Posted by Vee | March 9, 2010, 19:46 (EST) | 9 Comments
Category: Fandom, TV Series

Thanks to the LA Times’ Carina MacKenzie (@cadlymack), see PaleyFest’s Vampire Diaries panel highlight: @paulwesleylover and Paul Wesley have a moment. ;)

Posted by Red | March 8, 2010, 19:00 (EST) | 13 Comments
Category: Books, Fandom, TV Series

17 days of this hiatus left until we get to see “A Few Good Men” (well, those of us who weren’t lucky enough to see the advance screening at the Vampire Diaries panel at PaleyFest, at any rate). You all surviving? If not, we’ve got a giveaway to keep you going through the next couple of weeks. This week one lucky tweeter will get to read about where the Vampire Diaries began with L.J. Smith’s original quartet of books (more recently bundled up into two omnibus volumes). Read on to find out how to enter.

As usual, we’re doing this on Twitter over the course of the next 24 hours. If you don’t have a Twitter account, it’s easy to sign up for one, and it’s also fun.

• To enter, simply tweet which characters you ’ship in the Vampire Diaries to @tvdnews. It can be a canon pairing, or a couple you wish would get together in the show. For example: @tvdnews Stefan/Elena (or Damon/Bonnie, Matt/Caroline, etc). Also, please only tweet at us once to enter – tweeting more than once does not improve your chances of winning and makes things more difficult for us.
• The winner will be picked randomly using the ‘names in a virtual hat’ method (or, more boringly, a random name picker script).
• You’ll need to be following @tvdnews – we’ll be DMing the winner.
• This giveaway is open to anyone in the world, not just the USA.
• These will be English language versions of the books. Covers may differ depending on your location in the world.
• You have until Tuesday, March 9, 8pm ET to enter. (You can use the World Clock to work out when that is in relation to your own time zone).

 
If you have any questions, feel free to tweet them at us, or use the contact form to get in touch. We’re also planning on a few more giveaways in the future, so keep an eye out.

Good luck, everyone!

Posted by Vee | March 1, 2010, 18:59 (EST) | 25 Comments
Category: Fandom, TV Series

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

Posted by Staff | February 21, 2010, 11:20 (EST) | 29 Comments
Category: Fandom, Website

A year ago today we registered the domain ‘vampire-diaries.net’ and set up a little website and blog. Our mission was to get up information about the Vampire Diaries books, and to keep fans up-to-date with news about the impending TV series. At the time we didn’t know who would be cast in the roles of our beloved characters, what was being planned for the story, or even if the TV series was going to go anywhere beyond the ordered pilot. It never even crossed our minds that this site would grow anywhere near as big as it has. Yet here we are a year later with a TV series that keeps on blowing people’s minds, a website that keeps on growing, and a fandom that is just plain awesome.

We didn’t get here alone, though. A lot of people helped us out along the way, and we’d like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to you all.

• Thank you to L.J. Smith for creating the Vampire Diaries book series all those years ago. You sparked our imaginations and led us both to a 10+ year friendship.
   
• Thank you to all our old-school fandom friends who helped us out with content, costs, and shoulders to lean on. We love you guys so much.
   
• Thanks to Marcos Siega for being so patient and accommodating in those early days of pilot-filming, when he was quite literally the only source of information we had.
   
• Thanks to the cast & crew of the TV series for rocking it out on the show and giving us grade A television to look forward to each week. Special thanks to Michael, Ian, Nina, Katerina, and Candice for the kind words they’ve had for us and our site.
   
• Thanks to our fellow Vampire Diaries and cast fan sites who have been there with info, advice, support, and horrible puns. We’ve made some really awesome friends.
   
• Thank you to the folks over at the Ian Somerhalder forums on MediaBlvd for their good humour and making us feel so welcome in their space.
   
• Thank you to Carina, Connie, Jen, Lucia, and Melissa for various reasons, including hanging out at Comic-Con, fun times with podcasts, twitter madness, and support in times of weird. Here’s to Paleyfest, guys!
   
• Thank you to Susan, Ellie and Jess for stepping up to help mod the forums and get the wiki whipped into shape. Welcome them to the team!
   
• Thank you to everyone on our forums and on twitter. You’re an insane bunch with a wicked sense of humour, and we appreciate every laugh and entertaining message you’ve ever had for us.
   
• Thanks to every single person who has visited the site, especially those of you who have clicked on an ad or purchased something on Amazon through us. You keep the site going, and for that we are eternally grateful.
   
• A special thank you to one particular seasoned gentleman who has supported us nearly from the start and who – when we were fretting over implementing ads – found our ad-free idealism quaint, gave us a virtual pat on the head, and said, “Get the [bleepin'] ads.” You put us at ease, sir, and we’ll never forget it.
   
• And last, but certainly not least, extra-special thanks to Kev and Julie. If we start in on the why, we’ll never stop. We <3 you guys.

 
We’re sure that this next year is going to be even more fantastic than last year, and we look forward to experiencing it with you all.

Love,
Red + Vee

Posted by Vee | February 3, 2010, 18:33 (EST) | 5 Comments
Category: Fandom, TV Series

Get yer earplugs: The CW has posted another Hot Topic video recap, this time from this past weekend’s event in New Jersey. Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, and Ian Somerhalder came face to face with their fans in Paul’s home state (Jersey Shore what?) for a signing and Q&A, and we love Ian’s response to what Nina’s favorite episode must be. (We think that might be this week’s ep, come to think of it.)

Los Angeles, you’re next on February 13th!

Also, PIX’s Andrew Ramos (see his interview with Paul, Nina, and Ian) quizzes NJ fans on their Vampire Diaries:

Posted by Red | February 1, 2010, 20:20 (EST) | 10 Comments
Category: Books, Fandom, TV Series

Heat Magazine are really getting into the excitement of the Vampire Diaries and have up a little article selling the TV series to UK audiences, calling it “sexier than Twilight and less icky than True Blood, this is one vampy series you simply MUST watch”. They also have an exclusive video interview with Ian Somerhalder talking about the series, which you can view here. Sadly, there are no embed options, but we’ll be sure to add it if it crops up on YouTube. Thank you to Amy for sending us the links.

Update: Thanks to @TwilighterVN for the YouTube video link.

 
Kristin over at E! Online has a nice Stefan and Damon teaser for “Children of the Damned”. Highlight/mouseover to see the spoiler:

This week’s The Vampire Diaries reveals one of the biggest secrets of all: What actually happened to make Damon and Stefan hate each other? “We get to see the incident that drove them apart for the first time,” says show runner Julie Plec. Ooh, “the incident”? sounds a little Lostish! Also, we’ll see Dexter’s James Remar for the first time as Papa Salvatore. Let’s just hope he lives by a very different code than Harry Morgan!

And a little more specific:
The incident that tore Damon and Stefan apart involves their mutual love of a certain Elena look-alike vampire. Turns out, Stefan might inadvertently be the reason Katherine was locked up in the tomb, hence Damon’s desire to free her, and his unexplained hatred of his little bro.

 
Many thanks to Tiaria for letting us know about book publications in Russia again. As far as we can tell (with the dubious help of Google Translate), “The Fury” is out now, and Russian fans can order it over on ozon.ru. For everyone else, we have the cover to the right (click it for the larger version in our gallery). Oh, Russia, we love your wacky and unrelated covers. So much. :D

Marijó has emailed to let us know that the Warner Channel in Argentina will be running a Vampire Diaries marathon on Saturday, February 6 and Saturday, February 13 from 4pm. Update: Looks like it’s all over Latin America – thanks, Angie.

The Televixen’s Vampire Diaries podcast (featuring Melissa (The Televixen), Connie from Blast Magazine, Lucia from HeroineTV, and our very own Vee) is up: Let’s Kill All the Awesome Chicks. If you missed the first podcast, you can head over and listen to Operation Suspenders.

Finally, the TwiCon Celebrity Craft Basket we mentioned a few weeks back is open for sign-ups. If you want to contribute to a gift basket for various cast members from the Vampire Diaries, True Blood and Twilight, then mosey on over to Twilight Crafts to find out more and sign up.

Posted by Vee | January 27, 2010, 12:49 (EST) | 8 Comments
Category: Fandom, TV Series

The Vampire Diaries TV fandom is still buzzing from this past weekend’s cast tour stop in Atlanta and now the CW has posted some great official photos and video from the event. Both feature a good look at the huge fan turn-out and you can catch some of the Q&A in the video, as well as the screaming – oh, the screaming. The entire principal cast – Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Katerina Graham, Steven R. McQueen, Sara Canning, Michael Trevino, Candice Accola, Zach Roerig, and Matt Davis – was present, providing Atlanta fans an extra-special experience. (You may not get everyone, New Jersey and Los Angeles, but we’re sure that won’t deter you from the same level of enthusiasm. Don’t let us down!) Check out the photo set on the CW’s special Cast Tour page and watch the video below. (And how hilarious is this kid?) Thanks, CW!

Thanks to everyone who’s been sharing their experience and photos via emails, blog comments, and Twitter! If you have photos you’d like featured in our Gallery, drop us an email and we’ll upload them. Jamie A has a few snapshots which you can view in the Gallery. (Love those snazzy FLIP cameras the cast is using to film the crowd – can we hope their footage makes it to the eventual First Season DVD?)

Because so many fans have been linking up via these events, we created a special Fan Connections forum so you can share your Vampire Diaries experiences (meeting the cast, visiting the set, etc.) as well as arranging fan meet-ups. Sign up – the more, the merrier! (Be sure to read the guidelines.)