Stephenie Meyer Surprises Twilight Fans with New Book About Bree Tanner

Stephenie Meyer surprised Twilight fans all over the world by announcing she has a new book coming out in June. Is it Midnight Sun? Or perhaps a fifth book in the Twilight Series? No, it is titled: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella.

Who the heck is Bree Tanner?

Bree was first introduced in the third Twilight book, Eclipse. Bree was one of the newborn vampires created by Victoria. Carlisle feels pity for her and offers Bree a chance for her to surrender. In Eclipse, Bella describes Bree as "... very young. Younger than me - she looked maybe fifteen, dark-haired and slight."

We learn her name is Bree when Jane demands that she identify herself. Even though Carlisle promises to train Bree, Jane has Felix take care of her.

Why did Stephenie Meyer write an entire book about a character that only exists for ten pages?

According to Stephenie Meyer's website, Meyer never intended for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner to become a book. She started writing about Bree before Twilight was even published. Meyer was editing Eclipse and started to wonder what it would have been like to be one of Victoria's newborn vampires. For fun, she started to write a story from Bree's perspective.

Originally Stephenie Meyer thought Bree's story would be a perfect addition to The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide. But when Bree's story grew to almost 200 pages, Meyer knew it was too long to be in The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide.

The release of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner coincides with the release of the Eclipse movie coming out on June 30. When Melissa Rosenberg was writing the screenplay for Eclipse, she had many questions about Victoria's newborn vampires. Stephenie Meyer let Rosenberg read excerpts of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner to help her write the screenplay.

Meyer also gave Eclipse director, David Slade, a copy of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Slade had the actors playing Riley, Victoria and Bree read the book to gain valuable background information about their characters.

Because Stephenie Meyer never intended for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner to be a complete book, she negotiated with her publisher to make the book available online for her fans. At noon on June 7, until July 5, the book will be available online at breetanner.com.

The hardcover book, published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, will also be available. The 192 page Novella will be released on June 5, 2010 at 12:01 a.m. for $13.99. To help with the relief efforts in Haiti and Chile, one dollar from the first printing of each US book purchased will be donated to the American Red Cross. Online readers will also have the opportunity to donate.

While fans are excited to have more insights into the Twilight saga, many are disappointed that Stephenie Meyer chose to write about Bree instead of completing Midnight Sun.

Midnight Sun is the Twilight story from Edward Cullen's perspective. Meyer stopped writing Midnight Sun when illegal copies started showing up on the internet. The first few chapters of Midnight Sun are available on Stephenie Meyer's website.

While I'm excited to read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, I wish the new book's main character had been one of the characters we've grown to love in the Twilight series.

Stephenie Meyer, if you're reading this, I would love for you to write a book written from Charlie's perspective!

Just think of all the questions that could be answered in a book about Charlie. Did Charlie ever suspect that the Cullen family was living a secret life? How did Charlie develop such a close friendship with Billy? Why was Charlie so enamored of Alice? What exactly were Charlie's thoughts when Bella went on her honeymoon and was quarantined for so long? What were his thoughts when Jacob phased in front of him? How did Charlie accept the whole "need to know" basis when his own daughter turned into someone he barely recognized? If Stephenie Meyer ever writes this book, I'll be first in line to read it.

But for now, I'll just look forward to June 7 when I can read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner online.

Sources:
StephenieMeyer.com

Press Release: Little Brown Books for Young Readers to Release New Novella From International Phenomenon Stephenie Meyer on Saturday, June 5, 2010

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer