‘Mockingjay’ Author Suzanne Collins ‘Stamps Books’: WIN One Of 5 Signed Copies

Over 150 fans gathered Thursday morning to hear Suzanne Collins read from “Mockingjay,” the final installment in the author’s blockbuster “Hunger Games” trilogy, at Scholastic’s flagship store in SoHo. Fans at the store also received “custom stamped books” pressed with a unique stamp designed for Collins’ book tour in lieu of signing books due to a hand injury.

“This is the biggest event since ‘Harry Potter’,” store manager Michael Strouse said. “We’ve been anticipating this book for over a year.”

Fans lined up well before the store’s opening at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, eagerly scheming for a prime position to see the author speak. By 11:00 a.m. when Collins was scheduled to speak, 50 children gathered on the storeroom floor, while many more adults stood behind them. Some adults wore “Hunger Games” t-shirts of their own and, judging by the looks on their faces, were more excited than the kids.

Read more HERE

When fantasy takes wing, cultures don’t matter!

Explore cultures other than your own, says David Hair, New Zealander and author of The Bone Tiki, to young writers who prefer to work within their own comfort zone.

Hair is coming to Bangalore to launch his book Pyre of Queens, published by Penguin Books India. The story is about Ravindra-Raj, the evil sorcerer-king, who devises a deadly secret ritual where he and his seven queens will burn on his pyre, and he will rise again with the powers of Ravana, demon-king of the epic Ramayana. But things go wrong when one queen, the beautiful, spirited Darya, escapes with the help of Aram Dhoop, the court poet.

Hair’s first book, The Bone Tiki, won the Best First Novel award (in the Young Adult Fiction genre of books at the 2010 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards). The Bone Tiki and its sequel The Taniwha’s Tear are fantasy novels set in New Zealand.

Read more HERE

Vampire business is bloody good
From books to film to TV series, creatures of night taking big bite

Hollywood has repeatedly peddled the apocalyptic threat from aliens, machines, comets, viruses and zombies, but who was watching the vampires?

Never exactly absent from the entertainment scene, those eternal bloodsuckers lately have infiltrated everything from big screens and little screens to bookstore shelves, clothing racks, download services, video games and video, record and jewelry stores.

The low-budget Fox/New Regency Twilight parody Vampires Suck grossed $20 million in its first six days, and five million regular viewers are rabidly following HBO’s newest hit, True Blood, as it swoops toward its Season 3 finale Sept. 12. Meanwhile, Justin Cronin’s The Passage, Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn and Charlaine Harris’ Dead and Gone hover on bestseller lists.

“By starting with one simple mythological creature that’s been part of our literary universe for centuries, you can create a story that has it all: romance, horror, action, special effects, sex, epic love, wish fulfilment, romantic leading men, delicious bad-boy villains, female badasses, damsels in distress, death, monsters and, ultimately, the perfectly flawed hero who would give it all up if it meant they wouldn’t have to spend eternity alone,” says Julie Plec, writer and executive producer of the CW series The Vampire Diaries. “It doesn’t get more universal than that.”

Read more HERE

What did you think about today’s book news? Have you read ‘Mockingjay’ yet, how would you like to have a signed copy? (uh, me too!) Is the Vampire business here to stay, or will it burn out soon enough?

OBS had the rewarding pleasure of snagging an exclusive interview with New York Times & USA Today best-selling author; Melissa De La Cruz! 

A little about the author: via Melissa’s website

Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.

Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).

She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter.

OBS: I was drawn to the series for it’s historical aspects: How did you come up with the historical themes for the series?

They just came naturally really, with the Mayflower I wanted my vampires to have a history as the elite of America, and then when I was writing the first book I discovered the story of Roanoke, one of the great American mysteries, which was perfect! I’d always loved the story of the fall of Rome, I was fourteen and my World History teacher just brought it to life, she said it was the best soap opera ever. There’s so much about Caligula and the decline of the Roman Empire and it seemed that it fit so well with my fallen angels and what the Blue Bloods wanted to accomplish on Earth.

OBS: If your Blue Bloods series was made into a film, which actors would you want to play the main characters?
Schuyler, Jack, Mimi, Oliver, etc..

I very much enjoy my books as books I don’t have a great burning ambition to see them on screen or on television. The books have been optioned several times for TV and film, so maybe at some point they will be made. But it’s not something I think about too much and I don’t picture actors in the roles of my characters, only my characters. I also don’t know the young actors and actresses so much. When I was writing the first book Mary Kate Olsen and Paris Hilton were in my mind as inspirations for Schuyler and Mimi, and for Bliss I thought of a young Julia Roberts. For Oliver that guy who played Seth on the O.C. and then for Jack I never had any actor in mind, he was always just Jack in my head. Although the fans tell me they see Alex Pettyfer in the role and I saw a photo and he does look pretty close.

