Thanks to the enormous and wonderful readership that has graced my site TwilightGuy.com, I was asked to write an article about Stephenie Meyer for a large movie website called TheMovie-Fanatic.com. I tried to bring as much focus onto the actual words of Steph’s fans, since they are really the ones who can describe her best.

If you’d like to read my article, head on over to this page on tMF and check it out!

Also, there were so many positive responses from people wanting to help for the article (over 400!) that I couldn’t possibly get all of the best ones into the article. Thus, I posted my 25 favorites over here.

I find it very interesting to take a look at this, especially since I will be a very new author sometime late next year. There is something very different about Stephenie that sets her apart from everyone else, and I find myself watching Youtubes of her book signings as if they were videos in a class on How To Be An Author. Granted, I think I’ve already watched all the Lemony Snicket, JK Rowling and Rick Riordan videos as well– but unlike theirs, where the fans are simply fans, I find that Stephenie’s readers are something deeper.

It is a learning experience for me to see this, since for the years that I wrote my book, my mind was told in offhanded ways that authors must be reclusive, refuse fan mail, never appear without their publicist (and when they do, appear unkempt, drunk, and disorderly) and above all things: never, ever, ever have something like a Myspace page. I discovered Stephenie Meyer and all my old stereotypes for writers were gone: the same stereotypes I was dreading having to conform to. Here she was, knocking Harry Potter off the charts, and still being able to do fun things like music playlists for her books, a dream movie cast, a mega Myspace page and actually answer fan mail.

It was freeing, in a way, to learn that the best type of author was the real one: that before I went off and made myself a recluse because that’s what I thought authors were ‘supposed’ to do, the thing people really would rather is for me to be myself. For any writer out there, it is worth searching on Youtube ‘Stephenie Meyer Book Signing’ and really watching how it’s done like a professional (and the screaming crowds do loads to get you writing again ).

Also, my agent posted probably my favorite story from him ever. I originally read it in one of his books, but if you’re a writer and you want to know the secret lives of those great beings we call Literary Agents, as well as some of the many odd things agents do for their clients, you absolutely must read this article.

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Posted in Twilight, Writing
Tags: harry potter, JK Rowling, lemony snicket, rick riordan, Stephenie Meyer

I have a knack for meeting people at just the right moment. I met Kaza Kingsley through an email I sent after taking a peek at her book in a store. I met Renee, a radio station manager in Florida, who just happened to be looking for a new radio show for teenagers when I called. And recently I met an author named James Dashner, who has been around once with a series but is coming around again to take on the world.

I just got word that James’ soon-to-be-released book has already sold more in presales than his first series in its entirety. Also, his book The 13th Reality: The Journal Of Curious Letters has been chosen as a Border’s Original Voices pick for April. How’s that for a start? It comes out on March 3rd, 2008, so be absolutely sure to get it, and if you’re still not convinced (shame on you) go read my review.

The cleverer side of me demanded that I nab an interview in case James grows into an elusive author like Lemony Snicket or JK Rowling or Obert Skye (Charles Dickens has been flat-out ignoring my requests for some time now as well). Thankfully, James is awesome and agreed right off to answer what I like to call:

The 13 Questions for The 13th Reality

1. Thanks James so much for coming on. To start off, where did you get the inspiration for The Thirteenth Reality?

Thanks Kaleb Nation! I’m glad to be here.

It came from some serious brain pounding after being given one week to come up with a proposal for my eventual publisher. I’d submitted a different book to them, and they liked my writing, but didn’t feel that particular book was right for them. So I worked my tail off to write a proposal for an idea that had always bounced around in my head: The concept of a group recruiting kids by sending out riddles and clues, but also horrible, dangerous things to try to stop them while they solve the mystery.

2. In what ways do you feel your writing changed between your first series (Jimmy Fincher) and The Thirteenth Reality?

Oh, man, it’s not even funny. Sometimes it’s painful to go back and look at my very first book, A Door in the Woods. I’ve come a very long way, and learned many things. Hopefully, this new book knocks the socks off my old stuff. Not that I don’t like Jimmy Fincher-I’ll always love that story.

3. What was the hardest part about writing The Thirteenth Reality?

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST >>>

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Posted in Authors, Interviews, Writing
Tags: Borders, James Dashner, lemony snicket, obert skye

Oh what a miserable morning. After a wonderful late evening spent in the corner booth of the nearly abandoned Pub whilst typing away to my heart’s content with the soundtrack to Lemony Snicket’s movie on headphones, I woke up Friday morning to find I was in a miserable state. Sick beyond the ability to get out of bed. Luckily I had the strength to email my professors and say I wasn’t able to come due to ailments, and they had the decency to let me off easy and not assign twenty lashings upon my return. In fact they were all very lenient and even offered to help me catch up if I made it through the weekend alive.

Luckily, I don’t have that certain class on Fridays. It could be for that certain professor what I call the anti-Oliver-Twist effect. When it comes to reading assignments and essays, instead of begging for ‘more’ we are really more likely to beg ‘please Widow Corney, less‘.

I wonder if anybody caught it in the second sentence yet. Starts with P and ends in -ub. Makes me want to say cheers to all the jolly chaps back in Worchestirtonbay and Wingtoningdonshire. Actually this Pub isn’t a real pub, they just call it The Pub because college kids like to imagine they’re going to Oxford. Like a real pub it is a wonderful den of merriment and food, but that is as close a resemblance as it gets. The only drinks served are coffee and water, and there are no thugs, barmaids, hobbits, wizards, or members of Parliament or the House of Lords. For my laptop and plethora of notebooks I always take the table closest to the electrical plug and coincidentally in a darkened corner. Makes me feel mysterious for some reason. It was the absolute best thirty minutes before closing, because they were slowly dimming the lights to let the people still there know they were ready for them to leave. I could almost hear a saxophone start playing in the distance…

Anyhow, there is a movie whose trailer is so awesome I’m practically forced to see it once it comes out. I have also done a bit of American Idol watching due to illness. Anybody got any picks on that so far?

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Posted in College, Writing
Tags: College, college kids, lemony snicket, oliver twist, The Pub, Writing

For the longest time I have searched the world for who I think will be the next big Avril Lavigne. After her latest album, which is a CD hardly worth the plastic it sits in save for 2 or 3 great tracks that sounds like classic Avril (Keep Holding On, When You’re Gone and maybe 1 more), I have been quite ready to move onto other things. Like Lemony Snicket and his awful 13th book, I liked all her previous albums so much that when something flimsy comes out I despise the artist for letting me down, at least for the time it takes for them to get back on their feet and put something real out.

So in my search for something new and wonderful, I have discovered this new track, which was just released though the album isn’t out for a few months. The group is called I-Nine (Inine, I Nine) and the song is called Seven Days of Lonely (the voice of the group is Carmen Keigans). I think she sounds like Avril, she’s got a pro writing her songs (Hinder’s songwriter) and a sound that will bring them up to the top. So listen to the song clip in the player, clicking on the name if the randomizer picked something else, and tell me what you think.

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Posted in Reviews
Tags: Avril Lavigne, lemony snicket