from NewStatesman

The books of revelations: why are novelists turning back to religion?

There is a sense that, in recent years, novelists have formed part of a rearguard action in response to Richard Dawkins’s New Atheist consensus. Philip Maughan talks to Marilynne Robinson, Francis Spufford and Rowan Williams about God in literature.

by Philip Maughan

Close to the end of White Noise, Don DeLillo’s 1984 novel about a professor of Hitler studies who will do just about anything to ease his fear of dying, an elderly nun reveals the secret truth about faith. “Do you think we are stupid?” she asks Jack Gladney, bleeding from the wrist at a Catholic hospital following a botched murder attempt. “We are here to take care of sick and injured,” the old nun explains in a halting German accent. “Only this. You would talk about heaven, you must find another place.”

All the crosses, devotional images of saints, angels and popes that line the walls of the ward exist merely as set dressing. “The devil, the angels, heaven and hell. If we did not pretend to believe these things, the world would collapse,” she says. “As belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe. Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak.”

“I don’t want to hear this,” Gladney moans. “This is terrible.”

“But true,” the nun says.

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the unlikely popularity of religion in contemporary fiction. So far this year we have seen the strange sanctification of a thalidomide victim who died in childhood (Orla Nor Cleary in Nicola Barker’s dazzlingly manic In the Approaches), an avowedly atheist dentist lured to Israel by the leader of an underground sect (Joshua Ferris’s Man Booker-shortlisted To Rise Again at a Decent Hour), a high court judge, Fiona Maye, ruling on whether a hospital has the right to administer a life-saving blood transfusion to a teenage Jehovah’s Witness (Ian McEwan’s The Children Act) and, most recently, the voyage of a prim evangelical on a mission to outer space (Michel Faber’s Book of Strange New Things).

When you consider these alongside the large volume of books about Jesus published in the past few years – Colm Tóibín’s gory reimagining of the Gospels in The Testament of Mary, the enigmatic youth David from J M Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus, James Frey’s damaged Ben Zion in The Final Testament and Philip Pullman’s warring twins in The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – you get a sense of bewildered fascination, of a sore that continues to itch.

[ click to read full article at NewStatesman ]

from Kobo.com

The Many Sides of Endgame

5 Questions with author James Frey

James Frey (left) and Nils Johnson-Shelton

It all started with a simple goal: create an “experience.” After all is said and done however Endgame, the much anticipated new YA series by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, may be the most ambitious multimedia experiment ever attempted in publishing.

Based around the story of a global game between 12 ancient cultures that will decide the fate of humankind, Endgame holds an elaborate code—one that will direct readers towards a key hidden somewhere in the real world. That key will open a case containing $500,000 in gold.

To enhance the hunt, Google’s Niantic Labs has made an alternate reality game based on the plot. Two more books are coming. Fox is developing a movie concurrently, and around it all is a scavenger hunt base on cryptic numbers, coordinates, and other details hidden in the book.

We caught up with the one half of the writing team, James Frey, an author best known for his 2003 smash hit A Million Little Pieces (and subsequent), to talk about the multifaceted new project.

What prompted you to branch out from writing for adults to YA?

Basically I branched into YA because I have a short attention span and I was kind of bored. I wanted to get away from the preciousness of the literary world and do more collaborative work, and also make stories for a different audience. I also really enjoy genre fiction in general and YA in particular, so I thought, “Why not?” I’m glad I’ve done it. It’s been a ton of fun and a real education and at times humbling. Endgame specifically has allowed me to do all kinds of things that I never would have the opportunity to do if I stuck with literary books—I mean, would I ever get to pitch Google the idea of making a mobile video game for Bright Shiny Morning or The Final Testament of the Holy Bible? No, I would not.

What were some of the challenges of writing for the genre? 

A main challenge for Endgame has been getting everything to work together in the way I want it to. Not just the story but the puzzle, the legal aspects of the prize, the collaboration with Niantic and the Alternate Reality Game, coordination with Fox and Temple Hill, getting Caesars to sign up for displaying the gold at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the marketing, the promotion, the social media—all of it. As for the storytelling, my main challenge has been figuring out how to work with other writers. Working with Nils (my Endgame co-author) has been great, but there are still hiccups along the way. And I imagine there will be more as the Endgame world expands and gets bigger and bigger—but in the end these are all great problems to have.

