Background

Marissa Meyer was born on February 19, 1984, in Tacoma, Washington.

Education

Meyer attended Pacific Lutheran University, where she received a degree in creative writing. After that, she went on to pursue a Master’s in Publishing from Pace University, a reputable school in New York City that offers an online graduate program in publishing.

Career

After graduating from Pace University, and before receiving her current book deal, Marissa Meyer worked as an editor in Seattle, and then as a freelance typesetter and proofreader. In 2013 Meyer received a two-book deal from Feiwel & Friends for a young adult series featuring the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. The first book, Heartless, was set for a Fall 2016 release. It is a stand-alone novel. Publishers Weekly announced that she would write a superhero series afterward. The resulting book is called Renegades, which was released in the Fall of 2017.

Also under the name Alicia Blade, she produced a novelette, The Phantom of Linkshire Manor, which was published in the gothic romance anthology, Bound in Skin (2007)

Meyer states that she was initially inspired to write Cinder after participating in the 2008 National Novel Writing Month contest where she wrote a story focusing on a futuristic version of Puss in Boots. The Lunar Chronicles is a four-book series with volumes based on the stories of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White. The first book, Cinder, was a New York Times bestseller.

Achievements

• Meyer’s debut novel, Cinder (2012), was a New York Times bestseller, and is the first of her Lunar Chronicles series which includes Scarlet (2013), Cress (2014), Winter (2015), and Fairest (2015). In 2013 she received a contract with Feiwel and Friends for a young adult series featuring the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

Works

More photos

• audio book

  • Cinder

    (Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beij...)

    2012

• book

  • Winter

    (Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her gr...)

    2015
  • Renegades

    (The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies - humans with ...)

    2017
  • Supernova

    (Nova and Adrian struggling to keep their secret identitie...)

    2019
  • Archenemies

    (Nova’s double life is about to get a lot more complicated...)

    2018
  • Wires and Nerve

    (When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the ten...)

    2017
  • Cress

    (Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now w...)

    2014
  • Wires and Nerve

    (The second graphic novel, and a sequel to Wires and Nerve...)

    2018
  • Stars Above 2016
  • Fairest 2015

Views

A lifelong book lover, Marissa Meyer has wanted to be a writer ever since she knew it was an occupation. Here is what Marissa stated about her writing ritual in her own words: "As for my "ritual" - I've only gotten serious about giving myself a set schedule this past year, as I've tried to find a balance between writing and home life. (My husband and I have two-year-old twins, and that really threw me for a loop for a while!) So now I spend an hour or two in the morning at my treadmill desk (it's the best ever), answering emails and doing any necessary promotional tasks, such as answering these Goodreads questions.

Then I head out to my special writing studio that my amazing carpenter husband built for me. I light a candle and get a glass of water or a cup of tea and do a ten-minute meditation to switch over to writing brain.

Then I set the timer on my phone for 53 minutes because I read somewhere that 53 minutes is the optimal amount of time for the human brain to focus on one thing. Once the timer starts, I'm not allowed to do anything but write until the timer goes off, at which point I take a 15- or 20-minute break, then do it again.

I can usually get through three or four of these sessions in a workday, which during the first-draft stage nets me anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 words, more if I'm really inspired. That said, I am a much slower reviser than drafter, so my progress slows way, way down once I'm past the drafting stage."

Quotations: "I keep a pen and notepad in my bedside table because ideas have a habit of showing up in the middle of the night. And I’m constantly entering ideas into the memo pad on my phone. A lot of ideas never go anywhere – what seems brilliant today might seem ridiculous tomorrow. But I’d rather decide not to act on an idea later rather than risk losing it entirely."

"When I was first plotting out the series, I’d had a list of ten or so of my favorite fairy tales, and I spent a lot of time brainstorming different ways that I could tweak the stories to give them a science-fiction spin."

"I wanted to write characters that felt authentic and believable, and who readers could relate to on more than one level, and no one can be strong, brave, and good all the time. We all have weaknesses and we all have fears and we all have room to grow. Fiction should show that. Plus, to me, doing the right thing even when you’re frightened demonstrates a lot more bravery than never being frightened at all, and that’s something that we can all aspire to, in fiction and real life."

"I get annoyed with the superhero that is all good all the time, who’s not only all-powerful and has super strength and can’t be defeated, but they’re also so perfect and they just never do anything wrong and never have any bad emotions. That just drives me crazy. Superman is kind of like that. I tried to put a little bit of the Superman characteristic into Captain Chromium, who’s the lead Council member. He’s so strong, so powerful, so invincible, but at the same time, once we actually get to know him, we can see that he’s also just a person."

Personality

Marissa has always loved superheroes. She said that there’s a vicarious aspect that comes with the superhero genre that appeals to us all, and she can remember reading her brother’s X-Men comics when she was a kid and just loved the concept of having superpowers and using these magical abilities. On top of that, she was a huge fan of Sailor Moon and wrote a ton of Sailor Moon fan fiction, so that’s, of course, a superhero world. For her, it felt like a very natural transition to go into the superhero realm, and it was a story that she has had in her mind for many years and she was really excited to be able to tell it.

Her favorite superhero is Spider-Man, in large part just because she adores how completely nerdy Peter Parker is, and she loves the balance between this really super-awkward teenager who then develops these amazing powers.

Interests

• Japanese anime, superheroes

Connections

Meyer is married to Jesse Taylor. In 2015, she and her husband adopted their twin daughters, Sloane and Delaney.

husband:

Jesse Taylor

Friend:

Natalie Garside

adopted daughter:

Sloane Taylor

adopted daughter:

Delaney Taylor

References

• Author Marissa Meyer's Official Website