Author Ursula K. Le Guin shares thoughts on book

By Jake Bolitho at Mlive.com

Ursula K. Le Guin has been creating fantasy and science fiction worlds for more than 40 years, and for a month, the Jackson District Library will become one.

As part of the Big Read — an annual event sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts — the library will host a series of events inspired by Le Guin’s “A Wizard of Earthsea.” The novel is often compared to the wizarding tales of Harry Potter but was inked 30 years earlier. The Citizen Patriot conducted the following interview with Le Guin prior to Saturday’s Big Read kickoff:

Citizen Patriot: The world depicted in the “Earthsea” series seems very complex. Did anything inspire its creation, like a part of the world you’ve been to or know of?

Le Guin: No, but after I’d written some of the books, I discovered pieces of Earthsea on Earth. One of them is Trinidad Bay, on the northern California coast. Another is the Scilly Isles, off the coast of south England. Nobody could make up places so fantastic.

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Mervyn Jones 1922-2010

Jo Walton at Tor

I was very sorry to learn of the death of the British novelist Mervyn Jones.

I never met him and don’t know much about his life, but I’ve loved his books for thirty years now. I first started reading him because the title of one of his books was an Auden quote. I was a teenager desperate for books with no discrimination when let loose in the library, which had advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes I got lucky, and this was one of those times. Today the Struggle wasn’t just about the Spanish Civil War as you might expect. It’s about two generations of two families of left wing British people, and how the Spanish Civil War changed their lives. It had great female characters. It had a kind of historical consciousness that you don’t normally see in mainstream fiction, and a class consciousness too, yet it was totally absorbed in its characters and their actions. It was like a family saga written by a communist. It blew my socks off.

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‘True Blood’ Author’s Harper Connelly Series Gets Comic Book Adaptation

As we mentioned back in September, HBO’s vampire drama “True Blood” has more connections to comics than you might think — and now you can add another one to the list. Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that inspire the television series, will make her comics debut this year.

“Grave Sight,” the first book in Harris’ series of novels about a woman named Harper Connelly who can sense the final moments of the recently deceased, will be adapted by Dynamite Entertainment into a comic book hitting shelves in 2010.

“I’m thrilled to join such great writers,” said Harris in an official statement announcing the project. “I’m excited about seeing a different vision of my novels, and I’ve seen enough of the Dynamite Entertainment to know this will be an interesting and entertaining process.”

Official Press Release Text:

TRUE BLOOD AUTHOR, CHARLAINE HARRIS, BRINGS NEW SERIES TO DYNAMITE!

Harper Connelly series to be featured in new comic series by Dynamite Entertainment.

Read the complete press released on MTV.com

This is great news. I’ve read the first two books in the Harper Connelly series, and they’re good. I’d love to see it made into a series at some point. But a comic adaptions will do for now. Are you interested in the series in comic form?

ATWOOD’S ARTISTIC ADVANTAGE

Source: buffalonews
Margaret Atwood didn’t study for a liberal arts degree with any idea that she was going to become a great writer –indeed, a dean of modern Canadian letters.

All that lay far in the future in her young adulthood; too far to imagine, even for an imagination as prodigious at the one that created “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Robber Bride” and “Oryx and Crake.”

But when her career did take her into writing, and across a variety of genres –from fiction and poetry to literary criticism and children’s literature and, now, blogging and Twittering –Atwood found her skills at boundary-crossing nimble and adept.

And her education, in English, philosophy and French, at Victoria College and then Radcliffe College, may be part of the reason why.

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“THIS DREAM CALLED DEATH”, A NOVELZINE BY STEPHEN JANIS

Source: americanchronicle
Stephen Janis is an awarding-winning investigative reporter. The urban crime scene is his beat. His engrossing, surreal novel, “This Dream Called Death,” is his second book.

The fast-paced story is set in the decaying, crime-saturated and once-highly industrialized, “City of Balaise.” It´s a look into a grim, but maybe a not-too-distant future, where your worst fears of an ultra-controlling “Homeland Security-like” agency running amuck are a reality. Preventing crimes means the municipal bureaucrats, at the urgings of a paranoid “Deputy Mayor,” can check out your “dreams” for any “negative” thoughts, and if necessary, restrict your liberties.

Janis told the audience at his book reading, on Feb. 18, 2010: “Baltimore is Balaise!” He once wrote for the now-defunct “Baltimore Examiner” and he´s currently part of the staff of the “Investigative Voice.” If you ask me, he looks like a character right out of HBO´s “The Wire.” Janis had his book-reading at the “Atomic Books” store in quirky Hampden, a neighborhood that the film-making icon, John Waters, used as a base for so many of his comic flicks, such as “Cry-Baby.” In fact, “Atomic Books” is also a “mail drop” for Waters! (I´m not making this up.)

