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| Stephenie Meyer's enthusiasm dims for another Twilight book 'I'm burned out on vampires right now', author of Bella and Edward blockbusters tells OprahWith sales of more than 70m copies she is the queen of teen vampire romance, but Twilight author Stephenie Meyer has announced that she's "a little burned out on vampires".Asked on the Oprah Winfrey show if she'd consider writing another book in the Twilight quartet, Meyer said that she had no immediate plans to return to the story of human teenager Bella and her vampire love interest Edward. "I think I need a little break," she said. "I've got to cleanse the palate ... I'm a little burned out on vampires right now."Her next book, she said, was likely to be a follow-up to her one adult novel The Host – about the invasion of earth by a species which takes over the minds of humans while leaving their bodies intact – which she sees as a trilogy, but it could also be something "completely different". "I have another book that's kind of been itching in the back of my brain, that's completely unrelated, totally fantasy. So fantasy it'll have a map in the front – that's always the judge, right?" she said.Having envisioned it as a longer series and "know[ing] what happens" to Bella and Edward in the future, Meyer said she "may" come back to the world of Twilight, but "I wrapped up [fourth novel] Breaking Dawn in a way that I felt satisfied with, so if that moment didn't come I'd feel OK".She's also musing over whether to go back to Midnight Sun, which tells the story of the romance from the perspective of vampire Edward. An unfinished draft was leaked on the internet last year, prompting the author to put the project "on hold indefinitely"."I need to feel alone with something to be able to write it and I do not feel alone with that manuscript at this point. So many people have chimed in on it," she said. "I'm over the shock of it but not over the feeling that everyone's involved now, and it doesn't feel like mine so much anymore. I 'm hoping that with a little time, time to write something else, get my head out of it for a while ... it's so clear in my head, I'd like to go back to it."The film of New Moon, the second book in the series, is released this week.Stephenie MeyerChildren and teenagersScience fiction, fantasy and horrorAlison Floodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Poetry with your fries? More companies, including McDonald's, are being moved to verse to advertise their products. Is this a welcome development?Robert Graves, the war poet, once remarked that, "There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either." Penury has been a repeating motif for poets throughout the ages, but advertising has always been one possible source of income for the modern jobbing wordsmith.Two prominent adverts, both of which lean heavily on the emotional appeal of poetry, are currently airing on our screens – a David Morrissey-narrated ad for McDonald's ("the Gothy types and scoffy types and like-their-coffee-frothy types were just passing by"), and a Pete Postlethwaite-narrated ad for Cathedral City cheddar cheese ("On the A47 it's cheese with cucumber / It's lunchtime for her as the rest of us slumber"). In recent years we've also seen poems used to advertise the AA, Waitrose, Center Parcs and the Prudential. But what do poets feel about this unsteady dance with commercialism?"It doesn't always please me," says Roger McGough, the Liverpudlian performance poet. "It's like when you hear music used in an advert and you feel it has degraded it. But as long as the poems are used respectfully, I think it can be OK. Center Parcs used Leisure by William Henry Davies, and Waitrose used Keats's To Autumn. I wrote a poem for a Prudential ad campaign, but Adrian Mitchell said he wouldn't do it. Verse has always been used in adverts – memorable language and the expectancy of rhyme are powerful – but it has to be used respectfully."Nick Toczek has also written a poem for an advert (the Prudential again: Our kids, who've grown and flown the nest, / Now only phone us to request / More cash on loan, their tone depressed"). He welcomes the exposure that advertising offers poetry."Shakespeare would have thought commercialism was worth it," he says. "Populism is good. The more language matters to people the better. Look how Auden sold after Four Weddings and a Funeral. But there is a line – I would have reservations about the politics of doing a poem for McDonald's, for example. But my Prudential poem is still the most recognised of all my poems. It took me 20 minutes to write, was broadcast 5,000 times and earned me £5,500."Jim Bolton, the creative director at Leo Burnett, the ad agency that produced the McDonald's advert, says that many viewers probably don't even think they're hearing poetry. "The McDonald's Favourite ad is not a tricky poem. But there is a certain cheekiness of McDonald's using poetry. It is not something people might expect."And then Bolton shares a secret: "It's actually based on Rolf Harris's song, Court Of King Caratacus. He gave us permission to use it, and then two of our copywriters changed the lyrics." That's poetic licence for you.AdvertisingPoetryLeo Hickmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Paperback Mass-Market Fiction Top 5 at a Glance1. DEAR JOHN, by Nicholas Sparks2. THE ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham3. ARCTIC DRIFT, by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler4. THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy5. CROSS COUNTRY, by James Patterson feeds.nytimes.com |
Hardcover Fiction Top 5 at a Glance1. THE LOST SYMBOL, by Dan Brown2. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett3. I, ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson4. SIZZLE, by Julie Garwood5. FIRED UP, by Jayne Ann Krentz feeds.nytimes.com |
At Festival in India, Books Are the Buzz The Jaipur Literature Festival has become the official annual celebration of a vibrant and resurgent Indian and South Asian literary scene. feeds.nytimes.com |