Genre Fiction

When I see that an author like Debbie Macomber has written over 150 novels, my first instinct is to assume: either the name is a pen name for multiple ghost writers, or the books stink.

But I can’t verify either of these assumptions for Macomber. In fact, she is a best-selling author, winner of multiple fan- and industry-selected awards, and one of her books - This Matter of Marriage - became a made-for-TV-movie. All of that screams success to me.

Debbie Macomber is a determined writer whose life speaks wonders for doing what you love regardless of your circumstances. She struggles with dyslexia, did not attend college, and was a stay-at-home mom to four children. After five years of rejected manuscripts, she turned to freelance magazine work, which allowed her to save enough money to attend a writers’ conference. Her work was torn apart there by Harlequin Enterprises and recommended for the trash can. With her unfailing determination, Debbie sent this same piece of work - Heartsong - to Harlequin’s rival, Silhouette. It went on to become the first romance novel ever reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly.

**Contest Alert!**

To honor Debbie, and the success of her Cedar Cove series, her hometown of Port Orchard, Washington will be emulating the fictional town of Cedar Cove from August 26 to August 30, 2009. Although Cedar Cove was loosely based on Port Orchard, when fans were showing up in the real life town, they were disappointed to see that it was not the fictional one. So for these few days, the real town will bring to life the fictional town’s characters, places, and more.

And one lucky reader can win a trip to visit Debbie during this unique experience!

Click here to enter the contest. Be prepared to write 75 words about your favorite character.

If you’d like to read more about Debbie Macomber and her incredible journey, check out her comprehensive page on wikipedia, or head directly to her official Web site. Discover all the details of the event, dubbed Cedar Cove Days, at the Cedar Cove Association Web site.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to tackle John Grisham in respect to counting up the number of books that he has written. But someone has to do it, because it seems like he’s been around forever and always on the bestseller lists.

He’s best known as a legal fiction writer, but has also spent time as a politician and an attorney. In 1989, he wrote his first book, and in the past 20 years he has published 19 more fiction reads, with number 22 ready to go in 2009. And on top of it all, he, or his work, has been a part of 11 different movies.

Here’s the fiction novel countdown:

* A Time to Kill (1989)
* The Firm (1991)
* The Pelican Brief (1992)
* The Client (1993)
* The Chamber (1994)
* The Rainmaker (1995)
* The Runaway Jury (1996)
* The Partner (1997)
* The Street Lawyer (1998)
* The Testament (1999)
* The Brethren (2000)
* A Painted House (2001)
* Skipping Christmas (2002)
* The Summons (2002)
* The King of Torts (2003)
* Bleachers (2003)
* The Broker (2005)
* Playing for Pizza (2007) - currently on the New York Times’ list of best-selling mass market fiction novels.
* The Appeal (2008)
* The Associate (due out January 27, 2009)

It was the lawsuit filing heard ’round the fiction book world: Author J. K. Rowling, with the support of Warner Bros. Entertainment, filed suit against a blogger and small publisher who were preparing to publish a Harry Potter-based encyclopedia.

Michigan publishing house RDR Books probably thought they’d been handed a goldmine when blogger Steven Vander Ark came to them in hopes of turning his online rantings into The Harry Potter Lexicon. For some reason, no one at RDR saw it as a problem that Potter author Rowling had not OK’d it.

Legal proceeding took place to put a stop to the knock-off publication, and Monday, September 8, a ruling was announced: Rowling won. The judge awarded her and her publisher $6,750 in statutory damages and permanently blocked the book from publication.

In response to winning her case, Rowling released this statement:

“I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favourably. I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work. The court has upheld that right.

“Many books have been published which offer original insights into the world of Harry Potter. The Lexicon just is not one of them.”

Rowling had previously praised Ark’s Web site, and took no legal action against it remaing online. She has acknowledge plans to release an official encyclopedia on Harry Potter’s world, but no word yet as to when fans can expect it.

Which Fall 2008 TV show debut is based on a series of fiction books? I’ll give you a hint: it premiered last night, Sunday September 7, on HBO. Nothing yet? How about if I said that it follows one of today’s most trendy topics - vampires, and is a recharging role for child star Anna Paquin?