OBS: I just finished Keys to the Repository. How do you manage to keep each character unique but also filled with such a detailed history of past lives? How do you keep it all straight in your head?

They are fully formed people to me, so it’s not hard to keep them straight. I know them as well as I know my family, my friends. Better even. So it’s not hard.

OBS: Who are your literary influences?

For Blue Bloods Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Frank Herbert’s Dune, Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City (for the glamour quotient), Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. My favorite book ever is Tolstoy’s War and Peace and that’s a huge influence as well.

OBS: With the current popularity of Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood (Sookie Stackhouse Series), how does your series stand out?

The mythology in Blue Bloods is pretty lush and deep and intriguing I think, it’s my favorite part of the series and I think having the vampires as fallen angels is also very fun.

OBS: How did you make the leap from a fashion/beauty editor to writing novels? Was it difficult to get your books published?

I’d always been a freelance writer first, the fashion and beauty editor stuff actually came pretty late in my career when I was working for a magazine full-time. But I’d been freelance writing for five years before I sold my first novel, and after I sold my novel is when I got a job as a fashion editor. When I was trying to get published it seemed very difficult, but in retrospect it only took five years. I was 22 when I wrote my first novel and 27 when I sold one (it was by then my third written novel) and I was 29 when it was published.

OBS: If you could spend time with any author (alive or dead) who would it be and why? What would you expect to gain from that experience?

I’d love to hang out with JK Rowling she just seems like so much fun and it would be great to ask her about the books and maybe encourage her to write an adult series with Ron and Harry as Aurors. That would be so cool. I would totally fan-girl it.

OBS:  What future projects are you working on? Can you tell us anything about them?

The Witches of East End, which is my new adult series. Several Blue Bloods characters make cameos in it, which is fun to see what they’re up to. I won’t say anything more, I used to talk about my books while I was still writing them but I’ve decided I’m not anymore. When I’m writing the book is still evolving and a lot of things change. So I’ll wait until the book is done.

OBS:  What is one thing you’d like your fans to know about you and your books?

That I appreciate their support SO MUCH. I write the books for me, as long as I’m entertained I’m happy with the books. So it’s just the cherry on top that so many readers like to read them too.

OBS would like to give a special thanks to Melissa for taking time out of her busy schedule to give us a great interview! Melissa has been working hard on her latest novel; Keys to the Repository - please read the OBS review HERE

**Also WIN a copy of Keys to the Repository by entering in OBS Contest – Find out the details HERE**

Suzanne Collins on the books she loves

Bella who? These days it’s all about Katniss Everdeen, the tough-as-nails 16-year-old star of Suzanne Collins’ hugely popular post-apocalyptic series. When the first novel, The Hunger Games, blazed onto the scene in September 2008, it became an immediate best-seller. Stephenie Meyer wrote on her blog, “I was so obsessed with this book I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the table so 
I wouldn’t have to stop reading,” and 
Stephen King reviewed it for EW, calling it “a violent, jarring speed-rap of a novel that generates nearly constant suspense.” 
 Catching Fire, the second book in the trilogy, was published to equal hubbub in September, prompting Lionsgate to snatch the series’ film rights—though the question of who will play Katniss is still up in the air.

EW: Tell us what your favorite childhood books were.

I’ve had a lifelong love of 
 mythology, so I’d have to top the list with Myths and Enchantment Tales, by Margaret Evans Price, which belonged to my mom when she was a girl, and D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Fiction standouts include A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle; The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer; and Boris, by the Dutch writer Jaap ter Haar, which I still think is one of the best war stories written for kids. Unfortunately, it seems to be out of print in this country.

Read more HERE

Hunger Games Final Book Leaked to Harry Potter Site Administrator

source

One of the most anticipated YA literature releases for the summer has been leaked, despite a strict embargo. Mockingjay, the final book in Suzanne Collins’ popular Hunger Games series has found itself in the hands of MuggleNet.com administrator, Andrew Sims.

Sims is a co-founder of one of the largest Harry Potter fan sites on the Internet, and tweeted a picture of his leaked copy before boarding a flight. Sims wrote: “Thanks to a very kind friend, I’m about to start Mockingjay. Join me on my red eye flight to read along.”

One Scholastic publicist explained: “We are not releasing copies in advance of 8/24/10. Scholastic did not provide this person with a copy of Mockingjay. In fact, I haven’t even read it yet!” Sims responded in the article: “I don’t really have any comment and honestly I’m just hoping for it to pass. I didn’t expect it to get such a reaction!”

