Teen Vampire Queen Has Tantrum

Stephenie Meyer is no J. K. Rowling.

The, er, traditionally-minded Mormon mother of three and creator of the popular (among girls) Twilight vampire teen novel series (about to hit movie theaters) is being silly.

Apparently, the incomplete manuscript of her fifth novel in the series--the series is actually over, the fifth novel was just a money-maker which re-told the first novel from the boy's point of view, yawn--was leaked to the internet. The novel wasn't even close to finished and the leaked MS had a lot of mistakes, etc.

So the author has decided to discontinue working on the book.

Wow.

Seriously? I can imagin a setback like that giving you pause. I can imagine it giving you menopause. But listen to this: "This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control ... I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on "Midnight Sun," and so it is on hold indefinitely."

Now if that doesn't sound like Meyer is punishing people, especially her rabid fans, who are definitely the ones spreading the leak around, then I don't know what does.

What do you think? How would you respond to such a betrayal of confidence? Would you want to punish your fans for loving your work too much?