The creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series J. K. Rowling

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE (born 31 July 1965), better known as J. K. Rowling ( /ˈroʊlɪŋ/ ROH-ling), is a British author best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990.The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scriptsas well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalment.Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on benefits to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2010, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain. Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom. In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named 'Most Influential Woman in Britain' by leading magazine editors. She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and Lumos (formerly the Children's High Level Group).
Name

Although she writes under the pen name "J. K. Rowling", pronounced like rolling ( /ˈroʊlɪŋ/), her name when her first Harry Potter book was published was simply "Joanne Rowling". Fearing that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers demanded that she use two initials, rather than her full name. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Ada Bulgen Rowling. She calls herself "Jo" and has said, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry." Following her marriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business.
Background

Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling (née Volant), on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16.1 km) northeast of Bristol. Her sister Dianne (Di) was born at their home on 28 June 1967 when Rowling was 23 months old.The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four.She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee."At the age of nine, Rowling moved to the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind", gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.
She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother, Anne, had worked as a technician in the Science Department. Rowling has said of her adolescence, "Hermione [A bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books. "Ron Weasley [Harry Potter's best friend] isn't a living portrait of Sean, but he really is very Sean-ish." Of her musical tastes of the time, she said "My favourite group in the world is The Smiths. And when I was going through a punky phase, it was The Clash." Rowling read for a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter, which she says was a "bit of a shock" as she "was expecting to be amongst lots of similar people– thinking radical thoughts." Once she made friends with "some like-minded people" she says she began to enjoy herself.After a year of study in Paris, Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.
In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry "came fully formed" into her mind. She told The Boston Globe that "I really don't know where the idea came from. It started with Harry, then all these characters and situations came flooding into my head."When she had reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately.
However, in December of that year, Rowling’s mother died, after her ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis. Rowling commented, "I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter."Rowling said this death heavily affected her writingand that she introduced much more detail about Harry's loss in the first book, because she knew about how it felt.
Rowling then moved to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language.While there, on 16 October 1992, she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes. Their child, Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford), was born on 27 July 1993 in Portugal. They separated in November 1993. In December 1993, Rowling and her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh, Scotland.During this period Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression, and contemplated suicide.It was the feeling of her illness which brought her the idea of Dementors, soul-sucking creatures introduced in the third book.
After Jessica's birth and the separation from her husband, Rowling had left her teaching job in Portugal to spend time with her family.Seven years after graduating from university, Rowling saw herself as "the biggest failure I knew."Her marriage had failed, she was jobless with a dependent child, but she described her failure as liberating:
“ Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. -- J. K. Rowling, Harvard commencement address, 2008. ”
In order to teach in Scotland she would need a postgraduate certificate of education (PGCE), requiring a full-time, year-long course of study. She began this course in August 1995, after completing her first novel while having survived on state welfare support.She wrote in many cafés, especially Nicolson's Café, whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep.In a 2001 BBC interview, Rowling denied the rumour that she wrote in local cafés to escape from her unheated flat, remarking, "I am not stupid enough to rent an unheated flat in Edinburgh in midwinter. It had heating." Instead, as she stated on the American TV programme A&E Biography, one of the reasons she wrote in cafés was because taking her baby out for a walk was the best way to make her fall asleep.
Source: wikipedia.org

Sophie Kinsella Profile and biography.