What did you think about today’s Hunger Games news? Do you have similar taste in books as Suzanne Collins, if so which books? Who would you like to see play Katniss Everdeen in the film version of ‘Hunger Games’.  Lastly, what do you make about this leaked copy of Mockingjay, the final installment of the series? Is it necessary for it to cause such an uproar?

Making Squid the Meat of a Story

If your idea of a science fiction writer is a scrawny guy with computer-glow pallor who’s a little too interested in whether warp speed is a realistic rate of travel, China Miéville is not that person.

Tall and buff, he has a shaved head, a row of earrings curving sharply around the edge of his left ear, a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics and a mind that skips easily from “Jane Eyre” to welfare reform to the joys of bicycling around London. He is also a serious Socialist who ran for Parliament in 2001. The Evening Standard called him “the sexiest man in British politics.”

Mr. Miéville’s novels — seven so far — have been showered with prizes; three have won the Arthur C. Clarke award, given annually to the best science fiction novel published in Britain. And his growing fan base has come to include reviewers outside the sci-fi establishment.

Entertainment Weekly, for instance, recently gave Mr. Miéville’s new novel, “Kraken” (Ballantine Books), an A-, praising the way he “lobs a grenade into the urban-fantasy genre, remaking it into wild comedy.”

Read more HERE

Charlaine Harris talks ‘True Blood,’ new Sookie stories and more

“True Blood” would not have existed if not for Charlaine Harris, the coziest writer you’ll ever meet who has some of the most disturbing ideas.

At the author’s spotlight panel at Comic-Con Thursday (July 22), Harris gets a surprise of her own out of the gate: The officials at Comic-Con have awarded her their Inkpot Award for Achievement in Fantasy and Science Fiction.

1:21 p.m. – BEST NEWS! The next short story will feature Sookie and Pam and the stripper pole. Due out Aug. 3. In February, the “Sookie Companion” will be published. It’s a compendium of all things Sookie, which includes: original interview with Alan Ball, an FAQ, recipes (“this was not my idea”), synopses of the books, secret emails between Bill and Eric and an original novella about Sam and Sookie going to Sam’s brother’s wedding. Also, Quinn’s in it, so can life be better until next May when the next Sookie novel is out? No, we don’t think so.

Read more HERE

Science Fiction – The Only Genre That Embraces Both Optimists and Pessimists

by Rebecca Baumann

There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who think that humankind will transcend our current follies, we’ll clean up the planet, and travel the galaxy aboard stylish spaceships, and then there are those who think that life on this planet will become so miserable that it’ll be us and the cockroaches until the bitter end. It doesn’t sound like there’s any gray area between those two points of view, however I tend to fall in the middle myself. I think we’re going to muck things up – badly – but I haven’t lost hope that we’ll find technologies to make life bearable, if not better.

Since I tend to straddle the fence between the optimists and the pessimists regarding humankind’s future, I appreciate the science fiction genre for catering to my moods, depending on how I’m feeling that day. Sometimes I need a big shot of hope, and other days I want to imagine the worst-case scenario. Sci-fi has always been there for me, whether we’re talking books, movies, or television shows, and so I thought it’d be fun to pit the sunny-side-up visions against the Oscar the Grouches, and see who comes out on top.

The Aliens will Befriend Us
Versus
The Aliens will Behead Us

The friendly alien trope is probably my all-time favorite fantasy. I grew up watching movies such as E.T., Close Encounters, and Cocoon, where the aliens were sweet, peace-loving creatures who just wanted to help us stupid humans. I even had a brown, faux-leather E.T. doll with red paint splashed on his chest and finger to simulate his magic glow power. Needless to say, I grew up thinking that the aliens will not only befriend us, but in a way, they will save us too.

Read the rest HERE

What do you think about today’s book news? Are you excited for the new Sookie Stackhouse short story due in August?

EROTIC. VISCERAL. SURREAL.

Inferno, an audio book, is now available for digital download.
Only $19.95!
Listen to preview tracks at ToddRiemer.com

“Author Todd Riemer delivers a must-read visionary novel. Dive into a rich world of human seduction, suffering and ultimately redemption. A dark imaginative narrative that takes the reader into the depths of human emotion. A highly recommended read for adults!” -USA Book News

Benson Simmonds
Award Winning Actor & Audio Book Reader

“I was hired by the talented Todd Riemer to read the upcoming audio version of Inferno. At my audition, I read some intense, gripping pages, but had no idea what the book would really be like. Having worked on it, I can say that it is vivid, intense, gripping, dramatic, and definitely takes you into a different world. It’s filled with sex, violence, love, obsession corruption and that’s all in the first chapter! It’s ultimately a remdeptive piece that shows that love can overcome anything, which I believe it can. It’s a visceral, masterful work and my life has been enriched so much from having read it. Yours will too!”

Be sure to head over to ToddRiemer.com and preview this new audio book, and then buy it! You won’t regret, OBS most definitely recommends it!

This book could teach Hollywood to do superheroes right

(via io9.com) 

You might think superheroes are played out as heroic archetypes or sources of fresh stories. But you’d be wrong, and a new anthology, Masked, proves it. Anybody who writes superhero comics or movies, or just loves superheroes, should read it.

Spoiler warning!

Masked, edited by Lou Anders, is a really strong collection of stories that play with the idea of superheroes in clever, often fascinating ways. There’s a fair bit of metafictional commentary on the tropes of superhero stories, like costumes and secret identities and sidekicks — but it doesn’t ever become too self-referential or navel-gazey about it. The stories get dark, especially the first few outings in the book, but they’re dark in a thought-provoking way, not just angsty or “grim and gritty,” as dark superhero stories are prone to be.

I’m not always a fan of themed anthologies, because stories sometimes feel shoehorned in to fit the theme. The danger is that you’ll get a bunch of well-known authors who didn’t really have a Haunted Tree story they were dying to tell. But there’s a Haunted Tree anthology that wants them to contribute, so they’ll give it their best shot. And the result, often as not, is hit or miss.

The good thing about Masked, then, is that Anders gets stories from people who have a lot of experience with superheroes, or who obviously had a superhero story they wanted to write. The contributors include Secret Six writer Gail Simone, Incredible Hulk mastermind Peter David, X-Men: Dark Mirror author Marjorie Liu and comics veterans Bill Willingham and Mike Carey – as well as Paul Cornell, a regular Doctor Who writer and the new writer of Action Comics, which, by the way, just featured a rather striking David Tennant cameo:

Read more HERE

Is your novel set on an alternate Earth? You could win the Terry Pratchett Prize!

Do you have an unpublished novel set on Earth, but not this Earth? If you do, and it’s really awesome, you could win the Terry Pratchett Prize: Random House will pay you £20,000 to publish your novel next year.

You must live in the UK, Ireland, or the Commonwealth to enter, and Pratchett has written up a great description of what the book should focus on:

Anywhere but here, anywhen but now. Which means we are after stories set on Earth, although it may be an Earth that might have been, or might yet be, one that has gone down a different leg of the famous trousers of time (see the illustration in almost every book about quantum theory).

We will be looking for books set at any time, perhaps today, perhaps in the Rome of today but in a world where 2000 years ago the crowd shouted for Jesus Christ to be spared, or where in 1962, John F Kennedy’s game of chicken with the Russians went horribly wrong.

Find out all the gory details on entering the contest via Terry Pratchett

Read more HERE

Medallion to Publish YA Titles by YA Writers

(via publisher’s weekly)

Medallion Press is venturing into unfamiliar territory, in announcing the launch of its new Ya-Ya line of fiction and nonfiction for young adult readers ages 13-18. Not only is the Ya-Ya line intended for teen readers, but the titles in the imprint will actually be written by teen authors.

“Helen Rosburg [Medallion's publisher] wanted to provide young adults with a voice, with the ability to tell stories to others in their age range,” explained Paul Ohlson, Medallion director of sales and marketing. “Instead of adults writing for young adults, young adults are writing for young adults.”

Medallion is currently seeking submissions for its new Ya-Ya line; submission guidelines are posted on the company’s Web site. The press has not yet announced how many Ya-Ya titles will be published each season, or when the first book in the new line will be released.

Read more HERE

Fiction review: ‘Memory Wall’ by Anthony Doerr

Most writers should want to be Anthony Doerr when they grow up — short story alchemist, novelist, travelogueur; anthologized, winner of literary awards, despite which his writing really is crazy good. “Memory Wall” is Doerr’s latest collection of stories, including “Village 113,” which earned his third O. Henry prize.

While Doerr’s novel “About Grace” explored humanity’s impotence against fate, “Memory Wall” investigates, through characters plagued by conflicting emotions, humanity’s impermanence — be it our bodies, minds, relationships, hopes, our memories.

Unwilling to evacuate her doomed and deserted village, labeled “113″ by dam project engineers, the seed keeper muses: “Every memory everyone has ever had will eventually be underwater.”

Doerr’s characters are fond of pronouncements, particularly regarding the question, “What’s the one permanent thing in the world?” “Nothingness is the permanent thing.” “Darkness … is the permanent thing. And silence.” Even: “a river never stops.”

These dictums aren’t original or insightful, which is to say, there’s no serviceable answer, which is to say, is there nothing we can hold on to, though we’re destined to lose everything?

Read more HERE

What did you think about today’s book news? What do you think about this new book ‘Masked’, can it really teach Hollywood? How cool is this new award/prize that Terry Pratchett is giving away? How does this ‘Memory Wall’ novel sound to you, will you read it?