Learning Something New Every Day

Number of children’s books that sold more than a million copies in 2009, according to Publishers Weekly: 20.

Number written by Stephenie Meyer, or based on her novels: 10.

Number written by Jeff Kinney: 5.

Number written by Rick Riordan: 2.

Number written by J. K. Rowling: 1.

Number written by Maurice Sendak: 1.

Number I hadn’t heard of: 1.

So I found the publisher’s synopsis for Tempted: House of Night:

In the sixth installment of the Casts’ [P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast] award-winning, “New York Times”-bestselling teen vampyre series, Zoey Redbird, High Priestess-in-training, finds herself juggling three guys—one of which is so into protecting her that he can sense her emotions.

Teens, vampires, stalking, multiple male leads. It sure sounds familiar. Where did this idea come from? According to an interview with Mama Cast:

Well, it started out with my agent saying “vampire finishing school”…at the [RWA National] Conference in Reno [July 2005, three months before Meyer’s Twilight appeared]. . . .

We were drinking, and she says, “Hey hey hey, I have an idea for a series I need to give you.”

I said, “Okay.”

She’s like, “Vampire finishing school.”

I had been reading a lot of young adult, and I was thinking I would really like to write a young adult series. She was thinking bondage and like college co-eds. I was like, “Meredith, no. No.” I could write that, that would be fine, but I talked her into young adult. It’s made my career. These books have put me in a completely different place.

Indeed.