A blog about love on Valentines day! Tres originale..

Okay I was going to do a post on how I love books, and books I love, blah blah blah but I am way to shnakered to write anything.

Once upon a time 200 years ago.....

One of the worlds greatest storytellers was born.

So every book blog will be talking about Charles Dickens today, in one way or another, so I figured I would jump on the band wagon and talk about how his work has influenced me.  Many years ago (not quite 200 but close enough *ahem*) when I was a child, I would visit my grandparents regularly, but the visits I loved the most were the ones where I would stay the night, it was always an adventure, always exciting, and it also gave me the chance to read books I did not have access to at home.  My grandparents didn't have a library, but they did have a fantastic collection of classic fiction all in hardback (glee) and part of this collection was the entire Dickens library, each book bound in dark blue leather, with embossed gold lettering.  Whenever I slept over I would grab one of these titles and find a place to hide so I could loose myself in the streets of Victorian London, in the summer when the evenings were light it was the branches of the cooking apple tree, in the winter my hidey hole was behind the armchair in the corner of the lounge so I could sit under the big floor lamp and read about Pip and Oliver, and Nell in the Old Curiosity shop.  Now being 7/8 years old I did not understand a lot of what what was happening in these stories, but I did understand what was scary, what was terrifying and what made a happy ending, I also learnt what made great reading, and great storytelling.  Dickens showed me how to love books and this influence showed through the books I chose in contemporary fiction to read as a child.  Books by authors such as Diana Wynne Jones, Alan Garner, and one of my favourite books The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.  (if you have not read it do so ASAP)

Speaking of wolves Dickens was a huge fan of fairy tales, and loved the Grimms tale Little Red Riding Hood.  He once wrote: "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss." 
Charles Dickens and I not only love fairy tales, but like mr D, Little Red Riding Hood is my ALL TIME FAVOURITE FAIRY TALE (The film was naff, except for the last half hour, yes I have it in my DVD collection, *I have my reasons* and will probably watch it today!!!) so in honour of this shared love here are two lovely retellings that you must must MUST include in your library.

Little Red Hood

By Marjolaine Leray

This picture book is stunning in it's simplicity. It is one of those things which you look at and think 'Why didn't I come up with this!?'
The illustrations are beautifully minimalist, all done in red and black coloured pencils, and are done in a whimsical doodling fashion, and look like they belong on a proud parents fridge door for all the world to see.
The story follows the basic premise of the classic Little Red story, but has a marvellous twist that harks back to the clever, and brave Red of the 16th century original.
With it's pocket sized format and easy to follow story and pictures it is the ideal book to keep in a bag, in order to entertain adults and children alike.

Rated

This next version is just toooooooo lush for words!

Little Red Riding Hood
By Daniel Egneus and the Brothers Grimm

This is the basic Grimm version but sumptuously illustrated. Seriously the end papers sold it to me alone. The artwork is by the amazingly talented Illustrator Daniel Egneus whose work has featured in, on, and around anything that is fashionable or fashion related. His style is pure whimsical fantasy, like some intriguing delicate confection made of spun sugar, and wafer thin chocolate brushed with gold leaf, that surrounds a rich dark heart. His illustrations are so ethereal that you are afraid to breath looking at them, incase, like a dandelion clock the colours and lines would be blown from the page. Those of you who know me, know that my background is in fashion/fashion design (Yes I have TWO degrees in fashion design, and I am doing nothing with them! Well kind off ) so this book brings all three of my loves fashion/fairytales/books into one gorgeous beautifully packaged edition.

Rated

For those of you who are budding writers in the YA paranormal/fantasy/romance fields I highly reccomend these books as an invaluable source of insight and information.

 With regards to Mr Charles Dickens, and stories retold, you have to read Oliver Twisted.  No this is not the biography of the finnish rocker from Crashdiet, but a totally awesome reworking of the Dickens classic Oliver Twist by J D Sharpe

First off I just have to say that this novel is GENIUS!

Oliver Twisted is published by Electric Monkey the new YA imprint from Egmont books, the author Jasmine Richards who is also a senior editor contacted me a few months ago to let me know about her new novel based upon the Dickens classic Oliver with a horror twist (see what I did there) as soon as I heard this I could not wait for my proof copy to arrive so I could start reading, and I certainly was not dissapointed when I did.

As with all the best works of horror fiction, this tale is filled with werewolves, vampyres, zombies aka woe begottens, demons, and vengeful spirits, and like its inspiration, the character Oliver is fought over by the forces of good and evil, but in this version the reason for this battle centres around the fact that Oliver Twisted is in fact a very rare and powerful warlock who, it is fortold will either become the saviour of humanity or the cause of its destruction.  This is not the only cleverly adapted plot device in fact if you have read or know the original story, part of the enjoyment of reading Oliver Twisted is recognising scenes and story arcs, and how imaginative J D Sharpe is at seemlessly blending the ingenious horror twists thrown in, such as human blood farms disguised as orphanages, which are filled with starving orphans turned cannibals.  Cults that worship wolf gods with child sacrifice, and demons that ply humans with drink until they can possess their bodies.  But what really brings the book to life (no pun intended) is her description of the grisly scenes which fill every chapter, hits just the right level of Hammer Horror gore till you feel the book itself is made from human skin covered with pus filled boils and you expect to find foaming maggots falling out, with each turn of the page.  Take for instance when Oliver is given to Mr Sowerberry the undertaker to apprentice.  Now in the classic this was horrific enough, but with flair and gusto the author works our imagination by turning Sowerberry and his household into a true house of horrors by making them flesh eating ghouls who feast on the innards of the dear departed left in their care.

"Oliver's knees buckled beneath him. The last thing he saw as he crashed to the ground was the bowl of guts smashing down beside him and a rheumy eyeball rolling across the flagstone floor."

You add in Fagin as a soul stealing demon, and Bill Sikes as a vicious werewolf, which is perfect re-characterization, and how Bill and his hound Bullseye are connected to each other is a brilliant example of the cleverly simple quirks that add layer upon layer of this gloriously gruesome novel.  From the first chapter this is a pacy, grisly, intense read, and I am not going to tell you anymore because I will ruin the story for you, so if you want to know what I am talking about then you will have to buy the book yourself. 

Believe me when I say you'll devour it like a woe begotten at an all the people you can eat buffet.

Rated

 

Oliver Twisted by J D Sharpe was released 6/2/12

I can already envisage a J D Sharpe reworking of Great Expectations with Pip working in the Devils foundry and Lady Haversham as a lovelorn spectre holding her daughter Estella prisoner, until her love returns to her.

On the topic of Great Expectations I am very excited about the movie coming out later this year.  Jeremy Irvine of War Horse fame is playing Pip, but what I am really excited about is the phenomenal casting of Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Haversham.  She was born for the role, and I just cannot wait to see her performance.

It is also a shameless excuse to pop up some pics of the ridiculously pretty Douglas Booth who played Pip in the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations*Swoon*.

Until next time heres wishing you unpleasant dreams. xoxo

The day I worked on my holiday

Last night I got back home at 1am to be greeted by this....

I can't decide if it is cool or creepy, but what it definitely is, is a perfect example of the weird shiz that I get randomly given by family and friends, although I guess you could argue that people who give me this sort of stuff should not really be considered family or friends.

Anyhoo the reason for me being out so late is also the reason why I worked on my holiday!? Last night I hosted an event with author Patrick Ness and illustrator Jim Kay where they talked about their collaboration on the beautiful A Monster Calls.  Those of you who do not know the story it is the incredibly moving tale of a young boy who is dealing with the death of his mother, who one night is visited by The Monster.
The event was chaired by the wonderful Nicollete Jones who is not only an author in her own right but is also the children's books reviewer for The Times.  Both Patrick and Jim were highly entertaining and kept the audience in rapt attention with perfectly timed humour and intelligent in depth conversation about their ideas and concepts for the novel.
The Evening was a huge success with close to a two hundred attendees, and it was lovely to see children in the audience, as children often ask the most interesting and succinct questions, which is something they did not fail to do.
After the event I was lucky enough to be invited to dine with Patrick and Jim, and it was the perfect end to the evening, giving me a chance to speak with author and illustrator on a personal level.  Having met Patrick several times already he still remains to be as intelligent and erudite as ever.  As for Jim Kay, he is one of the most grounded, gifted, and genuinely, lovely people, I have ever had the pleasure to meet, who judging from the band-aids on nearly every finger, literally bleeds for his art.

And in a bizarre case of coincidence yesterday I finally (after 9 months of being on hold oops) brought my copy of Catherynne M Valente's The girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making only to find out 5 minutes later that those geniuses at Walker books will be releasing the novel in paperback in the UK on the 7th June.  As far as I can tell the book is remaining in it's original format with its illustrations by artist Ana Juan.  Oh yeah and check out Catherynne's blog as well.

I also finally got my copy of Andrew Fukuda's The Hunt which I have been extremely eager to read.  Not only read but see the cover art.  The reason for this is because last year I was chatting to a rep from Simon and Schuster and I was told that they had aquired a new vampire novel that would appeal to boys, and I was asked for suggestions on concept ideas for the cover art.  Needless to say I was overjoyed to help, and it seems a few of my suggestions slipped into the ideas bin (grins like a loon) Wish I could say the choice of cover model was my idea!

For those who don't know the story 17-year-old Gene is surviving against all odd,s in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. The only remaining humans, or hepers as they are known, are housed in domes on the savannah and studied at the nearby Heper Institute. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt. When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow competitors whose suspicions about his true nature are growing.

From what I have read of the novel so far (on page 121 already) I am really enjoying it.  It kind of reminds me of I am Legend (one of my all time favourite novels) in a what if the character Robert Neville had tried to survive by coexisting in the vampire society version of the classic, and judging by the literary fans, see the campaign sheet below, and the fact that it is being compared to the Hunger Games, I think it is pretty safe to say that anyone who picks up this novel will enjoy all 293 pages of it.

BTW who is the model? does he look like Chris Hemsworth or what?

Just incase you are interested here is one of the versions of the US cover art. 

The book is released 12th May 2012

As you are all probably aware by now Warm Bodies (for the last time it is not a zombie twilight!!!) has been made into a movie.  Personally I cannot wait to see this movie, and the fact that Nick Hoults character 'R' is actually kept to looking like a hideous virus ridden, flesh hungry living corpse and not been given the prettified treatment and turned into a walking six pack with staples in his face (Beastly) and he is as far removed from the human disco ball that is Edward, hopefully this means that the story will centre on the emotional, and relationship driven horomance that Warm Bodies actually is.  

Here are some pics from the movie.  For some reason I could'nt find any of the awesome Teresa Palmer (girl crush) who plays Julie, but the ones of a zombiefied Nick Hoult 'R' (see what I did there) pretty awesome.

The movie is scheduled for release 24 August 2012

In other none book/movie related news, while I was surfing the WWW the other day I found this amazing pocket watch

It looks like a compass I know, but it is infact a replica of a pocket watch designed in 1580 so it was made with only an hour hand, because back then, as an actual time keeping piece it... well sucked. 
As soon as I saw it I immediately thought of Cassandra Clares Infernal Devices series, and now I want one really bad (geeks out) I will just have to wait until next payday.

Thats all for now guys and ghouls.