[ click to continue reading at Kobo.com ]

from Publishers Weekly

HarperCollins to Provide Content for JetBlue

HarperCollins Publishers has signed on as the exclusive book content partner for JetBlue’s new inflight wi-fi program, Fly-Fi, which provides content to airline passengers. Beginning November 26, the publisher will provide excerpts from a selection of bestselling titles, and each e-sample will include buy buttons to a variety of retailers.

Excerpted titles include Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, and Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean.

[ click to continue reading at PW ]

from parker higgins dot net

“We will need writers who can remember freedom”: Ursula K Le Guin at the National Book Awards

Ursula K. Le Guin was honored at the National Book Awards tonight and gave a fantastic speech about the dangers to literature and how they can be stopped. As far as I know it’s not available online yet (update: the video is now online), so I’ve transcribed it from the livestream below. The parts in parentheses were ad-libbed directly to the audience, and the Neil thanked is Neil Gaiman, who presented her with the award.

Thank you Neil, and to the givers of this beautiful reward, my thanks from the heart. My family, my agent, editors, know that my being here is their doing as well as mine, and that the beautiful reward is theirs as much as mine. And I rejoice at accepting it for, and sharing it with, all the writers who were excluded from literature for so long, my fellow authors of fantasy and science fiction—writers of the imagination, who for the last 50 years watched the beautiful rewards go to the so-called realists.

I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality.

[ click to continue reading Master Le Guin at parkerhiggins.net ]

from Sky News

Amazon Wins Right To Sell .Book Domain Names

The online retailer pays up to $10m at a private auction for the right to control and sell domains ending in .book.

One of the online retailer’s massive fulfilment centres

Amazon has won the right to sell domain names ending in .book after beating off competition from eight other companies including Google.

It is understood to have paid up to $10m (£6.3m) at a private auction, just days after shelling out $4.6m (£2.9m) for .buy – but it was beaten to the rights to .cloud by Italian company Aruba.

Other top-level domains settled in recent days include .dog, .live, .online, .tennis and .chat.

The two remaining domain name extensions due to be auctioned off by 19 November are .dot and .apartments.

The auctions are a result of a decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) – which governs domain names.

[ click to continue reading at Sky News ]

from MediaBistro

Full Fathom Five Digital Hosts Fiction Writing Contest

By Maryann Yin

Full Fathom Five Digital, an eBook imprint headed by A Million Little Pieces author James Frey, is hosting a fiction contest. One grand prize winner will receive $10,000.

The judges intend to name four finalists; those participants will be offered a guaranteed publishing deal. Depending on the quality of the submissions, the organizers may present a publishing contract to non-finalists as well.

Only manuscripts that contain 50,000 words or more will be accepted; writers can turn in either original unpublished stories or self-published books. A deadline has been set for November 30, 2014. Follow this link to learn about all the rules.

[ click to read at MediaBistro.com ]

from thump

Pasquale Rotella: “When People Read My Book About SFX It Will Blow Their Minds”

By Aron Friedman

You could say that Pasquale Rotella is America’s answer to ID&T founder Duncan Stutterheim. In 1992, the same year that Duncan threw his first party in Zaandam, Netherlands, Pasquale organized his first illegal rave in Los Angeles. Just like ID&T, Rotella’s Insomniac Events has grown into a dance empire in the last twenty years, organizing events for hundreds of thousands of people.

Yet there’s an important difference between the two: ID&T is now part of SFX, and Insomniac is part of Live Nation – two competing music giants, both intent on world domination in the dance scene. During Amsterdam Dance Event a few weeks ago, we talked to Rotella about his role in LA’s rave scene, his plans to bring Electric Daisy Carnival to Europe, and his book that will come out in May.

THUMP: When did you start organizing events in LA?
Pasquale Rotella: There was already a lively underground warehouse scene in LA in the late 80s. But when the riots happened in 1992, the police started shutting down all the illegal parties. Most of the promoters that remained were really shady. Sometimes they’d print flyers for fake parties, where you had to drive two hours to get there, only to find out that there was no party. The only parties that were still going were a few grisly afterparties where drugs like crystal meth entered the scene.

