Stephen and Stephenie and their vampires

They have similar first names: Stephen and Stephenie. Both are best-selling authors and both write about vampires. But Stephen King does not like Stephenie Meyer. He recently compared her to J. K. Rowling, saying that the two authors were "speaking directly to young people". But King told USA Weekend: "The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn."

Meyer's books — Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn — tell the love story of teenage Bella and vampire Edward. They have sold millions of copies worldwide, with sales getting a big boost from the film of the first book, Twilight. Meyer's Edward Cullen is a vegetarian vampire who wears designer clothes, while Stephen King's Kurt Barlow is an evil vampire who destroys the town of Salem's Lot.

King said that Meyer was "opening up love and sex in those books". He told USA Weekend: "A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over her skin. And for girls, that's shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet." Meyer's fans were outraged. "King [wouldn't] know what a real book was if it hit him in the face," Kiki Alice Cullen wrote on one blog. "King is no Gabriel Garcia Marquez, so I don't understand why he gets to say who is a good writer and who is not," wrote another.