Bloodletting for ‘Breaking Dawn’
By Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 7/31/2008
Tomorrow night at midnight the wait will at last be over, and the final volume in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, will be released. Many stores across the country are planning to hold midnight parties with a vampire theme. But in addition to Goth balls and weddings, a few booksellers' thoughts have turned to blood—real blood—as in community blood drives.
Some stores, like Joseph-Beth in Cincinnati, hold blood drives throughout the year. “We figured a blood drive would be a perfect way to tie in with Breaking Dawn,” says Michael Link, director of publisher relations and events at the Joseph-Beth Group, which will have a blood mobile at its stores in Cincinnati and Cleveland. “A lot of parents will come to the party with their teens. It gives the parents a real way to participate in the event and in the community.”
Other booksellers initially found it a challenge to get Red Cross workers willing to run a blood drive so late. That’s what happened to Sarah Murrell, operations manager at Changing Hands in Tempe, Ariz., until she located Red Cross volunteers who are also Meyer fans. They will be drawing blood during most of the evening’s festivities, from 7 p.m. to 11 or 11:30 p.m. To encourage fans to participate—the store had to guarantee at least 20 donors—Morrell is planning to give prizes to blood donors. And everyone will get “blood” cupcakes made by the bakery next door to Changing Hands.
Powell’s is hoping to attract a thousand Meyer fans to its Friday night ball and will be blocking off the street around its main City of Books store at noon to set up. The Red Cross will set up its blood drive out front from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., stopping when the party begins. As an added incentive, Powell’s is offering blood donors preferential treatment in the book line, according to Powell’s spokesperson Danielle Marshall.
Other stores holding blood drives with the Red Cross or local blood banks in conjunction with the release of Breaking Dawn include Books-a-Million in Lawrenceville, Ga.; Storybook Garden in Weslaco, Tex., and Mudsock Books & Curiosity Shoppe in Fishers, Ind.