It had lost its shine. I missed the vibe of the old raves. But then I went to England and got really inspired. When I came back to LA, I threw my very first rave. My second rave, Insomniac, was exactly how I had pictured it. It was an illegal rave in a warehouse on the infamous Crenshaw Blvd. That was known as a really bad neighborhood, but the party was amazing. I decided to turn Insomniac into a weekly event, and after that it really took off. At first we’d have about 300 people there, but that quickly grew to 12,000 every week.

[ click to continue reading at thump ]

from The New Straits Times

End game in mind

By Stuart Danker

The latest book from James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton will keep readers busy deciphering the codes within, writes Stuart Danker

ENDGAME: The Calling is the latest novel by authors James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton. The duo have numerous bestselling titles between them, namely A Million Little Pieces and I Am Number Four (Frey), and the Full Fathom Five series (Johnson-Shelton).

I recently had the opportunity to interview Frey in conjunction with the launch of his book. “Yeah, there are writers who tend to procrastinate. I do it sometimes. But to get going again, I just keep reminding myself that writing is also a job, and I have to work like everyone else,” he tells me.

He works on the premise that a few pages a day is all he needs to be happy with, and it is a pretty effective method, seeing as how he’s just put another book on the shelves.

For someone whose works have been adapted to visual media, Frey confides that he doesn’t always write with the intention of having his books translated for the silver screen. “The book is always the most important thing. I’ll never know if something will get made, so you have to assume the book will live only as a book.”

Endgame: The Calling takes readers on a journey through myriad cultures and places. Suffice to say, it would have entailed a huge amount of research to get things right. Frey credits the web as his source of research, saying that writing this book would not have been possible without the use of the Internet. As someone who combines more modern forms of media and marketing with traditional print, Frey definitely knows how to utilise the Internet to its maximum potential.

[ click to continue reading at New Straits Times ]

[ Buy ENDGAME: THE CALLING now at Amazon.com ]

from BUSTLE

James Frey’s ‘Endgame: The Calling’ Puzzle And 6 Experimental YA Novels That Twist How We Think of Books

Caitlin White @caitforestell

What do you get when you cross two writers, Google, and three MIT Ph.D graduates? A YA book that is about to start a real-life treasure hunt. James Frey, in conjunction with his co-author Nils Johnson-Shelton, created Endgame: The Calling (HarperCollins) as an armchair treasure hunt, a novel that would include secret codes and clues to the location of — wait for it — a key that will unlock a bulletproof glass case filled with $500,000 worth of gold coins.

I’ll pause while you run to go buy the book.

OK, now that your Goonies-style treasure mapping supplies are in stock, there’s more. It’s not going to be easy. Those three MIT Ph.Ds? They are the ones that designed the puzzle and hid the key, so I hope your math skills are top-notch. And Google Niantic built the accompanying mobile game. This is no nonsense.

And, yes, I have read the book, but no, I am not already halfway around the world digging in abandoned wells, because my copy did not have the final puzzle. No hints. No spoilers. It’s up to you.

The story within Endgame: The Calling follows 12 teenagers who are all fighting to save their line of the human race in a game against each other. They’re solving riddles, as well, and the one who finds the key will survive. The other 11 and the rest of their heritage lines will be extinct. So, yes, their stakes are higher than yours are.

The teenagers’ story is a page-turner in itself, so just make sure you don’t pass by those clues too quickly.

Frey isn’t the first writer to test the bounds of what readers consider a novel. In the adult world, we have loads of experimental fiction from people like Shaun Tan, Italo Calvino, Ali Smith, and others. In YA, it may be more rare, but these six authors are stepping up to the plate with some novel (I had to) takes on creating books.

[ click to continue reading at BUSTLE ]

from Terry Ambrose

Is the first 21st Century book here?

International bestselling author James Frey was in San Diego on October 15 to promote his new project, “Endgame: The Calling.” For this interview, Frey said that what he’s trying to accomplish in this new project is to marry technology with traditional storytelling to create “the first 21^st Century book.”

