"Twilight" Author Stephenie Meyer on Her Musical Muses, Upcoming Movie and Mermaid Dreams

Over the past year, author Stephenie Meyer has been lauded as the next J.K. Rowling thanks to the blockbuster sales of 1.3 million copies of Breaking Dawn, the final installment in her four-book vampire series Twilight. Meyer's got the same hysterical fans, midnight release parties and movies in the works as the Harry Potter scribe, but there's a rock & roll side to her work that makes her unique: each book is accompanied by a playlist packed with bands like Muse and Linkin Park, and she's currently on tour — with Blue October lead singer Justin Furstenfeld.

(Click here for our full story on Meyer's Breaking Dawn Concert Series, her musical muses and more.)

Meyer tells Rolling Stone she'll take next year to work on Midnight Sun, a retelling of Twilight from the perspective of her male lead, Edward, that she began after discovering he was misunderstood by readers. Then there's a possible sequel to her first adult novel, The Host ("Those characters are really hard to put away"), a potential ghost story ("I'm pretty excited about it because I get to make up my own world there") and even a mermaid tale ("I love the idea, and I love the characters, but I don't know if I can do it").

Before the end of 2008, Meyer will also see the release of the Twilight movie. After viewing a rough cut for the first time, she tells Rolling Stone, "It just has the soul of the book — it had Bella and Edward's relationship." Meyer was also ecstatic that the film's soundtrack will include "Super Massive Black Hole" by her favorite band, Muse ("It wouldn't feel like this movie was based on something I did without Muse in it," she laughs) and says she's being consulted on the rest of the soundtrack, as well.

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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