Genre Fiction

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.

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.

Cecily Von Ziegesar’s teen fiction series Gossip Girl (2002 - 2007) has become a household title since being turned into a hit - albeit controversial - prime time soap opera on The CW network. With 11 books (three were ghostwritten) and one prequel, Von Ziegesar has seemingly exhausted the tales of Serena, Blair, and their Upper East Side of Manhattan crew.

Now, she is turning to write for her growing adult fan base.

Hyperion, a book publishing division of Walt Disney and ABC, announced plans to print two new fiction books by Cecily Von Ziegesar, targeted at adults.

The first book, Cum Laude (2009), takes a natural progression in Von Ziegesar’s character development as she moves from writing about high schoolers - which she admits to exhausting - to college cliques, gossip, and drama. The story revolves around a handful of incoming freshmen who meet one another at orientation and immediately begin stirring up chaos in their new, small town. The college students face back-stabbing, crushes … and a tragic murder.

Von Ziegesar has also penned two Gossip Girl spin-off series: The It Girl (2005 - 2008) and Gossip Girl: The Carlyles (2008). These titles are all credited to her name; however, most are her ideas put together by a ghostwriter.