What surprise does Twilight author have up her sleeve?

Los Angeles, California — On Nov. 26, the maddening anticipation for Twilight will reach feverish heights when the movie version of the first book of the best-selling series by celebrated author Stephenie Meyer finally opens in the Philippines — and that’s not just where the good news ends.

Fans who eagerly await the opening of the movie have another very good reason to celebrate about. The author herself told this writer the good news that’s surely going to delight her most ardent fans. Nope, this writer is not telling you yet. A little suspense would not hurt, would it?

Yes, she loves the movie version! She has seen it twice already; one more than this writer (darn it, I could watch the movie again and again!) but that’s not the only thing she revealed during the junket for Twilight held in Beverly Hills two weeks ago.

Ready?

Midnight Sun will still come out after all.

But — that’s a big but — not without her usual caveat, that is. “You know — everything I say, people just blow it out of proportion,” she says. “The thing with me and my writing is that it’s such a personal thing and I have to be alone with the story and right now I feel that everyone in the world is involved with the story so I don’t feel that connected to it.”

“My plan is to wait a couple of years until everyone forgets about it so that it’s not like I hear the words on anyone’s tongue and it’ll be just me again and the story — and then I will try again,” she further explains. “But then when I say that people will say, ‘Okay… 2010, it’s gonna be out’ — but publishing it is not the problem, if it is done it will be published. Writing it is the problem and that takes a lot of emotional effort that I don’t have right now.”

So she may resume writing the book in two years or whenever but to her die-hard fans, who have been disconsolate that the book might not be published anymore, her most welcome disclosure is good enough to send them into another glorious delirium.

In September, the author announced that she will halt writing the Vampire saga’s fifth and final installment, a retelling of the first book based on the male protagonist’s perspective, after a draft was leaked on the Internet. That news sent avid fans of the series into a wild frenzy. Fans of the series composed of teenaged girls, their big sisters, their moms and even this writer’s established banker friends like Amie Catani and Yvonne Castro, collectively call themselves “Twilighters.”

The books have attracted such a huge band of dedicated followers that, in the last three years, have made Stephenie the hottest author since J.K. Rowling flooded the world with her phenomenal Harry Potter series.

With the success of the series, comparisons to J.K. Rowling inevitably surfaced and have since hounded the author no end. “It is really flattering and it is amazing to know that,” she admits. “It bothers me a little bit because we are completely different. The reason it bothers me is because a lot of people seems to take that comparison as if I’m going around saying I am the next J.K. Rowling because I know I’m not.”

“My process is different. I have to live the stories in order to write it. For me, I have to be so into it. I have the same state of mind that I cry and I sob sometimes when I write,” she says. “When I was working on New Moon (the second book in the series), I was so depressed for six months. It is not so much about my writing skill but about storytelling.”

Twilight was a small novel about a love story between a handsome vampire and a plain-looking human when it was published in 2003. It was initially rejected by 15 publishers until Little, Brown Books for Young Readers saw the manuscript and signed on the author for a three-book deal worth $750,000. “I’d been hoping to get $10,000 to pay off my minivan,” she humbly told Entertainment Weekly.

Five years and four novels later, Stephenie has sold over 10 million copies of her novels. Twilight alone has nearly four million copies in print. This month, the highly-anticipated movie hits the screen amidst such huge fanfare. Three weeks ago, this writer, along with select journalists from all over the world, was invited to an exclusive screening of the movie and was asked to sign an embargo not to release any reviews of the movie (but they say I can brag about it — and I have since been bragging about it!). Is it safe to report that there was a huge, thunderous applause at the end of the screening?

Stephenie, along with the movie’s leading stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, has toured Europe and crisscrossed across America to huge adulating crowds. Robert’s mall tours have caused some malls to close the entire complex just to accommodate the throng of fans who wants to get a glimpse of the young man who has taken Hollywood by storm. Industry insiders’ early estimates put the movie’s expected first weekend gross to reach as much as last summer’s The Dark Knight.

Unlike other authors who get so involved in the adaptation process of their books, Stephenie gave the filmmakers a complete freedom in translating the book to the screen. “I don’t know how to make movies so I wasn’t gonna get in the way of their writing. I knew they are not gonna ruin everything and they get me involved every now and then. They ask me ‘What you think about this’ and they let me read the script. I was so comfortable in how involved I was.”

She also expressed her excitement about the brilliant and inspired casting of the young actors who portray Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. Kristen was the first to be cast. “Kristen has an amazing number of movies already under her belt. Bella has a lot of drama going on and Kristen’s experience came into play there,” Stephenie says. “She has a devastating vulnerability about her that’s so perfect for Bella.”

While Kristen got the part with some ease, Robert faced more difficulty getting the part of Edward Cullen. He was cast only after he was made to audition with Kristen in director Catherine Hardwicke’s house. They were made to act out a love scene in the director’s own bedroom and she saw instantly the electrifying chemistry the two young stars had.

Fans initially rejected his casting but Stephenie considers him perfect for the part. “Edward has to be everything. He has to be beautiful and dangerous and angst-ridden and intelligent. A lot of guys were pretty, but they weren’t dangerous. Other guys were dangerous but not pretty enough. Robert has both sides.”

With Twilight opening this month, the hysteria is not expected to die down anytime soon as three more movies are being planned.

“It’s weird because it’s a book I never intended to write and a career I never wanted to excel and it all just fell together and became such a big deal that I am still kind of coping with. It’s bizarre. I can have a small wonderful thing and now look at this,” Stephenie says as she tries to make sense how in just a few short years the novel she wrote as a member of a small writer’s group has catapulted her to huge worldwide fame.

Twilight is produced by Summit Entertainment and released by Viva International.