Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome and not at all well-written. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kate is here to give it all to you. Just, ya know, not in any kinda sophisticated sense or nothing.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: the trailer for the Scorch Trials is out! Laini Taylor signs three-book-deal, Princess Academy to become a play and we discuss the very controversial GOT episode that happened this week.

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two. For new releases and cover reveals of all the best Young Adult fiction, check out our Tuesday post: Hot New Titles.

Trailer For Scorch Trials

Who in the world does these trailers?  I swear, I didn’t even like the first movie that much, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because now I’m like, “Oh, I sooooo need to see this one!”  Hopefully this one has a little more plot and a little less action.  Anyway, if you enjoyed Maze Runner, you’re sure to enjoy this sequel.

Southwest To Offer Ebooks

And speaking of movies, if you’d rather ditch the in flight movie, there will soon be other options on Southwest Airlines.

E-book retailer Kobo is teaming with Global Eagle Entertainment and Bauer Communications to provide Southwest Airlines passengers complimentary in-flight access to e-books. The new inflight e-book platform launched on May 6 and provides access to full books, as well as excerpts, from hundreds of titles published by the major houses.

Hmmm… well, if it’s a 1 hour flight from SF to LA, I don’t see you being too interested.  I mean, how are you supposed to finish anything??

Alexis Steinman, senior v-p of digital products at GEE, which provides a variety of digital content to the travel industry, said that reading is “one of the most popular forms of entertainment for airline passengers.” This new platform, she added, will therefore “provide value both to our customer Southwest, and to its passengers.”

I think this would work better if they offered special content.  Test varying lengths of story for varying lengths of flight to see what will work for a particular flight.

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Laini Taylor Signs A Three Book Deal

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  If you’re like me, and you didn’t mind the heart stomping you received via Taylor during her last series, you’ll be very excited to hear that the author just signed a three book deal with Little, Brown.  But don’t get confused, this IS NOT a trilogy.  At least the first book of the three is a standalone.

First up is The Muse of Nightmares, a gothic-flavored fantasy scheduled for fall 2016. In a statement, Taylor said she was excited to be finally writing “this story that’s been in my head for about two decades.” She went on to describe the basic concept: “There was a war between men and gods, and men won. The few surviving children of the gods have grown up in hiding, dreading the day they know must come: when humans find them, and end them. That day is at hand.”

A topic for one of the subsequent books has been tentatively agreed upon, and the third project will be open to Taylor’s inspiration.

YAYAYAYAYAYAY!  I can’t wait!

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Princess Academy Is A Play!

I love pretty much everything Shannon Hale, but Princess Academy holds a special place in my heart as the very first Hale book I ever read.  And now it’s been adapted into a play!

The Brigham Young University Department of Theatre and Media Arts presents the world premiere of “Princess Academy,” a new play adapted from New York Times bestseller Shannon Hale on select dates from May 30 to June 13 at 7 p.m. in the Pardoe Theatre.

“Princess Academy” tells the story of a young girl taken from her home to attend royal finishing school and faces a harsh schoolmistress, fierce storms and bandits. She soon discovers the power of friendship and a loving heart.

Director Megan Sanborn Jones teamed up with playwright Lisa Hall Hagen and dramaturg Janine Sobeck more than a year ago to begin the process of adapting Shannon Hale’s story for the stage. This group effort was in part inspired by the story in “Princess Academy” where the academy girls must work together and answer questions as a group to complete their final exam.

If you’re one of the lucky people living close enough in Utah to attend, it opens up next week!  Check out this ADORBS cast photo:

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Chelsey Clinton Writes MG Inspirational

Ms. Clinton has signed a deal with Penguin Young readers to write a book called It’s Your World: Get Informed Get Inspired & Get Going.

For this project, Clinton will address a variety of different issues including poverty, education, equality, epidemics, and climate change.

