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Eoin Colfer named as London Book Fair Author of the Day

Children’s fantasy author Eoin Colfer, plus Man Booker Prize-winner Hilary Mantel and South African writer Andre Brink have been named as the three Authors of the Day at this year’s London Book Fair.

The London Book Fair is the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. Taking place every spring in the world’s premier publishing and cultural capital, it is a unique opportunity to explore, understand and capitalise on the innovations shaping the publishing world. The London Book Fair brings you direct access to customers, content and emerging markets.

Mantel, Brink and Colfer will deliver a talk on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the fair respectively. This year’s Fair will be held from the 19th-21st April at Earls Court. Each author’s final schedule has yet to be confirmed but the Author of the Day initiative, which has been running since 2006, includes events such as discussions, seminars and book signings.

Colfer, appearing on the fair’s final day, said: "I’m really looking forward to the day itself, particularly the meeting the readers parts where I get to chat with the people who make Artemis Fowl as successful as it is."

Alongside the authors, more than 47 South African authors, poets, playwrights, activists and academics, representing nine of the 11 spoken languages of South Africa, will attend the fair, as part of its Market Focus on the country.

London Book Fair opening times:

• Mon 19th April 2010 9.00-18.30
• Tues 20th April 9.00-18.30
• Wed 21st April 9.00-17.00

With over 23,000 industry professionals attending this trade event, The London Book Fair provides the largest gathering of international literary agents, publishers and publishing suppliers under one roof for three days.

For more information, please visit http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/

Posted: February 19th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer, Latest News

Fantasy news round-up – February 11, 2010

The Gruffalo announced as firm favourite of Irish mothers and their children
Two-thirds of Irish mothers begin reading to their child before he or she is a year old and more than a quarter read to their child from birth, according to a new survey. It found that 71 per cent of mothers read a bedtime story to their kids nearly every night. Some 28 per cent of mothers read to their children every night, 30 per cent do so most nights and 13 per cent read to their children every other night. Five per cent of mothers said they never read to their children. Of those, a fifth said they are too busy to do it. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson was the favourite children’s book of the mothers surveyed, followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Cat in the Hat. Roald Dahl was the most popular children’s author, followed by Enid Blyton and Dr Seuss. Eoin Colfer topped the poll of favourite Irish authors.

Fancy a cup of Hobbit tea?
Fans of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings might want to fire up the kettle and get out their map of Middle-earth. A tiny Wayne County village near Wooster is where seven young Mennonite and Amish workers are mixing and packaging teas, herbs and fruit into three new blends: Hobbiton Meadow Mint, Gandalf the Gray Tea and Bilbo Baggins Breakfast Blend.

Hobbit Teas, named for the peaceable diminutive characters in Tolkien’s books, went for sale exclusively online on www.hobbittea.com two weeks ago. The site got 300 hits from around the world within the first 24 hours.

Wizarding world of Harry Potter website launched
As the spring opening of Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park gets closer and closer a new website has been launched to heighten the anticipation of Potter fans yet further. For more information, visit http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/.

The 2010 Cape and Island Quidditch Cup
Fans of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books will flock to the Cape in March to compete in his favourite game quidditch, the fictional ballgame the wizards played on flying broomsticks, where players perform acrobatic aerial manoeuvres, dodge damaging blows from opponents and, ultimately, seek out the snitch.

The 2010 Cape and Island Quidditch Cup on March 27 and 28 started as an unusual senior fundraiser and may be growing into a New England event that could help boost the local economy in the off-season.

For more information, visit http://sites.google.com/site/2010capeislandsquidditchcup, www.collegequidditch.com and http://sites.google.com/site/savannahquidditchleague/IQARulebook

JK Rowling’s message to donators
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has passed on a message to all those donated to Partners in Health through in the Helping Haiti Heal project which is a multi-fandom effort currently underway to raise funds for the ravaged nation of Haiti. To date, Helping Haiti Heal has raised $112,000.

"To everyone who has helped raise such an incredible amount for the earthquake survivors in Haiti: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.”

Posted: February 11th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien, Julia Donaldson

Flips for DS: a fantastic Christmas gift

Flips, a new book range created for the Nintendo DS was officially released last week. FLIPS has been designed to give children a new way to read their favourite books. Nearly 2 million 8-11 year-olds in the UK own an NDS console.

Flips uses the DS touch screen and stylus to enable children to read and interact by combining the world of storytelling with quizzes and references to characters, encouraging greater concentration and incentive to finish every chapter. Within the books, links appear to give the reader a unique way of interacting with the story and enhancing their experience.

Each games cartridge includes six to eight books by a popular children’s author. The first four titles will feature author Cathy Cassidy, the Artemis Foul books and Too Ghoul for Cool series. Also to be transformed into digital editions is Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree series, loved by children since they were written in the 1930s and 1940s.

“At Egmont we are passionate about bringing stories to life for children, so the development of new platforms for reading are incredibly exciting for us. We are proud to be at the heart of this innovation and thrilled to be a part of this first collection bringing authors such as Enid Blyton to the digital world, and encouraging more children to take up reading for pleasure rather than seeing it purely as part of their homework,” said Cally Poplak, director at Egmont Press.

Each title is priced at £24.99, which works out at around £4 per book.

Posted: December 14th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer

Peacock, Zemeckis and Starkey join forces to bring Eoin Colfer’s Airman to the big screen

Ann Peacock, the writer behind the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, has been called upon to help bring Eoin Colfer’s fantasy adventure Airman to the silver screen.

The $150m film will be directed by Gil Kenan (City of Ember, Monster House) and produced by Robert Zemeckis (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Beowulf), Steve Starkey (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Beowulf) through their ImageMovers production company for Disney.

One dark night on the island of Great Saltee, fourteen-year-old Conor is framed for a terrible crime he didn’t commit. Thrown into prison by the dastardly Hugo Bonvilain, Conor is trapped in a seaswept dungeon and branded a traitor. He must escape and clear his name; he wants his old life back – his family, his friends… and his princess. Conor knows there is only one way out. It’s an impossible task, which has never been done before. But Conor is determined to do it. He’ll have to fly.

Born on 14th May 1965 in Wexford, South-East Ireland Eoin Colfer attended Dublin University to gain his degree and qualify as a primary school teacher like his father before him. His first book, Benny and Omar was inspired by his experiences in Tunisia, East Africa and was published in 1998. His first Artemis Fowl book was published in 2001 and was met with huge success. Describing his Artemis Fowl books as “Fairies meet Die Hard”. Eoin Colfer lives in Wexford, Ireland and the south of France with his wife and two children, Sean and Finn.

• Artemis Fowl book review
• Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident

Posted: October 21st, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer

Colfer and Benedictus are rewarded for their courage

Eoin Colfer and David Benedictus both deserve medals for bravery. In having the pluck to step into the shoes of the national treasure’s that are Douglas Adams and AA Milne they have put themselves on a pedestal that people were trying to knock them off before they had even written a word. William Horwood (Kenneth Grahame) and Brandon Sanderson (Robert Jordan) must surely know what difficulties both these authors must have faced.

And Another Thing… and Return to the Hundred Acre Wood were released on the 11th and 5th of October respectively and we take a look at how they have been received.

We will start with David Benedictus’s Return to Hundred Acre Wood. Philip Womack, of the Daily Telegraph, was charmed by a new addition to the Winnie the Pooh saga:

“The introduction of a new character is sure to ruffle some feathers, but Lottie the Otter is an aristocratic, vain, mouth-organ playing creature who doesn’t feel as if she was made up by a committee to compensate for the lack of female characters. The only thing missing from this delightful sequel is the poetry. This book is a joyful and apt addition to the Pooh saga.”

Neville Hawcock of The Financial Times says:

”Benedictus, a journalist and broadcaster who has dramatised Milne’s stories for radio, plainly knows his Pooh. His book captures the originals’ warm, witty, whimsical tone but also carries the narrative forward credibly. Burgess’s copious “decorations”, meanwhile, are small marvels of fidelity to the spirit and draughtsmanship of EH Shepard’s much-loved illustrations.“

Ann Thwaite of The Times is slightly more grudging in her praise:

“Return to the Hundred Acre Wood may well please children, who don’t care when or why a book was written, or who wrote it. If at times the stories seem not as good as we would like them to be, we have to admire and envy Benedictus for the way in which he tackles an impossible challenge, trying so hard to get it right. Pooh and Piglet had offered to help him to get it right, and it was Eeyore, of course, who added, “Not that you are likely to. Nobody ever does.””

So, David Benedictus appears to have achieved the nigh impossible. How has Eoin Colfer fared?

Dave Brendon, of Dave’s blog about Writing says:

”If you’re expecting the Hitchhiker’s books you know and love, that same absolutely crazy but oddly brilliant prose, then you may just be disappointed – Douglas Adams is no longer with us, folks. Nothing anyone writes will ever approach his genius. But is And Another Thing good? Is it a Hitchhiker’s book? Is it zany, hilarious, crazy and absolute fun? Definitely! Eoin did an amazing job, having such legendary boots to fill. Not only did he capture what the Hitchhiker’s Guide books represent and meant to the generations that read them, but he did it with respect and admiration for the work. This isn’t a rip-off or a regurgitation or a parody – this is Hitchhiking.”

Euan Ferguson of the Observer comments:

Within pages, it’s clear this is a triumph. Colfer has pulled off the near-impossible. It’s faithful to Adams’s humour and, more important, it’s also got his rhythm, the cadences and the footfalls that made his style so often (badly) imitated. But Colfer doesn’t shy from introducing his own brand of wit, his own complex logic confettis. It’s the work of an author who can write anyway, with a beautiful, vaulting imagination, and who obviously loves Adams’s style so much he can echo it without falsity or accidental parody. There is not a lazy sentence.”

Paul Simpson of Total Sci Fi Online thinks that:

“Unlike Devil May Care, the recent 007 novel in which Sebastian Faulks was consciously writing "as Ian Fleming", Colfer doesn’t try to imitate Adams’ style, but there is a high degree of similarity. As the book progresses, and we meet new characters, including a Vogon son and heir and the ruler of an offshoot outpost of humanity, the style becomes less Adams and more Colfer, although the Guide entries (which could have done with some pruning) maintain Adams’ slightly anarchic off-kilter view of the world. There are some clever in-jokes, and an acknowledgement upfront that this story may well be dismissed as a mere appendix to Adams’ trilogy in five parts, but there’s a good chance that Adams would have been targeting the same lunacies of everyday life that Colfer attacks in this book.”

Congratulations to both Eoin Colfer and David Benedictus who have have every right to be very proud of their efforts in producing books that are both in keeping with the original classics but done in their own inimitable style.

Posted: October 17th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Douglas Adams, Eoin Colfer

Fantasy books coming to the Nintendo DS this Christmas

Electronic Arts have announced the development of FLIPS™, a new book range created for the Nintendo DS™. FLIPS has been designed to give children a new way to read their favourite books. Nearly 2 million 8-11 year-olds in the UK own an NDS console. EA has worked with Egmont and Penguin Publishing to bring modern classic from authors such as Cathy Cassidy, Eoin Colfer and Enid Blyton to the DS. Each FLIPS title features multiple books and the first four titles will be released exclusively on Nintendo DS in the UK on December 4, 2009.

Titles include:

Enid Blyton (Egmont)

• The Enchanted Wood
• The Magic Faraway Tree
• The Folk of the Faraway Tree
• Enchanted World – Petal and the Eternal Bloom
• Enchanted World – Melody and the Enchanted Harp
• Enchanted World – Silky and the Rainbow Feather

Cathy Cassidy (Penguin)

• Scarlett, Angel Cake
• Sundae Girl
• Shine on Daizy Star
• GingerSnaps
• Driftwood

Eoin Colfer (Penguin)

• Artemis Fowl
• Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident
• Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code
• Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception
• Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony
• Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

Too Ghoul For School (Egmont)

• Silent but Deadly
• The In-Spectres Call
• Ghoul Dinners
• The Bubonic Builders
• Attack of the Zombie Nits
• School Spooks Day
• French Fright
• Terror In Cubical Four

FLIPS uses the DS touch screen and stylus to enable children to read and interact by combining the world of storytelling with quizzes and references to characters, encouraging greater concentration and incentive to finish every chapter. Within the books, links appear to give the reader a unique way of interacting with the story and enhancing their experience.

“FLIPS is a brilliant way of getting children into reading who may love their DS but may not normally pick up a book,” commented Cally Poplak, Director, Egmont Press. “At Egmont we are passionate about bringing stories to life for children, so the development of new platforms for reading are incredibly exciting for us. We are proud to be at the heart of this innovation and thrilled to be a part of this first collection bringing authors such as Enid Blyton to the digital world, and encouraging more children to take up reading for pleasure rather than seeing it purely as part of their homework.”

“FLIPS offers a great way to bring books to life on a platform that is incredibly popular with kids,” said Keith Ramsdale, VP and General Manager, UK, Ireland and Nordics for Electronic Arts. “With multiple books on each game card, FLIPS makes a great value Christmas gift for children of all ages.”

“Our job as publishers is to bring authors’ work to as many readers as possible and we are increasingly looking at platforms other than the book to do this,” said Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin Digital Publisher. “So it’s incredibly exciting to be working with Electronic Arts to bring some of the best writing for children to one of the bestselling devices in the world.”

“I’m over the moon to see my stories and characters brought to life on the Nintendo DS with EA’s new FLIPS range,” said Eoin Colfer, author of the award-winning Artemis Fowl series. “Everyone knows that reading improves literacy skills. I have two children who are DS fanatics and cannot wait for the FLIPS to arrive, so EA might finally get them reading my books!”

Each FLIPS title featuring six to eight books will be sold separately with an RRP of £24.99.

There is more great news for fantasy enthusiasts and DS owners with the news that a Winnie the Pooh ebook is also set to come to the Nintendo DS. with Egmont striking a deal with to create ebooks for children.

Rob McMenemy, Egmont’s managing director has said that while there will “always be a market for traditional books and magazines”, the children’s publishing industry needs to better embrace digital methods. ““The Nintendo DS is extremely popular with children, so it made sense to use it as a way of encouraging them to read,” he concluded.

Posted: October 15th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer

Penguin launches the official Hitchhiker’s sequel with a day long conference at the Royal Festival Hall

You may not have noticed, but there’s something stirring in the Galaxy… bestselling Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer’s 6th novel in the ever-more increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, will be published on 12th October, the 30th anniversary of publication of the first book in the late, great Douglas Adams’ phenomenally successful series.

Douglas Adams himself once said: “I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.”

Douglas’ final book in the Hitchhiker’s series ended (as it began) with the complete destruction of Earth. Everyone is dead, which doesn’t leave much of an opening for Eoin to start the sixth book in the series. So how does Eoin bring the eternal pessimist Arthur Dent, his alien best friend Ford Prefect and the two headed Galactic President Zaphod Beelbebrox back from the dead?

London’s Southbank Centre and Penguin Books have joined forces to create Hitchcon’09: a day of celebration and spectacle voyaging deep into the Hitchhiker’s Universe on Sunday 11th October. Special guests include Clive Anderson, Andrew Sachs, Dirk Maggs , Simon Jones  and Harry Shearer, and the original Hitchhiker’s cast of the Radio series will be recreating a Hitchhiker episode live on stage.  Eoin Colfer will be introduced by Ireland’s multi-platinum selling band The Blizzards, playing their single inspired by And Another Thing… Box Office Tel: 0871 663 2500 or www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Eoin Colfer will be going on a national book signing tour, visiting Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Cambridge and Cheltenham – full details available at www.6of3.com.

"I really hope you will board the spaceship with me so we can travel through Douglas Adams’ hilarious galaxy together, which will save me having to hang around in your driveway." Eoin Colfer

Posted: September 30th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Douglas Adams, Eoin Colfer

Niffenegger praises Jonathan Strange, JK Rowling tweets and thumbs up for Ghost Hunter

Here follows a round-up of the best fantasy-related news items from the past seven days.

Audrey Niffenegger’s novel The Time Traveller’s Wife has sold more than five million copies. In a recent interview she was asked “What book do you wish you’d written?” And her reply?

“Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It’s mind-bending – a perfect blend of historical reality and fantasy.”

We completely agree with Audrey Niffenegger’s thoughts on this wonderful and truly unique novel – read our review to find out why.

In an attempt to counter numerous fake Rowlings on Twitter, JK Rowling has set up her own account. But she warned that she didn’t plan many tweets.

"I should flag up now that although I could twitter endlessly, I’m afraid you won’t be hearing from me very often as pen and paper is my priority at the moment.”

To follow Ms Rowling’s likely-to-be infrequent tweets, visit http://twitter.com/jk_rowling.

October 12, 2009 will be the 30th anniversary of the launch of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It will also be the day on which the sixth instalment, And Another Thing? (penned by Eoin Colfer), will be unleashed upon a slightly-wary public.

To celebrate this, Colfer will be touring the UK, promoting and signing copies of his new book beginning with Hitchcon’09 in Central London, where a gathering of the largest number of Hitchhiker fans ever will take place.

The History Channel will air an episode on JRR Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings as part of its “Clash of the Gods” series. The episode airs at 10 pm EST, Monday October 5 and again at 2 am EST on Tuesday, October 6.

Karen George, an undiscovered illustrator from London and graduate of the Royal College of Art, has been named the winner of Waterstone’s and Macmillan Children’s Books ‘Picture This’ competition. She beat more than 900 aspiring artists to take the prize of illustrating a new book by Julia Donaldson. George receives a full publishing contract, with advance and royalties, to illustrate Freddie and the Fairy, a charming tale of a boy and a hard-of-hearing fairy told in Donaldson’s trademark rhythmic rhyme. Freddie and the Fairy, by Donaldson and George, will be published by Macmillan Children’s Books in Autumn 2010.

Ghost Hunter, Michelle Paver’s six-part series comes full circle. Torak, the boy orphaned in the first book, Wolf Brother, is drawn by a tantalising glimpse of the ghost of his adored father into the clutches of the most powerful of the Soul-Eaters, the Eagle Owl Mage. The Independent says that “the finale is a climax as intense as Tolkien’s fall of Mordor, with demonic dogs, fiendish one-time children, and Soul-Eaters summoned from beyond the grave. Best of all, Paver succeeds in creating a conclusion with no mawkishness when she resolves the relationship between Torak and Renn – and, of course, Wolf.”

Posted: September 26th, 2009
Author: Floresiensis
Categories: Eoin Colfer, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien, Julia Donaldson, Michelle Paver, Susanna Clarke

Puffin Ireland established to unearth new breed of young children’s authors

Puffin, the children’s imprint of the Penguin publishing group, is setting up in Ireland. Michael McLoughlin, the Penguin Ireland managing director believes that the wealth of talented authors on the Emerald Isle can create the best-selling young children’s books of the future, both in Ireland and abroad.

Next year is Puffin’s 70th birthday and Puffin Ireland will publish its first books as part of the anniversary celebrations.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis; Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce; Charlotte’s Web by EB White; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Watership Down by Richard Adams are among the iconic titles on the Puffin list. Best-selling Irish writer Eoin Colfer, famous for his Artemis Fowl books, is also a bright star in the Puffin constellation.

Writers can submit manuscripts to Puffin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

Also in Ireland…

The Faber Academy will begin a six-month course Writing a Novel from Start to Finish in Dublin next month. The novel-writing course, based at the Winding Stair bookshop on Ormond Quay, will take the form of weekly evening workshops and monthly day-long seminars on Saturdays.

Guest lecturers will include Anne Enright, Joseph O’Connor, Hugo Hamilton, Claire Keegan and Claire Kilroy and they will address issues such as plotting, editing and presenting of a novel.

16 places are available on the course, but one participant chosen on merit will be awarded a fellowship and will not have to pay the €3,000 fee.

Patrick Keogh, head of the Faber Academy, said that he sees Ireland as a place “that is wrapped up in the idea of storytelling, both the written and the spoken word”.

Participants will be chosen based on the quality of their submitted and all applicants must send a sample of their prose fiction no longer than 1,000 words to the Faber Academy before September 11th.

The Faber Academy has been offering similar courses in Britain for almost a year and most of them have sold out quickly. Applications close next Friday for the course which starts on October 7th. See www.faberacademy.co.uk for more details.

Posted: September 4th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer

And Another Thing: Penguin launch new website

Penguin is to launch a new website with Block Interactive to support and promote the publication of ‘And Another Thing’, the sixth book in the Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy ‘double trilogy.’

Block Interactive has beaten leading digital agencies to secure a contract with Penguin to create a pan-galactic, pan-publisher website at http://www.6of3.com, which will promote the Autumn publication of ‘And Another Thing’ by international number-one bestselling author Eoin Colfer.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been heard on radio, seen on TV and enjoyed on the big screen, there was even a musical version. Now fans can look forward to the sixth instalment of the science fiction comedy series by visiting the website.

The new site will support and promote the ‘And Another Thing’s’ publication and marketing campaign, providing news, reviews, features and competitions as well as details on both global and local events. Most importantly, it will bring together the voices of legions of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans using inclusive social networking and innovative Twitter-based features, as well as a Flash game and a range of archive material stolen from the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy vaults (found mouldering in a cellar, using a torch because the lights had gone, in a locked filing cabinet, in a disused lavatory, with a sign on the door saying ‘beware of the leopard’).

Anna Rafferty, Managing Director of Penguin Digital said that “This launch of ‘And Another Thing’ is the biggest thing to hit the unfashionable end of the galaxy this year. Block Interactive has an excellent reputation for digital work in the publishing sector and we were very impressed with the bespoke team that they brought together specifically for this project.”

Penguin will launch the site early September 2009 to coincide with the October 2009 release of ‘And Another Thing.’

Posted: August 1st, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer