Stephenie Meyer and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers have harnessed the popularity of the bloodsucking vampires in Meyer’s Twilight universe to raise money for the Red Cross. They pledged one dollar to the American Red Cross for each copy of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella sold in the US. Yesterday, they presented the Red Cross with a check for $1.5 million.

“I’m so grateful that Little, Brown, the American Red Cross, and my fans made this generous gift possible,” said Stephenie Meyer. “It’s amazing to have the opportunity to help those so greatly in need.”

“We’ve had the incredible great fortune to have one of the biggest publishing phenomenons in recent years along with The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner becoming one of the top selling titles of 2010,” said Hachette Book Group CEO David Young. “Giving back is extremely important to the company, so it is particularly gratifying to be able to share our success with an organization as worthy as The American Red Cross.”

The donation will go to the Red Cross’ International Response Fund, which is instrumental in their ability to respond to humanitarian missions, like the relief effort after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Visit www.redcross.org for more information.

Source

Did you have any of these Questions while reading ‘The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner’?

Where did Fred and Diego’s name come from?

How were Bree and Diego capable of their emotion having been newborns?

The Novella helps bring attention to how hard it is to be a newborn… Bella didn’t have a problem, so what are the differences?

Timelines… When did all the characters (Diego, Bree, Fred) come into play in correlation to The Twilight Saga?

Was Riley created while James was still alive?

If  yes, then you should head over to the TST to listen to another portion of their interview with SM. You can also go here to List to the other sites Junket clips as well.

AMAAAAAZING!!!

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella has sold more than 1 million U.S. copies since its release on June 5, making it the year’s best-selling book in under a month.

The novella is written from the viewpoint of Bree Tanner, a newborn vampire Stephenie Meyer introduced inEclipse, the third installment of her mega-selling The Twilight Saga.

Nearly 100 million copies of The Twilight Saga have been sold worldwide, according to publisher Little, Brown

Source

Quoting David Slade from the interview:

“I got to see it [Short Life of Bree Tanner] about half way through pre-production…One of the things in the ‘Bree Tanner’ story is that one of the hangouts is very close to water and so we specifically went after locations that were near water.”…they take the dregs of society. They take, not the dregs, but the people that won’t be missed. They take the prostitutes, they take drug addicts, they take people on the street, so that we cast people to look like that. It was fun to do that. We didn’t actually skew the entire film to fit ['Short Second Life']. I maintain that little book will [still] make a great film.”

Would you be interested in seeing the Short Second Live of Bree Tanner on the big screen?

HollywoodCrush

Death wish … Heloise Devaux, 13, who won a competition to receive the book first, sees copies of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner arrive at Waterstone’s by coffin. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Talk about selling like hotcakes!  Booksellers.com reports that according to Nielsen, “the book sold 79 copies per minute on average between its launch and 23:59 on the same day.” They don’t yet know the online statistics. That is pretty amazing and only includes UK data!

Did you buy it or read it online?

Stephenie Meyer’s The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Atom) sold 89,549 print copies in a little under 19 hours, becoming one of the fastest-selling books since records began.

Strictly embargoed until 5:05am on Saturday 5th June, the book sold 79 copies per minute on average between its launch and 23:59 on the same day (when Nielsen BookScan collects its data). A grand total of £512,226 was spent on the £11.99 Twilight novella, which sold at an average discount of 52.3%, plunging its average selling price to just £5.72.

It is not known how many e-copies have been sold. However, the book is currently fifth on the UK iBookstore chart, where it costs £8.99, and 131st on the UK Kindle store, where it costs $11.74 (£8.17).

Only two authors have enjoyed stronger opening sales from hardback titles: J K Rowling and Dan Brown. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Bloomsbury) currently holds the fastest-selling record as it sold 3.6m copies in its first 24 hours when it was released on 21st July 2007, while Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Bantam Press) sold 550,946 copies in its first five days on sale in September last year.

