There's big money in books, and the chancers want a slice of the pie - who knows, she could have a case....:
A woman who wrote an obscure vampire book as a teenager is suing Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, accusing her of stealing ideas from the work for the fourth book in her vampire series, Breaking Dawn.
Meyer's publisher says that the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday (local time) in Federal Court in California, is a meritless claim meant to further the career of the aspiring screenwriter making the complaint.
Jordan Scott's lawsuit accuses Meyer of copyright infringement.
It argues that as Scott wrote The Nocturne, she posted passages online; Meyer then stole ideas from Scott's work for her own book.
The Nocturne and Breaking Dawn, which was published in 2008, show similarities in language, plot lines, characters and other points, Scott's lawsuit says. For instance, both books contain a wedding passage and an after-wedding scene of sex on the beach.
Hachette Book Group, Meyer's publisher, says the "alleged similarities" are "wholly lacking in substance".
Meyer based Breaking Dawn on an earlier, unpublished sequel to Twilight that she wrote, the publisher added.
Hachette has labelled the suit a "publicity stunt to further Ms Scott's career" and expects a court will dismiss it.
Meyer's Breaking Dawn is the fourth book in her Twilight series, which has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide and become the basis of a Hollywood movie series.
The first film, Twilight, earned more than $US380 million ($457 million) at worldwide box offices and the second, New Moon, hits theatres in November.
The books and movies are about a girl named Bella Swan, who has a star-crossed love affair with dangerous but handsome vampire Edward Cullen.
Scott's book The Nocturne, which she started writing aged 15 in 2003, had an initial printing run of 5,000 and is about to go into a second printing, according to her lawsuit.
- *Reuters*