Madeleine Wickham (born Madeleine Townley on 12 December 1969) is an English author of chick lit who is most known for her work under the pen name Sophie Kinsella.
Career
After graduating from Putney High School and earning a degree in PPE[1] from New College, Oxford in 1990,Wickham worked as a financial journalist (including for Pensions World) before turning to fiction.
While working as a financial journalist, at the age of 24, shw wrote her first novel. The Tennis Party was immediately hailed as a success by critics and the public alike and became a top ten bestseller. She went on to publish six more novels as Madeleine Wickham: A Desirable Residence, Swimming Pool Sunday, The Gatecrasher, The Wedding Girl, Cocktails for Three and Sleeping Arrangements.
Her first novel as 'Sophie Kinsella' was submitted to her existing publishers anonymously and her editors jumped at it not knowing who it was really from. 'Sophie' revealed her real identity for the first time when Can You Keep a Secret? was published in December 2005.
Sophie Kinsella is best known for writing the Shopaholic novels series of chick lit novels, which focus on the misadventures of Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist who cannot manage her own finances. The series focuses on her obsession with shopping and its resulting complications for her life. The first two Shopaholic books were adapted into a film and released in February 2009, with Isla Fisher playing Becky and Hugh Dancy as Luke Brandon.
Her latest novel under the name Sophie Kinsella, Twenties Girl, was released in the UK in July 2009. She also has another addition to the Shopaholic series, Mini Shopaholic, which is out September 2010.
Personal life
Wickham lives in Surrey and London with her husband, Henry Wickham, a headmaster of a boys' prep school. They have been married for 17 years and have four sons, Freddy, 14, Hugo, 12, Oscar, 5, and Rex, 10 months. She is also the sister of fellow writer, Gemma Townley.
Source: Wikipedia.org

American writer Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich (born Janet Schneider, April 22, 1943, in South River, New Jersey) is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. The sixteen novels in this series consistently top the New York Times Best Seller list.
Early years

Evanovich is a second-generation American.She was born and raised in New Jersey to a machinist and housewife.Evanovich grew up in South River, New Jersey, and attended South River High School. She became the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at Douglass College, part of Rutgers University, to study art.
When Evanovich had children, she chose to become a housewife like her mother. In her thirties, she began writing novels. To learn the art of writing dialog, Evanovich took lessons in improv acting.For ten years, she attempted to write the Great American Novel, finishing three manuscripts that she was unable to sell. After someone suggested she try writing romance novels, Evanovich read several romances and discovered that she enjoyed the genre. She wrote two romances and submitted them for publishing.Still unable to find a publisher, Evanovich stopped writing and signed with a temporary employment agency. Several months after beginning work for them, she received an offer to buy her second romance manuscript for $2,000, which she considered an "astounding sum."
Romance novels

That novel, Hero at Large, was published in 1987 in the Second Chance Love category line under the pseudonym Steffie Hall.The following year she began writing for Bantam Loveswept under her own name.For the next five years she continued to write category romances for Loveswept.Her work within the romance novel genre helped her learn to create likable characters and attractive leading men. In this time, Evanovich also became known for the humor that filled her novels. She believes that "it's very important to take a comic approach. If we can laugh at something, we can face it."
After finishing her twelfth romance, however, Evanovich realized that she was more interested in writing the action sequences in her novels rather than the sex scenes. Her editors were not interested in her change of heart, so Evanovich took the next eighteen months to formulate a plan for what she actually wanted to write.
Stephanie Plum
She quickly decided that she wanted to write romantic adventure novels.Unlike the style of romance novels, her books would be told in first person narrative.Her new type of writing should contain heroes and heroines, as well as "a sense of family and community." In that vein, she intended her new style of writing to be based on the TV sitcom model. Like Seinfeld, her new books would have a central character that the rest of the cast of characters revolves around.
Inspired by the Robert De Niro movie Midnight Run, Evanovich decided that her heroine would be a bounty hunter.This occupation provided more freedom for Evanovich as a writer, as bounty hunters do not have a set work schedule and are not forced to wear a uniform. The profession is also "romanticised to some extent." To become acquainted with the demands of the career, Evanovich spent a great deal of time shadowing bond enforcement agents. She also researched more about the city of Trenton, where she wanted her books to be set.
In 1994, her initial romantic adventure, One for the Money, was published to good reviews.This was the first of a light-hearted series of mysteries starring barely competent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. One for the Money was named a New York Times notable book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1994 and a USAToday Best Bet. Shortly before the book was released, Evanovich sold the movie rights to Columbia Tristar for $1 million; as of 2009 no movie has been made.As of Feb. 2010, Katherine Heigl has agreed to play Stephanie Plum; after initial interest, Reese Witherspoon had decided to decline the role.As of Apr. 29, 2010, Lionsgate had acquired distribution rights, and will co-produce with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Lakeshore Entertainment(which had acquired the rights from Columbia); Julie Ann Robinson (The Last Song) will direct, and production is scheduled to begin July 12, 2010.
Evanovich has continued to write romantic adventures starring Stephanie Plum. The sixth book in the series, Hot Six, was the first of her novels to reach Number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Her subsequent Plum novels have each debuted at Number 1.All About Romance has described her as the "rare breed of romance author who has left the genre and yet not alienated her many romance fans."
The Plum novels have taken many attributes from Evanovich's own life. Evanovich shares many commonalities with her character Stephanie Plum. Both are from New Jersey, both devour Cheetos, both had owned a hamster, and both have shared "similar embarrassing experiences." The character Grandma Mazur is loosely based on Evanovich's "Grandma Fanny" and "Aunt Lena." Evanovich claims the spirited elderly lady is "who I want to be when I grow up."
Other novels
Evanovich began a collaborative effort with Charlotte Hughes because she wanted to see some of her other ideas on paper but did not have the time to write them. This resulted in the "Full" series.
In 2004, she launched another series with Metro Girl. This book debuted at Number 2 on the New York Times Best Seller List.
She collaborated with Stephen J. Cannell on a book entitled No Chance, which was to be the first book in a new series. It was supposed to be released in October 2007. However, as of July 2007, the book seems to have been canceled.
Personal life

