Buzz Worthy News 19 March 2012

Book Releases This Week

Croak by Gina Damico

Released on: March 20 2012

The Divide by L.J. Smith*

Released on: March 20 2012

Loss by Jackie Morse Kessler

Released on: March 20 2012

A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

Released on: March 20 2012

When You Open Your Eyes by Celeste Conway

Released on: March 20 2012

Book World News

Manny Rayner, Goodreads God and Mastermind behind the Goodreads Death Match, has published a book of his greatest reviews.  As far as I know it’s the first time a Goodreader has done such. But, rumour has it that the book contains an epic poem, written by Rayner, in ode to another Goodreader’s rather impressive bosoms.   When questioned on the veracity of these claims by myself, Manny responded by saying, “You are now the subject of a published poem!”

Nice.

William Moseley has been cast as the character Aspen for the TV series adaptation of The Selection by Keira Cass.  This was met with refreshingly little name calling and twitter-shame.

Cassandra Clare is officially writing a THIRD Shadowhunter series, having confirmed it this week with Margaret K. McElderry books (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing) for a seven figure deal.

“Set against the glittering backdrop of present-day Los Angeles, the series follows Emma Carstairs, the fiercest warrior and most skilled young Shadowhunter since Jace Wayland, and Emma’s sworn partner in arms, Julian Blackthorn. Despite Emma’s complicated feelings for Julian, the two must band together to investigate a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.”

Sounds vaguely familiar but I can’t think where I might have read about a boy and girl shadowhunter team with a complicated relationship before.

The news was met with fairly predictable, happy, response from many fans:

But a more interesting response from other fans which led to this conversation:

Yes, this fan is clearly being unreasonable by pointing out that the only fully published novels that Cassandra Clare has produced (she has done several short stories for anthologies) are all based on the same concept, world, structure and character archetypes – and that maybe it would be nice for Clare to prove her dissenters wrong by writing something that is not considerably derivative of Clare’s previous fandoms.

I want to be clear that there are good reasons for people to enjoy and love Clare’s series.  But I fully understand fans who feel that, three series spanning twelve novels in the same world with very similar premises – would feel a little uncomfortable for some people.

Regardless, the news has had some benefits including some hilarious GIF reviews.  And if we can’t have our sarcastic gif reviews, what can we have?

When I commented to Stephanie about this she laughed condescendingly and replied, “Oh yeah.  I’ve known about that for a while.”

The obvious reply of, “Well… YOU fucking do the Buzz Worthy News!” occurred to me, but I’m sneakier than that.  I went and uncovered information that is both shocking and scandalous!  So it kind of belongs in the Scandalous Scandals section but I’ll just put it here anyway.

Stephanie… is a hipster.  And I have found proof.

Amidst the publicity of the publication of the 50 Shades trilogy by E.L.James, there has been a growing concern over the legality of its publication.  Being reworked fanfiction casts an auspicious light over its place in the literary world.  But the reassurances from Random House that the Fifty Shades trilogy was:

“An original work, and said to us that James had warranted the books were, indeed original. Messitte added she was “aware of the narrative that [50 SHADES] started as differently titled piece of fiction, but that they were and are two distinctly separate pieces of work.”

That sounds reassuring until Dear Author takes the time to do a more detailed analysis of text and arrives at some disturbing conclusions.

Book Cover Reveals

Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Revealed on: Hypable Blog

Expected Publication Date: October 12 2012

Synopsis:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

Velveteen by Danielle Marks

Reveal on: Novel Thoughts

Expected Publication Date: October 9 2012

Synopsis:

Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.
It’ll be brutal . . . and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules . . . or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Revealed on: Smugglerific

Expected Publication Date: September 11 2012

Synopsis:

Kami Glass is in love with someone she’s never met—a boy she’s talked to in her head since she was born. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she has learned ways to turn that to her advantage. Her life seems to be in order, until disturbing events begin to occur. There has been screaming in the woods and the manor overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. . . . The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. Now Kami can see that the town she has known and loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets—and a murderer. The key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy she thought was imaginary is real, and definitely and deliciously dangerous.

Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt

Revealed on: Tiffany Schmidt Books

Expected Publication Date: October 2 2012

Synopsis:

Mia’s used to being the perfect teenager: pretty, popular, smart, caring. But that was before she was diagnosed with leukemia. Now, her father has become Captain Cancer Facts and her mother is obsessed with maintaining Mia’s image. Her maybe-more-than-a-friend, Gyver, is judging her decision not to tell the other cheerleaders that she’s sick. Her life’s about to change and she’s terrified by the loss of control.

Mia’s always been superstitious, but as her body starts to feel like it belongs less to her and more to the doctors and their needles, she becomes irrationally dependent on horoscopes, fortune cookies, and good luck charms. As chemotherapy replaces cheerleading and platelets replace parties, Mia just wants normal back. But despite searching for clues in everything from songs on the radio to her Magic 8 Ball, her future is coming up Outlook not so good.

Scandalous Scandals

An author, who shall not be named – but certainly linked to – decided to reignite debate over her book (because she’s well known in the drama llama circle for antics like here and here. She has used the exact same formula as last time.

Pick on a review (for calling her book YA, this time)

Posts on facebook, inferring the review, and igniting fans to harass negative reviews (which they do.  In abundance.  Sophia’s review sees a lot of renewed abuse.)

The Unnamed Author claims she is only the innocent victim of a number of MEAN and NASTY internet people and why can’t they just leave her alone?  WHAT did she ever do to deserve this? (Other than, you know, all that bad stuff.)

Finally we do see why Unnamed Author feels she’s under personal attack when she says, “Wendy, insinuating that I convey a clear message in my book that ‘condones’ abuse is a personal attack.”

Discussion spawns, a blog post made, and people discover that she’s actually been letting people refer to her book as YA for A LONG time now.  Wonder why she chose to finally speak up…

But who cares about details and facts, right?

Publicity made.  Books sold.

SUCCESS!

Or at least until Stacia Kane, author of the Downside Ghosts series, shows up to lay a smack down – which only gets better every time you read it.

Funnily enough, that’s exactly the time unnamed author stops posting on the review.

Then other commenters start pointing out several examples of the author and her friends policing negative reviews of each other’s books.  Like here and here… and here (Thank you L.N. Davis).

Jessica Park struggles with people only giving her book three stars and then having the audacity to friend her.  Since she’s one of Unnamed Author’s chums, that kind of makes sense.

Then another of Unnamed Author’s author friends decides she wants in on all the drama and publicity and makes this twitter update:

Oops.  Guess unnamed author just got named.  My bad.

But it did help inspire this amazing, incredible, unspeakably awesome blog post!

If only that were the end of this week’s scandals, however, Shannon Hale, author of The Princess Academy, tweeted on Thursday:

Which ignited debate here, where it frustrated reviewers.

Look, this isn’t exactly a big deal.  Authors have feelings about things and some of them live in a world where three stars is a hurtful thing.  Unfortunately for Hale, this came at precisely the time another Goodreader was sent an angry email by an author over her 3 star review.

It still would probably have blown over and been quickly forgotten if Hale hadn’t responded to tweeters with:

Yes, we get what you’re saying and it was kind of funny, but if you could just express yourself in a way that doesn’t come off quite so glib in regards to people’s concerns…

Yeah, no.

*This post would have been much more difficult to do without the indispensable assistance of Stories and Sweeties*