Steph Talks Future of The Host Books
Posted on 20. Feb, 2013 by lisa in Movie Related, News, Stephenie Meyer, Stephenie Meyer Books, The Host
While in Miami, Stephenie Meyer talked to the Associated Press about The Host. Comparison with The Twilight Saga, what makes this movie “guy friendly,” and about more books in this possible franchise.
MIAMI — Stephenie Meyer’s “The Host” doesn’t have much in common with her Twilight series, except maybe the potential for a franchise.
Meyer is working on a sequel to the 2008 novel she began writing as an escape from the editing of “Eclipse,” the third book in the Twilight vampire saga. And now that it too has reached the big screen, she’s got more books in mind.
“Once you’ve created characters that have life to them, unless you kill them all, you know where their stories go. You’re always aware of what happens next,” Meyer told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. “I’ve got outlines for the next books. I would hope that this would be a three-book arc, but we’ll see.”
At an advance screening of “The Host,” which premieres March 29, Meyer said she wrote the book when she was “kind of overwhelmed with vampires and red ink and a lot of people kind of having expectations of what they wanted from the next book and knowing that I wasn’t always answering those.”
Though she is the author of the unexpected Twilight phenomenon, Stephenie has made it known that science fiction is the genre with which she feels truly at home, rather than the fantasy world of teenage love, vampires and werewolves.
“The Host” will inevitably draw comparisons to the book and film series that made Meyer a phenomenon, but she hopes the story stands alone and appeals to a broader audience than just “Twi-hards.”
For one thing, she calls it her “guy friendly” work because it explores bonds and loyalties beyond simple romantic love.
“When you’re a teenager, love feels like life and death, but this is actual life and death, which is kind of more fun,” Meyer told the Miami audience.
“Not to mention all the explosions and gunfire,” said Abel, who plays Ian O’Shea, one of the human rebels in the story.
As to the future of books in this hopeful series, there is sure to be plenty of romance as that is a key element in Stephenie’s stories, but with the biggest obstacles to the relationships of Jared and Melanie, Ian and Wanderer resolved in the first book/movie, future installments may prove to be “guy friendly” too.
Though she’s attracted to complicated relationships, that conflict probably won’t surface in the sequel she’s writing.
“I feel like the ‘love box,’ as it is, is played out in this novel. It completely resolves into two happy places, so that won’t be a focus going forward,” Meyer said.
Stephenie hopes to get down to some serious writing after The Host Tour and things settle down a little. She mentioned in the Google interview last Thursday that she has a very detailed outline for the second book. She would love to have it done by end of summer, but realistically that is not likely. Let’s just hope it’s not too far off in the distant future until we will be storming the bookstores for it!