Helped by the Twilight spin-off’s release during the half-term break, sales of all of Meyer’s Twilight novels jumped by an average of 8.5% week-on-week during the seven days to 5th June, while Eclipse’s sales were further boosted by the release of a film tie-in edition to the adaptation which hits UK cinemas on 9th July.

Two pence in every pound spent on books in the UK last week went towards a copy of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, boosting total week-on-week sales by 2.1% to £26.6m‚ up 1.7% on the same week last year. It is the first time since December last year that book sales have been up year on year for two consecutive weeks.

Guardian

From MTV ’s Terri Schwartz

When the release date for “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” was announced as June 5, it didn’t seem like much of a coincidence that the date so closely preceded the June 30 release of “Eclipse.” Well, in a recent interview with USA Today, Stephenie Meyer flat out said that she wanted the book to get out before the film’s release because some elements from the novella would be used in “Eclipse.”

After reading “Short Second Life,” it was easy to pick out some scenes that were most likely to make it into the film, as well as to realize that some already have. It’s sort of a tongue-in-cheek move, because while those who haven’t read Stephenie’s newest installment will think that the newborn vampire scenes were David Slade’s creative vision, those who have will get a kick out of seeing Bree’s story come to life. Be wary, because there are plenty of spoilers for “Short Second Life” after the jump, but click on to see the scenes we found most likely to be in “Eclipse.”

Probably in “Eclipse”: The newborns’ basement hide out

In “Short Second Life,” the newborn vampires are told a string of lies so Riley and Victoria can keep them under control easier, and one of them is that the sun will destroy any vampire that steps in it. Obviously, in Stephenie’s universe, we know this isn’t the case, and the worst affect the sun will have on a vampire is a blinding sparkle. Riley keeps the newborns in basements during the daytime so they can have a base to return to in order to stay out of the sun all day, and we’re sure that we’ll be seeing some scenes in there during the course of the film.

Already in “Eclipse”: Newborns ransacking Seattle

The first scene in “Short Second Life” follows Bree as she is out on a hunt with some of her fellow newborns. There’s Kevin and “Spider-man” (a blond whose name Bree doesn’t know), as well as Diego, who Bree ends up falling for. Kevin starts causing trouble and flips a car over so he can feed on its driver, and he and Spider-man start tearing the poor woman apart for her blood. Bree stands off to the side while they do this, full of thirst but not willing to fight the two of them for a slim amount of blood, and then she and Diego take off for better hunting. Fortunately, we’ve already seen a variation of this scene in a clip we got (a snapshot is taken from it above), and it turns out the Volturi were watching the newborns the whole time.

Probably in “Eclipse”: The Volturi confronting Victoria and Riley

Did you know that, despite Jane’s naïve claims at the end of “Eclipse” that Victoria and her army escaped Volturi attention, the Volturi actually knew the entire time? Probably, if you’ve seen the clip mentioned above. But, even worse than that, it turns out that the Volturi actually confront Victoria and let her continue her path of destruction because they want her to kill the Cullens! This scene almost shocked us more than it did the eavesdropping Bree and Diego in “Short Second Life,” and we’re betting our pennies that this new twist of events makes its way into “Eclipse.”

Already in “Eclipse”: Newborns following Riley through water

Turns out that chillingly awesome, George Romero-esque scene in the “Eclipse” trailer where the newborns walk through a body of water behind Riley is right out of “Short Second Life” too, on pages 117 and 118:

Riley paused at the water’s edge… He dove smoothly into the surf. The others were growling excitedly as they submerged, too… We didn’t swim long, and then we saw the others kicking upward. Fred and I [Bree] surfaced last, and Riley started talking as soon as our heads were out of the water.

Since we haven’t seen how the water scene fits into the context of “Eclipse” yet, we can’t tell if David Slade just took the visual from “Short Second Life” for the film or actually used the entire scene as well. In the novella, Riley is leading the newborns to a feeding frenzy on a nearby ferry, and that’s why they’re near water. However, in the trailer, it seems as though Riley is leading the newborns to the final battle with the Cullens, especially since they seem to be walking in the daytime, albeit under cloud cover. Still, the second we read that scene we knew exactly where we would be seeing its visual equivalent in the film.

