| Happy "Deathly Hallows Release" Eve! |
[20 Jul 2007|03:18pm] |
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I'm of two minds about Wal-Mart, personally, but both of those minds were amused by Wal-Mart Watch's "Harry Potter and the Evil Lord Waldemart" video: watch it here, if you haven't already. Worth it alone for the moment between "Hermione" and "Ron" on the bridge; it's always nice when groups are clearly also fans of the thing they're spoofing.
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| Smart Pop? Summer reading? |
[20 Jul 2007|03:05pm] |
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A little article on a few of our books by an interesting little Web mag I'd never heard of before. Again, I'm reminded how much bigger than me the Internet is.
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| If you need of a costume this month for various HP releases . . . |
[10 Jul 2007|05:16pm] |
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. . . this might be the place to get it! (I'm . . . overwhelmed by the options.)
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| Emily Nussbaum, would you like to write some essays for us? |
[27 Jun 2007|10:16am] |
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I never watched The Sopranos, which is probably why it took me so long to find this: The Long Con, a great piece on the show that makes me wish we were doing a Sopranos book just so we could reprint it. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend it, whether you watched the show or not.
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| we love Pop Candy! |
[06 Jun 2007|09:41am] |
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Really nice little post from Whitney Matheson over at Pop Candy on Neptune Noir. Both it and Coffee at Luke's are off to great starts, sales-wise-- thanks, you guys! I think this means I get to keep my job. :)
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| So there I was mourning Veronica Mars . . . |
[30 May 2007|12:51pm] |
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. . . and this morning, I read this: "According to a reliable source, Veronica Mars IS NOT YET CANCELED! This information comes from someone connected with the show's production, who claims that they are standing by in case the show gets picked up as a midseason replacement. There is still hope!" (SaveVeronicaMars.tv)
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| in honor of Douglas Adams |
[25 May 2007|01:09pm] |
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Today, as it turns out, is Towel Day. Unfortunately, I arrived at work unprepared, and have had to substitute a paper towel. (As if the other people in our office building didn't look at us strangely already!)
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| I Like My Ink Early |
[23 May 2007|03:07pm] |
Totally digging this new site (and not, I swear, just because we've got some books up on it): Early Ink
Great idea, gorgeous site, great ease of use. Take a look, pass it on!
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| Spring 2007 Book Excerpts Available for Viewing! |
[14 May 2007|04:11pm] |
Just a heads up that you can now officially read excerpts from our Spring 2007 titles through the just-published Coffee at Luke's and Neptune Noir at smartpopbooks.com, as well as see the rest of our Smart Pop offerings through August 2007.
The latest:
Coffee at Luke's
Neptune Noir
The Psychology of Harry Potter
Halo Effect
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| Hey Dallasites . . . |
[02 May 2007|01:49pm] |
We (and by "we," I mean "I) will be at CAPE here in Dallas this weekend all day Saturday (barring meal and bathroom breaks), giving out free copies of our Smart Pop sampler.
Smart Pop contributors in attendance include Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon, and David Hopkins.
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| meet your daemon |
[26 Apr 2007|10:36am] |
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I read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series a few years ago, for the book we put out in 2005 (when, in theory but not in actuality, the movie was supposed to be released), Navigating the Golden Compass. Now that the film's coming out, the film's PR people have done a really nice site, complete with a quiz to figure out your daemon. The site is goldencompassmovie.com.
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| What's Smart Pop been up to lately? |
[21 Mar 2007|09:57am] |
It's been a busy couple of months here at Smart Pop central: after a bit of series downtime, we've got a new title in April (Halo Effect), two new titles in May (Neptune Noir and Coffee at Luke's), and a couple of others we're finishing up for the rest of the season. (Not to mention our latest "Psychology of" title, Psychology of Harry Potter.) There's been little time for blogging.
. . . which means there are some neat things we've got in progress that we haven't gotten around to telling much of anybody.
