In the mix of all the hype form this weekend, we missed updating you on the Q&A that Stephenie did over at The Twilight Saga official website.

Q: I was wondering what made you choose Italy for the home of the Volturi? Is there a special meaning about Italy in your life or was it a random setting? Thanks :] – Kerry Kowalczyk

Stephenie: I chose Italy because I needed a place with a really long history. Choosing Volterra itself was a strange thing. I wrote the whole Volturi scene before I’d picked a location for it. For the first time, I was planning to create a fictional city, because at this point, I was starting to realize that people were actually going to read this book, and I was nervous about what the real life citizens of Forks would think, and more especially what the real life people of La Push would think—I’d taken some rather big liberties with their fictional history, and I wasn’t sure if they would find it amusing or irritating. So, to avoid similar moments of panic, I decided to set my clan of ancient ruling vampires in a made up place. I was going to call this place “Volturin,” and I knew it needed to be located in Tuscany about an hour or two from Florence—I’d already written the drive from the airport. I’d also already written my descriptions of the plaza and clock tower and Volturi turret. So I pull up a map of Tuscany, trying to decide if Alice should drive north, south, east, or west, and look at that—there is a city named Volterra just about an hour from Florence. So I google image search Volterra, and the very first picture that comes up is the Volterra clock tower. Chills. I called my sister (who’d already read about my fictional Volturin) and told her to go look at Volterra. She freaked, too, because she’d pictured it the same way, too. It was actually a rather creepy moment.

After that, I gave up the idea of creating a fake city and just hoped the people of Volterra did not mind a few vampires. When I went to visit a few years back, all the people I talked to were totally fine with the vampires—what had upset them was the fountain. They don’t have one, and think their square is perfect without it.

Just as a reminder, Stephenie Meyer is collecting New Moon movie related questions (note: not on any other book or possible book) on the Twilight Saga website today through 12:00 noon est tomorrow.

“…I’m going to answer your more specific questions on-line. The official Twilight Saga website (www.TheTwilightSaga.com) will be taking any New Moon movie-related questions you might have for me, and then I’ll answer those most frequently asked. I’ll post the answers on the Twilight Saga website and also here on my own site. Questions can be submitted to TheTwilightSaga.com from noon (Eastern Standard Time) on Monday, November 9th through noon Tuesday, November 10th. The answers will be posted Monday, November 16th—or New Moon Premiere Day, as it is known around my house.”

Twilight: Unbound, the unique biography on Stephenie Meyer done in motion comic form, has hit iTunes and is available for download. The video utilizes the storyline, art, and dialog from Washington-based Bluewater Productions’ just-released comic book, and with the addition of voice-over, special effects, music, and animation, creates a fast-paced video adaptation for the viewer to enjoy on various media platforms. Here is a sneak peek at the bio from YouTube.

This just posted on Stephenie Meyer’s official website:

“Hi. I hope everyone is having a great week.

It has come to my attention through several concerned emails that many popular websites like MySpace and Facebook are displaying ads offering a chance to win Midnight Sun. This is a hoax. I would advise against giving out any personal information or even clicking on the links.”

Also, we are getting emails about this website that claims to “be in the know” about Breaking Dawn casting. People want to know if the information is correct. Among other things the site states that, “No part of this blog may be reproduced, posted, or redistributed in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopy or recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the permission in writing from the publisher.” (Actually under Fair Use laws you can quote brief sections with attribution like we have done here.)  We’re finding it interesting that their information on Breaking Dawn is copied word-for-word without credit or citation from the Breaking Dawn section on Wikipedia. The site also lists that Bryce Dallas Howard and Xavier Samuel will be in Breaking Dawn while leaving out the names of several Cullens. The same site three weeks ago was listing that the movie would be in three parts. Like we said, use your own common sense here folks.