New Buffy Book on the Heroine's Journey

[Valerie]

I'm Valerie Estelle Frankel, author of Buffy and the Heroine's Journey, a nonfiction examination of the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show and its portrayal of the quintessential heroine's quest (with a genre of TV tie-in). I'm happy to send the ebook to anyone who'd like to review. There's more info at www.vefrankel.com. Do email Valerie @ calithwain.com if you’re interested.Buffy and the Heroine's Journey

[Rachel]

I don't have an e-reader, I don't have any of those cool gadjets....is there any other way to view???

[James]

NEW BOOK: DEAR MISS LANDAU
THE TRUE STORY OF THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN JULIET LANDAU AND A ‘RAIN MAN’ FROM GLASGOW

It all began with a vampire: Drusilla, to be precise. James Christie, watching re-runs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in his flat in Glasgow, Scotland, became interested in the character of the sweet girl behind the monster’s face and of Drusilla’s unfinished story arc.

“In my opinion, the character of Drusilla had not been developed as fully as the other members of her vampire family – Spike, Angel and Darla – had been,” said James. “I wanted to envisage what might have happened immediately after the fall of Sunnydale. So I sat down to write a piece of fan-fiction and called it Drusilla’s Roses. My pen just flew across the paper - it was as if Dru herself had chosen me to finish the job. I know how strange that sounds, but that’s how it felt at the time.”

Unsure what to do with his completed story, he sent it - without much expectation of a reply - to the actress who played Drusilla, Juliet Landau. But fate took a hand and, after an email correspondence with Miss Landau, James embarked on a solo 5,000-mile road-trip, across eight time zones, to meet her on Sunset Boulevard one Sunday morning in March 2010.

But this was no ordinary trip: James had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in 2002 and for much of his life had felt like an alien - a ‘Mr Spock’ in a world of neuro-typicals. In fact he felt that perhaps - like Drusilla - he didn’t have a soul. On his journey, he was to discover it.

Dear Miss Landau by James Christie charts his life as an Autist, his correspondence with Juliet Landau, and his journey across America to meet her. It has been written with the full cooperation of Juliet Landau and is illustrated with photographs of her as well as pictures from Christie’s road trip. It was published by Chaplin Books on 14 March 2012 at £8.99 (ISBN 978-0-9565595-6-2).

James has a witty, engaging, fluent and distinctive writing style and his book has been described by New Books Magazine as “searingly honest....written with insight, intelligence and humour.”

“Writing has always been my best asset,” said James, “but I’m not always interested in it. I also like girls. Especially shy vampire brunettes.”

He regards his trip across America as a kind of ‘knightly quest’:

“I had travelled alone before, but that had been 20 years earlier: there’s many a man who remembers the days of his youth and dreams he may return to them, but knows deep down they’re gone for good. Every moment I ground through the bureaucracy, the grudging return to shared dorms in backpacker hostels, the long roads across the US and the crossing of the Mojave, the image of my lady was ahead of me. Drusilla was my guide along the way, but Juliet Landau was my muse. And I told her, not long after, that I’d do it all again in a moment, even if I had to walk.”

An extensive interview with James Christie, and a review of the book, can be read on the Whedonopolis website, and there are two videos on Youtube of James reading from the book (accessible by searching under ‘Dear Miss Landau’).

Back-cover blurb from the book:

Every morning James Christie puts on a blue rugby shirt and a pair of jeans. His wardrobe is full of neatly hung, identical outfits. Every day he eats the same meal and drinks from the same mug. These are not ingrained habits, but survival techniques. For James, coping with new experiences feels like smashing his head through a plate-glass window, and the only relief comes from belting the heavy-bag at the boxing club, or watching re-runs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is an autistic man adrift in a world of neuro-typicals. Differently wired. Alien.

Despite an IQ that places him in the top three percent of the population, it looks likely he’ll spend the next 20 years cleaning toilets at a motorway service station. But then his life takes an astonishing turn - one that will take him from a tenement in Glasgow to a meeting with a Hollywood star on Sunset Boulevard.
On that journey by Greyhound across America, the man who believes he has no soul will find it. Eight time-zones and 5,000 miles away, he has a breakfast date with the actress who played Drusilla, the kooky vampire whose strangely comforting presence has inhabited his flat ever since she first came to his attention late one evening in a Buffy episode. Drusilla has no soul either. And maybe that’s the attraction. But Drusilla is only a TV character. The person waiting for him on Sunset will be Juliet Landau. She’s real, and that’s a very different proposition...

For further information contact Amanda Field (chaplinbooks@virginmedia.com)
* If you would like a high-resolution image of the book cover, please ask.
* A limited number of review copies of the book are available (PDF copies also available)
*There is author information, and a downloadable extract available on the Chaplin Books website: www.chaplinbooks.co.uk