Breaking Dawn Party Plans Percolate

In the three years since the launch of The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer's vampire-fantasy-romance-horror series has quietly garnered a large and devoted legion of readers. Now, with buzz building for the August 2 release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment, many indie booksellers are busy putting together plans for midnight release parties sure to please excited fans.

ABA members have been trading ghoulish party ideas -- everything from mock wedding receptions to unique party menus -- on BookWeb.org's Bookseller-to-Bookseller Forum. And with their permission, BTW shares of some of their ideas.

With speculation rampant about a marriage uniting the book's main characters, Edward and Bella, Harleysville Books in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, is inviting Twilight fans to a wedding reception, Shelly Plumb reported, even "if we won't know [if the marriage takes place] until we read the final book." The store plans to reopen for the festivities at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, August 1. "We'll have a cake and a toast for the happy couple and some wedding party games," Plumb said. "We'll have music with DJ Logan, too."

Besides a desire to please her customers, Plumb said she views the party as a way "to stay up and equal with the larger stores" that may, or may not, be doing something for the book's release. "This is more of a service," she added. "With Harry Potter, [midnight release parties] were necessities. But we love the [Twilight] books, and we're excited about it... I'm looking forward to it."

In upstate New York, Red Fox Books in Glen Falls will also be inviting customers to a wedding reception, as well as hosting a fortuneteller and a trivia contest as part of the night's festivities. "We're working with the public library here in town," said Susan Fox, who noted that the library would be providing teen volunteers for the event. "Between the library and the store there are couple of alleyways, and we've received permission from the town to hold our events there." A nearby store has also granted the use of its courtyard for the events.

Red Fox is partnering with Cooper's Cave Ale Company, another locally owned business, to provide patrons with Dracula's Blood (in reality, a strawberry-flavored soda).

Blood-filled cupcakes (actually raspberry filling) will be the dessert du jour at Tempe, Arizona's Changing Hands Bookstore Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party, according to store co-owner Bob Sommer. In addition to gory treats, the party, which starts at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, August 1, will feature a Red Cross Blood Drive, raffle prizes, a scavenger hunt, a T-shirt decorating contest, a fashion show, a costume contest for Bella, Edward, Jacob, and more. The event will be free, but Changing Hands' customers must purchase a voucher that they will exchange for Breaking Dawn at midnight.

Last year, when Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series, was published, Houston's Blue Willow Bookshop held a "'prom' complete with a band, food, and trivia contest, and a collection for a local group that donates prom dresses to young ladies who might not be able to afford" the costs associated with proms, Valerie Koehler wrote on the forum.

This year, Blue Willow is going to hold a book discussion starting at 11:17 p.m., since staff has found that fans really want to talk about the books. As for why 11:17 p.m., Koehler laughed and said, "Because I can do that! I don't know why." Staff members who are fans of the book will moderate the discussion, and they'll be sporting pajama bottoms and T-shirts that will commemorate the occasion.

Noting that more than 350 people attended Blue Willow's last Harry Potter party, Koehler said, "We won't get that many for this party. There will be a lot of teenage girls and some women. We'll get around 100, which I will be happy with. You have to capture that one-time deal, because we are surrounded by every mass merchandiser there is."

Mara Lynn of Hamilton, Montana's Chapter One Book Store, who kicked off the Breaking Dawn thread on the Bookseller-to-Bookseller Forum to look for ideas, has ended up with plenty of them. In her forum posting, she wrote: "I love the blood donation, and I think the bleeding muffins are delightfully sick!"

In an e-mail to BTW, Lynn added, "I for one am really excited about it. I want a costume contest, but can't decide whether to let the goth-wannabes in Hamilton have a free-for-all, or give the party a wedding theme." Lynn said that she loved the Changing Hands' blood drive idea and is trying to set something up "without actually getting the blood mobile to our door at 11:00 p.m." In addition, she's contemplating holding a raffle whose proceeds would go to the Red Cross or a like organization. "I know my plans should be more concrete, but I've still got a month, right?" Lynn quipped, but added seriously: "Pretty much, the point is to celebrate the excitement that books bring into our mortal lives. These kids (and some of their parents) are pumped, and we want to encourage that in any way that we can!" --David Grogan