There are some things you can always count on in one of today's modern vampire novels: a breathless, cross-species love affair, bone-breaking lovemaking, lots of smoldering eyes and buckets of spilled blood. But, according to TMZ, an author named Jordan Scott claims she saw a few too many similarities between her 2006 vamp tale, "The Nocturne," and "Twilight" scribe Stephenie Meyer's 2008 book, "Breaking Dawn."
In a cease-and-desist letter obtained by the site, Scott's publisher claims the fourth book in the "Twilight" series has "striking and substantial" similarities to "The Nocturne," part of a trilogy that 21-year-old musician/author Scott began writing when she was 15.
The letter claims there are a number of coincidences in the plotlines of the books, including a wedding, a post-wedding sex scene, a woman becoming sick because she's carrying a child with "evil powers" and the death of a main character. The letter from a lawyer for Scott also claims that "both the ideas and in many instances the text" of the two books are very similar.
Among the examples of the similarities is a scene in which a main character is ill from carrying a child with dark powers. In Scott's book, the description reads in part, "Her face was so pale, it was frightening; and there were beads of sweat pouring down her forehead. She couldn't even stand, she was so weak. ... She was violently ill, vomiting and scarcely able to catch her breath."
In the allegedly similar scene in "Dawn," Meyer writes: "Most of her dark hair was pulled away from her face into a messy knot, but a few strands stuck limply to her forehead and neck, to the sheen of sweat that covered her skin. There was something about her fingers and wrists that looked so fragile it was scary. She was sick. Very sick."
The dozen examples given by Scott's lawyer display some general similarities in tone and setting common to vampire tales, but, according to TMZ, an unnamed representative for Meyer dismissed the accusation. "The claim that 'Breaking Dawn' by Stephenie Meyer somehow infringes on an alleged book by someone named Jordan Scott is completely without merit. Neither Stephenie Meyer nor her representatives had any knowledge of this writer or her supposed book prior to this claim."