Here are the highlights:
Save Veronica Mars! - If you're a VM fan, you're probably up on the kerfluffle about the show being considered (again-- sigh) for cancellation. We've teamed up with SaveVeronicaMars.tv (formerly SaveVeronicaMars.com) to help the campaign to save the show: for every copy of Neptune Noir sold through their site, we'll donate $5 to the campaign. So if you were planning on picking up a copy, that would be my recommendation for the way to do it!
New Serenity Book - Finding Serenity's been such a great book for us that we're putting together a second collection of essays on the Firefly universe, this time covering the movie Serenity as well. We're calling it Serenity Found. Jane Espenson's back as our editor, and we've got essays by Nathan "Captain Tightpants" Fillion and Mutant Enemy special effects wizard Loni Peristere (and Orson Scott Card, and some of our other favorite Smart Pop writers). Pub date is set for October 2007.
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| us? post sporadically? what? |
[16 Feb 2007|11:42am] |
Researching for an upcoming book on 24, and I ran across this:
Basic Truths About Jack Bauer
Sure, there are some that bear an awfully strong resemblance to that list about Chuck Norris . . . but somehow, they fit better with Jack . . . .
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| Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations on Veronica Mars |
[03 Oct 2006|10:30am] |
I've been holding out 'til now, the day of the Veronica Mars season three premiere, to announce this, because it seemed more timely that way--
BenBella's doing a Veronica Mars Smart Pop anthology, titled Neptune Noir-- a name that I swear we came up with before that fan convention popped up!-- to be published in May 2007. We've got a fabulous line-up of essays, and a cover I'm really excited about (I wanted to post it, but it's still being finalized), but the very best part is our guest editor for the volume, VM creator Rob Thomas himself, who we're (obviously) thrilled to have on board.
Just wanted to share the excitement I've been keeping under wraps for the past couple of months. Enjoy tonight's season three premiere! (Even if, like me, you were on MSN early last Tuesday morning watching it just as soon as humanly possible.)
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| It's not *exactly* Smart Pop, but . . . |
[26 Sep 2006|09:49am] |
Patricia Storm's chick-lit cartoon
This Is Chick-Lit, and editor Lauren Baratz-Logsted, immortalized in cartoon form. Featuring Jonathans Franzen, Lethem, and Foer, and Lauren smacking somebody upside the head with a copy of William Gaddis's The Recognitions.
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| Convention bound? Us, too! |
[23 Aug 2006|10:18am] |
If you're going to be at WorldCon this weekend, stop by and see our publisher Glenn in the dealer's room.
If you're going to be at DragonCon over Labor Day weekend, come by and visit Yara and Leah in the dealer's room there.
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| See Angel Dance |
[18 Aug 2006|09:36am] |
I was thinking, the other day, about what makes me fall in love with a television show. The first show to ever win my heart was, undoubtedly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer-- I'd watched it religiously from the very beginning, but it was season six, and the end of "Smashed," that really hooked me. Not because I was overly fond of Spike, or particularly rooting for him and Buffy to get together, but because I was so shocked the show actually went there.
The same thing happened with Alias (season two, when Jack tried to frame Irina for trying to blow up Sydney, started my fall, and the destruction of SD-6 clinched it), and with Veronica Mars (the oh-so-realistic rape resolution in the second to last episode of season one). Each time, it took a moment in which the show not only surprised me, but actively earned my respect in doing so, to really win my loyalty. Buffy and Alias did it by doing the narratively unimaginable, by putting the show in a jam it seemed impossible to get out of unscathed. Veronica Mars did it by giving us a resolution that answered our questions (apparently, at least) without actually making anything better (in fact, it seemed to make things worse), calling into question the value of the search for truth-- in other words, in some ways, the very premise of the show.
But I realize that this is not always the case, even with me-- respect is not the only credible motivator for love. In fact, I have the proof of that right here: video of Angel, dancing, from the season one episode "She". Because, honestly, who couldn't love Angel after that?
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