In case you have some extra cash on hand and you’re looking for a safe investment, Auction Traders wants you to know that there is a Potter auction in Dallas not to be missed: [Read more…]
NY C.S.Lewis Society 40th Anniversary: Be There!
June 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Read all about the 40th Anniversary Weekend Symposium for the New York C.S. Lewis Society! [Read more…]
‘Level 26’ Digi-Novel: The Future of Literature?
June 10, 2009 by 10 Comments
I was told by my marketing handler at Penguin/Berkley to visit the Penguin Books Booth when I was on the trade floor at Book Expo America last month. She wanted me to introduce myself to the sales and promotional people there so they had a face with the name in case Harry Potter’s Bookshelf ever takes off. That turned out to be a fool’s errand — the sales people were there to make sales with the gazillion booksellers present, not make face time with wanna-bes — but I did catch a glimpse of what may be the future of popular literature. Or is it just a repackaging of the present?
Penguin/Dutton was promoting heavily via hard displays, advance copies, and video terminals a book titled Level 26, “the first Digi-Novel,” “from the creator of the hit show CSI.” If you go to the web site for the book, you’ll read this description of the “Digi-Novel” experience:
Read, watch, log-in, and inter-act. Level 26 breaks all boundaries of traditional publishing by combining motion picture quality film and an interactive community website with a thriller novel.
I was given a copy of the book, and, frankly, thought little of it. I read the first chapter on the bus ride home, though, and was curious enough to go to the press web site to check out the “motion picture quality film” that serves as a bridge between chapters. You can read the book straight through, it turns out, without checking out the video bridges and still follow the story — but the video segments are incredible. [Read more…]
Guest Post: Narnia, Hogwarts, and Fantastic Beasts
June 9, 2009 by 22 Comments
All Star HogPro All-Pro on deck! Pay Attention! Thank you, Prof. Hardy, for sharing this brilliant survey of magical animals in the Hogwarts Saga and the Narniad.
Fantastic Beasts: C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, and the Menagerie of the Imagination
by Elizabeth Hardy, author of Milton, Spenser and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels
Every author is influenced by what he or she experiences, believes, or learns. Authors are also profoundly affected by what they read. All authors weave into their own work that which they have read, from the great stories of the Bible or classical mythology, to the poems of childhood songs or nursery rhymes, to phrases or words caught in passing. Far from indicating plagiarism or unoriginality, such connections rather display the variety of influences, often unconscious, that an author may have had, while allowing the reader to notice the ways in which an author, both subtly and overtly, uses material from other sources, often by twisting it into strange and wonderful new forms. [Read more…]
Two All-Pro ‘Thoughts on Twilight’ Posts!
June 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Arabella Figg takes a Psychological Look at Bella and Edward in Twilight and New Moon over at the beta version of Forks High School Professor.com and Linda McCabe, serious Vampire Lore Lady (who knew?), tells us what works and what doesn’t in the Twilight Saga. Both are important reflections on the stuff and substance of the best selling books since Harry left Privet Drive… Check ’em out — and please let us know of any other “serious readings” you have stumbled upon online!
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