Monday, May 19, 2008

The Host Tour - Mom's Day Off!

So, confession time. I love the Twilight books - LOVE them! I realize they are not the next Jane Eyre, but I think they are a marvelous little story and I literally inhaled them when my friend Susan lent them to me in January. Actually I read the first book and then threw the kids in the car, raced to Barnes and Noble and bought the two sequels in hardcover. Stephenie knows how to tell a good story, one that has found a huge fan base in both the tween/teen girl market and also with adult women like myself. I have strong opinions about the movie, but that is another thread altogether.
On the 6th, Bryan gave me the gift of a day off from being a mom. I met up with Julie and Jenny and about 40 women from the Twilight Moms message boards at the Mall of America for the book signing for Stephenie Meyers new book, The Host. We spent the day getting to know each other, reading The Host and wandering around the mall. Lori stopped by to visit as well as other friends from our ward. By the time Stephenie arrived to have a discussion and sign books, there were well over 1000 people there with the line snaking around the hall for 1/2 mile! We were in the first row and were able to chat with the author for a few moments as she signed our books.
Julie and Jenny with their books!
We brought camp chairs to hang out in during the day.The whole rotunda was filled and then they started another line down the hall!
Kelly came with her kids at about 5:30 and when it came time to sign books, Stephenie's publicist came over and insisted that she go first as she had her kids with her!

Stephenie has an amazing story. She attended BYU the same time as I did and went on to marry and become a stay at home mom with 3 children. When her oldest was 6, she had a dream about a boy and a girl in a meadow and then next night she started writing Twilight. Within six months of having the dream, she had finished Twilight, found a literary agent, gotten Twilight published and secured a 3 book deal for sequels! She has since written three sequels to Twilight (Breaking Dawn comes out in August), sold the movie rites to Twilight (the movie comes out in December) and wrote and published The Host, her first adult work of fiction. It is really a remarkable story and all 5 of her books are currently in the top 17 books on Amazon.com!
By the way, The Host is very good. I finished it the day after the signing. It took me about 50 pages to really get into it, but when I finished, I found I just wanted to find someone to discuss it with. I loved the complex characters and how vastly different the journeys are that they take during the course of the novel. I do not usually like sci-fi, but I would recommend this one.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that is so neat. What a fun day. I must admit I haven't read the books yet, but I've been meaning to for a long time. I was just holding off for summer time. Everyone I know says her books are just wonderful.

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  2. I'm still a little embarassed they made us go first. I'm glad you came too :) By the way, my sister and sis-in-law love it! Thanks for the tip!

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  3. You do such fun stuff! My husband's out of town again with his horse and I'm sitting here in front of my computer. ~sigh~ My boys are almost old enough to leave in the care of the "village" for the day. Looking forward to that. Tell Bryan, I did run 12 miles this morning though. Mommy/daughter quality time.

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  4. Stacey, did you know Stephenie when she was at BYU? I haven't read any of her books yet, but I plan on it sometime in the near future -soooo many books, soooo little time!

    Love, Aunt Barb

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