During the week, Evanovich works eight hours per day. On weekends she generally works for an additional four hours each day. She generally creates a brief outline before beginning a new book, with one or two sentences about what will happen in each chapter.Upon the release of a new book, Evanovich regularly goes on book tours. Her 2006 book signings attracted 2,000-3,000 people each.After her third book, all of the

Evanovich lives in New Hampshire and Florida with her husband, Pete, whom she married in 1964. Members of Evanovich's family are employed by her company, Evanovich Inc, including her husband, Pete, son Peter, daughter Alexandra and son-in-law P.J. Heller.


Source: wikipedia.org

American romantic novelist Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel Profile and biography

Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947, New York City) better known as Danielle Steel, is an American romantic novelist and author of mainstream dramas.
Best known for drama and romance novels , Steel has sold more than 800 million copies of her books (as of 2005) worldwide and is the eighth best selling writer of all time, and is currently the bestselling author alive. Her novels have been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 390 consecutive weeks and 22 have been adapted for television.
Early years
Her parents were John Schulein-Steel, a descendant of the founders of Löwenbräu beer, and Norma da Câmara Stone dos Reis, the daughter of a Portuguese diplomat.Steel spent much of her early childhood in France,where from an early age she was included in her parents' dinner parties, giving her an opportunity to observe the habits and lives of the wealthy and famous.Her parents divorced when she was seven, however, and she was raised primarily in New York City and Europe by her father, rarely seeing her mother.
Steel started writing stories as a child, and by her late teens had begun writing poetry. A graduate of the Lycée Français de New York, class of 1963, she studied literature design and fashion design, first at Parsons School of Design in 1963 and then at New York University from 1963–1967.Early career
In 1965, when she was only 18, Steel married banker Claude-Eric Lazard.While a young wife, and still attending New York University, Steel began writing, completing her first manuscript the following year, when she was nineteen. After the birth of their daughter, Beatrix, in 1968, Steel worked for a public relations agency in New York called Supergirls for several years. A magazine client was highly impressed with her freelance articles and encouraged her to focus on writing and suggested she write a book, which she did. She later moved to San Francisco, and worked for Grey Advertising, as a copywriter.
Personal life