“First and foremost,” said Frey, “Endgame is a book that tells a story like any other book. Hopefully, people will read it and love it and get excited by it. The book has a puzzle written into it and readers can just read the book and love the book or they can choose to engage the puzzle and try to solve it. The first person to solve the puzzle will receive a key that opens a case at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas with $500,000 of gold in it.”

Frey said this project was inspired by “Masquerade,” which was written by Kit Williams. Frey read “Masquerade” when he was ten-years-old and, like many others, holds fond memories of that experience. He said, “It was a book that I loved that I thought was awesome and that somehow became more than a book to me. It made me go back and read it over and over again. It got me excited about it, and it was fun and cool and weird and thrilling.”

[ click to continue reading at TerryAmbrose.com ]

from Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Print Alive and Kicking at Book Fair Feting Digital

By Alessandro Speciale

The book of the future could be crowdfunded, self-published or tied to a video game — you might even have voted on a key plot twist. Still, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to read it on paper.

At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing world’s largest gathering, an industry that has been upended by digitalization and the rise of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US) went in search of new business models. As reading habits change and e-books take center stage, the appetite for good storytelling is stronger than ever.

Verlag Friedrich Oetinger GmbH, a children book’s publisher that sells the Hunger Games series in Germany, is a case in point. While investing heavily in digital products and even creating its own coding unit, managing director Till Weitendorf isn’t turning his back on print.

For the first time, she said, representatives from gaming companies such as Ubisoft Entertainment were present at the fair in search of partners. The trend is already taking off. “Endgame,” a book by American author James Frey, is being turned into an augmented-reality game by Google Inc. (GOOG:US)’s Niantic Labs.

As it publishes the German translation of “Endgame,” Oetinger is also trying to ease the passage from offline to online reading with Tigercreate, a platform to transform illustrated children books into animated, interactive e-books. The process used to require expensive programming for each new book and device, according to Weitendorf. Around 40 publishers have already signed up to use the platform, he says.

[ click to read full article at Bloomberg BusinessWeek ]

from Ridgefield’s HamletHub

Connecticut’s Full Fathom Five Digital Holding Fiction Contest

Written by Sally Allen

Connecticut-based e-books publisher Full Fathom Five Digital, founded by bestselling author James Frey, has announced a $10,000 fiction contest on its website.

“We are searching for some of the best original fiction out there, and hosting a contest to find it,” the post reads.

Submissions must be written for Adult, New Adult, and/or Young Adult audiences and fall into one of the following genres: Horror, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, or Mystery/Thriller.

In addition to the one Grand Prize award of $10,000, four finalists will receive a publishing deal. Non-finalists will also be eligible to receive a publishing contract.

The contest opened Oct. 1 and continues through Nov. 30 at 11:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For the full contest rules and guidelines, visit the Contest page at Full Fathom Five’s website.

[ click to read at Ridgefield’s HamletHub ]

from The Times of London

James Frey: ‘There’s $500,000 prize to be won in my new novel’

Barbara McMahon

The latest book series by the Million Little Pieces author offers readers the chance to win half a million in gold

Autumn has arrived in the quaint commuter town of Darien, where the leaves are ablaze in a glory of gold before the cold weather sweeps in. This is the kind of quietly prosperous Connecticut town where masters of the universe kiss their picture-perfect families goodbye and commute to their Manhattan desks, a place where the well-ordered streets are lined with large mansions, complete with three car garages and expensively landscaped gardens. Both film versions of The Stepford Wives and the 2008 adaptation of Richard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, were filmed here.

[ click to continue reading at The Times ]

from The Wall Street Journal

James Frey Hasn’t Given Up on Writing

A decade after his controversial memoir, the author blends fiction and reality in a new way

“I want to prove them all wrong,” says James Frey, author of the contentious 2003 book “A Million Little Pieces,” and, more recently, creator of the best-selling series of young-adult science-fiction books “The Lorien Legacies.” “I want to make everybody who hates me give up.”

It has been a remarkable 10 years for Mr. Frey, who came under fire for fabricating parts of “A Million Little Pieces,” initially billed as his memoir. After he admitted that some of the details were fictional, he was excoriated on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, he lost a book contract and his agent left him. “I was toxic,” he says. “I was radioactive.”