“In It’s Your World, I try to explain what I think are some of the biggest challenges facing our world today, particularly for young people. I also explore some of the solutions to those challenges and share stories of inspiring kids and teenagers doing amazing work to help people and our planet have brighter and healthier futures. My hope is that the book will inspire readers to realize that they can start making a difference now, in their own way, for their family, their community, and our world.” [said Clinton in a press statement]

They have a lot of books similar to this at my local library, so it seems like this will be a good fit for the market.

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ColdPlay’s New Musical: Game Of Thrones

Courtesy of the NBC fundraiser Red Nose Day comes this hilarious mockumentary which asks the question: if Chris Martin wrote a musical based on the TV Show Game Of Thrones, what would it look like?  Well, apparently, it would look a lot like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAiRvXnL6jE

(also, keep an eye out for full songs by the cast and crew, which you can find on Youtube as well.  Tyrion’s is HILARIOUS)

Rapey GOT At It Again

(Trigger Warning for this story.  Oh and lots of spoilers for the show and book 5.)

Hopefully, the above video put you in a good enough mood that you won’t want to SMASH ALL THE THINGS at this next story.  About a month ago, it was reported that Sansa’s storyline on the hit TV Show Game of Thrones would be deviating from the original text.  From the show’s creators:

We really wanted Sansa to play a major part this season. If we were going to stay absolutely faithful to the book, it was going to be very hard to do that. There was as subplot we loved from the books, but it used a character that’s not in the show.

Intriguing… who is this character and what was this subplot featuring?  I mean, this could be really good.  What subplot did the show creators LOVE from the books?

Oh, well, it turns out the subplot they LOVED was poor Jeyne Pool’s.  Jeyne Pool was a childhood friend of Sansa Stark, who at some point in the story gets sent by Cersei Lannister to Winterfell to marry Ramsey Bolton (pretending that she’s Arya Stark, of course).  Here’s where it gets tricky.  There is a wedding night scene featuring Ramsey, Reek (Theon Greyjoy) and Jeyne that is guaranteed to turn your stomach in the books.  Granted, Martin only gives you the prelude to that scene, but there is a lot of implication afterward and basically the whole situation sets you up for what happens with Jon Snow’s story in the rest of the book.

Now, I could go on and on here, but we’ve talked about what the TV show seems to do with all their strongest female characters before.  And there are MANY  MINDS FINER than mine who have tackled this subject.

But good Lord, this was about the laziest freaking writing.  I mean REALLY.  First of all, they did the whole “bride raped on her wedding night” thing already.  I mean, couldn’t you have come up with something else instead of a recycled story?

And let’s not even discuss the fact that this totally f’s up Reek AND Jon Snow’s stories.  In the book, it isn’t someone else’s story that changes Reek’s character, it’s something inside himself, a choice he makes.  In the book, everything that Snow does in his final chapter are based on the fact that he is going to (presumably) go rescue Arya, the sister he loves, not Sansa the sister he doesn’t give a shit about who always treated him like crap.  It’s the reason for a very pivotal scene in the book, much more pivotal than Ramsey Bolton raping yet another woman.

And the people who are like, “Rape exists, it’s logical that it’s a part of this story.”  Uh, guys(or whoever) WOMEN KNOW RAPE EXISTS.  IF ANYONE ON EARTH KNOWS, WE DO.  It’s why we’re afraid to walk down a dark street alone.

So yeah, no matter how “tasteful” or “considerate” or whatever this scene supposedly is, we all know why you included it.  Shock value.  To get people talking and watching.  To do that so needlessly for a little attention is really pathetic, and again, way lazy.  I don’t want to point any fingers (*cough* The 100 *cough*), but there are PLENTY of shows that manage to be shocking and compelling without EVER having that type of element.

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Interesting Links:

Meg Storified Paul Beimers’ Tweets On Rape As A Storytelling Device

John Scalzi signs 3.4 million dollar book deal

A Conversation With Neil Gaiman

The Dresses of GOT

The Most Popular Books According To The States They Are Set In