2013 - When vampires fall in love

When vampires fall in love
1People love to be frightened by vampires. They are the
most fascinating creatures in horror stories. They suck
blood with their pointed teeth, fly like bats, sleep in cof-
fins, live forever and are usually evil. 
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Stephenie Meyer has written books about vampires, but
hers are different. They are incredibly beautiful, intelligent
and kind and they control their desires1 for human blood,
feeding on wild animals instead. Like the vampires in other
stories, they have strange powers and enormous physical strength,
but they want to live among humans and sometimes fall in love with them. 




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The idea for Twilight, the first book in a series, came to Stephenie Meyer in a dream. In it,
she saw a teenage girl talking to a beautiful, sparkling young man in a sunny meadow.
They were in love and the man, a vampire, told the girl how hard it was for him not to
drink her blood and kill her. Stephenie Meyer wrote down her dream and then carried on
writing, telling the story of the vampire and the girl. She finished the book in just three
months.




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That must have been difficult, because the author also had three young children to look
after. She had studied English literature in Utah, but settled down to being a housewife
and mother when her first child was born. She had always made up stories but never
written one down. "I just didn't think that anyone would want to read them", she said in
an interview.



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Finally after sending her manuscript to 14 publishers, one of them accepted it — a clever
decision. The four books in her series have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide
and even topped bestseller lists. The film version of Twilight was released in Novem-
ber 2008. 




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The secret of the books' success is that they deal with vampires in a completely new way.
These vampires struggle to control their desires, trying very hard to be good. And there
are even parallels to Stephenie Meyer's own life. Because of her strong religious beliefs,
she does not drink alcohol, tea or coffee, or smoke and has strict views on sexuality. That
is why her vampires are different. They do not drink human blood and there is a lot of
romance and passion in the books. The mix of good vampires, bad vampires and human
teenagers falling in love with them makes some very exciting and romantic stories. 


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Now that the author knows how much people like reading her stories, she has plans for a
lot more stories. But vampires do not seem to be a challenge any more: "I think I need a
break from vampires. I really enjoyed working on my book The Host, doing something
totally different. I have several other stories that I've been waiting to work on. At this
moment, I'm torn between two, but I'm going to decide on one of them very soon."
                                                                                                                 (489 words)
Adapted from: Read On 11/2008, www.stepheniemeyer.com (25.09.2012)
1 desire - Begierde, Verlangen, Wunsch