The new book turned show is HBO’s True Blood, starring Anna Paquin as well as Stephen Moyer and Ryan Kwanten. The series is based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries books by Charlaine Harris
in which humans and vampires can co-exist because of the creation of a product called “TruBlood.” The stories were adapted for TV by Alan Ball who has previously worked on American Beauty and Six Feet Under.

In addition to the show now airing on HBO, Sundays at 9 p.m. EST, there’s a network of Web sites attempting to make the mythology seem real through elaborate viral marketing. True-Blood.net is only a starting point … the list affiliates (in the right-hand column), carry it further with sites such as Love Bitten, a human-vampire dating site; American Vampire League, and Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire rights group. Then there are vampire accounts on MySpace, blogs written by vampires (Blood Copy, for one), and too much more.

Charlaine Harris is a New York Times’ bestselling author, and has been writing mystery and supernatural books for over 20 years. From 1990 to 2003, she published the Aurora Teagarden series with eight books. From 1996 to 2001, she wrote five books under her Lily Bard / Shakespeare series. The Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire series spans eight books written from 2001 to 2008. Harris has also written three as a series called Harper Connelly, and two not in series.

I love seeing one of my favorite characters from novel turned into a live action one on big screen. But what about the small screen? One of the highly talked about premieres on TV this fall is based on a best-selling book series, so I’ve been thinking: what TV shows of past got their origins from a fiction read?

* The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field, aired from 1967 to 1970. Inspiration for the show came from the 1966 book The Fifteenth Pelican by Tere Rios.

* I had such high hopes for Heather Graham’s 2006 TV debut Emily’s Reasons Why Not. The previews had me excited. I even bought the book of the same name by Carrie Gerlach when I saw it at a used bookstore. However, ABC canceled the show after airing only one episode. Regardless, it’s a TV series that was based on a book.

* No book-to-TV(-to-movie) list would be complete without Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City. It was originally published in 1997 and immediately swiped up by TV execs for a 1998 TV premiere … and we all know where it went from there.

* TV for the kids is a constant example. Book-inspired shows include Winnie the Pooh, Arthur, Charlie and Lola, and more.

* Classic detectives tend to have novel beginnings: Sherlock Holmes, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Miss Marple, Perry Mason, and on, and on.

* Another few that seem to lump together, although I can’t decide why, are Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, and the like.

* One of the newer shows is Dexter. This Showtime story of a serial killer struggling with his murderous desires comes directly from the 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

* Sweet Valley High was more popular as the infinitely large collection of pre-teen books by Francine Pascal, but Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield (yes, I came up with the twin characters’ names from memory, immediately) brought in their share of TV viewers as a series that ran from 1994 to 1997.

* Comic books are also a constant source for TV superheroes, both cartoon and live action.

Now, about the upcoming 2008 fall season … which anticipated drama is based on a series of novels?

Check out an elaborate list of all things book-to-TV.

You are an author. You finish writing a novel and it is released to the public. But sales are slow. Did you know that your publisher could drop not only you as a writer, but also the book as a whole? That’s exactly what happened to Brazilian author Paulo Coelho in 1988 with his second completed work, The Alchemist.

Although his publisher had no faith, Coelho forged on with the project and it eventually became a world-renowned bestseller. It is one of the best-selling books of all time, and has sold around 65 million copies in about 56 different languages.

This month, Coelho celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of the novel. The Alchemist encourages the reader to believe in dreams and follow through with them, no matter how unattainable they may seem. Santiago, the main character, begins the story with a literal dream of his own, telling him to search for treasure and head to the Egyptian pyramids. His journey there epitomizes the saying: it’s not where you’re going, but how you get there.

The celebration has begun, with videos and blogs from Coelho, information about the book and author, and more online at Harper Collins Publishers.

The festivities culminate with The Alchemist Live on Wednesday, September 17 at 3:00 p.m. EST. Readers are invited to participate via phone or Web chat as listeners ask questions, and Paulo discusses both his own personal legend and the story behind the novel.

The show will last an hour and a half, and is part of Blog Talk Radio’s Authors on Air program.

It’s only recently that I discover my interest in historic fiction. Before this, I’m sure that I could have told you that such a sub-genre even existed, which has got me wondering what other classifications exist within the realm of fiction.

