Posted by Red | February 15, 2010, 17:19 (EST) | 17 Comments
Category: Books

A couple of weeks ago we posted with a link to the first chapter of The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls, which ended with a bit of a cliffhanger. HarperTeen have decided that fans shouldn’t be left in the dark, and have made the first eight chapters of Shadow Souls available to read on their website. Many thanks to Michelle for the heads up.

Shadow Souls is due for publication on March 16, and you can pre-order it over on Amazon.com. UK fans will have to wait until May 6 for it to be released, but can also pre-order from Amazon.co.uk.

Posted by Red | February 12, 2010, 23:04 (EST) | 15 Comments
Category: TV Series

Last night’s awesome episode of the Vampire Diaries, “Fool Me Once”, racked up 3.55 million viewers. Honestly, we’re kind of surprised it wasn’t more, because website activity last night was rocking, with the poll attracting a lot of voters and the forums seeing a lot of action (the thread for “Fool Me Once” looks like it’s going to be our most active episode discussion thread yet!). Anyhow, 3.55 million is the number reported, and that’s still excellent. From TV by the Numbers:

CW’s Vampire Diaries was down a bit and saw lows with adults 18-49 and even with Women 18-34 it was on the low side (perhaps a series low with a 2.4 W18-34 rating).

Speaking of people viewing the episode, “Fool Me Once” is now available to watch online from the following sources:
Canadian Fans: Watch for free on CTV
USA Fans: Purchase from Amazon
UK Fans: Purchase from iTunes

The Hollywood Reporter has some new Vampire Diaries casting news. Stephen Martines (The Closer, The Guiding Light, General Hospital) will play a vampire by the name of Frederick who was one of the vampires in locked up in the tomb. Looks like he’s set to cause trouble in Mystic Falls, and we’re not sure that Alaric will take kindly to another guy in town going by the name of ‘Rick’. ;)

The CW have a nice new Vampire Diaries feature on their website, displaying how all the characters connect to each other. Click on the characters to find out more information, a long with a few video interviews with the actors talking about their characters. So far there are videos with Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.

The Steven R. McQueen fans in the house are starting to get pretty vocal lately, so we’re sure they’ll all love Seventeen.com’s 17 Questions article, where you can find out about Steven’s first kiss, guilty pleasures, dream jobs, and how much cash he has in his wallet.

Finally, tomorrow is the final Hot Topic Cast Tour stop in Los Angeles. Sadly, wristbands for the signing are sold out but the Q&A is open to the public. So head on down to Westfield Topanga for 4pm to catch the cast and hang out with your fellow Vampire Diaries fans. We also suggest investing in some earplugs. The last two events were loud. ;)

Posted by Red | February 12, 2010, 12:08 (EST) | 3 Comments
Category: Books, TV Series

Finally! A new Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls cover! For the longest time we’ve only had the cover for the USA to keep us going… and now we have one for the UK. Thematically on-topic, and a vast improvement on the apple (of which we shall not speak, beyond a brief mention that it bears an uncanny resemblance to a Twilight parody book… oh, the shame). Good job on this one, Hodder! Amazon are listing it as a paperback due for release on 6th May, 2010.

In other UK publication news, the TV series tie-in covers were also released last week. These are omnibus editions (check out the covers for volume one and volume two), and are available for order on Amazon (order volume one and volume two), or should be stocked in your local book shop.

Posted by Red | February 7, 2010, 12:03 (EST) | 7 Comments
Category: TV Series

Viewing figures are up for the Vampire Diaries with “Children of the Damned” drawing in 4 million viewers on Thursday night. From TV by the Numbers:

CW’s Vampire Diaries was mixed vs. last week, flat for adults 18-49 with a 1.8 rating, but up 7% vs. the CW target to a 3.0 rating for women 18-34.

