Friday, May 30, 2008
Breaking Dawn
While browsing Stephenie Meyer's website I found this link. It is a sneak peak at chapter one of Breaking Dawn. The full chapter will come out in the Eclipse Special Edition. So make sure to check it out.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Feedback!
Hi guys,
Anyone who attended the event with Tiffany Trent, either in your classes or at the lunchtime meet-and-greet -- do you have any suggestions or feedback? Tiffany's interested in how people responded to her presentations and what you might like to see in the future. As Tiffany's in this area yearly (or maybe more often!), if you'd like to see her come back and do other things (such as talk about the haunted steamship she researched for Book 2 of Hallowmere, or give a reading), please give some feedback here or in the library so we can pass it along!
Anyone who attended the event with Tiffany Trent, either in your classes or at the lunchtime meet-and-greet -- do you have any suggestions or feedback? Tiffany's interested in how people responded to her presentations and what you might like to see in the future. As Tiffany's in this area yearly (or maybe more often!), if you'd like to see her come back and do other things (such as talk about the haunted steamship she researched for Book 2 of Hallowmere, or give a reading), please give some feedback here or in the library so we can pass it along!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
NEW BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!
It is so exciting that the LMTC has bought a ton of new books. So many of them look really good. I will even try some of the graphic novels for you Martha, if they are on the list. Hopefully, we will get the chance to check them out during this school year. I can hardly wait to start reading.
2
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
NOT A LOCK IN
thank you for having the not a lock in this past saturday. I had a great time and hope that we could maybe do a lock in next year. I really love the shirts, the color is great and the saying is catchy and i don't mind wearing it. Hopefully next year we can be a bigger group so that there can be more discussion. A craft would have also been fun, but maybe we can plan a little more so that we are not scrambling for ideas at the last minute. The movie was fantastic, I had already seen it, but even though it deviates from the book it was not an awful way to have made the book into a movie. So thank you for hosting this event again.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Twilight Trailer
it is great. i look forward to it. i highly recommend watching it. I hope that the link works. if you go to her website you can find it on the movie page. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/
so go look at it and tell me what you think i think that it will be a great movie.
so go look at it and tell me what you think i think that it will be a great movie.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Visiting Author - Tiffany Trent
I'm really happy to have the opportunity to introduce author Tiffany Trent to Holmen High School in person on May 20th. Tiffany's third book, Between Golden Jaws, a part of her fantasy series Hallowmere, was recently released under the Mirrorstone imprint, following the first two titles. Tiffany has written nonfiction about environmental issues, worked as a technical writer, and currently teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech. She also really cares about literacy and teen issues, and was featured this past Teen Read Week -- a visit from Tiffany was one of the prizes offered by the ALA in 2007. As Tiffany has family in this area, and was planning appearances in Wisconsin in May this year, she jumped at the chance to add an appearance here to her itinerary.
Tiffany writes historical fantasy very much in the Libba Bray vein. Hallowmere takes place in the antebellum and Victorian period to follow, in which the orphaned Corrine is plagued by visions of dark faeries and ominous warnings, and as a result of heeding these things, her strict uncle sends her to a girl's reformatory school called Falston. (Reform school in these times = bad news! Definitely a lot more like prison than Gemma Doyle's Spence.) At Falston, Corrine makes a discovery of some old and hidden letters from a medieval monk who talks about forbidden romance -- and vampiric faeries that resemble those stalking Corrine.
And that's just where the fun starts!
Tiffany will be spending time with classes, except for during Lunch period. During that time, book club members are welcome to come hang out with her and the librarians for a more casual event. Bring your lunch in and be ready to socialize!
Tiffany writes historical fantasy very much in the Libba Bray vein. Hallowmere takes place in the antebellum and Victorian period to follow, in which the orphaned Corrine is plagued by visions of dark faeries and ominous warnings, and as a result of heeding these things, her strict uncle sends her to a girl's reformatory school called Falston. (Reform school in these times = bad news! Definitely a lot more like prison than Gemma Doyle's Spence.) At Falston, Corrine makes a discovery of some old and hidden letters from a medieval monk who talks about forbidden romance -- and vampiric faeries that resemble those stalking Corrine.
And that's just where the fun starts!
Tiffany will be spending time with classes, except for during Lunch period. During that time, book club members are welcome to come hang out with her and the librarians for a more casual event. Bring your lunch in and be ready to socialize!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The Host Booksigning
I went to the booksigning for Stephenie Meyer's The Host on Tuesday, and Pel, one of the admin from the Twilight Lexicon, asked me to do a write up on it. I figured since people here are fans of the novel as well, I may as well post it here too:
I arrived at the Mall of America at about 1:30PM. They had started selling books at 8AM, and I was told that a handful of people had arrived even earlier than that--as early as 5AM. This is what the line looked like when I first got there:
I bought my copies of The Host. At the start of the line there was a box for submitting questions for Stephenie, which a man walked through the line later on with in case anyone came up with questions as they read The Host.
I sat down to read while I waited for 6PM to come. A note for anyone else who goes so early to wait in line: if possible, bring chairs like the smart people in the photograph! Standing for 4.5 hours or sitting on the floor for that long is not fun!
A glimpse of the room that was slowly but surely filling up with people.
By 3:30PM, that empty half of the room was full of people, and we were asked to get up and squish together to make room for more people. We did so and then all sat back down to wait. Once or twice the Community Relations Manager at the Barnes & Noble at the Mall of America came out to talk to us:
About 15 minutes before Stephenie was due to arrive, he came back out to introduce her. She arrived, and much screaming followed. She told us that she had a presentation planned out, and was going to do a reading, but after finding out that we all would be standing for the entire evening decided against that. Instead, she answered probably 10 or so of the questions from the box.
I caught a few of the questions (and Stephenie's answers!) on camera:
- What inspired The Host?
(video)
- What music was fitting for The Host?
- Why are there blank pages in The Host?
- Will there be sequels for The Host?
(video of the previous 3 questions)
- Do you ever take your kids on tour with you?
(video)
- What characters in The Host did you really enjoy writing?
(video)
Two of the questions were cut off, so here are paraphrased answers:
What inspired The Host?
This answer can be found in a number of articles and I wanted to save space for other questions! One place to find it is at the official The Host website, on the Q&A page.
Will there be sequels for The Host?
Stephenie said that she has outlines for one sequel, and plans for two to make it a trilogy, but doesn't know if she'll write them anytime soon. She mentioned that one reason in particular is that she's grown fond of the characters, and in order for the sequels to be written, characters would need to die and she doesn't want them to.
Another fun thing I'll point out since it's sort of hard to hear in the videos is the 3 songs that Stephenie mentioned are on her The Host playlist:
- Futurism by Muse
- Original of the Species by U2
- My Name is Love by Rob Dickinson
The rest of the playlist will be available on her website once she finishes this leg of the tour and e-mails it to her brother/webmaster.
After the Q&A came the actual book signing, which went very smooth.
I had my books signed by 7:30-8PM or so, and this is what the line looked like after I was finished:
This wasn't even the entire line--it still stretched out down one of the hallways!
I came back for one last peek about quarter to 9 to see how many people were left, and that large central area was still about half full! It was a long night for the workers, fans, and Stephenie!
ETA: I just found a few more videos of the Q&A from the book signing (ones that I didn't film but are on youtube already):
- Did you know you wanted to be an author when you were a child?
- How involved with the Twilight movie were you?
I arrived at the Mall of America at about 1:30PM. They had started selling books at 8AM, and I was told that a handful of people had arrived even earlier than that--as early as 5AM. This is what the line looked like when I first got there:
I bought my copies of The Host. At the start of the line there was a box for submitting questions for Stephenie, which a man walked through the line later on with in case anyone came up with questions as they read The Host.
I sat down to read while I waited for 6PM to come. A note for anyone else who goes so early to wait in line: if possible, bring chairs like the smart people in the photograph! Standing for 4.5 hours or sitting on the floor for that long is not fun!
A glimpse of the room that was slowly but surely filling up with people.
By 3:30PM, that empty half of the room was full of people, and we were asked to get up and squish together to make room for more people. We did so and then all sat back down to wait. Once or twice the Community Relations Manager at the Barnes & Noble at the Mall of America came out to talk to us:
About 15 minutes before Stephenie was due to arrive, he came back out to introduce her. She arrived, and much screaming followed. She told us that she had a presentation planned out, and was going to do a reading, but after finding out that we all would be standing for the entire evening decided against that. Instead, she answered probably 10 or so of the questions from the box.
I caught a few of the questions (and Stephenie's answers!) on camera:
- What inspired The Host?
(video)
- What music was fitting for The Host?
- Why are there blank pages in The Host?
- Will there be sequels for The Host?
(video of the previous 3 questions)
- Do you ever take your kids on tour with you?
(video)
- What characters in The Host did you really enjoy writing?
(video)
Two of the questions were cut off, so here are paraphrased answers:
What inspired The Host?
This answer can be found in a number of articles and I wanted to save space for other questions! One place to find it is at the official The Host website, on the Q&A page.
Will there be sequels for The Host?
Stephenie said that she has outlines for one sequel, and plans for two to make it a trilogy, but doesn't know if she'll write them anytime soon. She mentioned that one reason in particular is that she's grown fond of the characters, and in order for the sequels to be written, characters would need to die and she doesn't want them to.
Another fun thing I'll point out since it's sort of hard to hear in the videos is the 3 songs that Stephenie mentioned are on her The Host playlist:
- Futurism by Muse
- Original of the Species by U2
- My Name is Love by Rob Dickinson
The rest of the playlist will be available on her website once she finishes this leg of the tour and e-mails it to her brother/webmaster.
After the Q&A came the actual book signing, which went very smooth.
I had my books signed by 7:30-8PM or so, and this is what the line looked like after I was finished:
This wasn't even the entire line--it still stretched out down one of the hallways!
I came back for one last peek about quarter to 9 to see how many people were left, and that large central area was still about half full! It was a long night for the workers, fans, and Stephenie!
ETA: I just found a few more videos of the Q&A from the book signing (ones that I didn't film but are on youtube already):
- Did you know you wanted to be an author when you were a child?
- How involved with the Twilight movie were you?
The Host
I just got home and was so sad when I saw that The Host had not yet arrived. Thankfully UPS came through for me and about 8 minutes ago the wonderful brown truck arrived carrying my wonderful treat. I can hardly wait to start reading it, but I have to finish reading my other book first because I am really enjoying it. So thank you Martha for letting me check it out even though you were planning on reading it.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Little Brother, YA Triumphant, and Good Lit
Avid websurfers with an interest in YA literature and good sci-fi might have noticed that on pop-culture web outlet BoingBoing, as well as on diverse blogs from literary luminaries such as Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, and perennial YA favorite Scott Westerfeld, the new book Little Brother by science fiction sensation Cory Doctorow is causing a minor net-wave about the topics of young adult crossover appeal and where one can find quality science fiction.
It's interesting to me that there is a quiet move within the industry among science-fiction and fantasy authors to pitch to teen readers. The market for young adult books lets these writers be more flexible in what topics they write about, get better covers and more shelf space, and actually helps them sell more books. As several people pointed out, Scott Westerfeld is the biggest name in science fiction who never gets the recognition he deserves simply because the awards in the genre haven't caught up with the new reality of YA's significance. It's also shocking to me how many people - even after Harry Potter - have missed the groundswell of truly great books emerging in the teen section of their bookstore. These discussions also highlight just how cutting-edge the books available to teenagers have become; there's a second thread on Scalzi's blog that highlights the problems that adult science-fiction faces by comparison. It suggests a lot of interesting things to be aware of -- both that this genre may have its best books already on the YA shelves, but that there may be just as many excellent 'adult' sci-fi and fantasy genre books on the standard sf/f shelves that might have gotten much more attention if only they had been marketed or written 'younger'.
But to circle back again, it's also worth noting that Doctorow, who brought up the topic of the undiscovered country of great YA on the BoingBoing article, is savvy enough to put this awesome book up for download. That's right -- his critically acclaimed sci-fi tale of one teenager against a Homeland Security run amok, Big-Brother-versus-Little-Brother in a good old fashioned showdown, can be read for free download through Creative Commons license. I advise you take a look -- this is highly touted as one of the most important books this year in genre fiction, YA or not, and its buzz is inching towards Twilight-and-Potter huge.
It's interesting to me that there is a quiet move within the industry among science-fiction and fantasy authors to pitch to teen readers. The market for young adult books lets these writers be more flexible in what topics they write about, get better covers and more shelf space, and actually helps them sell more books. As several people pointed out, Scott Westerfeld is the biggest name in science fiction who never gets the recognition he deserves simply because the awards in the genre haven't caught up with the new reality of YA's significance. It's also shocking to me how many people - even after Harry Potter - have missed the groundswell of truly great books emerging in the teen section of their bookstore. These discussions also highlight just how cutting-edge the books available to teenagers have become; there's a second thread on Scalzi's blog that highlights the problems that adult science-fiction faces by comparison. It suggests a lot of interesting things to be aware of -- both that this genre may have its best books already on the YA shelves, but that there may be just as many excellent 'adult' sci-fi and fantasy genre books on the standard sf/f shelves that might have gotten much more attention if only they had been marketed or written 'younger'.
But to circle back again, it's also worth noting that Doctorow, who brought up the topic of the undiscovered country of great YA on the BoingBoing article, is savvy enough to put this awesome book up for download. That's right -- his critically acclaimed sci-fi tale of one teenager against a Homeland Security run amok, Big-Brother-versus-Little-Brother in a good old fashioned showdown, can be read for free download through Creative Commons license. I advise you take a look -- this is highly touted as one of the most important books this year in genre fiction, YA or not, and its buzz is inching towards Twilight-and-Potter huge.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
THE HOST
Stephenie Meyer was in the area today. Did we go. NOOOOOO it is so sad that we were not able to go. I am depressed I am hoping to buy the book soon. It seems like it will be good even though it is not going to be like Twilight.
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