'Twilight' author Stephenie Meyer publishes gender-swapped novel to celebrate 10th anniversary.
To celebrate one successful decade of her the best-selling series, "The Twilight Saga" author Stephenie Meyer has rewritten her first novel as "Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined." The new thing is the genders of the original protagonists switched.
In the 442-page novel, Bella Swan is now Beaufort or Beau, and Edward Cullen has become Edythe, New York Daily News reported.
Meyer talked about the inspiration behind the new venture on the American television show "Good Morning America." The new story is told from the perspective of Beau, the male equivalent of "Twilight" star Bella Swan. Meyer swapped genders after years of people calling Bella a damsel in distress.
"It's always bothered me a little bit because anyone surrounded by superheroes is going to be...in distress. We don't have the powers. I thought, 'What if we switched it around a bit and see how a boy does?' And, you know, it's about the same," she told Good Morning America.
The American young-adult fiction writer says her publisher originally just wanted her to write a foreword. The new book also resulted from wanting to correct some errors and fix grammar issues, she writes in a note at the beginning of "Life and Death."
Twihards can expect a potential movie reboot. Many fans expected Meyer's 10th anniversary surprise to be "Midnight Sun". It would be a retelling of the events of the novel Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen.
Meyer had hoped to have "Midnight Sun" published shortly after the release of "Breaking Dawn," but a rough draft of its first 12 chapters leaked on the internet and she chose to delay the project forever. She made the rough chapters of the book available on her website.
The anniversary edition of "Twilight" is currently available in bookstores, with the cover of the original "Twilight" novel on the front and the special "Twilight Reimagined" cover on the back.
The "Twilight" novels have gained the universal appreciation and have sold over 100 million copies, with translations into 37 different languages. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in America, having sold over 29 million books in 2008, and 26.5 million books in 2009. Twilight was the best-selling book of 2008 in US bookstores.
Meyer was ranked No. 49 on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in 2008", and was included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities in 2009, entering at No. 26. In 2010, Forbes ranked her as the No. 59 most powerful celebrity with annual earnings of $40 million.