After many years of separation, Steel and Lazard divorced after nine years of marriage. They had one daughter, Beatrix. In 1972 her first novel, Going Home, was published. The novel contained many of the themes that her writing would become known for, including a focus on family issues and human relationships.
Steel married again, briefly with Danny Zugelder. The marriage ended quickly and Zugelder was later convicted of a series of rapes. Steel married her third husband, William Toth, and began divorce proceedings two weeks later.
Steel married for the fourth time in 1981, to vintner John Traina.Traina subsequently adopted Steel's son Nick and gave him his family name. Together they had an additional five children, Samantha (April 14, 1982), Victoria (September 5, 1983), Vanessa (December 18, 1984), Maxx (February 10, 1986) and Zara (September 26, 1987).
Coincidentally, beginning with her marriage to Traina in 1981, Steel has been a near-permanent fixture on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestsellers lists. In 1989, she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having a book on the New York Times Bestseller List for the most consecutive weeks of any author—381 consecutive weeks at that time. Since her first book was published, every one of her novels has hit bestseller lists in paperback, and each one released in hardback has also been a hardback bestseller.During this time Steel also contributed to her first non-fiction work. Having a Baby was published in 1984 and featured a chapter by Steel about suffering through miscarriage.The same year she also published a book of poetry, Love: Poems.
Steel also ventured into children's fiction, penning a series of 10 illustrated books for young readers. These books, known as the "Max and Martha" series, aim to help children face real life problems: new baby, new school, loss of loved one, etc. In addition, Steel has authored the "Freddie" series. These 4 books address other real life situations: first night away from home, trip to the doctor, etc.
Determined to spend as much time as possible with her own children, Steel often wrote at night, making do with only four hours of sleep, so that she could be with her children during the day.Steel is a prolific author, often releasing several books per year.Each book takes 2½ years to complete, so Steel has developed an ability to juggle up to five projects at once, researching one book while outlining another, then writing and editing additional books.
Nicholas Traina
In 1993 Steel sued a writer who intended to disclose in her book that her son Nick was adopted by her then-current husband John Traina, despite the fact that adoption records are sealed in California.A San Francisco judge made a highly unusual ruling allowing the seal on Nick's adoption to be overturned, although he was still a minor. The order was confirmed by a California Appellate Judge, who ruled that because Steel was famous, her son's adoption did not have the same privacy right,and the book was allowed to be published.
The son at the center of the lawsuits, Nicholas Traina, committed suicide in 1997 as a result of bipolar disorder.Traina was the lead singer of San Francisco punk bands Link 80 and Knowledge. In honor of his memory, Steel wrote the nonfiction book His Bright Light, about Nick's life and death. Proceeds of the book, which reached the New York Times NonFiction Bestseller List were used to found the Nick Traina Foundation, which Steel runs, to fund organizations dedicated to treating mental illness.To gain more recognition for children's mental illnesses, Steel has lobbied for legislation in Washington, and previously held a fundraiser every two years (known as The Star Ball) in San Francisco.
1997–present
Steel married for a fifth time, to Silicon Valley financier Tom Perkins, but the marriage ended after 4 years in 2002. Steel has said that her novel The Klone and I was inspired by a private joke between herself and Perkins. In 2006, Perkins dedicated his novel Sex and the Single Zillionaire to Steel.
After years of near-constant writing, in 2003 Steel opened an art gallery in San Francisco, Steel Gallery, which showed contemporary work and exhibited the paintings and sculptures of emerging artists. The gallery subsequently closed in 2007. She continues to curate shows once or twice a year for the Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco.
In 2002, Steel was decorated by the French government as an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for her contributions to world culture.
She has additionally received:
Induction into the California Hall of Fame, December, 2009.
"Distinguished Service in Mental Health Award" (first time awarded to a non-physician) from New York Presbyterian Hospital, Department of Psychiatry and Columbia University Medical School and Cornell Medical College, May, 2009.
"Outstanding Achievement Award" for work with adolescents from Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, May, 2003.
"Service to Youth Award" for improving the lives of mentally ill adolescents and children from the University of San Francisco Catholic Youth Organization and St. Mary's Medical Center, November, 1999.
"Outstanding Achievement Award" in Mental Health from the California Psychiatric Association
"Distinguished Service Award" from the American Psychiatric Association
In 2006 Steel reached an agreement with Elizabeth Arden to launch a new perfume, Danielle by Danielle Steel.
Steel lives in San Francisco, but also maintains a residence in France where she spends several months of each year. Despite her public image and varied pursuits, Steel is known to be shy and because of that and her desire to protect her children from the tabloids,she rarely grants interviews or public appearances. Her 55-room San Francisco home was built in 1913 as the mansion of sugar tycoon Adolph B. Spreckels.
Writing

