Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 157

New Release: Wicked Jealous: A Love Story by Robin Palmer

Wicked Jealous: A Love Story by Robin Palmer was released earlier this month. Her original trilogy of fairy tale inspired YA novels were published a few years ago. One of them, Geek Charming, is even bargain priced in paperback right now. And it was made into a TV movie. I haven't heard if Palmer's been contracted for more titles in this world but these are fun and remind me of the trend in the previous decade for contemporary rather than high fantasy fairy tale retellings in Hollywood.


Book description:

A fresh and funny twist on Snow White from the author of Cindy Ella and Geek Charming!

Simone never saw herself as the "cute girl"--she was always the chunky smartmouth. But after a year of avoiding her wicked almost-stepmonster through Zumba class, Simone's now sporting a whole new retro style. And people keep acting oddly. One thing: her stepmonster seems to be trying to accidentally kill her, or at least fatten her back up. And so when Simone's brother offers to let her move in with him and his six roommates for the summer, Simone jumps at the chance for some normalcy. Only living with seven very different college boys isn't exactly going to help her land her very own happily ever after . . .

   

Suzi & the 7 Düsseldorfs

I think most of you regular readers are aware of my nail polish mini-obsession. I say mini only because nothing compares to my fairy tale and folklore and reading obsessions. OPI Nail Lacquers usually offer at least one collection each year inspired by a country. They have just announced that the 2012 Fall Collection is inspired by Germany.

Germany? Yes, I, too, wondered if any of the colors would have fairy tale inspired names and fortunately OPI didn't fail me. One of the nail polishes is Suzi & the 7 Düsseldorfs (The most beautiful bright purple of all.) according to the press release. How fitting with this year being so Snow White heavy as well as the 200 year Grimms Anniversary. Suzi, by the way, is OPI's founder and her name often appears in an OPI collection.

Here's the Press Release:

OPI Germany Collection
for Fall/Winter 2012

OPI embraces runway trends with the Germany Collection for Fall/Winter 2012.
Drawing inspiration from Berlin, an exciting new fashion hub that blends classic looks with the avant-garde, the collection’s twelve shades offer a mixture of vibrant color, urban-chic neutrals, and reds in variations from light to dark.

“Designers showcased rich colors and striking textures for fall,” explains Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. “The Germany Collection beautifully complements these looks, with standout shades in various hues of red and burgundy – the season’s ‘new black.’ Sapphire, black olive and lime yellow are married with creamy neutrals in honey, taupe and nude rose.”

“The overall feel of the Germany Collection is elegance with an edge,” adds Suzi. “The varied palette of colors adds another accent to the list of special touches – think beadwork, paneling, fur and embroidery – that walked the runways during New York Fashion Week. Wearing these shades on fingers and toes is a great way to accessorize a range of looks for the season.”

Germany by OPI includes the following shades:

Don’t Pretzel My Buttons A haute honey-beige that can always make you smile.
My Very First Knockwurst …and what a magical rosy-nude rendezvous it was!
Berlin There Done That A traveling taupe that’s seen it all. (Yep, that too).
Don’t Talk Bach to Me There’s nothing mellow about this sassy lime-yellow!
Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! A bodacious black-olive? We say “Ja! Ja! Ja!”
Unfor-greta-bly Blue Everyone’s favorite Fräulein loves this über shiny blue.
Every Month is Oktoberfest Prost! Here’s to the prettiest plum in the Biergarten.
Suzi & the 7 Düsseldorfs The most beautiful bright purple of all.
Deutsch You Want Me Baby? A self-assured shade of shimmering red-orange.
Danke-Shiny Red You “Bitte” try on this ravishing ruby before it’s too late!
German-icure by OPI The best burgundy shimmer in the business.
Schnapps Out of It! Shake off the blues with a shot of fall’s must-have mauve!

Bargain eBook: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Here is another temporary ebook price drop: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman is currently $3.99. UPDATE: The price is only good this weekend, so expect it to rise again Sunday night.

Book description:

One of fiction's most audaciously original talents, Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology for a modern age -- complete with dark prophecy, family dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to mention a lime.

Anansi Boys
God is dead. Meet the kids.

When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life.

Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself.

Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him."

Bargain Book: The Queen Bee by The Brothers Grimm

The Queen Bee by The Brothers Grimm (Author), Iassen Ghiuselev (Illustrator) has one bargain priced hardcover copy available on Amazon for $6.78. The little known fairy tale was inspiration for a Grimm episode in season 1--BeeWare [HD], if I remember correctly.

Anyway, it's there and an interesting addition to a fairy tale picture book collection--I've added it to mine!

I will be back to regular posting soon. I had started to regain momentum again and then more demands got in the way!

Sleeping Beauty Stalker Comedy Film?

From 'Sleeping Beauty' Comedy in the Works From Producer Neal Moritz (Exclusive) at Hollywood Reporter by Tatiana Siegel :

With Disney in production on the Angelina Jolie starrer Maleficent, producer Neal Moritz is moving forward with a comedy take of on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale that turns the slumbering sweetie into a pesky stalker.

The 21 Jump Street producer is developing a modern-day retelling that finds the male protagonist accidently awakening Sleeping Beauty and finding that he can't get rid of the lovestruck heroine.

Although Moritz's Original Film banner has its deal at Sony, Sleeping Beauty is not yet set up at the studio and is being developed internally.

Original's Amanda Lewis is shepherding the pic, which is being penned by Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller. Corey May and Dooma Wenschuh of Sekretagent Prods. are also producing.

This one made the rounds of news sites and blogs last week. But I needed to share here, too, for archiving if nothing else! Interesting concept but I am always wary of stalker comedy plots. But at least it's not another high fantasy--not that I mind those at all--but we don't want to just get those, do we?

The Brick House Trailer

Wow. I missed this one back in January when the fundraising was taking place. Interesting concept.

Although I'm not sold on the prosthetics. Makes it too literal and they are distracting.

From the project's Kickstarter news page:

To our surprise and delight, yesterday's release of the trailer for The Brick House has enjoyed an immensely positive response!

Just overnight, the trailer has gathered over 100,000 views on YouTube (pending the update of their delayed view counter). It made it to the number 9 spot on Reddit's front page and held it for hours, gathering tons of upvotes. It more than doubled our followers on Facebook and Twitter. It's been featured on hypervocal, Daily of the Day, Nosebleeds and theVIRALtrend just to name a few of the many blogs and news sites that are talking about it. The best part about all this? People are loving it!

Apart from that, it's reached a series of industry professionals who have reached out to us with interest in taking it even further.

This...is a good sign. This is just the trailer, and the reaction has been huge. We can only imagine what will happen once audiences get to see the entire film. Needless to say, this is super exciting for us and we can't wait to see just how far we can go with it. You can bet that we'll be keeping you updated every step of the way.

For now, help us keep it moving. Share the trailer with everyone you can. Send it to places and people that we may not be connected with and who may not know about us. Let's make this HUGE.

Bargain Book: The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman

For TODAY ONLY, The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman is $1.99 in ebook format from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Which reminds me that I haven't watched the movie nor read the book in a while. Of course, my tv time has been severely limited for months now, but this may be on my list when life normalizes again in the next month or so. (I hope!) Of course, this is one of those movies that I pretty much have memorized--I saw it the first time in the theatre when it was released--so it's not as common for me to watch it since I can pretty much do so in my head. And, of course, the book is great, too!
Book description:

William Goldman's modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that's thrilling and timeless.

Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”

Bargain Book: The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern) by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern) by Shannon Hale is marked down to $1.99 TODAY ONLY on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Highly recommended, of course.

And her The Book of a Thousand Days is still 99 cents--probably until her new Princess Academy book is released in a few weeks: Princess Academy: Palace of Stone. Thousand Days is my personal favorite by Hale.

Book description:

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the
first years of her life under her aunt’s guidance learning to
communicate with animals. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of
animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when
her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani’s journey
to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade
anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani
eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way
to her true destiny. Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and
magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she
can become queen of the people she has made her own.

Look out for the other books in this series: Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born!

New Book: The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer was released this week.

Book description:

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales.

The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

About the Author

Chris Colfer is a Golden Globe-winning actor best known for his role as "Kurt Hummel" on Glee. He was recently honored as a member of the 2011 TIME 100, Time Magazine's annual list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. The Land of Stories is his first novel.

I haven't read this yet--and, no, the Glee bit doesn't recommend the book to me but I'm also not going to prejudge based on that, either. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are up there on the cover along with a wolf and frog, so the promise of fairy tales appears to be upheld either way. Looks like this will be a series if it is successful enough and I'm sure it will be.

Your Input Wanted: Author Questionnaire for Blog Tours

I need your help. I am trying to come up with five fun/quirky/informational questions to give to authors who want to appear on the SurLaLune Blog. Blog tours are popular now and I want to make SurLaLune a welcoming spot for authors who use fairy tales for their inspiration. I often don't have time to read the book or think up snazzy questions to ask but authors like some direction from me since they are often overwhelmed, too.

Of course, I dream of a powerful, deceptively simple questionnaire like the one at the end of The Actor's Studio show that I used to watch and now only remember the end when these questions were asked. (I used to watch TV. Those were the days!)

What is your favorite word?
What is your least favorite word?
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
What turns you off?
What is your favorite curse word?
What sound or noise do you love?
What sound or noise do you hate?
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
What profession would you not like to do?
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

So my brain is tired and I find I am not very clever. And, anyway, you readers should have some input. So help me come up with five questions you'd love to see answered by the authors featured here on SurLaLune. I also fear asking questions that are too demanding of authors with a lot on their plates--believe me I get quite a few of those myself and simply cannot answer them due to my own limited bandwidth. So questions that can have both short or long answers are also desirable.

Here are some starting off points:

What is your favorite fairy tale?
What is your least favorite fairy tale?
What is your favorite fairy tale hero/heroine to love or hate?
What is your favorite fairy tale villain to love or hate?
Besides your own, what is one of your favorite fairy tale retellings?
Now share with us a little bit about your book:

So in the comments offer some questions, limit five, vote for others or offer your own.