The leak for this unfinished book happened at least six months ago, if memory serves me correctly.  Maybe back in August or September, something like that.  And it’s still being talked about.  Apparently fans were optimistic that Meyer would put the shenanigans behind her and finish writing the book.  The fans knew it was being written and were jonsing for some more Edward love.

Nein.  According to the Daily News, nothing’s changed.  It’s on hold indefinitely and she’s still licking her wounds about how much of a violation of her work and trust that leak was.  Would I be pissed if my first draft manuscript was leaked?  You bet.  Then again I’m not going to walk around a set of the movie based on the first book in my series and pass out unfinished first drafts of my fifth manuscript like sticks of gum either.  But that’s just me.

Does she not see that she made a really stupid move doing that?  I can understand a newbie writer doing that.  They’re overanxious, want people to read it and hand it out to anyone that says yes.  But this happened last year.  Twilight first came out in 2005.  The fourth book in the series, Breaking Dawn, was either just about to come out or had just come out.  This could not be passed off as newbie naivety.  So what was she thinking?  And it’s someone else’s fault for the leak when she handed out these manuscripts to people she didn’t rightly know and couldn’t rightly trust?

If I were so desperate to keep the contents of my book a secret, I’d do everything I could to prevent leaks.  Rowling was able to do it with Deathly Hallows (I believe, I don’t remember a leak for that one).  It seems to be working out ok for Suzanne Collins.  So . . . I fail to see the need for the hissy fit on Meyer’s part.  I guess this can be chalked up to yet another one of her instances of externalizing her flaws.

And I’ve read bits and pieces of that manuscript (it’s on her website, to her chagrin, because she doesn’t want people seeking out the illegal copy), along with other first draft pieces she’s put on her site and while she says they’re messy and full of errors, I honestly don’t see much of a difference between the quality of those first draft pieces and the final products.  Judge for yourself on that one.  Check out her website (www.stepheniemeyer.com) and compare.  I know I’m not alone there.

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