Steel's novels have been translated into 28 languages and can be found in 47 countries across the globe.The books, often described as "formulaic," tend to involve the characters in a crisis of some sort which threatens their relationship. Many of her characters are considered over-the-top, making her books seem less realistic.The novels sometimes explore the world of the "rich and famous" and frequently deal with serious life issues, like illness, death, loss, family crises, and relationships.
Despite a reputation among critics for writing "fluff", Steel often delves into the less savory aspects of human nature, including incest, suicide, divorce, war, and even the Holocaust.As time has progressed, Steel's writing has evolved. Her later heroines tend to be stronger and more authoritative, who, if they do not receive the level of respect and attention they desire from a man, move on to a new life. In recent years Steel has also been willing to take more risks with her plots. Ransom focuses more on suspense than romance, and follows three sets of seemingly unconnected characters as their lives begin to intersect.Toxic Bachelors departs from her usual style by telling the story through the eyes of the three title characters, men who are relationship phobic and ultimately discover their true loves.
Steel has been criticized for making her books overly redundant and detailed,explicitly telling the story to readers instead of showing it to them. This sometimes has the effect of making the readers feel like they are on the outside looking in rather than living the story.
To avoid comparisons to her previous novels, Steel does not write sequels. Although many of her earliest books were released with initial print runs of 1 million copies, by 2004 her publisher had decreased the number of books initially printed to 650,000 due to the decline in people buying books. However, her fan base is still extremely strong with Steel's books selling out atop charts worldwide.
Twenty-two of her books have been adapted for television,including two that have received Golden Globe nominations. One is Jewels, the story of the survival of a woman and her children in World War II Europe, and the family's eventual rebirth as one of the greatest jewelry houses in Europe.Columbia Pictures was the first movie studio to offer for one of her novels, purchasing the rights to The Ghost in 1998.Steel also reached an agreement with New Line Home Entertainment in 2005 to sell the film rights to 30 of her novels for DVDs.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Author Stephenie Meyer photos gallery

Source: collect on the Internet

American author Stephenie Meyer profile and biography

Stephenie Meyer (born December 24, 1973), née Morgan, is an American author known for her vampire romance series Twilight.The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition and sold over 100 million copies globally, with translations into 37 different languages.Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.
Meyer was the biggest selling author of both 2008 and 2009, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 alone,with Twilight being the best-selling book of the year.She sold an additional 26.5 million books in 2009, making her the first author to achieve this feat in that year. Meyer was ranked #49 on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in 2008",and was also included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities in 2009, entering at #26. Her annual earnings exceeded $50 million. Also in 2010, Forbes ranked her as the #59 most powerful celebrity with annual earnings of $40 million.

Personal life

Stephenie Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Stephen and Candy Morgan. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with five siblings: Seth, Emily, Jacob, Paul, and Heidi. She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. She then attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she received a B.A. in English in 1997 Meyer met her husband Christiaan, nicknamed "Pancho", when she was growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994 when they both were 21. Together they have three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli. Christiaan Meyer, formerly an auditor, has now retired to take care of the children.
Meyer is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has stated that she is "straitlaced" about her beliefs, and does not drink alcohol or smoke. Meyer had never written even a short story before Twilight, and had considered going to law school because she felt she had no chance of becoming a writer; she later noted that the birth of her oldest son Gabe changed her mind, saying, "Once I had Gabe, I just wanted to be his mom."Before becoming an author, Meyer's only professional work was as a receptionist in a property company.
Meyer currently lives in Cave Creek, Arizona, and also owns a home on Marrowstone Island, Washington.
Twilight
Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003.The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood.Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the draft of what is now Chapter 13 of the book.In a matter of three months she had transformed her dream into a complete novel,though she claims that she never intended to publish Twilight and was writing for her own enjoyment. Her sister's response to the book was enthusiastic and she persuaded Meyer to send the manuscript to literary agencies. Of the 15 letters she wrote, five went unanswered, nine brought rejections, and the last was a positive response from Jodi Reamer of Writers House.Eight publishers competed for the rights to publish Twilight in a 2003 auction.By November, Meyer had signed a $750,000 three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.
Twilight was published in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies. It reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books within a month of its release,and later rose to #1.Foreign rights to the novel were sold to over 26 countries.The novel was named the Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Editor's Choice.
Subsequent novels
Following the success of Twilight (2005), Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books: New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). In its first week after publication, New Moon reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the #1 position, where it remained for the next eleven weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. After the release of Eclipse, the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.The fourth installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, was released with an initial print run of 3.7 million copies.Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day. The novel also won Meyer her first British Book Award, despite competition with J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard.The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. In 2008, the four books of the series claimed the top four spots on USA Today's year-end bestseller list, making Meyer the first author to ever achieve this feat as well as being the bestselling author of the year. The Twilight novels held the top four spots on USA Today's year-end list again in 2009.