But he didn’t give up writing. For his latest project, Mr. Frey, 45, blends fiction and reality in a different way. On Oct. 7 he will release “Endgame,” a novel that will simultaneously launch with a YouTube channel, 50 social-media accounts and a real-life puzzle. (A videogame will come soon after.) The first reader to solve the puzzle in the story gets $500,000 in gold coins, provided by Mr. Frey himself.

It’s the latest major release from his media and entertainment company, Full Fathom Five, which operates, Mr. Frey says, much like an artist’s studio. Just as the artists Takashi Murakami or Jeff Koons develop concepts and have assistants help carry them out, Mr. Frey comes up with most of the books’ ideas and hires others to write the final product. When the story sells to a publishing house, he splits the proceeds. For example, he came up with the plot for the company’s first book, “I Am Number Four,” hired a writer for the text and then published it under the pseudonym Pittacus Lore. It went on to become a No. 1 best-seller, and the film adaptation grossed $150 million world-wide.

Mr. Frey is working with about 25 authors, all of whom are paid anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 per book, along with a percentage of any profits. (The percentage varies by contract.)

Full Fathom Five has sold about 60 books to publishers, and has released about 30. Mr. Frey smiles when he thinks of those who have doubted him along the way. After the release of his novel “Bright Shiny Morning” in 2008, he says that a critic “just ripped me to shreds, but then he said he might as well be firing paintballs at Godzilla, meaning I was Godzilla.” Mr. Frey remembers thinking, “That’s what I should try to do to everybody—make them feel like they’re firing paintballs at Godzilla.”

[ click to continue reading at The Wall Street Journal ]

from USA Today

Book Buzz: James Frey’s ‘Endgame’ has a golden prize

Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY

Readers of the new ‘Endgame’ series from James Frey will have a chance to find a golden treasure. (But not this one, which is from the the SS Central America.) (Photo: Donn Pearlman, AP)

The treasure hunters of the world may want to dust off their tools.

James Frey’s new new novel Endgame: The Calling features an interactive puzzle which, when solved, has a $500,000 prize at the end. The puzzle will lead readers to a key, and that key will unlock $500,000 worth of gold on display at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

It’s the first in a planned trilogy penned by Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, which follows 12 characters on a quest for three ancient keys that will save “not only their bloodlines but the world.” The subsequent two books in the trilogy will also have interactive puzzles with much larger payouts: $1 million and $1.5 million, respectively.

“The mega puzzle included in the first book deploys technology and social media in a way that brings people beyond their borders,” Frey said in a news release. “A book can be more than what’s on the page. It can take you out into the real world; it can take you out into the digital world. The stakes are not only high for the characters in Endgame, they are high for the readers who try to solve the puzzle too.”

[ click to continue reading at USA Today ]

from Kate’s Harper News

Kids Books: Endgame: The Calling – James Frey

Folks in the kids department have spent a long time getting ready for this juggernaut from James Frey (of I am Number Four fame) and his co-writer is Nils Johnson-Shelton, author of several bestselling children’s series.

Inspired in part by the 1987 megahit Masquerade, this inaugural book in a dystopian adventure series incorporates an elaborate puzzle for which Frey has brought on professional cryptographers.

The puzzle invites readers into Endgame in a very real way: like Masquerade, there’s actual gold—in this case bullion worth “hundreds of thousands of dollars”– for the reader who solves the puzzle at the heart of Endgame.

Here’s Frey explaining the project:

There’s more about the prize in USA Today’s 9/22/14 “Book Buzz” column: James Frey’s ‘Endgame” has a golden prize.

“A unique dystopian adventure with anchors to the real world… set to become a cultural phenomenon.”
— ALA Booklist

[ click to continue reading at http://KatesHarperNews.wordpress.com ]

from The Guardian

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige – review

‘Dorothy was a monster. A completely terrifying, sweet-talking, party-obsessed, mean, creepy monster’

Amy Gumm was just a girl from Kansas: unpopular, lippy and practically hunted by her school’s very own personal demon, the “ever lovely” Madison Pendleton. Then, one day, a tornado hits her home and Amy is swept away to Oz. Only, it’s not the Oz she’s read about, this Oz has no cheerful munchkins or joyful parades; here in Oz Dorothy rules, and Oz has paid a heavy price for it. Torture, imprisonment and evil punishments are all Amy finds in this new, drained version of the magical land she knew as a child, and she’s a much bigger part of it than she thinks. She’s been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked with one mission and one mission only: Dorothy must die.

