Richard Crouse

Unlike most pop culture superstars, author Stephenie Meyer is not on Twitter. Well, she is, but she’s only tweeted twice, both times on April 16, 2009. Still, she has almost 100,000 followers eager to hear any pronouncement from the woman who gave us eternal lovers Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and the Twilight universe.

She had time to tap out the two tweets because at the time her world “had not been affected by the movies as it is now.”

Currently the five Twilight films have grossed over $2 billion and a new film sits poised to create another Meyer franchise. It’s unlikely she’ll have time to tweet anytime soon.

The Host, starring Saoirse Ronan, is a science fiction romance based on Meyer’s 2008 novel.

“When I came up with the idea I was driving between Phoenix and Salt Lake City,” she says.

“Through the desert there really is nothing for hours and hours and I didn’t have anyone to talk to, so I was entertaining myself and in the middle of that came the idea of two people, in one body, in love with the same person, and that conflict. I thought, ‘That’s not a bad idea’ and I started working on it, just in my head, until I could get to where I could start typing.”

Her love of science fiction dates back to early childhood when her father would read the stories of Frank Herbert, Orson Scott Card and others aloud to the family.“I remember he read us Dune. The first one gave me nightmares.”

The home readings, she says, were “great for a growing imagination. I also had a real affinity for that kind of reading so I don’t think it was an accident that the second world I created was a science fiction world.”

She’s quick to point out, however, that The Host is suitable for people who don’t necessarily like sci fi.

“It’s in our world and it looks the same and people are in our bodies, so it feels the same.

“You don’t have to try and immerse yourself in something that is completely alien to you.

“I think that takes away one of the hurdles for people who aren’t sure about science fiction.”

As a fan, however, she sees the tantalizing possibilities in the genre.

“Science fiction lets us experience something that we haven’t yet,” she says, “but we might.”