Probably in “Eclipse”: Carlisle stopping Bree in the woods

We all know Carlisle and Edward team up to try to save Bree from her inevitable death at the hands of the Volturi, but what we don’t get to see in “Eclipse” from Bella’s perspective is the moment when Carlisle almost kills Bree himself, but then she surrenders and he chooses to let her “live.” This moment is, of course, in “Short Second Life,” and will most likely be included in the film to flesh out Bree’s final moments.

Eclipse | Jodelle Ferland | Melissa Rosenberg | Summer Moview 2010

Hollywood Crush has a review of the new Stephenie Meyer book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. As I am not finished with it yet, I haven’t read the review.  But, if you have finished it and want to read and comment on their take on the book, here is your chance!

Expectations weren’t as high this time. It was like we were getting a surprise piece of chocolate with our dinner bill, not a complimentary dish of crème brulée. Still, “Twilight” fans haven’t had any new books to look forward to in almost two years, so we were excited and hopeful about “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.” And I, at least, was not disappointed by the little novella. Pleasantly surprised, even.

As much as I was addicted to the “Twilight” saga, I wasn’t oblivious to its flaws. Stephenie Meyer could spend dozens of pages describing Bella doing her homework and making dinner, when we’d really rather skip to the vampire-werewolf drama going on outside. And as much as we’ve been drawn in by the heart-wrenching scenes between human and cold one, even those could get overwrought and repetitive. But here, in this 178-page little tale, Meyer has no time to get too gooey or bogged down in details. We’re dropped right into the bloody action.

Bree Tanner, a runaway who’s not sure if she reached her 16th birthday before Riley promised her a hamburger and turned her into a bloodthirsty killing machine instead, is probably one of the most tragic characters Meyer has ever created. Even as a super-strong vampire, she’s constantly in danger of being ripped apart and destroyed by the other newborns, whose complete savagery seems to be encouraged by the coven’s leaders.

Since we already know she dies at the end, we should be able to brace ourselves and not get too attached to the doomed girl. But as we get to know her, we can’t help hoping that maybe “Eclipse” got it wrong. At the beginning of the story, she’s offered a tiny glimmer of hope, a way out of the nonstop thirst and fear of her new life when a slightly older vampire Diego takes her under his wing. He’s not just an animal like the former gang members and junkies they’re forced to live with. And their mutual discovery that instead of burning to a crisp in the sun, they glitter like disco balls, is a touching moment that rivals the Bella-Edward meadow scene. It’s seriously torturous to watch Bree become enlightened, and even empowered, while also knowing that she’s days away from the end of this short second life.

Aside from an interesting character study, the story is also meant to give us a glimpse at the other side of the battle in “Eclipse.” SPOILERS AHEAD: The newborns have been lied to by Riley, manipulated into being dependent on him and scared to death to disobey any orders that have come down from “her” — because of the Cullens’ special powers, Victoria knows better than to let her army so much as think her name. They live like a band of directionless, homeless youth; which they are. And actually, the Cullens aren’t the only ones with special powers. Among the newborns is Freaky Fred, whose ability to repel everyone to the point that he’s invisible allows him to protect Bree and ultimately to escape the coven. How much would you love a little spin-off of Fred’s adventures in Vancouver now?

Three interesting revelations: 1) Victoria is aware of Alice’s ability to see the future, so it’s on purpose that she doesn’t make up her mind how to attack until the last minute. And, 2) Jane and her entourage actually visit Victoria and give her five days to enact her battle plan before the Volturi would destroy the newborn army. 3) As a surrendered Bree is being interrogated by Jane following the fight, she manages to figure out that Edward reads minds and conveys to him that the Volturi weren’t entirely on the Cullens’ side.

The battle scene itself is brief and confusing — we got more brutal detail from the newborns’ hunts. But if the point of this novella is to give a new perspective to a story we already know, I think “Bree Tanner” succeeded nicely. And I can’t wait to see how it comes into play when “Eclipse” makes it to the big screen in a few weeks.

