Monday 6 August 2012

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Weekly Gossip

Here is your bookish news from the past week.

First up, cover reveals!

Strange Chemistry have released the preliminary cover artwork for Pantomime by Laura Lam.

Preliminary cover artwork for Pantomime by Laura Lam

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?! The artwork is by Tom Bagshaw, and I love it! It's so beautiful! Can't wait to see what the final cover will look like!

The second cover I have to show you comes with some really awesome news. Do you remember Free Four? Before Insurgent was released, Veronica Roth wrote the knife-throwing scene from Divergent from Four's point of view that would be released as a thank you to her fans if pre-orders for Insurgent reached 35,000. Well, they did, and we got Free Four! However, people have been asking for a more permanent form of the story for their own to read on their various readers. You spoke, and the publishers listened! Well, to some of us. If I understand right, this is only available to those in the US. But still - those guys get Free Four for 99cents! You can read more info about on Veronica's blog here, and you can view all the retailers you can get it from here. So, Free Four isn't exactly all that free anymore, but hey ho, it's still an awesome scene!

And now for the cover:

Free Four by Veronica Roth

Cool, huh? :)

The Department 19 Exists Facebook Page has released the cover for the third book in the series, Department 19: Battle Lines by Will Hill.

Department 19: Battle Lines by Will Hill

I love`the covers for this series! They just scream action and violence! Very exciting cover! What do you think?

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Author Appreciate AugustThe wonderful Sarah and Becca from Saz101 and Reading Wishes are hosting Author Appreciation August! "What's that?" I hear you ask. Well, as they put it, it is "a month dedicated to showing authors we care and appreciate them. Without these amazing super-human beings dedicating their lives and careers—not to mention spare time—to their craft, we wouldn’t have all the books we treasure, obsess over, and fall in love with. Without them, there would be no Harry Potter, no Vampire Academy, and no Hunger Games. Quite simply: we’d live in a world without magic.

Throughout the month we’ll be speaking to your favorite authors about what writing means to them and what they appreciate, so you can appreciate them just a little bit more. Excited? There’s more! There are dozens of prizes to be won, so be sure to stop by, and remember: it’s all about sharing the love!"


Sounds awesome, huh? So what are you waiting for? Head on over and check out the awesome!

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Trailers have been made for Jeff Norton's Metawars: Fight For the Future. In the series, everyone must choose a side - the Guardians or the Millenials. Who's side are you on?

THE MILLENIALS:



THE GUARDIANS:


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News from Vintage Books:

World Vintage Classics Launches World of Stories Website for Young Bookworms

Vintage Classics, an imprint of The Random House Group, today unveils World of Stories – a free, fun, safe interactive website for children – to accompany the launch of the new Vintage Children’s Classics series and inspire and nurture a life-long love of reading.

World of Stories enables children to find out more about the Vintage Children’s Classics books by entering six magical worlds: The Great Outdoors; Love and Friendship; Time Travel; World of Weird; Secrets and Spies; and Adventure. By exploring these animated, sound-filled landscapes, children can discover hidden content including quizzes, wallpapers, colouring sheets, interesting facts about the books and things to make and do.


Find out more here.

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Sarah Mussi painting

Enter Sarah Mussi's ANGEL DUST summer drawing competition for the chance to win this signed original painting by Sarah Mussi!

To enter – draw or paint an angel or seraph and post it to Sarah’s Facebook page before 5pm on 31 August 2012.

The winner will win Sarah Mussi’s painting and a signed copy of ANGEL DUST. Five runners-up will each receive a signed copy of the book.

All details, plus terms and conditions, can be found here.

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On Thursday 2nd August, the follow up to The History Keepers, Circus Maximus by Damien Dibben was released! For the release, a number of videos have been made available. Normally, I would embed them all to my blog, but as there are quite a few, I'm just going to link to them.