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What did you think of today’s Book News? Are you a Margaret Atwood fan? Which of her books are your favorite? For me, A Handmaid’s Tale, hands down.

Are you a Stephen Janis fan?

www.fredericknewspost.com:
According to a recent list posted on mania.com, the top 10 fantasy writers of all time are men. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of “Lord of the Rings,” and Robert E. Howard, creator of “Conan the Barbarian,” top the list.

A similar list, “All-Time Top 20 Science Fiction Novels,” on Amazon.com listed works by 19 male authors, including “Dune,” by Frank Herbert; “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” by Robert A. Heinlein; and “The Foundation Trilogy,” by Isaac Asimov — as the three best sci-fi novels ever.

“The Left Hand of Darkness,” by Ursula K. Le Guin, proved the exception.

However dated or sexist these “top” lists may or may not be, science fiction and fantasy is no longer just a man’s game.

Anne Rice’s vampire chronicles and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series just scratch the surface of women’s growing contributions to both genres.

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It’s great to see that women are being recognized for their work in genres that men had the lead on. What do you think of this?

People of the decade: JK Rowling

The Harry Potter phenomenon sparked a trend in global readership in the following decade that would see the blockbuster become respectable and make authors such as Dan Brown and Khaled Hosseini the new stars of literature, says Jane Shilling.

There was a time when the term “literary blockbuster” would have seemed an oxymoron. Blockbusters were the opposite of literature: fat, foil-embossed volumes, light on plot, obsessed with designer names, bought at the beginnings of journeys – because they were all the airport shop had to offer – and discarded once read. But at the turn of the millennium, a young boy with broken spectacles and a mysterious scar on his forehead transformed the destiny of the blockbuster.

Harry Potter was not a new phenomenon in the summer of 2000. It was 10 years since JK Rowling, stranded on a delayed train between Manchester and London, had the idea for a story about a young boy attending a school of wizardry. The first Harry Potter book was published in 1997 and went on to win a couple of prestigious children’s book awards. A successful sequel was published, then another. But it was with the publication of Rowling’s fourth book, Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire, that something extraordinary occurred.

The book was published simultaneously in the UK and US on July 8, 2000, and immediately broke sales records. In the UK, the book sold as many copies on the day of publication – some 372,000 – as the previous title had sold in a year. In the US the book sold three million copies in 48 hours. There had been an adroit marketing campaign by Rowling’s publishers, but sales on this scale were unprecedented. The success of Goblet Of Fire came from readers: they caught the book from each other like the flu.

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Year in Review: Books

The year 2009 has been described as the Year of Anxiety, so it should come as no surprise that the books published in 2009 reflected scary stuff – from government conspiracy theories to zombies and, natch, vampires.

In Texas, writers both living and deceased made their mark on the national literary scene. Meanwhile, booksellers were battling it out for your discretionary dollar by making books cheap, cheap, cheap. All told, 2009 was a great year to be a book lover.

1. The Lost Symbol:

Dan Brown’s follow-up to his global best-seller The Da Vinci Codewas the one book everyone wanted to read. And Brown didn’t disappoint. Trading the mysteries of Christianity for the mysteries of American history, Brown titillated his fans with conspiracy theories dating back to the Founding Fathers. Brown’s publisher, Doubleday, printed 5 million copies to start, and Amazon.com readers downloaded it faster than any other book in the retailer’s history. It was just what most people needed in a tough year: a bit of frivolous distraction.

3. The Last Olympian:

Perhaps the most popular book to come out of Texas this year was the finale of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Published in May, the novel entranced teens, who raced through its 400 pages to learn the fate of Percy (a son of Poseidon) and his friends as they fight an army of monsters to get to the portal to Mount Olympus (which is on the top of the Empire State Building). Look for Riordan’s popularity to soar as the movie adaptation of the first in the series, The Lightning Thief, hits theaters in February.

7. Christians vs. Vampires:

It wasn’t long ago when the Left Behind books, a series of Christian novels depicting the “end of days,” rivaled Harry Potter for the top of the best-sellers list. The times have changed, and there was no surer sign than the failure of the much-hyped Christian Book Expo held in March at the Dallas Convention Center. Organizers had expected 10,000 to 15,000 people, but only 1,500 attended.

In contrast, more than 3,000 fans of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-romance Twilight series paid $255 each to attend the inaugural TwiCon at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in August. The event was so successful, organizers are moving it to Las Vegas and Toronto for 2010.