First, you can specify the length of a work of fiction:

* Flash Fiction: Fewer than 2,000 words (or 1,000 depending on whose definition you use); about five pages.
* Short Story: Between 2,000 and 7,500 words; about five to 25 pages.
* Novelette: Between 7,500 and 17,500 words; about 25-60 pages.
* Novella: Between 17,500 and 50,000 words; about 60-170 pages.
* Novel: 50,000 words or more; about 170 or more pages.
* Epic: 200,000 words or more; about 680 or more pages.

From there, fiction can include fairy tales, poems, movies, comics, and more. Here are a few of the more popular sub-genres of fiction, most of which should be self-explanatory:

* Crime / Detective
* Erotic
* Fantasy
* Gothic (a combination of romance and horror)
* Historical
* Horror
* Medical
* Mystery
* Philosophical
* Political
* Romance
* Satire
* Sci-Fi
* Thriller
* Tragedy

…and the list goes on, with many of these sub-genres having sub-genres of their own.

I would say that, aside from historical fiction, I like my books with a hint of multiple genres. I enjoy a psychological thriller, but prefer the tension to be counterbalanced with a smudge of romance. While I enjoy a romance, I need at least a little tragedy to ward off super sappiness. Although I usually do not like any science fiction, when it is nicely blended with romance, action, and a hint of tragedy - as with Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife - I am thoroughly content as a reader.

It’s been awhile since I’ve checked in with the New York Times to see what books and authors are topping the bestsellers list. Plus, my usual book store is under construction - so I am thoroughly out of the loop.

The Times tracks bestsellers in a number of categories, three of which are fiction-related. Here are, as of Tuesday, August 26, the top five in each.

HARDCOVER FICTION:

1. Smoke Screen by Sandra Brown
2. The Bourne Sanction by Eric Van Lustbader
3. Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva

PAPERBACK TRADE FICTION:

1. The Shack by William P. Young
2. Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand
3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

PAPERBACK MASS-MARKET FICTION:

1. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
2. You’ve Been Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
3. Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
4. Into the Flame by Christina Dodd
5. Play Dirty by Sandra Brown

As for the difference between mass-market and trade fiction books - something I’ve always wondered about, you can read detailed comparisons and contrasts of the two types at New York Times online. But, in short, trade books have artsy cover designs, higher prices, and a true book-loving fan base; whereas mass-market ones might have a cover resembling the movie version, and are targeted at impulse buyers and cramped book sections in larger stores. The first is often larger in size, and the latter might fit in your back pocket.

The two cover pictures shown here are an example of the two: The first is The Kite Runner for trade, and the second, for mass-market.

Harry Potter fans will have to wait almost another year before they can see the sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Originally scheduled for a theater release date of November 21, 2008, the film was pushed back by Warner Bros. to next summer, July 17, 2009. Officially, there are no production delays, this is just a business decision.

Okay, so the film is being delayed; however, not all Time Warner companies (parent company to Warner Bros. and Entertainment Weekly, among others) got the Harry Potter memo. Magazine Entertainment Weekly (EW) will be featuring Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on the cover of its August 22-29 fall-preview issue with a six-page spread on the inside to start the buzz about his fall release.

Oops. But, hey, I guess this just gets the buzz and excitement started early.

EW is taking it all in stride, with a laugh no less. Warner Bros. did alert EW to the date changes, but not in time for the print version to change. Online, there is a note about the release date being moved. There are also comical statements about the error on EW’s Hollywood Insider blog, joking that this issue will be a collectible.

The original date, the weekend before Thanskgiving, is annually of the best-selling dates for movie releases. As Harry Potter ducked back to accommodate a later time, Twilight stepped up. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling vampire series of the same name, Twilight was set to debut December 12, but with Harry out of the way as competition, will now be released on the popular money-making November 21.

Whenever I see someone reading, I get nosy and try to see the cover and title of their book. Yesterday, on my commute home, I had a field day snooping on my fellow bus riders and their activity of choice, reading included.

Next to me, a young girl listened to an MP3 player while playing games on hercell phone. Two people at the front of the bus read the free daily newspaper; further back, two people solved the crossword and sudoku puzzles from this same paper. Two high school girls taught each other clapping and stomping rhythms. Finally, I noted two people - one man and one woman - reading books. It took some careful spying, but I determined what novel they each held.

