"Twilight" author extraordinaire Stephenie Meyer has emerged from the forests of Forks (or wherever it is writers go when they need a place to think) to announce that she will be releasing a new "Twilight"-related book on June 5 (so only 67 days, but who's counting?): "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella."
The book, which will be comprised 192 pages, will tell the story of Bree, the newborn vampire who appears briefly in "Eclipse" as a member of the army Victoria creates to battle, Bella, Edward, the Cullens and the werewolves. Jodelle Ferland, 14, plays the character in the David-Slade directed adaptation.
"I never intended to publish this story as a stand-alone book," wrote Stephenie on her site today. "I began this story a long time ago—before 'Twilight' was even released. Back then I was just editing 'Eclipse,' and in the thick of my vampire world. I was thinking a lot about the newborns, imagining their side of the story, and one thing led to another. I started writing from Bree's perspective about those final days, and what it was like to be a newborn."
From there's Bree's story continued to take even more of an unexpected turn, Stephenie had originally planned for it to be included in "The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide" (a release date of which has yet to be announced), but after finding out it was nearly 200 pages, her publisher asked about turning it into its own tale. The book even became a bit of a go-to guide for David, "Eclipse" screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, Jodelle, Xavier Samuel (another newborn vamp, Riley) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Victoria) on set.
"David asked if [they] could read it as well, so all the parties involved would end up having a really strong foundation for their characters before the cameras started rolling [on 'Eclipse']," continued Stephenie. Of course, the pages were kept top secret — check out Steph's site to see Jodelle sitting "next to a bucket of waterlogged ashes that were once the pages of her copy of the Bree manuscript."
According to Little Brown Books for Young Readers, the book will be available at 12:01 a.m. on June 5, and $1 of from the sale of each book sold in the United States will be donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund helping victims of disasters in both Chile and Haiti. The book will also be offered FOR FREE (!!) — "as a special thank you to fans" — from June 7 to July 5, 2010 on breetanner.com.
How many of you have already marked June 5th on your calendars? And do you think Bree was the right person to focus a spin off on?
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