You can watch Dabien Dibben introduce the The History Keepers: The Storm Begins. You can watch Dibben reading out extracts, Extract 1 and Extract 2. And you watch three Q&A videos with Dibben. Q&A 1, Q&A 2, and Q&A 3.

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Now to acquisitions!

The first from Hodder & Stoughton:

Hodder buys Lost meets Battlestar-Gallactica science fiction thriller

Editorial director Kate Howard and assistant editor Harriet Bourton of Hodder & Stoughton have acquired debut author Kass Morgan’s thrilling two-book YA series The Hundred from Sara Shandler and Joelle Hobeika at Alloy Entertainment (World English), with US rights to Elizabeth Bewley at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. The books are scheduled for publication in Spring 2014 and Fall 2014.

The series follows 100 teenagers, all harbouring dark secrets, who leave their homes – enormous, city-like spaceships – to re-colonize barely recognizable Earth, only to discover that no matter how far from home they are, they cannot escape their pasts.

Harriet Bourton says: ‘I knew I was going to find it impossible to put THE HUNDRED down from the very first paragraph. The world we are transported to is so vividly imagined and convincingly realised, and our view of this disturbing place is garnered from a truly remarkable cast of young adults.’


Next from HarperCollins Children's Books:

Teenage Musical Prodigy Turns Author in HarperCollins Children’s Books’ Latest Acquisition

An astonishing fantasy debut from an 18-year-old classical musician has been acquired by Nick Lake at HarperCollins. Rights for the UK and Commonwealth were secured from HarperCollins US (Greenwillow Books) for two titles by author Stefan Bachmann, an American teenager studying music at the Zürich Conservatory in Switzerland, who began writing The Peculiar at just 16 years old.

Described by the writer himself as “gothic-steampunk-faery-fantasy”, The Peculiar is set in an intriguing and original landscape – an alternative Victorian England where wolves pull taxicabs and flame faeries on lampposts light your way home at night.

The extraordinary story follows Bartholomew Kettle, a changeling child. He is despised by both his races; if the humans don’t hang him for witchcraft, the faeries will do something worse. So his mother keeps him locked away. But then changelings start surfacing in the Thames, their bodies empty of blood and bone and their skin etched with red tattoos. Now something is coming for Bartholomew. But when you're a changeling, there's nowhere to run...

Bachman plans to compose musical pieces to be released throughout the publication season of both The Peculiar and the sequel. The music will be utilised into a fully integrated multimedia ebook. There will be three of these “Peculiar Pieces” available at publication, along with the intro, which can be heard here.


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4 comments:

  1. Oh goodness... Jo. That cover artwork is STUNNING... also... is that the girl from the cover of The Selection? It looks SO much like her!

    Also: *pokes* thank you so much for the shout-out, hon! ♥♥♥

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    1. I know! It's just so beautiful! I'm not sure if it's actually a girl. Meaning, I don't think it's actually a photo that's been edited. Looking at the artist's website, I would think he created it himself, in whatever media he used. But I could be wrong.

      Haha, no problem! :)

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  2. Aw, sucks that Free Four is only available to those in the US, but at least we got to read it!! AND LOVE IT! I'm desperate for MORE FOUR now. You are so right about the Departnent 19 covers screaming action and violence.... this kinda makes me want to go pick one up! I NEED some unapologetic book violence right now :D

    OMG The Hundred and The Peculiar sounds so, so, so good!! 2014... bleehhhh not so good.

    Ooooh I've seen those girls, Sarah and Becca, around.... troublesome, no doubt, but TOTALLY amazing! :P Loving their AAA month!

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    1. I know :( I think it's a little too short for me, personally, to want to buy it, but I still think it should be made available for everyone.

      The Department 19 books sound SO good! I had trouble reading the first book the first time round, so I've got to try it again. And the covers are just awesome!

      I know, too long to wait for awesome sounding books! :( Sucks!

      Haha! Sarah is amazing! I don't really know Becca though. Hope to remedy that by visiting her blog more often :)

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