Midnight Sun leaks

Apparently a different version of the Stephenie Meyer hit, Twilight, has been in the works for some time now, titled Midnight Sun. While Twilight tells Edward and Bella's soggy love-tale through Bella's eyes, Midnight Sun does the same thing through Edward's eyes.

If you don't know anything about Twilight (and I don't know how you wouldn't, except ... please refer to my previous post on this subject) then let me take the pain to elucidate: Edward is a vampire, sexy, super fast, super strong, and smart. Bella is a human girl, mundane-looking compared to Edward, maladroit (the book does mention that she trips a lot), delicate, and ... smart. Both fall in love and stuff happens (read the book to discover more).

Twilight was an okay book by all standards. It started really slow and dragged on for hundreds of pages until James (a psychopathic vampire who takes great pleasure in videoing his victims before offing them) and his nomadic vampire mates popped into the scene at the very end. That's when things got very interesting. I suspect the reason for this was experiencing the world of Twilight through Bella's eyes. Yes, that's right – she's not a very appealing character, to say the least.

Edward was the gem of Twilight (along with his vampire family), so it would be nice and exciting to observe everything from his point of view.

Unfortunately, it seems that won't be happening any time soon. It appears that the first twelve chapters of Midnight Sun leaked a couple of weeks ago (or months, I don't know) and Meyer isn't pleased about it. Thus she has put the release of Midnight Sun on hold ... indefinitely. Or maybe ad infinitum, though I hope not, because I do want to see what it's like being Edward ... being a vampire with superpowers.

In her public statement, Stephenie Meyer mentioned that she had a good idea of how the leak happened. Turns out she gave away copies of Midnight Sun's incomplete manuscript to certain "trusted individuals for a good purpose".

Perhaps this is lesson to learn from, Ms Meyer. You don't write a book, shatter records (Breaking Dawn sold a reported 1.3 million copies in one day. Wow) and mail out copies of your series' prequel to anyone but your editors or publishers. I'm not a published author (yet) and I don't allow people to read my works, complete or incomplete, except my closest, most trusted friend who acts as my editor. So why, Stephenie, should you?

I know it hurts; I'd be in a fit of spleen if one chapter of my book(s) leaked (not to talk of twelve), but what's done is done, Stephenie. Relax for a few weeks, get over it and get writing. There's no need to punish your entire fan base for your mistake.

Will this leak affect Midnight Sun's sales? Nope. It wouldn't even put a dent in it. Knowing Stephenie Meyer, this book will probably end up being fifty chapters and 900 pages long, so twelve giveaway chapters is a nonentity, really.

I'm still reading Breaking Dawn, and ... I won't say anything until I'm finished. But it is everything I expected it would be: slow-paced plot and awfully verbose, all packaged into one neat, gigantic 754-paged hardcover book. Only time will tell if the book's size is practical or pointless.