Video: Neil Gaiman – All Hallows Read!

We’re with Gaiman and fully support this initiative.   Giving books on Halloween is truly an idea whose time has come.  We think any book would be a great choice.  But, of course, we recommend this one.  For other book recommendations and more information on All Hallows Read click here.  And you call follow the the All Hallows Read Twitterage here.

Happy Birthday Clive Barker!

Clive Barker, one of the most significant horror authors of the last 30 years, celebrates is 58th birthday today!

Why not celebrate this day by reading or re-reading one of his works.  Check out the Clive Barker page on Amazon here.  Or if you want a bit more info before buying check out the books page on Clive’s official site here.

What do we recommend?  The Books of Blood.  All of them.  And his fantastic children’s book The Thief of Always.  But you really can’t go wrong with Barker.  All of his books are engaging and thrilling reads.

And, on the video front, you can’t go wrong with the new Blu-Ray release of Hellraiser.  It came out last year, and can be purchase for about a tenspot.

“Dilbert” Takes on Piracy!

“Dilbert” offers its humorous take on book piracy.  Not to mention lame book concepts:

“I thought you said it was a book.”  Heh.

William Burroughs Graphic Novel on the Way!

For those who’d begun to think William Burroughs wasn’t that cool after all comes this:  Fantagraphics will be publishing Mr. Burroughs sole venture into comics.  A project called “Ah Pook is Here” which the author did with artist Malcolm McNeill.

More after the jump …

Recommend: Fangoria DORIAN GRAY Review

Sometimes we see a bit of writing on the ‘net.  We don’t want to argue with it.  We just point our big finger at it and say, this is something you should read.  So it is with Bekah McKendry’s review on the Fangoria site of the recent adaptation of Dorian Gray.

Here’s a brief sample:

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, which the notorious Wilde wrote in 1890, was often said to be a literary representation of Wilde’s own life—a struggle between beauty and reality, between influence and self-choice, between morals and sins. The book was repeatedly banned, chopped and otherwise censored because of its copious sex, drugs, debauchery and homoerotic overtones (it is Wilde, after all). Though other filmic versions of this book have been undertaken in past, this one is a solid translation with surprisingly few variations from the original story.

Nice stuff, huh?  For the rest click here.

Book Sales Up!

From Locus Magazine:

Despite the poor November showing and fears about holiday sales, book sales for the month of December increased by 9.7% to $1.5 billion, according to the the Association of American Publishers, though still down by 2.4% for the year-to-date. Books may well have been the affordable holiday gift after all.

Adult hardcovers were down 10.3% for the month at $113.3 million; down 13.0% YTD. Paperbacks increased 12.5% and 3.6% for the year. Mass markets dropped 8.3%, down 3.0% YTD. YA hardcovers jumped 124.6% to $115.1 million in sales, down 12.4% YTD. YA paperbacks increased 37.0; 6.4% YTD.

Source.

Marketing a Novel: The Secret of Subgenres

They say finding your niche is key to the successful marketing of a book.  But nowadays there are so many subgenres that few authors, let alone readers, can keep them straight.

Lori Handeland offers her take on two oft confused subgenres “paranormal romance” and “urban fantasy.”

She describes paranormal romance this way:

Paranormal romance has one hero and one heroine.  The book is primarily a romance, with the relationship and the plot resolved in that book, though characters can continue, usually secondary characters in other books.

And of urban fantasy she says:

Novels of urban fantasy have a continuing character—usually a heroine but can be a hero, who is of the kick ass variety.  There is often more than one love interest and therefore the relationship is not resolved in one book, sometimes neither relationship is ever resolved and more may be added in future novels.  In urban fantasy, there is a finer line between good and evi.

We guess Lori would know she has written books in both categories.

Lori’s new urban fantasy novel Any Given Doomsday came out this week from St. Martins.

You can read her complete comments here.