The woman was reading one with an interesting cover: it had three women in bikinis, draping themselves sexily about in water. The name of this tempting gem? Sistergirls.com. After looking it up online, I am even less inclined to give this one a try. There are no fewer than eight authors credited for the five books in this series about the intrigue and danger of meeting someone online. It follows the (apparently) in demand Blackgentlemen.com series.

To the left of me, was a boy-man that made it difficult for me to be nosy - the nerve of him getting antsy upon noticing me staring! But I was finally successful; he was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner Azkaban (1999) by J. K. Rowling, the third of seven in the Harry Potter series.

And that’s what people around me are reading. Keep your eyes open - it’s fun to spy on reading people!

Did you go to a Stephenie Meyer’s book release, vampire themed party this weekend at Borders or Waldenbooks? I did not, but apparently over 225,000 people did! The two stores proudly announce the huge success of the Breaking Dawn events, with a total of about 250,000 books being sold within the first few hours of the book hitting the market, including online sales.

Approximately 1,000 stores nationwide hosted a “From Twilight til Dawn: A Night with a Bite” party. The highly anticipated teen read came in second only to Harry Potter for number of pre-orders.

The photo shown here is a snapshot of a New York City party for Meyer this Friday evening. For everything Stephenie Meyer and the Twiglight Saga, head over to the ultimate and official fan page at TwilightLexicon.com.

Today, July 31, is Harry Potter’s (the character) birthday! Likewise, it is Potter author J.K. Rowling’s birthday, too.

Happy birthday to both J.K. and Harry!

Stephenie Meyer’s name is being tossed around the teen lit world a lot lately, especially now that she has a book releasing this weekend. But it wasn’t until all the Twilight Saga buzz that I had heard of the young author. So who is she?

Fast Facts on Stephenie:

* Her birthday is Christmas Eve, 1973, making her 35.

* She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and three sons - Gabe, Seth, and Eli.

* Her husband, Christian, is nicknamed “Pancho.”

* Many of her five siblings’ names are used for characters in her books.

* In 2005, she was named one of the “most promising new authors of 2005″ by Publishers Weekly.

* She graduated from Brigham Young University, Utah, with an English degree. The college is known for being Mormon, and Meyer remains a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

* One story of hers is included in the memoir collection Prom Nights from Hell (2007), edited by Meg Cabot.

* Her novels include: Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), The Host (2008), Breaking Dawn (August 2, 2008), Midnight Sun (work in progress).

* All of her books are teen fiction, except for The Host, which was targeted for adults.

* Stephenie says that the idea for writing a vampire story came to her in a dream.

* Muse is one of her favorite bands. They are featured in many of her books, as well as Blue October, Coldplay, and Linkin Park.

* Twilight, in addition to earning numerous recognitions and “top lists” honors, has been translated into 20 different languages.

* A big-screen movie of Twilight is set to hit theaters December 12, 2008.

Over 900 Borders and Waldenbooks stores in the U.S. will celebrate the August 2 release of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. The book is the fourth and final installment in Meyer’s best-selling vampire series, The Twilight Saga.

In-store book release parties will be held from 10 p.m. Friday, August 1, until midnight, when the book will officially be on sale. The parties will have a theme of “From Twilight til Dawn: A Night with a Bite,” and will include events such as costume contests (come dressed as a character!), trivia contests (kicking off the parties promptly at 10 p.m.), and debates on themes related to the book series. Locate your closest participating Borders or Waldenbooks store at the Borders’ Web site. The Web site also allows you to pre-order a copy that can be picked up at a party.

All events are free – with no purchase necessary to participate – and many have prizes!

Sisterhood stars Blake Lively, 20; Alexis Bledel, 26; America Ferrera, 24, and Amber Tamblyn, 25 attended the premiere of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in New York City, today, Monday July 28.

The four actresses revisited their roles from the 2005 film version of the teen novel series written by Ann Brashares for a sequel this summer. Playing Bridget, Lena, Carmen, and Tibby (in order as the actresses stand, left to right), they bring four unique stories together on the big screen once again.

In addition to the quartet - who are each showing their own distinguished personal style here - three of Blake Lively’s Gossip Girl (also based on a teen novel series) costars showed up in support. Chace Crawford, Leighton Meester, and Ed Westwick all made appearances.

The new movie, in theaters next week (August 6 official release date), takes pieces of plot from the second and third novel in the series, but is largely based on number four: Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood.