Stephenie & Oprah

A post on Facebook informed me that Stephenie Meyer would be on Oprah this week in her "only interview about the New Moon movie". Although not a regular Oprah watcher, I have tuned in when enticed by one of her big, super-exclusive, extra-special episodes, so I set the DVR.

Here are some things I found interesting from the interview, which some of you more rabid Twilight fans probably already know:

• Ms. Meyer did not plan to write a book, but the concept for Twilight came to her in a dream, and she started writing in notebooks any spare moment she had to continue the story. The dream was the basis for chapter 13 of Twilight and she wrote to the end of the story before going back to do the beginning.
  
• At the time of said dream she had three kids under the age of five.
  
• After finishing the story, she still did not consider trying to get published, but was encouraged by her sister to do so.
  
• She received eight rejections from agents before getting an agent. It took her two years and a few months from the time she started writing it to having it on bookshelves.
  
• For New Moon, she didn't originally include the section at the end with the Volturi. She had planned to introduce them later in the series, but her Mom said she needed more action at the end.

I will leave it to individual judgement as to how you will interpret these tidbits, but it has proven to me again that there is no formula for becoming a phenomenon or making a gazillion dollars as an author.

Also, since I hadn't seen Oprah in a long time, it reminded me that the sketch about her "favorite things" shows on Saturday Night Live is really not much of an exaggeration (women's heads exploding, peeing their pants, etc. with excitement over Oprah's revelations). You should have seen the audience when she told them they were all getting the Twilight box set.