What's New
Nothing much on the home front. Finished my story for the Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance anthology due out later this year. It’s a bit different for me since I combined fact (Doc Holliday spent some of the last month’s of his life here in Colorado –both in Glenwood Springs, where he died—but also in Leadville, CO) and fiction, Doc’s encounter with a vampire. It was fun, but since I’m not a romance writer, I had to do some editing to make it more romancey. No HEA, though the editor wanted it, but more bitter-sweet. Anyway, I’ll let you know when it’s due out.
Now for the good, the bad and the ugly from media land
Whoa:
Stephenie Meyer has remained dominant in the first quarter of 2009.
USA Today says "sales of her novels accounted for about
16 percent of all book sales tracked by the [USA Today bestseller] list in the first quarter of 2009."
Double whoa (for an entirely different reason):
Portland, OR-based Kevin Patrick Bath, 50, author of the children's books The Secret of Castle Cant and Escape from Castle Cant, was charged on Monday with multiple counts of trading child pornography via the Internet. (He pled not guilty.) The Oregonian reports that Little, Brown Children's has cancelled the fall 2010 publication of Bath's book FLIP SIDE.
A
newspaper in Bend, OR adds that "the court prohibited Bath from having contact with children pending trial. Bath had previously served as a volunteer at a local children's library."
Hmmm...usually publishers find ANY publicity good publicity. I guess child porno connected to a children's author pushes the limits. Good for them for not trying to put a spin on it.
Whedonverse:
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. are expecting their first child together, a source close to the couple confirms exclusively to PEOPLE. "They’re very excited," says the source, adding that the actress is due in the fall.
Gellar, who has been married to Prinze for six years, will next shoot the HBO pilot The Wonderful Maladays, for which she serves as an executive producer. Prinze recently shot the comedy pilot No Heroics for ABC.
Nice.
Good News From Tvsquad.com:
Joss Whedon - "Dr. Horrible 2" Web Series - He has the title! Nathan Fillion : We were talking about doing a sequel to Dr. Horrible on our second— on our first day, actually, of filming Dr. Horrible. But last I spoke with Joss Whedon, he’s actually come up with a title for the second installment, so I’m sure we’re going to see something, another phase in the Dr. Horrible lifespan.
Bad News from
SciFiWire:
Joss Whedon, creator of Fox's sci-fi series Dollhouse, told a group of reporters that he's resigned to the show's fate and that a second-season pickup is unlikely, but said he holds out hope for a renewal. Fox has not yet announced its plans, but the show's ratings have been below expectations and it is not expected to be picked up.
Crap—first SCC now this.
Movie I’m looking forward to seeing:
New Star Trek in theatres next month.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: Variety reported that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will open Wednesday, July 15, two days earlier than originally planned.
Anything you’re especially anxious to see?
I’m sure you’ve heard all about the Amazon debacle so I won’t beat the horse some more except to summarize the latest. From Shelf Awareness:
Amazon Says Error Affected Over 57,000 Titles, and Has Been Fixed--Or Not QuiteAmazon spokesman Drew Herdener said yesterday the company is fixing the "glitch" that removed the sales ranking from what they now say was 57,310 books worldwide. Without explaining the error itself (or the provocative customer service e-mail) any further, Herdener admitted, "This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection." He says that affected books were in "broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing books from Amazon's main product search."And Amazon and Penguin Group (USA) Announce 100 Semifinalists for Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Go
here to see if you made it.
So this weekend Mario and I and faithful reader Gina are off to Starfest. If you plan to come, please stop by and see us.
Which reminds me—here are two good resources in case you want to follow your favorite authors around the country:
BookTour.com and
FiledbytheAuthor.com —I’ve included the links to my page (For obvious reasons) but you can see, there’s a lot of good stuff to be had on these sites. And they’re free.