I’ll admit, at first I didn’t understand all the hype over this book; I mean, a retelling of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is evil? It kind of just sounded bizarre. But THEN, I read it and whoa. This book was insanely addictive, it blew me away on so many different levels. Dorothy was a monster. A completely terrifying, sweet-talking, party-obsessed, mean, creepy monster. She is the queen of evil characters in YA. Her insanity just pours out of the pages along with her unnatural lip glossed smile and hypnotic red heels. Yes, the ruby slippers are hypnotic. Paige went there.

As for our heroine Amy Gumm, how can we not adore her? She’s feisty, brave, insecure, grounded, sarcastic (ALWAYS sarcastic, I have never loved dialogue in a novel more) and most importantly, real! She isn’t your typical, crazy talented, beautiful selfless character, she has a real story and a personality you can really relate to.

[ click to continue reading at The Guardian ]

from The Sunday Times

Pot of gold awaits sleuth who cracks literary code

The treasure hunt craze triggered by Masquerade in the 1970s is to be recreated by a novelist burying clues to $3m, says Dalya Alberge

Dalya Alberge

IT IS usually the author who makes a fortune from a best-seller but a new series of books is to offer readers the chance to get rich, too.

The Endgame trilogy of adventure stories by James Frey, whose previous works include The Lorien Legacies and I Am Number Four, will challenge readers to solve puzzles, riddles and codes with prizes totalling $3m (£1.8m) available to those who are successful.

The first person who solves the puzzles in Endgame: The Calling, the first book, will win $500,000 (£300,000) in gold coins. For the second book the prize rises to $1m and for the third $1.5m.

The rights to the series are being sold to publishers in 27 countries and Frey is working on a script for the first of three films of the series, which will be financed by 20th Century Fox. The trilogy is published by HarperCollins….

[ click to continue reading at The Sunday Times ]

from The New York Times

[ click to read complete list at NYTimes.com ]

from The Art Newspaper

A million little gardeners

Seedbed, 2010, by Elliott Arkin. Photograph: Amherst College

A Million Little Pieces author James Frey is set to turn the artist Elliott Arkin’s series of sculptures depicting famous artists as garden gnomes into a children’s book, due to be published in 2016. Four years ago, Frey purchased one of the resin works—a miniature lawn-mowing Picasso—from the series, titled A Peaceable Kingdom, 2004-2012, at New York’s Half Gallery, which he co-owned at the time. “It is one of the most brilliantly funny works of art,” Frey says. So when Arkin later asked the author to write a catalogue essay for his exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice last year, Frey suggested a short story. He wound up with enough material for a book and took an option on the rights from Arkin, who says, “I am thrilled to see what narrative James creates.”

[ click to continue reading at In The Frame ]

from the Hampton Union

These kids ‘Wannaread’

North Hampton Library’s summer camp book club a hit

Lisa Tetrault-Zhe Photo Fifth-grade North Hampton School students Calvin and Trevor, and sixth-grade student Dasha, with the grand prize for the summer reading program, Scout the Bear.

By Lisa Tetrault-Zhe

NORTH HAMPTON — Readers in the Camp Wannaread book group kept up their skills and got a sneak peak at a new Gordon Korman novel this summer.

The North Hampton School students in grades four through six who participated in the summer reading club finished “‘The Hypnotists” by Korman, and also had a chance to start the sequel, “Memory Maze.”

“We had 23 kids sign up,” explained children’s librarian Lorreen Keating. “The afterschool book club was such a success, we decided to continue it through the summer.”

On Thursday evening, readers broke into two teams (Rainbow Unicorns and Sandmen, both part of the book). The teams came up with trivia questions from the book, and the team with the most points won extra raffle tickets towards the grand prize (a giant stuffed bear, complete with binoculars).

“Every week there would be one winner of a smaller prize,” said Linda Sherouse, North Hampton School librarian (she also works at NHS library). “These included a reading light, movie tickets, a Barnes & Noble gift card, and a pencil pouch with glow-in-the-dark highlighters.”

One girl joined the club because she wanted an opportunity to further discuss books she’s read.

“I often have trouble finding time to talk with Ms. Sherouse about the books that I’ve read,” said sixth-grade student Dasha. “Joining the group, I got to read more and check in with her.”

Dasha, a self-described avid reader, read 400 hours this summer.

“My favorite books are by J.K. Rowling and the ‘Legend’ series by Marie Lu,” Dasha said. “I also like the ‘Lorien Legacies’ series (by Pittacus Lore).”

[ click to read full article at SeacoastOnline.com ]

from The LA Times

Celebrating Charles Bukowski, ‘poet laureate of L.A. lowlife’

By CAROLYN KELLOGG

Charles Bukowski, “poet laureate of L.A. lowlife,” became one of the best-known poets in America. (Richard Robinson / Black Sparrow Press)

Charles Bukowski was called many things: “poet laureate of L.A. lowlife,” “the enfant terrible of the Meat School poets,” “the prophet of the underemployed” and “a flamboyant provincial.” Those comments are all from our own reporters.

The L.A. Times was slow to warm to Bukowski’s charms. Even in 1985, when he was one of America’s bestselling poets, we were still describing him as “A low-life drifter from out of the ’40s whose gnarled face is to ugliness and abuse what Paul Bunyan’s body was to size and strength.”

Two years later, when Mickey Rourke starred in the semi-biographical film “Barfly” based on Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novels, the Los Angeles cultural establishment finally, grudgingly, came around.

Bukowski was born in Germany on Aug. 16, 1920. His family soon moved to Los Angeles, where he grew up with an abusive father. He was an outcast in school. He started drinking. He moved around the country, living on the margins, during World War II and after. He wound up back in Los Angeles as unlikely a candidate for becoming a poet, much less an acclaimed one, as you might find.

Of course, that was part of his appeal. Plainspoken poetry set in the streets and bars, peopled by shady characters — including his hard-drinking, big-hearted, angry, gambling, womanizing self. One of our readers, upset by seeing him written about in print, called him “an X-rated Oscar the Grouch,” which might actually not be all that insulting after all.

To celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the poet laureate of L.A. lowlife, here are 18 things he wrote and said and did –

[ click to continue reading at LATimes.com ]

from Comic Book Resources

SDCC: FREY, DASHNER & MORE GO BEYOND THE PAGE

At Comic-Con International 2014, the “Beyond the Page” session featured a panel deep with talent. The artists and writers, which included James Frey, Christ Weitz, James Dashner, Andrew Kaplan, Fred Van Lente, James Silvani, and Melissa De La Cruz, delivered an engaging discussion on the existing and emerging technologies that are transforming the way we both create and consume stories.

Storytelling today can include a myriad of avenues for delivering content from social media, eBooks, webcomics, online video and video games to more traditional forms of media like print, TV and film. However, modern fans are hungry for stories that do more to immerse them in the fictional worlds of the characters.

James Frey of “Endgame” shared his approach to immersing fans into his world saying, “We should be thinking of TV and Movies as parts our toolbox… [but] as we move into the digital future, as writers or story tellers, that we need to start thinking of things beyond the page.”

Frey is a huge advocate of coordinating story content across multiple platforms to deliver strategic pieces of content. “You should be doing things across all [platforms],” Frey said.

Ultimately “Endgame” will feature a cascade of content delivering vehicles: three books, thirty-five novellas, a video game launched by Google, social media featuring character profiles and a YouTube channel. There are three movies in the works at Fox, and a children’s television series. The core of these immersive experiences are the three books that feature puzzles to solve and the hunt for hidden keys that open cases full of money.

In discussing his approach to “Endgame,” Frey explained, “We looked at things like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and thought, “How can we use those to tell additional parts of the story that aren’t on the pages of the book? The thirteen characters in the book have had Twitter feeds, Instagram feeds, and Google Plus feeds for [over] a year. And our You Tube channel has five hours of content on it.”

[ click to continue reading at CBR ]

from Paste

Call Me Ishmael: The Phenomenon Revolutionizing How We Talk About Books

By Emelia Fredlick

“Call me Ishmael.”