Here is a look at Stephenie Meyer’s introduction to The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner…now go read! Click here or on the graphic to go to the book.  It is only available from noon EST on June 7th until midnight EST on July 5th.

THE BREE TANNER NOVELLA CAME OUT TODAY!!!!

Now this will be spoilerish, so don’t read the comments if you don’t want to be spoiled!

Please tell us what you thought of Stephenie Meyer’s novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner!

There’s a new warning PC Tools issued this morning for fans of the very popular Twilight series. It concerns Stephenie Meyer’s upcoming novella, “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” that will be available for free online June 7th at http://www.breetanner.com/

As the much anticipated novella hits, fans need to be aware of the harmful malware and viruses found on suspicious e-book download sites and “poisoned pdfs”. The growth of e-books usage has spawned increased cybercriminal activities from computers to mobile devices and e-readers.

PC Tools predicts that once the novella is available, cybercriminals will distribute it through Twilight fan sites and searches as a “Poisoned PDF.” They will exploit the online searches to find ways to infect computers with malware and new threats. Eager fans searching for early sneak peeks will also be targeted.

Cybercriminals are leveraging the viral nature of PDFs by inserting malware into a PDF’s Java Script. As Java Scripting makes PDF documents more engaging, it provides cybercriminals access into hacking your computer. Symantec recently reported that Poison PDF attacks skyrocketed in 2009 to represent 49 percent of web-based attacks.

Consumers need to run the latest security software to protect their computers and mobile devices.

Here are some tips they sent to keep you safe as well as some examples of previous attacks on Twilight fans:

FIVE WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE VAMPIRE BYTE!

• DON’T BE FOOLED BY FAKES – If a virus alert or book download site pops up on your computer screen, don’t click on it. Close the alert and run your antivirus software. In April Google reported on its analysis of 240 million web pages which uncovered over 11,000 domains involved in Fake AV distribution – about 15% of the malware domains detected on the web during a 13-month period.

• KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO – If you download a book, application or other types of files, save it on your computer and scan it before opening. Never click on the “run” program option.

• PROTECT YOURSELF FROM POISON – While PC Tools recommends only opening e-book PDF’s from people you trust, if you have to open a PDF file with your reader, make sure you disable the Java Script on your PDF reader since cybercriminals poison PDF’s by inserting the malware into a PDF’s Java Script

• STAY IN SAFE PLACES – Be careful of book download domains that are not .net or .com.  International domains like those for Russia (.ru) are frequently used by cybercriminals wanting to avoid prosecution in the USA and UK.  Also, stay away from torrents and other freeware sharing sites.

• X MARKS THE MALWARE – Be careful with links with an .exe suffix since .exe means an executable program that could be malware.

The following examples are past threats associated with Stephenie Meyer and Twilight related searches. PC Tools will provide new threat updates surrounding the upcoming release of “Eclipse” movie due out on June 30.

THE VAMPIRE BYTE SEARCH ENGINE SCAM

• This scam targeted users searching “Stephenie Meyer”
• A result for “Stephenie Meyer at 365Multimedia.com” returned with a description of “Stephenie Meyer interview on Twilight the movie starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart”
• When clicked on, this link redirected users to a window informing them that they are infected with malware and they are then advised to download a phony antivirus software product to get rid of the infection.
• As Victims downloaded and installed the phony antivirus software they are asked for credit card information
• Malware was then installed on the user’s computer and any financial information entered is sent off to cybercriminals

THE STREAMVIEWER TWILIGHT SCAM
• Fans were baited with websites, chatrooms and blogs that read: “Watch New Moon Full Movie.” Concurrently, comment posts are filled with related keywords to attract more search engines.
• Search results for the movie then linked users to stolen images from the movie itself, convincing the fan that the movie is only one click away.
• When victims clicked on the “movie player” they were told to install a “streamviewer”
• The streamviewer, however, installed malware on the user’s computer