In August 2009, USA Today revealed that Meyer broke J.K. Rowling's record on their bestseller list; the four Twilight books had spent 52 straight weeks in the top 10.The books have also spent more than 143 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List.
Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective.Midnight Sun was to be a companion novel to the series. It would be a retelling of the events of the novel Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen (as opposed to Bella Swan). Meyer had hoped to have Midnight Sun published some time shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn, but after an online leak of a rough draft of its first 12 chapters, Meyer chose to delay the project indefinitely.Since Meyer has decided to pursue non-Twilight related books as a result of the leak, she made the rough chapters of "Midnight Sun" available on her website.
Inspiration
Meyer cites many novels as inspiration for the Twilight series, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.Each book in the series was also inspired specifically by a different literary classic: Twilight by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; New Moon by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; Eclipse by Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights; and Breaking Dawn's theme by Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream.Meyer said, "I've been reading books for adults my entire life. Growing up I was an avid reader—the thicker the book, the better."She also said she is a huge fan of Orson Scott Card, and "can't go through a year without re-reading" Jane Austen's books.
She also says that her writing is strongly influenced by music, and she posts "playlists" (from Playlist.com) on her website of songs which specifically inspired her books. Bands included most often in her playlists are Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, and Linkin Park.
Meyer, a Mormon, acknowledges that her faith has influenced her work. In particular, she says that her characters "tend to think more about where they came from, and where they are going, than might be typical."Meyer also steers her work from subjects such as sex, despite the romantic nature of the novels. Meyer says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be Mormon-influenced, or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values, saying, "I don't think my books are going to be really graphic or dark, because of who I am. There's always going to be a lot of light in my stories."
Film adaptations
Main article: The Twilight Saga (film series)
Summit Entertainment optioned Twilight in April 2007. Catherine Hardwicke directed the film, and the screenplay was written by Melissa Rosenberg. It stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen.The movie was released on November 21, 2008. Meyer makes a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene.Following the success of Twilight, Summit greenlit a film adaptation of the sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, in November 2008.Chris Weitz directed the film,which was released on November 20, 2009.Summit confirmed an adaptation of the third book in the series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, in February 2009. David Slade directed the film, which was released on June 30, 2010. Summit also obtained the rights to Breaking Dawn in November 2008,and approved a two-part adaptation in June 2010 that will start production in late 2010. A November 18, 2011, release date has been set for the first part, and a November 16, 2012 release for the second part.
Reception and recognition

