one more reason to passionately dislike stephanie meyer

SM said, "Let there be Twilight!"

And there was Mary Sue Bella and Gary Stu Edward.

And then there came the hordes of adolescent girls.

There came Robert Pattinson in pastywhite!foundation--

And there were hordes of adolescent girls with banshee screams and raging hormones.

Elsewhere,

There had been the (almost) Great Book Blockade of 2009 that began from a brilliantly corrupt Customs official who wanted to cash in on the Twilight book importations that were coming in by shiploads.

And then there was the release of these.

And now, there's this:

Harlequin takes aim at teen readers with new imprint

"The 60-year-old publisher of classic bodice-rippers is rolling out its newest imprint: Harlequin Teen.

"These books specifically focus on teen protagonists, which is not something Harlequin has done a whole lot of," says the publisher's Natashya Wilson.

Add Harlequin to the list of publishers that have fallen hard for teen readers, thanks to the seismic sales of Stephenie Meyer's teen vampire series Twilight.
"These will be titles specifically developed for readers of Twilight," says Wilson..."

Sample title slated for 2010?

• Intertwined by Gina Showalter, Aug. 25. The book stars a teenage boy who has four souls living inside him and who is irresistibly drawn to a vampire princess.

Copycat, much?

Start rearing a whole generation of rabid, hormone-driven fangirls, why don't we?

Full article here. Eat your heart out.

Thanks to good ol' DOB for the heads up.