By Kerry Skemp at the Bostonist

An Evening with Seth Grahame-Smith
Brattle Theatre (40 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
Monday, March 8
6 to 8 pm
$5 tickets from the Harvard Coop

Much as Somerville is the birthplace of the Monster Mash, Seth Grahame-Smith is the pioneer of the Monster Movement in literature. Though the idea of blending monsters and literary classics was first conceived by Jason Rekulak of Quirk Books, Rekulak chose Grahame-Smith to pen the wildly popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Zombie revolution aside, Grahame-Smith is actually at the Brattle to talk about his latest book: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. This psudeobiography paints Lincoln as a battler of the undead in addition to slavery. Not surprisingly, a movie version (by Tim Burton) is already in the works. Horror films inspiring books inspiring books inspiring films: what a delightfully disturbing progression.

Read More here

Will you be going to see him talk? Are you looking forward to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?

By Katie Looby at the Coloradoan

After almost four months of anticipation, Kathy Reams received the letter she was waiting for: official documentation from Guinness World Records declaring Loveland set a record for the largest vampire gathering.

“I got it on [Feb. 12] and had it quickly framed,” said Reams, who organized the event.

The 10-minute vampire gathering occurred in November 2009 before the 11th annual Harvest Night run/walk.

Each year, the race has a costume theme.

Reams had the idea to set the record after living in Las Vegas and seeing the city set the record for the most Santas in one spot, she said.”It was just a silly idea I got. I just got the idea and ran with it,” Reams said. “We had people from all of Northern Colorado show up, and they showed up in Hollywood style. They were just decked out.”

“Running in costume is so much fun,” Reams said. “The vampires were just so big because of ‘Twilight.’”

Read More here

Source: ottawacitizen

A summit of world leaders and top economic thinkers in Toronto this June has put the bite on a vampire romance conference.

So the Twilight “TwiCon” Conference has been moved to Lansdowne Park.

TwiCon’s North Carolina-based managing partner Becky Scoggins said Monday she learned a few weeks ago that TwiCon, which has fans rubbing elbows with actors from vampire films and television series, would probably be bumped by the high-security G20 summit to be held in downtown Toronto.

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre “gave us a call a few weeks ago and said ‘You’ll probably be booted.’ While we we waiting, we were scouting for new venues,” Scoggins said.

Read more here…

This is great new for vampire romance fans. Will you be attending? Come back to OBS Forum and tell us all about it.

By Betsy Price at Delaware Online

For the average lover of children’s books, James Gurney’s illustrations for his Dinotopia tales are marvels, mixing fantasy, science and almost photographical realism to document his world where dinosaurs and humans live side by side.

Those schooled in the history of illustration see more – the influence of Howard Pyle here, a quotation from Maxfield Parrish there, a nod to Normal Rockwell in this one and a debt to Rembrandt and his sense of lighting in that one.

All of that – the fun as well as the parade of illustrative history – will be on display from Sunday through May 16 in “The Fantastical World of James Gurney,” an exhibit of more than 60 of his works at the Delaware Art Museum. Gurney will give a lecture Sunday and will be artist in residence at the museum for a week.

The exhibit places Gurney’s work among the long history of wildlife illustrators who took to dinosaurs first in the 1960s, when Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins filled London’s Crystal Palace with giant sculptures of what he believed dinosaurs may have looked like (he was wrong about a lot of them). The Dinotopia books extend the premise of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 “The Lost World,” in which explorers find dinosaurs living with prehumans. They also benefit from the debates over dinosaur lore rekindled in the 1960s and brought to pop culture by Michael Crichton in his 1990 book, “Jurassic Park,” and then Steven Spielberg’s 1993 movie adaptation.

Read More here

This was my absolute favorite book when I was little, and the illustrations are amazing. The book has maps and line drawings; the book is set up like an explorer’s journal. I would love to go see this exhibit.

Is anyone planning on seeing this? Has anyone read Dinotopia?

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CONTEST ENDS DECEMBER 31ST!!!!

• Breaking dawn hardback
• Ravens of Avalon Diana L Paxson (Marion Zimmer Bradley) hardback
• The Outlaw Demon Wails Kim Harrison hardback
• Vampyre The Terrifying Lost Journal of Dr. Cornelius Van Helsing hardback
• Twilight paperback movie tie in cover
• The Summoning Sisters of Isis Series #1 Lynne Ewing and Tk hardback
• Blue Bloods Series #1 Melissa De La Cruz paperback
• Blue Bloods Series #2 Masquerade Melissa De La Cruz hardback
• Charmed and Deadly Candace Havens paperback
• The Initiation and The Captive Secret Circle Series #1-2 L.J. Smith paperback
• Covet JR Ward paperback
• Dark Curse Christine Feehan paperback
• House of Night Betrayed PC & Kristin Cast paperback
• House of Night Marked PC & Kristin Cast paperback
• Immortal paperback PC Cast w/Rachel Caine, Kristin Cast, Claudia Gray, Nancy Holder, Richelle Mead

*One person will be chosen from those who have joined the forum that month and they can choose one book.

So you see all the amazing things you get from joining OBS’ forums, and the possible chance of winning a prize……

What are you waiting for?? Get your tail over to the OBS forum and JOIN!!!