August 14, 2007 (AP) -- It looks like Harry needs to make room for Edward and Bella: in a sign that young book fans may have found something to replace the recently ended Harry Potter series, readers snapped up a hefty 150,000 copies of Stephenie Meyer's "Eclipse," a young-adult novel about a gentlemanly vampire and the girl who loves him, in its first day on sale Tuesday.

The book immediately became this week's No. 1 fiction best-seller at Barnes & Noble Inc., knocking the final installment in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," into the No. 2 spot.

Readers snapped up a hefty 150,000 copies of Stephenie Meyer's "Eclipse" in its first day on sale.

Of course, most Harry Potter fans got their copy July 21, the first day it went on sale, so maintaining its top-selling status wouldn't have been easy. But Rowling's novel about the young wizard has continued to sell strongly, which makes the sales performance of "Eclipse" that much more striking.

One local retailer and the Naperville Public Library are excited as well. Candy Purdom, publicity and events coordinator for Anderson's Bookshop, said more than 1,000 tickets to a release-day event on Aug. 7 were snatched up by eager fans.

Since the two earlier books in Meyer's series - "Twilight" published in 2005 and "New Moon," which came out last year - have 1.6 million copies in print nationwide, the book's publisher expected "Eclipse" would sell well. While a novel in an established series might sell 5,000 copies on its first day, Lagardere SCA's Little, Brown Books for Young Readers imprint was hopeful "Eclipse" would sell 40,000.

"I've been in this business for 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this," said Megan Tingley, the imprint's publisher.

"We've already had kids come up and ask for "Eclipse," said Naperville Public Library's Misty Stamogiannos, adult services librarian and young adult point person for the 95th Street Library. "Right now we have 65 on the waiting list."

Stamogiannos said the shipment of the latest book should be coming fairly soon.

A 33-year-old mother of three who lives in the Phoenix suburbs, Meyer says she'd never thought of writing a book until she had a dream about a teenage girl and a handsome vampire.

"It sounds so cheesy, but that dream is Chapter 13 in my first novel," says Meyer. "I saw two characters talking about the fact that they were in love. He was telling her that his problem was that he wanted to kill her because she smelled so tasty."

Tingley noted that the books don't include sexually provocative material or graphic language, which makes it an easier sell for parents.

"Eclipse" has also proved popular for independent retailers. Gail Wetta, a staffer at Anderson's, said the store sold 1,000 books during an appearance Meyer made Tuesday evening at Pfeiffer Hall on the campus of North Central College. The store began to promote the event in mid-June.

"Her books are well-written, which goes a long way, but they also cross over," says Wetta. "By that I mean that young girls read them and say, 'Mom, you should read it too,' and when the moms read them, they like them."

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Posted by Vladimir Mon, 08/20/2007 - 21:03

 

Vampire flicks morph through the years

From its centuries-old genesis in European folk tales, the lore of the vampire has always been in flux. Much like the creatures that morph from wolf to bat to human form, vampire mythology continually reinvents itself -- a process amplified for modernity with the publication of Bram Stoker's hugely influential 1897 novel, "Dracula."

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Chapter 1 Sisters

Chapter 1

SISTERS

 

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An Interview With Nancy Kilpatrick

Nancy Kilpatrick has published 60 short stories and (under a pseudonym) two erotic horror novels. A long-standing aficionado of the undead, she possesses one of the world's largest collections of vampire- related materials.

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Alone

Cold autumn evenings,
looking out a window at the fading light,
winter seeping into weary bones,
thoughts turn to friends empty, pity filled hugs,
wondering if that is all that is left for me.

Only wanting to love, to be close to someone
but I get only to watch others walk hand in
hand, seperated, as if I'm in a glass cage.

Helpless, unknowing how to deal with all these
pain filled feelings.

Trying to keep hope but always losing sight.

Looking around and seeing friends full of love

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Chapter 02: Threads That Bind

A soft circle of light separated the darkness from a slight figure curled up in a chair. There in the stillness she sat with a battered black book on her lap, the only sound in the room being the scratch of the pencil she slowly moved across the pages. Were any one else around they might recognize her as Koreena Venusvii Anchalis, a pale young woman with a dark and muddled past, but no one else was around. Koreena sighed quietly to herself, reaching one ivory hand up to push the locks of hair from her face. 'Too many changes, and not all good' came the thought.

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