Stephenie Meyer and Twilight

It seems to be one of the topics of pop culture. Either you hate the Twilight Saga or love it. Typically I don't read books that have a crazy amount of hype, but I read Twilight long before there was hype. She's a wonderful writer, I get completely lost in her books. It's just the topics that are controversial. Is Bella too dependent on the overpowering Edward? I'm much more in love with her Host book. The topic doesn't bug me quite so much as the unbelievable, fantasy relationship of Edward and Bella.

Now Stephenie Meyer has a novella about the newborn vampire from Eclipse, Bree. She's letting her fans read it for free until July 5th (just click the book cover to get to breetanner.com). I'll post a review on it later. I really enjoyed it. It's always pretty fun to think about the other characters in a book, and here Stephenie Meyer took a very small character in the Eclipse book and hashed out her story.

So tell me, do you love it or hate it? Or are you the person I haven't heard about yet that is neutral on the topic?

Confusion as a Writer

Be prepared, this is kind of a vent session on my writing. I've been struggling since November with my inner editor. I participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words in a month. (Yay!) It is my first finished manuscript. Typically I get about 10,000 words in, reread it, and scrap it. This time I wrote all the way through refusing to reread what I wrote until I finished. I'm in the first edit of the manuscript and still working out the kinks. But I've gone back to writing the beginnings of novels and stopping short just a few chapters in. (That or short stories, a whole different animal considering I can finish them and have tons stored on my computer.)

Problem #1 - I can't finish a manuscript.

Now we come to my second problem. I am dying to write a fantasy or science fiction young adult novel. Every time I attempt it, it comes out childish. I could consider the possibility of writing a middle-grade book instead and then this wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason I can't. So now I've spent the last few weeks trying to come up with the right idea. I'm sure I'm a bit out of it in my preoccupation with book ideas because my husband keeps waving his hand in front of my face.

Problem #2 - Waiting for the right idea has taken weeks.

Today I had a break through. I was rereading Eclipse to get ready for the movie, and a line Bella said caused an idea to just pop in my head. I've never had that experience; it was exhilarating. All afternoon I've let this idea sit in the back of my mind. I'm not really touching it yet, just considering it. I don't want to scare it away. And I don't want to ruin it by writing 10,000 words and getting stuck. For now I'm leaving it alone. Anybody have any advice for me? I'll let you know how it goes.