The Host--Discussion and Book Signing

Last Friday Janan, Jamie and I headed to Thanksgiving Point to wait in line for the Stephenie Meyer Book Signing. We arrived at about 4:30 to find the line stretched around the Show Barn. We stood in line and balanced our Sticky Fingers Salads from Wingers as we scooted slowly forward with the crowd.

Here Janan and Jamie are engaged in a lively discussion. Actually this conversation was obligingly staged by the girls. We did have a rather heated debate about whether Jamie should give the Winger's bag back for our dinner trash or whether she could keep it to hold her large Meyer volumes. Jamie won. But we got even by making her hold the trash and add it to the overflowing garbage at the entrance.


After finding fairly good seats a little after 5:15, we sat and waited. My friend Pam joined us having smartly left the waiting-in-line and holding-seats to the freaks. Stephenie came out shortly after 7:00 and answered some questions. This portion of the night was too brief. She was done and ready to sign at 7:20. Considering that we weren't too far back and it was another 2 hours before our turn came, I can't blame her for getting down to business.

Here is a partial transcript of the Q&A (SPOILER ALERT!!!!):


Q: You write intense falling in love experiences. Where/who did you get your inspiration from? Do you believe people can experience the love you describe in your stories or is it fantasy to you? A: Uh, I don’t think you’re going to like the answer to this question, but I could not have written these stories before I had my children. They were my first experience with the kind of love that absolutely without question I would give my life for. You know I had different boys that I fell in love with off and on, but I always had a really firm grip on reality. But with my kids, I didn’t anymore. And that was really my experience with not the kind of romantic love, but to be able to understand the intensity and the way you do things that are insane and dangerous for somebody. That was when I kind of learned how it feels like that.

Q: Why did you make Jared so mean? I was bothered that he hit her “Wanderer” over and over again. (Steph: He only hit her the one time.) Why were Sharon and Maggie so bitter towards Wanda?
A: Here’s the thing—because I wrote the story from the alien’s perspective, I think everyone’s looking at it from that side and saying, “But Wanda means no harm. She’s this wonderful, kind person who would never hurt them, how can they be this way?” And I think what you need to do as you’re trying to understand them, is think of the scariest movie you’ve ever seen with a really scary monster—something that kept you up at night. And then imagine that the whole world is filled with that monster and you’re all by yourself with all the rest of them out there, and that you live in horror and fear every single day. And that’s a really hard thing to think about, it’s on thing to say the words—but to imagine it is something else. Then imagine that that monster is in your power and that you finally have a group of people who are on your side and one of them comes to you, how would you feel towards them? This person has taken away everything from you. This is your worst enemy in the world. I’m surprised that so many people can understand Wanderer because it doesn’t make sense from a human perspective to think kindly of her at all. And Jared in particular, think of the person you love most in the whole world and imagine if someone took them from you and they came back with their face. You know how you would feel towards that person. That he’s able to overlook who she is; is an amazing thing to me. It was interesting writing his character because originally I had only planned for him to be the only love interest in the story. But he was very inflexible, and it made sense for his character. When I write, the one thing I can’t do is make my characters say something or do something that isn’t part of who they are. And so I couldn’t make him be something he wasn’t. Ian, on the other hand, he wasn’t supposed to have a part. He barely had a name. But from the first time he opened his mouth to ask Jeb, “What are you thinking? Why are you doing this?” That sense of him wanting to know more and being willing to listen to the answer, sort of leaped into his character and by the time he had his first conversation with Jared, it was over. I was already sold. So, he really came in and changed the story and made it an ending that I enjoyed a lot more.

Q: Why are the souls able to live in a perfect society and the humans failed—aren’t the souls dealing with all the human emotions?
A: Yes. And if you think about it, all of us have human emotions and some of us try really hard to be good people. We don’t always succeed, but we try. And we would never dream of stealing from anyone or hurting anyone or doing anything bad. Then there are other human beings who have the exact same emotions as us, and they don’t mind strapping a bomb to themselves and blowing up a crowded square. Humans are capable of an amazing range. The souls aren’t the same—they don’t have that range. They really can’t be anything but kind. So they have the emotions, but like those of us who try to be good people, they’re quite able to handle them, and that’s why their society works so much better than ours.

Q: On page 218, please say it is not a coincidence; Jeb says he hears a lot of Jims and Pams. Please say it is because you love The Office. A: Yes. That was absolutely an Office reference. And I’m really glad people got it.

Q: Stephenie darling, how is Ian completely able to look past Melanie’s body and fall in love with the worm in the back of her head?
A: That was kind of the magic of the story for me. I knew people were going to accept her after a while. But when Ian started to fall in love with her, it made the experience. That’s why I finished the book I think, because I was so intrigued with this character who could do that. Who could care more about what somebody said and did rather than what they looked like or who they were. He was amazing to me and so, he was able to do that because that is who he is as a person. He takes people for what they really are and there aren’t very many people who can do that, that’s why I love him.

Q: Will there be a sequel to The Host?
A: This is one of those probably questions. It’s funny because I’ve been working so much on my other stories and I’ve been editing forever, and just thinking in the Forks world. That’s where I’ve been mentally. And so, in these last couple weeks, answering Host questions and going through the book again and again, I’m starting to get excited about the sequels which are kind of cool. I have outlines; I have the prologue written for the second one and the epilogue written to the third; so I’ve got the frame. And I imagine eventually that I’ll get to that. It might take me a while, so I don’t want to make any guarantees, right now as soon as I get done with this summer, what I want to do is just take a year and just write again. No publicity, none of that, just sit down and write for a whole year. Which sounds like an incredible luxury to me. So, we’ll see which books come out of that time.

Here they are: