BREAKING NEWS!:

Charlie Higson has revealed on Twitter the title of the next book in his non-Bond horror series: The Dead.





Charlie is currently working on The Dead while also promoting his new BBC series, Bellamy’s People.





Charlie tweets, “Making a new TV show has really cut down my available writing time. Am now on a grueling schedule to try to get new book (The Dead) finished. 2000 words a day every day until the end of Feb. Actually - written down like that it doesn't look so bad. Beats working down a coal mine.”





You can follow Charlie @monstroso
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by zencat

The Red Pyramid Synopsis

Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them —Set— has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

IQ, Book 2: The White House- Coming Soon!

Synopsis
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
There was another knock on my door. I opened it.
Standing in the hallway was a very serious Secret Service agent.
"The President would like to see you both in the Oval Office," he said.
"Now?" I asked. It was 3 a.m.
He gave me a curt nod.
"Maybe we should change," I said.
"You're fine," the agent said. "He's waiting. Follow me."
Angela and I were going to meet the president of the United States in our pj's.

In Book One: Independence Hall, we met Q and his stepsister, Angela. We met their rocker parents, Blaze and Roger; we met the Secret Service team protecting the family; and we met the main players of the Mossad team that is following them.

Book Two takes us on another thrilling caper, this time to the White House where Q and Angela continue their quest to uncover the truth behind the supposed death of Angela's real mother - a former Secret Service agent - while trying to differentiate the "good guys" from the "bad guys."

Coming March 10th!

Update On The Kane Chronicles & More!

What you're looking @ above is the cover of Rick Riordan's new book: The Red Pyramid, which comes out May 4th. Below is an except from the first chapter(credit goes to WSJ for helping me find this):

We only have a few hours, so listen carefully.

If you’re hearing this story, you’re already in danger. Sadie and I might be your only chance.

Go to the school. Find the locker. I won’t tell you which school or which locker, because if you’re the right person, you’ll find it. The combination is 13/32/33. By the time you finish listening, you’ll know what those numbers mean. Just remember the story we’re about to tell you isn’t complete yet. How it ends will depend on you.

The most important thing: when you open the package and find what’s inside, don’t keep it longer than a week. Sure, it’ll be tempting. I mean, it will grant you almost unlimited power. But if you possess it too long, it will consume you. Learn its secrets quickly and pass it on. Hide it for the next person, the way Sadie and I did for you. Then be prepared for your life to get very interesting.

Okay, Sadie is telling me to stop stalling and get on with the story. Fine. I guess it started in London, the night our dad blew up the British Museum.

- I got an ARC for This World We Live In. I am almost finished & a review will be posted soon.

- As you may have noticed, I have changed this page design again, this time back to Books' original look. This look is back leading up to March 22nd, Books' Second Anniversary!

STEEL TRAPP 2—The Academy: Coming January 19th!

(Picture Of Book Jacket availible now @ http://www.ridleypearson.com/YA/steel.php, I am currently unable to upload photos to the page)

Steven "Steel" Trapp has been placed in an East Coast boarding school for gifted kids by his FBI agent father. He soon discovers that there's a clubby element of the faculty and upper classmen that is very secretive and protective. To his surprise, his friend Kaleigh arrives to board at the school and soon the two discover that this is not your normal boarding school. It seems a select few students are recruited, while still minors, to serve as special "translators" for the US Government. Steel's dad was able to arrange this school for his son given Steel's incredible retention skills. People—including diplomats and dignitaries—will say things around kids that they wouldn't otherwise dare speak outside of embassies. The willing student "agent" takes a semester abroad and ends up spying for his country.

But there are dark elements at play at the school. Foreign agents may have penetrated the school's secrecy and may have sleepers in place: kids spying on future kid spies. There is conspiracy and competition among the elite faculty that threatens security. As Steel and Kaileigh are recruited for their first test run—trying to break a ring of pickpockets in a Boston hotel—things go impossibly wrong. Betrayal and conspiracy cloud what should have been a straightforward assignment. And all too soon, their very lives are in danger.

November Wrap-Up!

Wow, is it almost the end of the year already? Today's November 30, so tomorrow's the first of December! Wednesday is my day off, so look for a lot of posts then.

So here's the round-up:

-Still no word if I will get a THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN ARC. Susan Beth Pfeffer(the author; one day she'll be famous) has only received 6 copies to date, & all of those went to friends & family.

-No cover for Rick Riordan's THE RED PYRAMID. Yet...

-There will be an 80% off Scholastic Book Sale at one of their warehouses near me, December 4th-15th. No Goodwill leveled products here; pure fun reading material! And of course I am going!

The Viper's Nest! (And The Rise Of The Madrigals)

Hey, everyone! I'm back from BOOK HIBERNATION! While in such, I have completed the entire Heir Trilogy by Cinda Williams Chima, SENT by Margret Peterson Haddix, and just a few minutes ago, IN TOO DEEP, by Jude Watson(SPOILER ALERT!!!:RIP Irina. She died by saving Dan from a burning building.)Speaking of the 39 Clues Series, if you would direct your attention to the left!

Book 7: The Viper's Nest(along with Card Pack 3: The Rise Of The Madrigals) will be released February 2nd, 2010. Peter Lerangis, who did an awesome job The Sword Thief(that's book three, and that is my favorite book to date, which means, yes, he beat Rick Riordan, and trust me it takes ALOT to do that!) is also writing this volume, and I'm sure that I will NOT be disappointed!

Another exciting hype for The Viper's Nest: Amy & Dan's family branch WILL finally be revealed. There is a strong specualtion that they are Ekats, and that's my branch, so I sure hope so! However, they could possibly be Madrigals, and if they are, then I WAS TOTALLY RIGHT FROM DAY ONE! Oh well, I guess I will have to wait until February 2nd to find out!

The Kane Chronicles!

BREAKING NEWS!:As announced today by author Rick Riordan, his Eygptian Mythology Series now has a name: The Kane Chronicles! For the release from Entertainment Weekly, click here! Below is the teaser cover:

Will You Get An Early Glimpse Of Susan Beth Pfeffer's Next Book?

This World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, releases on April 1, 2010. However, if you've read the two other books in the Moon Crash Trilogy, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT and the dead and the gone, and want to know EXACTLY what happens in This World We Live In, you may have a shorter wait. I have signed up to get an ARC(Advance Reader's Copy). Susan, what a nice lady, e-mailed me this morning and told me I may or may not get one, they're are more requests than they are of books, so we will just have to see how everything goes...

Sent!

Synopsis- "I think it's probably safe to say, given when you should have landed, that you're...um..."

"Tell me!"

"I think, right now, you're the king of England."


Thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip are reeling from the news that they're both missing children from history, kidnapped from their proper time period. Before they can fully absorb this revelation, a time purist named JB zaps Chip and another boy, Alex, back to the fifteenth century, where they supposedly belong. Determined not to lose their friends, Jonah and his sister, Katherine, grab Chip's arms just as he's being sent away. The result? Jonah and Katherine also end up in the fifteenth century, where they decidedly do not belong.

Chip's true identity is Edward V, king of England, and Alex is his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York. But Chip is convinced that his uncle, Richard of Gloucester, plans to kill them and seize the throne for himself.

JB promises that if the kids can "fix time," he will allow them to return to the present day. But how can they possibly return home safely when history claims that Chip and Alex were murdered?

In a riveting tale that climaxes on the battlefield at Bosworth, master storyteller Margaret Peterson Haddix brings readers back in time to an unforgettable moment in history and plunges them into the adventure of a lifetime.

Excerpt:

ONE


It was a rough landing. Lights streamed past Jonah's face, an unbearable glare. Some force that had to be more than just gravity tugged on him, threatening to pull him apart from Chip and Katherine, from the Elucidator and the Taser, from his own self. The image that burned in his mind was of his body being split into individual cells, individual atoms. And then that image broke apart too, and he couldn't think, couldn't see, couldn't hear. He could only feel time passing through him, time flipping back on itself, time pressing down, down, down....

Then it was over. He lay in darkness, gasping for air. Dimly he heard JB's voice say, "Welcome to the fifteenth century. Good luck." But he couldn't quite make sense of the words. It was like hearing something underwater, sounds from another world.

"You're hiding, aren't you? Staying out of sight?" It was JB's voice again, hissing and anxious. "You have to stay out of sight."

"Darkness," Jonah mumbled. "Safe."

His tongue felt too thick to speak with. Or maybe it was too thin — too insubstantial. He didn't feel quite real.

There was movement beside him. Someone sitting up.

"You'd like to keep us in the dark, wouldn't you?" Chip accused. "You didn't tell us anything we'd need to know to survive in the fifteenth century."

Whoa. How could Chip manage to sound so normal at a time like this? And so angry (which was pretty much normal for Chip)? Wasn't his head spinning too? Wasn't his vision slipping in and out of focus? Didn't he feel like he might throw up if he had to do anything more strenuous than breathe?

"You didn't even tell us who we're supposed to be," Chip continued.

Distantly, as if hewas trying to retrieve a memory from centuries ago — no, he corrected himself, centuries ahead — Jonah puzzled over what Chip meant. Who we're supposed to be... Oh, yeah. The whole reason they were in this mess was that a group of people from the future had gone through history plucking out endangered children. This would have been very noble and kind, except that they began carrying off famous kids, kids whose disappearances were noticed. JB, who seemed to oppose any tampering with history, was convinced that all of time was on the verge of collapse because of these rescues. He and his cohorts had managed to freeze the effects of the rescues — the "ripples," as they called them — and gone after the missing children. There'd been a battle, and thirty-six kids from history had crash-landed at the very end of the twentieth century.

Chip was one of those kids.

So was Jonah.

For the past thirteen years, though, they'd known nothing about their true identities. They'd been adopted by ordinary American families and grown up in ordinary American suburbs, playing video games and soccer, trading Pokémon cards, shooting hoops in their driveways. They had no way of knowing that their ordinary lives were ordinary only because they were in Damaged Time — time itself, trying to heal, had kept both sides of the battling time travelers out.

But Damaged Time had ended. And JB and his enemies, Gary and Hodge, immediately swooped in, each side eager to finish what they'd started.

And that, boys and girls, is how I came to be lying in the dark in the fifteenth century, Jonah thought, his mind working a little better now. That "boys and girls" line was imitating someone, someone on TV probably.

Someone who wouldn't be born for another five hundred years.

A wave of nausea flowed over Jonah. He wasn't sure if it was because it'd just sunk in that he was hundreds of years out of place, or if it was because his senses were working better now and he'd just realized that the fifteenth century reeked. A smell of mold and decay and — what was that, rotting meat? — surrounded him. And his nose brought him the first fact he was sure of about the fifteenth century: Whatever else was happening then, no one had modern flush toilets yet.

"Where is that Elucidator?" Chip demanded. He was feeling around on the floor now. "JB, you've got to tell me the truth. Who am I?"

"Well, it's kind of a delicate situation," JB hedged. "We shouldn't be talking at all right now, until you're sure that no one else can hear us...."

His voice trailed off to just a whisper, which Jonah could barely hear. Why was Jonah having so many problems? He'd been holding the Elucidator — he ought to be able to tell Chip where it was. But his hands felt too numb to be sure if he was still clutching anything or not.

Meanwhile, Chip seemed perfectly capable of sliding his hands all around, groping all along the stones of the floor. He nudged first Jonah, then, apparently, Katherine. Jonah could hear her moaning softly, as if she felt every bit as miserable as Jonah did.

"So help me, JB. If you don't tell me who I am, right now," Chip fumed, "I'll scream so loud that people will hear me in two centuries!"

"No, don't," JB begged. "I'll tell you. Just be quiet. You're...you're..."

"Yes?" Chip said, his voice rising threateningly.

"It's hard to pinpoint the date, exactly, since the three of you took the Elucidator, and that may have thrown some things off, but I think it's probably safe to say, given when you should have landed, that you're...um..."

"Tell me!"

"I think, right now, you're the king of England."


Copyright © 2009 by Margaret Peterson Haddix