Harry Hole is such a ridiculous protagonist that carries on mostly at this point (I’m on book 7), through luck and sheer dgaf energy. Oh, and substance abuse. A shocking amount of substance abuse.
I thought I would circle back to this post from almost three years ago. As you know I am a fan of Cassandra Clare’s books. I have read all of her books in the Shadowhunter-verse and find her character’s compelling. In 2016 another author I read, Sherrilyn Kenyon accused Clare of copyright infringement and stealing elements of her own series the Dark-Hunters. I’ll admit that I haven’t been paying attention to the outcome of the suit but it was recently brought up again due to stranger the fiction happenings in Kenyon’s life. (more on that later) Clare went to Tumblr to set the record straight and the frustrations of having your work questioned with little coverage on the outcome. You can read them here and here. It turns out that the suit of copyright was dropped in 2016 after Clare and her legal team were able to prove that elements of Clare story she felt was stolen from Kenyon was either written and/or published before Kenyon or was inaccurate. The part of the suit that was settled in 2018 was for the trademark that had more to do with Clare’s publisher’s marketing materials and the Shadowhunter’s TV show then it did with Clare herself. It’s a shame that the dropping of copyright lawsuit wasn’t as widely covered as the initial lawsuit because that is two years that Clare had to deal with rumors and accusations that her work was not her own. In the time passing from there and now I head many comments about how Clare is a plagiarist and it wasn’t even true. I’m glad that she was able to clear it up and hopefully she and everyone else can move on.
So what brought this on, you say. Well Sherrilyn Kenyon in her January newsletter to fans revealed that she has been poisoned by her husband and his mistress that is also their kids tutor in an conspiracy to take her money and life’s work. It reads like one of those bad Lifetime movies that you watch in the middle of a Sunday when there is nothing else on. Is it true, who knows? In the letter Kenyon mentions that it was her husband that had brought suit to Clare and not herself. (It’s also worth noting in the letter Kenyon says that the lawsuit was settled and not dropped but from Clare’s posts we know that is not true) Kenyon also claims that her husband is suing her for the copyright of her characters and this is why some of her books have been put on hold. I’m a big fan of her Chronicles of Nick series. The latest book in the series or spin-off series, I’m not sure how to categories it. The latest book was supposed to come out last September but September came and went without any news of it until December when I read it had been taken of the publishing schedule altogether without a reason. So it makes sense if she is in a legal battle over her books characters that they would be put on hold. If true, then Wow! Her husband is one piece of trash. The audacity to claim any kind of ownership over her work is truly appalling. I do hope it gets settle quickly and if allegations are true that he has been poisoning her then I hope he goes to jail. Anyway, the letter is one crazy read and reminder that sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
As you’re thinking about your goals for 2019, I thought I’d write a quick plug for our Reading Challenges. We have three:
If you do one of our challenges, let us know! Hashtag in #StackXLifeX so we can find you!
Now that we have looked back on 2018, it’s time to look ahead to 2019. We have a lot of fun things planned for next year. New challenges read a-longs and podcasts! But most of all we are excited for all the new books to read. Expanding our already to long to-read lists even more. 2019 is already shaping up to be our best year ever! So here are some of the books we are looking forward to the most reading next year.
Beth
Kate
What books are you looking forward to reading this year?
If are more then a casual fan of this blog then you know that I am a huge Rick Riordan fan. I know he writes for kids but I find his writing to be so clever and charming. He has introduced to stories and myths that I didn’t know before or had forgotten. He has widen his universe to be the most inclusive in children’s literature. He uses his voice and privilege to ally and uplift other voices that don’t always get the spotlight. To put it simply. Rick is a good egg. He is also been one of the biggest critics of the movies of his own books. While the way he trolls them is amusing it does highlight the difference between the two mediums and how as much as we think Authors have a say in the movies based on their work, they don’t. We all have a favorite book that was completely ruined by it’s movie. For fans of Percy Jackson the movie is just terrible and almost unrecognizable to the books. The choices that the filmmakers chose made it almost impossible to make it a franchise. I think they realized it with the second movie and tried to fix it but it was already too late. A problem that Rick foresaw when the filmmaker’s asked for his opinion. Today, Rick posted a blog post where he details the email conversations with the filmmaker’s and how little power he had in the process. It’s an interesting read and I suggest taking a few minutes to read.
First, it kills any possibility of a movie franchise. I don’t know if you or your staff have had the chance to read farther than The Lightning Thief in the Percy Jackson series, but there are four other volumes. The series is grounded on the premise that Percy must progress from age twelve to age sixteen, when according to a prophecy he must make a decision that saves or destroys the world. I assume that XXXX would at least like to keep open the option of sequels assuming the first movie does well. Starting Percy at seventeen makes this undoable. I’m also sure that XXXXX (for) the first Harry Potter movie, some in the studio argued for making the characters older to appeal to a teen audience. Fortunately, they took the long view and stayed true to the source material, which allowed them to grow a lucrative franchise. This would’ve been impossible if they’d started Harry at seventeen. The same principle applies here.
It’s the first day of November so a good day to start reading one of Kate’s and mine’s favorite book by Maggie Stiefvater. Trust us you won’t be disappointed.
Lately some of the books we have read are being turned into TV shows and we couldn’t be happier about it. Here’s three that will be hitting the airwaves in the next couple of years.
The first being The Raven Cycle by Stacks Fave Maggie Stiefvater. It’s still in development but making progress. It’s found a home on Syfy with Catherine Hardwick of Twilight fame at the helm. Now this series is perfect for a series. There is really just too much for a movie. Too much of it’s weirdness and nuances would have to be cut out to make it fit into a two hour movie. As a TV show, we can get all the adventures of Blue and the Raven boys and also expand on the people of Henrietta. I’m particularly hopeful they dip deeper into the ladies of 300 Fox Way. I’ve been dying to know more about Maura, Calla and Persephone. Like how did they even meet?
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor has been optioned by HBO and produced by George R.R. Martin. This is exciting because it takes place in a post-nuclear-holocaust Africa meaning an all black cast. Yeah diversity on TV! I’m not sure how this will play as a TV series. It wasn’t a very long book but plenty of room to expand on the universe. Go more into Onyesonwu’s people and the conflict between the Okeye and Nuru. If you are squirmish about some of the violence in Game of Thrones this is going to be any better. There were several scenes in the book that were very hard for me to read. I’m not sure how they are going to do them on TV, even if it is HBO. I can definitely tell you that there will be nothing like this on TV and the fact that HBO and George R.R. Martin are taking it on is impressive. Almost makes you forget that they are also trying to make a TV show about the Confederacy. Almost
Who Fears Death maybe produced by George R.R. Martin and HBO but in my mind N.K. Jemisin’s novel The Fifth Season is probably closer to Game of Thrones in scale of epic story telling. The Hugo winning novel was picked up by TNT earlier this week. I’m not even sure how they will be able to present this on screen without giving too much away. It also means more diversity on primetime television as the main characters are all women of color. If this done right it’s going to be impressive. This also reminds me I better get on to reading book two in the Broken Earth series, The Obelisk Gate.
Last year Rick Riordan announced that he was starting a new imprint to highlight diverse authors and diverse stories. His mythology based stories have made him famous. So far he has tackled Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythology but he often gets asked about exploring other culture’s mythologies as well. Being a while male, he has wisely said that he was not the right person the write about Mayan or Indian mythology however it did spark him to start his own imprint so marginalized authors can write about their own cultures. It was just announced the first three titles under Rick’s new imprint. Yoon Ha Lee, Roshani Chokshi and Jennifer Cervantes will author the first books. Yoon Ha Lee’s book Dragon Pearl will take on stories from Korean Mythology. Roshani Chokshi’s series, Aru Shah and the End of Time, is based off of Indian Mythology and Jennifer Cervantes’s book Storm Runner will have inspiration from Mayan Mythology. All three sound interesting and will be published in 2018. Adding all three to my to-read list.
EDIT: Rick went to his Tumblr page to give more details on his Imprint, his role and involvement with the books and more information on the authors and more indepth synopsis of Dragon Pearl, Aru Shar and the End of Time, and Storm Runner. I highly recommend checking out if nothing else for a tiny glimpse into the publishing world.
April 2016 was our most successful month page views wise. We had 589 views, which beat our previous record of 552 in December 2015. It made me wonder what were we writing about a year ago to get so much traffic. Well, The Raven Cycle and Maggie Stiefvater. It’s hard to believe that the The Raven King came out a year ago. That it has been a year since we found out if Gansey, Blue, Ronan and Adam would find the sleeping Welsh King and If Blue and Gansey would kiss and if Gansey would die. Those mysteries have been solved. Thankfully, we know that we haven’t read the last of the Gang as Maggie is working on a trilogy about Ronan. Whee!!!
My editor is going to hate me, but I just outlined three books for a Ronan-centered trilogy.
— Maggie Stiefvater (@mstiefvater) August 7, 2016
And we have another Maggie book coming in October. So we have a lot to look forward to but let’s take a moment, in honor of the 1 year anniversary of the release of The Raven King and the end of the The Raven Cycle, to look at everything we have ever written about the series.
What I’m Listening to Now: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Cover Reveal: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Books that Rocked My Face off, Part two
Let’s Do Some Reading: Goals for 2015
Cover Reveal: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Discussion Posts: Re-reading series before the new installment comes out
Books that Rocked My Face Off in 2015
What I Can’t Wait to Read in 2016
First Listen of The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
What I’m ReReading Now: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Observations on The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Observations on The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Observations on Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
My To-Read List for the next month or so
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 1
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 2
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 3
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 4
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 5
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 6
Discussion: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Part 7
What I’m Reading Now: THE RAVEN KING BY MAGGIE STIEFVATER
What I’m Listening to: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Review: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
SQUEE! This is the most fantastic news! I’m so happy that it’s being adapted for TV and not a movie because a 2 hour movie could never hold the likes of Gansey, Blue, Ronan, Adam and Noah. This would be perfect for as a Netflix show or even maybe AMC. I just hope they do it justice.
Thanks to Library-Mermaid on Tumblr for the gif.
2 Women, So Many Books 