J.K. Rowling Goes Adult

Back in February, it was announced that J.K. Rowling had signed with new publisher Little, Brown & Co. with the intention to release a book, her first post-Potter project, that would be geared towards the adult audience. Now the tension has broken and news about the book has been formally released. The title and a plot synopsis has been announced and for your squeeing pleasure I present this to you.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

This book is expected to release to ease your anxiety September 27, 2012! 

Mark it To-Read: Goodreads

Pre-Order: Amazon

And for a little fun, I found this...

A Book? By J.K. Rowling?!

Have you heard? Surely, if you are in the book blog world you have heard; if you haven't, and even if you have, let me share with you some extremely exciting news:

J.K. Rowling is writing a new book!

This book is aimed for the adult audience and is not set to be similar to Harry Potter, the books we all know have brought her to such accredited standing.

"Although I've enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry's success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life."

She will be joining Little Brown for publishing and they will release her books for her worldwide in print and in eBook formats.

No details about the actual book, genre, or content have been given; the only thing announced was that the publishing deal has been finalized.

Let me just say that she is one of the most inspiring women to me and she is the storyteller, the author, the master who changed reading for me forever and I cannot wait to hear more about this! Can you?

Follow Friday (13)

In addition to First Impressions Friday, I take part in the blog hop Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee & Alison.

Talk about the book that most changed or influenced your life 

(was it a book that turned you from an average to avid reader, 

did it help you deal with a particularly difficult situation, 

does it bring you comfort every time you read it?). 

To be completely honest, it was the Harry Potter series that did this for me when I was in elementary school. I was a casual reader, reading what I had to for our reading points in school, watching my mom read her romance, and I dabbled in children's reading like Dr. Seuss. But when I finally decided to pick up Harry Potter, mind you I always had a higher reading comprehension, the world that JK Rowling had created opened up something inside my mind.

For the first time in my reading experience, I could envision the world and the characters as they went through the adventures in the book. Until that point, the words had only been that, words on a page. Now they were a story, it was like a personal screening of an awesome movie. Of course, years later, I would screen the awesome movies in the cinemas, but it changed my reading life forever.

Harry Potter: A Prequel

How did I not know about this? I was alerted to a post over at HPProgs that a small prequel that JK Rowling wrote for a Waterstone charity benefit is now online. You can find the entire excerpt that she wrote on the HPProgs website. Waterstone also published a small anthology of the pieces from all the authors that contributed such as Neil Gaimon, Margaret Atwood, Nick Hornby, and more!

Here's a small teaser from the excerpt transcript:

But neither James nor Sirius was paying attention. They were suddenly as alert as gundogs, staying past Fisher and Anderson, over the roof of the police car, at the dark mouth of the alley. Then, with identical, fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets.

Follow Friday (11)

In addition to First Impressions Friday, I take part in the blog hop Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee.

Name 3 authors that you would love to sit down and spend an hour 

or a meal with just talking about their books 

or get advice on writing from?

The quick version of the answer is that I would love to meet the authors of three of the most pivotal YA series!

The specific answers would be JK Rowling for her astounding job at creating the phenonmenon that is Harry Potter. For turning her life around and never giving up though in the beginning, no one wanted the story of the boy who lived.

There is also Cassandra Clare, author of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. A talented author, she has created a world in existence of shadows and threaded together a meticulous story lines that gave me a thrill ride of a read. She is also VERY approachable. Always chatting her fans up on the twitter.

And Julie Kagawa, author of my new love, The Iron Fey. A teller of great fairy tales and a dreamer of wondrous stories in the mid-summer! Also very approachable on the twitter!

All of these authors are fantastic and I love the stories they all have to tell. I am sad that Harry Potter has come to a climatic and epic ending but so lives on TMI...TID...TIF....