VANCOUVER, B.C. — When Stephenie Meyer walks into a room of Twilight fans, there's no doubt she's their undisputed vampire queen.
* Basking in Twilight: Stephenie Meyer's The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide arrives April 12.
Ten lucky Twilight fans from around the world have come to this metropolitan Canadian city to meet the mega-selling author whose young-adult novels about an alluring vampire and his human soul mate have entranced them since 2005.
It's hard to say who's enjoying this total Twilight talkfest more — the attendees or the writer.
"I just love having the chance to sit down with a small group of fans," says Meyer, who is looking a little more Hollywood these days and a bit less like a suburban mom of three. "Bigger events are just too nerve-racking."
For this literary star, the days of chatting with a few fans at a local bookstore are over. Meyer is an international celebrity. Her books sell in dozens of countries. The film versions are hotly anticipated. Fan sites have gone viral.
This two-day chat fest with Meyer, which took place last Friday and Saturday, was a top-secret affair. Even the attendees weren't told where in the world they'd be meeting with Meyer until after they were notified they were among the chosen 10.
But every Twilight fan intuitively knows why Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, is a logical meeting place — the cast and crew of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Part 2, the final movies based on the four-book series, have been filming here since mid-February.
In roundtable discussions with Meyer at a Vancouver hotel, the winners discuss with finesse and endless authority vampire anatomy, werewolf legends, the back stories of the series' minor characters and, of course, the Edward/Bella/Jacob love triangle. (Jacob is the werewolf who also loves Bella and is played in the films by the often shirtless Taylor Lautner.)
But like seasoned journalists (many of these fans blog about the series), they're also here to ferret out juicy details: When will Meyer publish a new novel? What's it like being on the Twilight film set? What's new in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, a 543-page encyclopedic companion that Little, Brown will publish in hardcover for $24.99 on April 12? (The e-book will be available for $11.99 on April 13.)