Stephenie Meyer Says Fans Should Read " The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" before seeing Eclipse

USA Today has a great interview with Stephenie Meyer regarding her new novella, "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" which is on sale this Saturday:

Q: Bree only appears in a couple pages of Eclipse. What was it about the character that made you want to explore her story further?

A: In the beginning, I wasn't fascinated specifically by Bree — it was the newborns in general. While I was writing Eclipse, there was a lot going on behind the scenes, of course, things Bella didn't know about. Because I was focused on Bella, I couldn't delve too deeply into the newborns' story, however, there was always in my mind a general idea of what they were up to. I had to think about that while I was pacing the plot: Bella is at this point, the newborns are doing this. To keep it all straight, eventually I made a calendar of the months of May and June — which is all Eclipse deals with — and wrote down on each square what was going on with Bella that day and what was happening in Seattle. So the story of the newborns was always a big part of the story of Eclipse. And it made me kind of sad that there was no way to express any of that in the book.

Bree is the only newborn mentioned by name in Eclipse, the only newborn who has contact with the Cullens (aside from being killed by them), and the only newborn who encounters the Volturi in the clearing. She lives the longest, so she is the narrator who can tell the full story. She was a natural choice to chronicle the story of the newborns. Once I started writing from her perspective, she really came alive. So much so that, as the inevitable end got closer, it was really depressing going ahead. It was harder for me to kill Bree than any other fiction character I've ever killed, even though I was killing her for the second time. (Before Bree, the saddest was Walter in The Host.)
Q: Why do you feel it is important for people to read Bree’s story prior to the release of the Eclipse movie?

A: Eclipse is told from only Bella’s perspective. That has some limitations; when there is so much going on off-stage (so to speak), it leaves a lot of mysteries. The films have the advantage of seeing the story from outside of Bella’s head. The viewer can see things — like the wolves hunting Victoria in New Moon— that the reader only gets hints of. Of all the Twilight books, Eclipse has the most going on outside of Bella’s view. For the movie to work, we have to see and understand some of these things.

Knowing that elements of Bree’s story were being incorporated into the movie, I hoped the story could somehow get out first. Personally, I always want to read a book before seeing the movie. I like to make my own mental pictures before someone else’s picture intrudes. Probably most of my readers don’t have the same hang-up, but for those who do, I wanted to give them the chance to create their own mental pictures of Bree and the gang.

Q: In which order would you recommend one read The Twilight Saga with the addition of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner? Should they follow Eclipse with the novella or finish Breaking Dawn before cracking the pages of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner?

A: If I were going to read the saga for the first time, I would probably read Bella's story straight through before launching into other perspectives.

Read the entire article at USA Today.