Read more HERE

Books: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England

“I was passionate about the past and yet history teachers seemed determined to feed me history that was designed to be as tedious as possible,” says The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England author Dr. Ian Mortimer. “The teachers themselves were fine, but they were all slaves to the syllabus. Thinking about the past should always have an anarchic edge.”

The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England drops you in the year 1300. Experience how people lived, dressed, worked, the difference between the classes and anything else you want to know about Medieval times but were afraid to ask. The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England is a surprisingly engrossing read, even if you don’t particularly care about history. For anyone who enjoys history, they’ll be engrossed by the facts that dispel the history taught about that time frame, for instance, the aristocracy had indoor plumbing. An easy read, you can pick it up and read any chapter.

“I first realized I wanted history to have a present-tense dimension at the age of about ten, in the hall of Grosmont Castle in South Wales,” says Mortimer. “I was very disappointed that it didn’t measure up to my imagination, being a quiet ruin rather than a bustling medieval fortress.”

Mortimer got the idea for a fun history book in 1993, inspired by Douglas Adams’ A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. However, that was postponed when in a friend recommended he speak to a woman called Sophie, working at the corporate office of a major bookshop chain. “Six months later she moved in,” says Mortimer. “Two years later we married. In the process I became somewhat distracted.” Thirteen years passed before he actually sat down to write The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England.

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2009: The Year of the Vampire

In 2009, fangs were the new black.

Although fangs and their blood-sucking owners have been around for centuries turning into bats, hiding from the sunlight and avoiding garlic, this past year their popularity seemed to explode into pop culture. From television to movies to books, consumers have sunk their teeth into the vampire frenzy in 2009, but will the same be true for 2010?

“Vampires look like us,” said Jerry Pierce, an assistant professor of history at Indiana University Northwest, who said part of the attraction to vampires is their human sensuality. “We can identify even with that sex element. And they always wear leather. Werewolves in leather just doesn’t work.”

Glenn Sparks, a professor of communication at Purdue University Lafayette, said what made recent vampire stories, such as TV’s “The Vampire Diaries” and the books and movies of the “Twilight Saga” popular is the stories are about how we relate to each other. He said people are aware that we need human connection beyond social networking sites and cell phones, and teens especially are exploring those relationships.

“Hollywood is able to depict the theme in a way that made it seem real to young people, and young people are the fad-makers of the culture,” said Sparks. “It could have been about something else and relationships, but it happens to be about vampires and relationships.”

Khris Rettig, a librarian at the Lake County Public Library Schererville-Dyer branch, said she’s noticed long lists of reservations for any “Twilight Saga” book, or any vampire book in general. The library has a program that creates surprise packages for readers, grouping a certain type of book together and labeling it, such as “For the thrill seekers.” She created a package labeled “If you liked ‘Twilight.’” It was on the shelf for only about two hours. That’s part of the reason the library doesn’t create a vampire display.

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What did you think about today’s book & author news?

Decade in books: Writers work magic, delivery has transformed

Human readers made it a big decade for novels about wizards, vampires and a Harvard symbologist. Two series for kids with “crossover” appeal to grown-ups —J.K. Rowling ’s Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer ’s Twilight— swept nine of the top 10 spots on USA TODAY’s best-selling books of the decade. Dan Brown ’s The Da Vinci Code is No. 2.

Rowling was a best seller before 2000, when third book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire sold a record 3 million copies its first weekend.

By 2007’s release of the finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows , speculation about Harry’s death (unfounded) rose to levels not seen since Charles Dickens ‘ 19th-century serials. A record 8.3 million copies sold in a day.

In 2007, Meyer, a Mormon stay-at-home mom, began an unprecedented dominance of the best-seller list with her Twilight series about a chaste teen romance starring a vampire. Last year, she sold 22 million books.

Brown hit it big in 2003 with Da Vinci , a thriller mixing fact and fiction. It made best sellers out of Brown’s three earlier novels. His latest, The Lost Symbol , has sold 4 million copies since September.

Rowling, Meyer and Brown had help from Hollywood, but their books were blockbusters in their own right: “They opened as big or bigger than the most anticipated movies, with pre-orders and opening-night parties, which spilled over to other books,” says Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Lunch , a digital newsletter. Each sold “quantities of hardcovers once unimaginable.”

MORE HERE

Quiz: Test your vampire knowledge

So you think you know your hunky vampires, Twilight fans? It was a very hot year for the undead — in novels, of course. And Stephenie Meyer wasn’t the only writer successfully spinning supernatural tales. Test your knowledge by matching the title with the gory detail…

Take the quiz here.

It has been an amazing decade for books especially supernatural and paranormal. I have read some great material, even if they’re not bestsellers or very popular.

What are your faves from this past decade?

How did you do on the vamp quiz?