The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner INTRODUCTION

No two writers go close to things in exactly the same way. We al are godly and motivated in different ways we have our own reasons why some characters stay with us while early(a)s disappear into a backlog of unattended files. Personal y, Ive never figu cherry-red out why some of my characters take on strong lives of their own, but Im always happy when they do. Those characters are the most facile to write, and so their stories are usual y the ones that get finished.Bree is one of those characters, and shes the chief reason why this story is now in your hands, rather than lost in the maze of forgotten folders inside my computer. (The two other reasons are named Diego and Fred.) I started thinking about Bree while I was editing Eclipse. Editing, not writing when I was writing the first draft of Eclipse, I had first-person-perspective blinders on anything that vitamin B complex a couldnt see or hear or feel or taste or touch was irrelevant. That story was her experience only. The next step in the editing process was to step away from boron a and see how the story flowed. My editor, Rebecca Davis, was a huge part of that process, and she had a lot of questions for me about the things boron a didnt know and how we could make the right parts of that story clearer. Because Bree is the only newborn Bel a sees, Brees was the perspective that I first gravitated toward as I considered what was going on behind the scenes. I started thinking about living in the wine cellar with the newborns and hunting traditional vampire-style. I imagined the world as Bree understood it. And it was easy to do that. From the start Bree was very clear as a character, and some of her friends as well sprang to life effortlessly. This is the way it usual y works for me I try to write a short synopsis of what is happening in some other part of the story, and I end up jotting down dialogue. In this case, instead of a synopsis, I found myself writing a day in Brees life.Writing Bree was the first time Id stepped into the shoes of a narrator who was a real vampire a hunter, a monster. I got to look through her red eyes at us humans suddenly we were pathetic and weak, easy prey, of no importance whatsoever except as a tasty snack. I felt what it was like to be alone while surrounded by enemies, always on guard, never sure of anything except that her life was always in danger. I got to submerge myself in a total y different breed of vampires newborns. The newborn life was something I hadnt ever gotten to explore even when Bel a final y became a vampire. Bel a was never a newborn like Bree was a newborn. It was exciting and dark and, ultimately, tragic. The closer I got to the inevitable end, the more I wished Id concluded Eclipse just slightly differently.I wonder how you wil feel about Bree. Shes such a smal, seemingly idle character in Eclipse. She lives for only five minutes of Bel as perspective. And yet her story is so important to an understanding of the nov el. When you read the Eclipse scene in which Bel a stares at Bree, assessing her as a possible future, did you ever think about what has brought Bree to that point in time? As Bree glares back, did you wonder what Bel a and the Cul ens look like to her? Probably not. But even if you did, Il bet you never guessed her secrets. I hope you end up caring about Bree as much as I do, though thats kind of a cruel wish. You know this it doesnt end wel for her. But at least you wil know the intact story. And that no perspective is ever real y trivial.Enjoy,Stephenie