s tougher than that – she runs with vampires.” Stephenie said how she particularly likes the dialogue between the wolves as it reminds her of her brothers when they were younger.

The discussion moved on to “So the lion fell in love with the lamb”. Stephenie said that in some ways this could be a role reversal from the way it appears. Edward could well be the lamb because of his insecurities.

At the end of ‘Twilight’, Alice mentions “other options” when Bella is fleeing from James. What other options?
This is referring to Bella being changed into a vampire. Present and future are all very similar for Alice, and for her it is a simple concept to just skip events forward to how they may be in the future. Alice never thinks about being human or what she’s lost; Edward does. He’s a more complex character in this respect as he has lost much more.

Anything more about the werewolves?
Stephenie said that she loves the brotherhood of the wolves and the pack mind. Within La Push, the wolves are pack animals. There are more vampires than wolves overall, as werewolves can’t change people by biting them – it has to be a genetic link. Billy is in the genetic line to have changed into a werewolf, but the books imply that he didn’t change as the vampires weren’t present at the time. Stephenie confirmed that it’s “not wrong to assume that”. Stephenie wouldn’t venture any further than this, as she was worried about giving us a spoiler!

Has the cover for ‘Eclipse’ been agreed on yet?
Just last week. She couldn’t tell us what it was, but says she likes it an awful lot better than the cover for ‘New Moon’. She liked the ‘Twilight’ cover because of the symbolism of it, and disliked ‘New Moon’ because it was just a pretty picture. This implies that the art work on the ‘Eclipse’ cover might give us some hints!

How do you research things?
Volterra was originally a fake city as Stephenie didn’t want to be sued for making a real city founded and governed by vampires. However, she knew she wanted to name the place Volterra and thought that Tuscany would be a good place for it as it’s both remote and ancient. She looked at a map on the internet and found that there actually was a place called Volterra. Upon investigating further, she found that the clock tower in Volterra was exactly the same as the one she’s imagined. She’s visiting it in April.

Doesn’t Edward remember what food tastes like?
Not really. It’s a bit like being five years old, because human memories fade over time, whereas vampire memories are total recall. If someone has a fever or is ill when they are first transformed, they are likely to let human memories fade more quickly. If someone concentrates on human memories in the early days they would have excellent recall of what it was like. This is why Rosalie has a good memory of her human years, because this is something she wanted to hang on to.

Doesn’t Bella have any friends she keeps in touch with in Phoenix?
Bella’s Phoenix existence was pretty much as her mother’s best friend as Renee takes an awful lot of effort and time. Bella is shy too, so has no real close girlfriends she’d go shopping with or anything like that. She didn’t leave strong ties behind her and it’s easy to fall out of touch with people.

Why can Edward read minds?
He was really aware of and in tune with people when he was a human. He understood the way that people were thinking. Bella’s gift is her inner strength and her self-containment.

What about the movie?
There are no scripts yet, and Stephenie isn’t allowed to be involved anyway. They want to apply their vision of it to the film, not hers. She went with MTV because they understood the innocence of the relationship and the need for character actors to play the normal people so that the vampires would stand out as being particularly beautiful. The rights haven’t been bought for ‘New Moon’ yet. Stephenie likes Tyler Posey (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0692677/) as an idea for a young Jacob.

Have you read any of Anne Rice’s books?
Stephenie read one while she was in college (the one with the witches), but didn’t find it quite her style. She doesn’t do the horror thing! Now she can’t read vampire stories at all. There’s so much cross-over in the genre, that ideas are bound to overlap. Stephenie has also promised to watch Buffy when her writing in this universe is done.

On Writing
It was something very immediate. One day she wasn’t an author and the next day she was. She intended to use her maiden name – Stephenie Morgan – on the books because she feels that reflects who she is as an individual. However, the publicity was done very quickly with her married name on it, so it was never an option.

Chapter 13 of ‘Twilight’ was her dream, and she had to write up to that, but had no real idea of what was going to be involved. She knows where the ultimate end is going to be, and if different decisions had been made by the characters what would have happened then. She writes very detailed outlines but these change as she goes along.

On her website, she has plans to post the alternate ending to ‘Eclipse’ which was what she was going to have to write if she had been limited to three books. As she says, it “messes with your head” but she likes it. She thinks it’ll be about 5 or 6 chapters long, and would produce a resolution to the storyline if books hadn’t been written beyond that point.

‘Eclipse’ is a favourite book and is a chance to get a lot more comedy in. Stephenie says that there is a lot more humour in this book, as she now has an editor that gets her sense of humour.

Current Projects
“Humans are boring; they need something extra.” Stephenie grew up with X-Men and other superheroes, and said, “I want to be a mermaid – I love mermaids.” She has plans to write a book on mermaids, or perhaps sirens, but these will be very different from the traditional type, just like her vampires are different.

Her mermaids will be thought to be cannibals because they eat humans. The humans fish for them, but because the mermaids need to go near the shore that leads to inevitable conflict.

The story will be about a girl with the nickname Froggy. She’s a human, but doesn’t really know where she belongs. Stephenie thinks this will be set in a fantasy world. The mermaids will be named with sounds that make it seem like they’re talking underwater. Long ‘e’ sounds, with l and s too.

What’s your typical day like?
On a good day, Stephenie can write a whole chapter. Generally she edits during the day but writes after 8pm at night after her children have gone to bed. Her husband watches sport on the TV. She laughed and said that Charlie is based on a lot of men – they just put the sport on, no matter what it is, and watch it.

Her editing and rewriting never stops. She adds in foreshadowing, or makes things clearer for the reader so things don’t look as if they’re coming out of nowhere. She edits repeatedly with her editor, to the point where she’d rather set fire to the manuscript than do any more.

Why do you like your favourite authors?
Stephenie likes them “because of the real emotions in the books. It was how I would feel and respond.” She discussed parallels between Marianne’s reaction to losing Willoughby as being just like Bella’s response when Edward left. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is her favourite Jane Austen and Laurence Olivier is Stephenie’s Mr Darcy!

Stephenie is now traveling to Spain in time for the premier of the Spanish version of New Moon, Luna Nueva. According to Javier(A.K.A. Edward Cullen on our message boards), the head of the Spanish version of the Twilight Lexicon, here is her schedule:

Monday and Tuesday:

Stephenie is going to have interviews with the journalists from the newspapers and TV.

Tuesday Morning/Afternoon:

Javier gets to interview her Tuesday morning and possibly eat lunch with her that day too.

Wednesday:

New Moon Presentation at the FNAC the Callao branch in Madrid (bookstore) at 19:30(7:30pm). The fans are meeting at the "Plazoleta de Callao" at 17:00(5:00pm) so we can arrive as a group.

Friday:

Party at La Casa del Libro the Alcalá branch in Madrid. It will start around 17:00-17:30(5:00-5:30pm). Javier’s group is preparing a lot of fun games ( I can’t reveal what they have in mind but it’s terrific!) After, Stephenie will sign books from the fans.

That night there is the dinner between Stephenie Meyer and the fans who win the question contest Alfaguara(the Spanish publishers) ran.

 

 

In other news, New Moon is number one on the New York Times best seller list this week. The book has never left the list since it premiered, 26 weeks and counting. The paperback version of Twilight is in its 25th week on the bestseller list, currently in the number position.