It’s a dark day for Team Edward. Stephenie Meyer, bestselling author of the Twilight franchise, has announced on her website that she will no longer continue writing Midnight Sun — a companion novel that describes the Twilight events from hunky vampire Edward’s perspective — after an early, incomplete draft was posted illegally online. 

As Meyer writes on her website, "I’d rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun…My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn’t like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn’t dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely."

As for the leak itself, Meyer writes, "I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being. As the author of the Twilight Saga, I control the copyright and it is up to the owner of the copyright to decide when the books should be made public; this is the same for musicians and filmmakers. Just because someone buys a book or movie or song, or gets a download off the Internet, doesn’t mean that they own the right to reproduce and distribute it. Unfortunately, with the Internet, it is easy for people to obtain and share items that do not legally belong to them. No matter how this is done, it is still dishonest. This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control."

UPDATE: Little, Brown Books released the following statement on Tuesday afternoon:

"A partial draft containing chapters of Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer has been leaked on the Internet without the knowledge or permission of either Stephenie Meyer or Little, Brown. Although these early chapters were never intended to be published in their current form, Stephenie Meyer has decided to authorize the posting of these rough, initial chapters on her website (www.stepheniemeyer.com) in fairness to her true, loyal fans.
While no decisions have been made at this time regarding the publication of Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer is currently at work on other writing projects.  Little, Brown looks forward to our continued publishing relationship with Stephenie Meyer and, like her many fans, we are eager to experience her next literary creation."

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