Entertainment Weekly has stated that Meyer is "the world's most popular vampire novelist since Anne Rice",while The Guardian described her as an "imaginative storyteller, a prolific author and a newly powerful figure in the publishing market." Wayne Janes of Toronto Sun agreed, saying, "Meyer's success points up another trend — the virtual domination of the best-seller lists the last few years by what would normally be classified as young adult fiction," and noted, "In the absence of a new Harry Potter adventure, teens, fantasy enthusiasts and women (sales are mostly to females) who swoon at the idea of a virginal James Dean-ish vampire made Meyer the go-to gal for chaste love."Tymon Smith of The Times has described her as the "superstar of young adult fiction".
Meyer was named USA Today's "Author of the Year" in 2008,and one of MSN Lifestyle's "Most Influential Women of 2008" where she was described as a "literary luminary".She was also ranked #49 on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in 2008",and was included in their list of "People Who Mattered", with Lev Grossman noting, "Maybe Americans aren't ready for a Mormon presidential nominee yet. But they're more than ready to anoint a Mormon as the best-selling novelist of the year."As well, Meyer was included in The Arizona Republic's "Valley's Most Fascinating People" in December 2008.
Novelist Orson Scott Card said, "[Stephenie Meyer] writes with luminous clarity, never standing between the reader and the dream they share. She's the real thing".Scott also went on to describe Meyer as an "amazing phenomenon".n an interview with Newsweek, author Jodi Picoult said, "Stephenie Meyer has gotten people hooked on books, and that's good for all of us."
Meyer was ranked #5 on Forbes' list of "Hollywood's Top-Earning Women", the only author on the list, and it was noted that the "Twilight series of young-adult vampire books have taken the publishing and film worlds by storm."She was also ranked #82 on Vanity Fair's list of the "Top 100 Information Age Powers" of 2009. The same year, Meyer was featured in an issue of the biographical comic Female Force, a Bluewater Productions title which celebrates influential women in society and pop culture.The comic has previously published biographies of women such as Oprah Winfrey and Princess Diana.
Meyer was the second bestselling author of the decade, according to a list published by Amazon, beaten only by JK Rowling.
Fan following
Meyer has gained a following among young adult readers for her Twilight novels, which are set in the small town of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Forks has thus received an unusual amount of attention, and celebrates "Stephenie Meyer Day" on September 13, the date of character Bella Swan's birthday.
Fans express themselves in other ways: "[They] dress up like her characters. They write their own stories about them and post their tales on the Internet. When she appears at a bookstore, 3,000 people go to meet her. There are Twilight-themed rock bands."
Criticism
Comparing Meyer to J. K. Rowling, Stephen King stated, "the real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer, and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."King went on to say that "people are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual."
Some of the strongest criticism comes from feminists who consider Meyer an anti-feminist writer, pointing out that Bella's entire life revolves around Edward, and that she is never in control; she is absolutely dependent on Edward’s ability to protect her life, her virginity, and her humanity. Meyer has dismissed such criticisms, arguing both that the books center around Bella's choice, and that her damsel in distress persona is due only to her humanity.
Other works

One of Meyer's short stories was published in Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of stories about bad prom nights with supernatural effects. Meyer's story, Hell on Earth, was about a demon and angel who fall in love with each other. Other authors who contributed to this collection are Meg Cabot, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle. Prom Nights from Hell was released in April 2007.
In May 2008, Meyer's adult sci-fi novel, The Host, was released by the adult division of Little, Brown and Company; it follows the story of Melanie Stryder and Wanderer, a young woman and an invading alien "soul," who are forced to work as one. The Host debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, and remained on the list for 26 weeks. In March 2008, Meyer said she was "almost done" writing a possible sequel to The Host, entitled The Soul. If she were to continue the series, the third book would be called The Seeker.
Meyer mentions having several other book ideas on file, including a ghost story titled Summer House and a novel involving time travel,as well as another about mermaids.
On August 28, 2008, it was announced that Meyer had written the treatment for Jack's Mannequin music video, "The Resolution", which she co-directed the following week.
In 2009, Meyer teamed with the skateboard and clothing company Hobo Skate Company to produce her own clothing line, consisting of a line of T-shirts and skateboards related to her science-fiction novel, The Host.
On March 30, 2010, it was announced that Meyer had written a 200-page novella "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner". The book was released on June 5, 2010, by Atom and was also available for free between June 7 and July 5 on the official website.
Philanthropy

In April 2009, Meyer took part in Project Book Babe, a benefit designed to help pay her friend Faith Hochhalter's medical bills after Hochhalter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Meyer donated many advance reader copies and original manuscripts for auction.The same year, Meyer teamed up with Hobo Skate Company to auction off a The Host-themed skateboard, which sold for $1500 that was donated to charity.
Publications

Twilight series
Twilight (2005)
New Moon (2006)
Eclipse (2007)
Breaking Dawn (2008)
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (2010)
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (2011)
Other books
Prom Nights from Hell (section, 2007)
The Host (2008)


Source: wikipedia.org