I recently heard that Stephenie Meyer has postponed the publication of
Midnight Sun -
Twilight from the perspective of Edward - indefinitely due to a leak of one of her drafts of the book onto the
Internet.
I have to say, I'm rather disappointed on a number of levels. First, that someone would leak the book in the first place, and second that others would continue to distribute it. This is definitely an infringement on Meyer's rights to the material. Not cool.
But I'm also a bit disappointed in Meyer for her decision to stop writing the book because of it. I truly understand why she is upset, and I can even understand how this could delay her writing, and consequently the publication of the book. However, I think her reaction was
slightly over-dramatic. It seems that her
relatively public reaction to this, as well as her decision to post the leaked draft on her website as a form of consolation to her fans, actually did more to notify the public of the leak than if she had reacted a bit more subtly. Meyer states that she worried about how to respond without encouraging more people to read the leaked draft, but then goes on to publish the draft herself. I just don't understand the logic. By posting the draft on her
webiste, she has
erased any doubts that those who found the leaked copy in the
Internet may have had about its validity.
Even thought she claims that publication has only been postponed "indefinitely," it really seems to me that she's not going to return to the project. I can only hope to be proven wrong.
Which is a shame. I read the draft (Well, what was I supposed to do; she was practically begging us to read it by posting it! It's like telling someone not to look at something; it just makes you want to peek more.). While it needs quite a bit of polishing (it is a draft, after all), it's very intriguing. Getting this other side of the story reveals so much about Edward's character and his motivations. Nothing much that we didn't already know is found there, but having it
laid out for us from his perspective in the form of a story makes it more powerful.
I considered posting a link to Meyer's website to make it easy to find her explanation for these events, but doing so just seemed to perpetuate the problem that I found with her response. If you're interested in Meyer's statement or in the draft, however, check it out. You should be able to find Meyer's website and the
Midnight Sun page fairly easily via the search engine of your choice. Just be warned that if Meyer should decide to return to the project in the future, you've spoiled the first 12 chapters by reading it ahead of time.
Friendship is sometimes a fickle thing, and this is certainly true for fifth-grader Ally Miller in the book Thank You, Lucky Stars by Beverly Donofrio. Her longtime best friend Betsy has ditched her at the start of the school year, leaving her sad, alone, and without any hope of finding someone to perform with for the fifth grade talent show. Bizarre new student Tina, however, seems eager to have Ally as her new friend. Ally doesn't really want to be friends with the Princess Leia bun-wearing, loudmouthed girl who doesn't care what people think of her, but the two are nonetheless drawn together. How will Ally balance her yearning to be popular and well-liked with the true friendship that Tina has to offer?
