Apparently, author L.J. Smith actually meant it when she said that her publisher was re-releasing her Night World series. (Frankly, I'd filed that idea under "wishful thinking", seeing as re-printing the series would add to the pressure to finish it, which I was 95% certain was never gonna happen.) But it's okay, I can admit it when I'm wrong. The books are up on the Simon and Schuster web page, and will retail for $8.99--not a bad price, seeing as each book will contain three complete stories. Here's the updated cover art:



Does anybody else think the second girl looks like a goth version of Rory Gilmore?

Labels: L.J. Smith, Long-lost authors

I spoke with some TOKYOPOP reps at SakuraCon (more on that soon), and took the opportunity to ask about Eric Wight's manga series My Dead Girlfriend, which debuted with much fanfare over a year ago and then immediately disappeared. According to the woman I spoke with, this series is NOT actually dead--it's just, uh, sleeping. Volume two will eventually appear, once they get some "complicated" licensing issues worked out!

Labels: Long-lost authors, manga

In unexpected (but awesome!) news, fantasy writer L.J. Smith has returned from a decade-long absence. The only signs of life we've seen from Ms. Smith since 1998 have been the recent re-releases of her Vampire Diaries series, but all of a sudden she has a brand-spanking-new website overflowing with info. She talks about more re-releases, the possibility of new installments in both her Game series and the Vampire Diaries books, and the long, long awaited final volume of her Night World series. The site also explains what happened during her break (she was preoccupied by some terrible family illnesses), and offers several short stories and story-inspired art pieces.

Note: I was less than impressed, however, by the image on her intro page. As I am no longer nine years old, I can't imagine wanting to be pictured cuddling up to a unicorn, but to each her own, right? I can accept that famous fantasy writers have different tastes! But... well, does anybody else think that the unicorn's horn is lopsided? Because I think it looks like the horn is growing directly above its left eyebrow.

Labels: L.J. Smith, Long-lost authors

I've been hearing good things about the just-released movie Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day--including that it was based on a very sweet, funny British novel written in 1938. So I looked it up, but it seems that the only copy available here in the U.S. won't be out until July. I'm looking forward to reading it, although I'm still confused as to why they didn't rush the release date a little. (Strike while the iron is hot, people! Unless July is the DVD release date...) Here's the publisher's description:

"Miss Pettigrew is about a governess sent by an employment agency to the wrong address, where she encounters a glamorous night-club singer, Miss LaFosse.'The sheer fun, the light-heartedness' in this wonderful 1938 book 'feels closer to a Fred Astaire film than anything else' comments the Preface-writer Henrietta Twycross-Martin, who found Miss Pettigrew for Persephone Books. The Guardian asked: 'Why has it taken more than half a century for this wonderful flight of humour to be rediscovered?' while the Daily Mail liked the book's message - 'that everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world.' Maureen Lipman wrote in 'Books of the Year' in the Guardian: 'Perhaps the most pleasure has come from Persephone's enchanting reprints, particularly Miss Pettigrew, a fairy story set in 1930s London'; and she herself entertained R4 listeners with her five-part reading. And in The Shops India Knight called Miss Pettigrew 'the sweetest grown-up book in the world'." [Source]

Sounds promising, doesn't it? Meanwhile, I suppose I'll have to shell out the price of the movie ticket:

Labels: Long-lost authors, Movie Adaptations