Posted by Vee | February 3, 2010, 12:58 (EST) | 25 Comments
Category: Books

For those of you anxiously awaiting the second volume in the Vampire Diaries: The Return trilogy, HarperTeen has posted the first chapter of Shadow Souls on their website. (Link will open as a .pdf, so if you need Adobe Reader, here you go.) Yep, that’s a 16-page preview before the book’s release on March 16th. (And if you’re a Kindle fan, you’ll have access on March 1st.)

If you missed the first Shadow Souls excerpt, posted waaaaay back in April of last year, you can still check it out on AuthSpot: Shadow Souls teaser.

What do you guys think? Looking forward to more Elena/Damon, or are you missing Stefan already?

Posted by Vee | December 13, 2009, 22:42 (EST) | 23 Comments
Category: Books, Fandom, TV Series

You guys have been asking for more variety in Vampire Diaries merchandise; looks like someone was listening. Thanks to @amandatran8 for the heads up on a handful of new Vampire Diaries t-shirts hitting Hot Topic – available now on their website. Color us stunned that one of Damon’s most beloved quotes from the books is featured so prominently – we’re a bit giddy about that one. And, of course, you can now wear your allegiances with a “Team Stefan” or “Team Damon” shirt. Fun times. Click the images to go directly to the shirt on HotTopic.com. (Most of the designs are available in Plus sizes as well!)

Posted by Red | September 24, 2009, 9:41 (EST) | 5 Comments
Category: Books, L.J. Smith, TV Series

L.J. Smith talks to MTV about Twilight, her writing hiatus, Damon in Shadow Souls, and the Vampire Diaries TV series:

If Smith unabashedly favors the bad brother in her books, she’s also becoming a big fan of him on the small screen too. “I especially like Damon; Ian Somerhalder does very well,” she said. “But I really, really like the Elena that they picked, Nina Dobrev. Even though she’s brunette, and not blond, which took some getting used to for me, she’s a great actress. And I love the Stefan that they’ve picked. I just think that they’ve done a terrific job of interpreting it for TV.”

Posted by Red | August 29, 2009, 10:16 (EST) | 11 Comments
Category: Books

Our friends over at Vampire Diaries BG have been awesome enough to share all four of the brand new Bulgarian covers for the Vampire Diaries with us. Many thanks, guys! The Awakening (Пробуждането) is set for publication on the 16th September (having been moved up from October), though there are no dates set yet for the rest of the series. We’ll let you all know as soon as we know the dates ourselves.

These covers use the same half-face theme as many of the recent publications around the world are using at the moment, but we have to point out an interesting and applause-worthy twist: they have Bonnie on the cover of Dark Reunion. Now, how cool is that? Ibis publishers, we salute you!

Posted by Red | August 26, 2009, 17:27 (EST) | 2 Comments
Category: Books

Brazil seems to be really getting into the spirit of things with the Vampire Diaries! Thanks to Diarios do Vampiro giving us the heads up, we now know what the cover of The Struggle is going to look like. It’s currently due to be published in November at some point. Meanwhile, the publication date for The Awakening in Brazil is just around the corner on the 28th August.

O Despertar
(The Awakening)

O Confronto
(The Struggle)

Galera Record (the publishers in Brazil) have a few things up their sleeves to promote the series. As well as an official website with wallpaper downloads and the diaries of Stefan and Damon (Google translate is useful for those of us who don’t speak Portuguese), they’re going to be holding a masquerade ball to celebrate the launch of the books. We hope those of you lucky enough to go have a whole lot of fun, and be sure to tell us all about it!

Posted by Red | July 17, 2009, 22:54 (EST) | 32 Comments
Category: Books, Fandom

As we mentioned earlier this week, the UK will be getting reprints of The Vampire Diaries later in the year. That in itself is very cool. However, the current cover for the first volume with the apple (of which we shall not speak) is something that fans seem to universally loathe. Apples on books about vampires are clearly the domain of Twilight. Given this series was written nearly 15 years before Twilight, it’s somewhat annoying to have something Twilight-esque slapped on the front rather than letting The Vampire Diaries stand on its own themes and merits.

We issued a small challenge on Twitter and LiveJournal to remove the apple (of which we shall not speak) from the cover and replace it with the iconic fruit of the Vampire Diaries series…the orange. You can read about why the orange is so iconic in the fandom under the cut, but before we get to that, here are the covers (from left to right): contributions from Jen, Jennifer Blushi and Elizabeth Diaz (thank you, guys, they’re made of awesome!). Bottom covers by Red (who is completely crazy and drove out in a rainstorm to buy an orange just for this project).

Under the cut: In which Vee answers the question, “What’s up with The Vampire Diaries and oranges?” (Book spoilers! Pychoanalysis! Some minor fangirl embarrassment! Enter at your own risk.)

NOT KIDDING, THERE’S SOME SPOILERS UNDER HERE.

Posted by Vee | June 24, 2009, 15:41 (EST) | 9 Comments
Category: Books

Sabrina Rojas-Weiss has a new installment of her Book Report: The Vampire Diaries up on MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog. While I think Red will take great exception to what she has to say about Matt (that flag flies high around these parts!), she does list off five reasons why the series will appeal to “Twilighters and Twi-Haters.” She touches on why Elena Gilbert kicks ass and why her friends are awesome, the appeal of Stefan and Damon, and why Fell’s Church is a very interesting place to live.

We also appreciate that she’s unafraid to touch on the series’ faults, too. Read the entire post over on the Hollywood Crush blog.