 
If you missed the episode (or just want to watch it again), “Children of the Damned” is now available to watch/download in several places.
USA Fans: Watch on the CW or purchase from Amazon
Canadian Fans: Watch on CTV
UK Fans: Purchase from iTunes

Katerina Graham appeared on KTLA recently to talk about the Vampire Diaries, and you can watch the video of it below. Thanks to @CW_VampDiaries for the heads up.

Thanks to Denise for letting us know about this. UK newspaper “The Independent” has some Vampire Diaries features up online. There’s a short video featuring Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley (sorry, no embed options), and also an article all about the show.

…it’s worth noting Williamson and Plec’s recognition that a world with vampires in it should not ever be too cosy recalls not Twilight but that other great icon of teen vampire stories, Buffy. Williamson agrees. “What I loved about the L J Smith books was the folklore they created,” he says. “We wanted it to be a modern-day, sort of sexy soap opera. The town of Mystic Falls has a lot of things that go bump in the night, and it’s not just vampires. It’s got a little bit of Buffy where there’s that mythology that goes beyond vampires. There are all sorts of creatures of the night yet to emerge.”

 
Nina Dobrev is featured on the cover of the February issue of Indonesian magazine “Go Girl!”. For those of you who understand Indonesian, you can read the entire article here. Thanks to @DesiPuspandini for the scans!

Posted by Red | February 3, 2010, 14:46 (EST) | 5 Comments
Category: Books, TV Series

The second NYLON video interview with Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley has been posted on YouTube. If you missed the first one, you can catch that here, and then look forward to the final part next week.

On the subject of video interviews with the main trio, @jayyu_jp has pointed us at another one with ITV:

 
Viewing figures for the UK Vampire Diaries are in, with the show getting off to a decent start with 980K viewers (that number includes the +1 figures from an hour later). Now, before people start getting alarmed by those figures, it’s worth remembering that the UK is small, and those figures are respectable over here. Also, it left Caprica trailing in its dust. ;)

In an update to yesterday’s post about “The Awakening” being published in Romania, Vampire Diaries Romania have been in touch to let us know it will be published on February 15. Not long to wait, Romanian fans.

Finally, there’s some buzz around the internet that Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek may be directing an episode of the Vampire Diaries at some point. Digital Spy reports that James and Kevin Williamson have been talking about it, and we’ll let you know if we hear anything more on the subject.

Posted by Red | February 2, 2010, 20:56 (EST) | 5 Comments
Category: Books, TV Series

WPIX chatted with Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley during the recent Hot Topic cast stop in New Jersey. They talk about the weather, the show and fan response, people asking Ian to bite them, Nina’s thoughts on playing Katherine and Elena, wearing corsets, being evil and Valentines plans. Thanks to @MegPlatt86 for the video link!

The Vampire Diaries started airing this evening in the UK on ITV2 (sponsored by Mentos mints; understandable, as we hear the undead tend to have bad breath). If you missed it, you can catch the repeats on Friday at 8pm (this applies to future episodes, too), or you can watch them on ITV Player: Pilot and Night of the Comet. Also, don’t forget that you can purchase all of the episodes aired so far in the USA in the UK iTunes store.

Vampire Diaries Romania have let us know that “The Awakening” is to be published soon in Romania. We don’t have a date yet, but the publishers, LEDA, are taking pre-orders. You can see the cover on the right (click on it to see the larger version), and we’ll let you know when we have an actual release date.

In more international book news, we’ve had word from Iva that all of the original book series has now published in Bulgaria. “The Fury” was published back in December, and “Dark Reunion” was published earlier this month. You can read our blog post from last year if you want a reminder of the covers, and you can find out more information on each of the books over on the publisher’s website.

Finally, for a bit of fun (and in honour of the UK premiere), a video of Nina talking to My Bliss in the UK with a British accent:

Posted by Red | January 27, 2010, 8:56 (EST) | 6 Comments
Category: TV Series

Check out this ITV2 interview with Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley from when they were over in the UK back in December. They talk about the music on the show, their musical tastes, night shooting, each other and their favourite foods.