It’s one of the most recognizable opening sentences in literature (right up there with “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” and “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”). And now, the iconic phrase has gained a new life as a multimedia phenomenon.

Call Me Ishmael celebrates the power of literature by giving a person the chance to literally “call Ishmael” and share a story about how a book impacted their life. Many calls are then transcribed and posted on callmeishmael.com, becoming tales that go far beyond traditional book reviews. Titles featured range from The Time Traveler’s Wife to Pajama Time, from Maus to The Catcher in the Rye.

The stories people share are funny, sad, poignant and deeply human, which creator Logan Smalley says is the point. He calls the resulting narrative “an enhanced, evolved and beautiful picture of humanity.”

[ click to continue reading at PASTE ]

from Pioneer Press

Former Hells Angel and cop who chased him share their unlikely friendship

By Kristi Belcamino

Former Hennepin County Sheriff’s Captain Chris Omodt, left, collaborated with Pat Matter, former president of the Minneapolis Hells Angels, to write “Breaking the Code.” (Pioneer Press: Ginger Pinson)

Considered the “godfather” of the Minneapolis Hells Angels, Pat Matter knew three things in life were true:

“When you love someone, you get hurt. … When you’re real, everyone hates you for it. And when you trust, you get killed.”

And yet, Matter found an unlikely man to trust: Chris Omodt — the Hennepin County cop who’d been after him for years.

Two decades after the men first heard of each other, they’re telling the story of their unlikely alliance.

Their co-written book, “Breaking the Code” (self-published and available Friday), tells the tale of how their lives intersected, giving a no-holds-barred glimpse into the world of biker gangs and the investigators who go after them.

[ click to continue reading at TwinCities.com ]

from Publisher’s Weekly

No Lack of Major Prose Houses at Comic-Con

By Rich Shivener

From samplers and author panels to signings and galleys of science fiction and fantasy novels, major book publishers such as Penguin Random House and HarperCollins are once again investing heavily in promotional materials for the five days of Comic-Con International, held at the San Diego Convention Center. The annual pop-culture convention draws more than 130,000 attendees and offers programming related to comics, film, books and related media. Book publishers see it as an incredible promotional platform.

Comic-con may celebrate comics but the fans are on the lookout for books and related media of all kinds. Over the weekend, HarperCollins and its partners are set to preview an interactive, multimedia project based on writer James Frey’s Endgame trilogy, which chronicles teens hunting for ancient keys that could save the world. At its core, the project is an augmented reality game that allows players, using their smartphones, to scavenge for items around Comic-Con. Endgame is also getting the film treatment by 20th Century Fox. Frey, HarperCollins, Google’s Niantic Labs and 20th Century Fox collaborated on the project, and they’re planning panels, signings, access codes to games.

Comic-Con is a fitting place to launch the project because of its media convergence, says Sandee Roston, executive director of publicity of HarperCollins Children’s Books, the division that publishes the Endgame series.

“The innovative mobile game adds interactive real-world experiences to Endgame, merging story with social activation to create a fully immersive world,” Roston told PW on Friday.

[ click to continue reading at Publisher’s Weekly ]

from Publishers Weekly

BEA 2014: Big Children’s Books at BEA

By Diane Roback, Carolyn Juris, John Sellers, and Matia Burnett

Endgame by James Frey is HarperCollins’s big YA title of the show; it releases in September with a one-million-copy first printing. A Google-based game and an in-book puzzle are part of the series’ multiplatform concept, and a film is in the works. In other Frey news, The Revenge of Seven, the second-to-last title in the Lorien Legacy series, arrives in late August with a 400,000-copy first printing. Other big fall titles from Harper include the second volume in the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book; The Guardian Herd: Starfire, first in a new series (“It’s Warriors with horses,” said publicity director Sandee Roston); The Swap by Megan Shull, a Freaky Friday–style story set in in middle school; Madeline Roux’s sequel to Asylum, titled Sanctum; Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang; and Positive, a memoir from 19-year-old first-time author Paige Rawl about her experiences with bullying while growing up with HIV.

[ click to read full article at Publisher’s Weekly ]