“Fueled by Wayne Dyer’s appearances on PBS pledge drives since mid-May, Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits is back at #1 on Amazon, and has spent 17 days in the Top 100. Libraries we checked are catching up to heavy reserves, with copies on order.”
(source: EarlyWord)
Newcomer Aprilynne Pike is taking the Young Adult fiction market by storm with her debut novel Wings. The book managed to break through to the top 10 YA fiction list in it’s first week. Although it does beg some comparison to the award winning work of her good friend Stephenie Meyer, author of the best-selling Twilight Saga, who calls the book, “A remarkable debut,” I’m betting those who couldn’t get enough of the Meyers’ vampire world will be just as enchanted, if not more by Pikes’ tailored weaving together of her human and not-so-human realms in Wings. This fantasy novel, the first in a new series through Harper Teen, follows a quirky high-school sophomore named Laurel who discovers that she is not quite as human as she had been raised to believe. Her realization that she is a faerie is not only enchanting, it’s humorous, exciting, heart-wrenching, and most-shocking of all, believable.
I have to admit, although charmed by the characters from page one, it took me a while to wrap my rational brain around the existence of faeries…especially in the familiar modern world in which her creatures live and breath. But Pike seems to be aware of this and skillfully builds upon her mythology, giving you time to suspend the disbelief and just fall in love with it. Her approach won me over, erasing any doubts about the reality of the two entwined worlds her characters inhabited. She also manages to present us with an entirely novel take on faeries, which is both surprising and delightful. We think we know where a scene is leading, but the legends veer off in unexpected and exciting directions.
Living plants, trolls, a bit of magic, and even King Arthur and Avalon make their way into this fascinating world. And the love triangle created between Laurel and her human and faerie suitors is both heart-wrenching and complicated. You will find yourself hard pressed to make up your mind about this fabulous development and more than likely unable to put this marvelous debut down.
For more on Wings and what the future holds for Laurel, catch author Lisa Damien’s interview with Aprilynne Pike on Blogcritics.
And for much much more from Aprilynne on the writing life…visit her fabulous FAQ on her site. A great primer for any writer dreaming of their own Best-Selling debut!
Ann Dunham with Son Barack Obama
Fox National is reporting that Ann Dunham, the mother of President Barack Obama is about to become a published author. 14 years after her death, Duke University Press has plans to publish her graduate school dissertation.
President Obama’s best-seller The Audacity of Hope is available in Audio, Hard-cover, Soft-cover and Kindle.
The Vatican looks likely to call for a boycott of Angels and Demons, the prequel to the blockbuster film adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Official Vatican newspaper Avvenire reported on Friday that it “cannot approve” of Ron Howard’s film, which is based on the eponymous book by Brown and opens worldwide on 15 May. The report prompted suspicions that the church is gearing up to call for a new boycott, after urging Catholics not to see the first film.
Unfortunately for the Catholic church, a lack of understanding of the line between fact and fiction will likely only spark more interest not only in this work, but in others in the same religious conspiracy thriller genre. I can’t say I’m complaining.
Get the full story from The Guardian here.
writefly. 