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Greg Taylor, author of the wicked awesome summer read Killer Pizza, has cooked up a killer trailer for his book.
And for more online fun, check out the book page here, and get some recipes to create your own Killer Pizza.
Do you have what it takes to be a Monster Combat Officer? Become a fan of Killer Pizza on Facebook!
All this talk of Killer Pizza making you hungry to read the book? It's available now:
Do you have a pretty chicken at home, who you know is just dying for her close-up? Or what about a handsome rooster, ready for the camera? Head over to Jill S. Alexander's Prosper County group on Facebook, and scan down to the discussion topics. There, you'll find the instructions to enter her Got Chicken? contest.
No real chickens required.
P.S. The real star of this competition is Charles Dickens (pictured right). He's in The Sweetheart of Prosper County, available September 1. Pre-order your copy today!
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And while you're on Facebook, become of fan of Feiwel and Friends.
Brian James is the author of The Heights, available now.
The timeless story of obsession and doomed love found in Wuthering Heights is one that appeals to the romantic in all of us. I think that’s probably because every one of us has, at one time or another, been in that position of falling deeply in love with someone who we could never be with for whatever reason. At no time do we experience this cruel twist more than when we’re teenagers . . . at least, that was the case for me. So when I was reading the novel two summers ago, I was struck by how relevant its themes still are for teens living some 150 years after it was written. That’s when I started imagining the story in a modern setting, with modern characters, and thinking about how this story would play out today.
When I began working on a modern version of Wuthering Heights, there were a few things I needed to figure out. For me, the most important and difficult task was deciding how to portray Heathcliff. Early on in the novel, I felt very sympathetic toward him. I could identify with the internal turmoil he must have felt as the love of his life was being pulled away from him by forces out of his control. However, my sympathies faded quickly as he turned into what today we’d consider to be a typical abusive boyfriend. But I also knew that a lot of the things he did that angered me would have been more accepted in the time the book was written. So I wanted to create him in a way that modern readers’ sympathies would grow stronger throughout the book because in order for a doomed love story to have an impact, the reader has to really want the two characters to be together.
The way I went about achieving this new Heathcliff character was by giving him a voice. By telling half the book in his voice, I felt readers would be able to feel the frustration he felt, rather than just see the aftermath of this rage. Since his character was the one that changed the most from the original, I decided to rename him Henry because though the two characters share many things in common, mine is a different, softer character.
In a further attempt to help readers understand the kind of prejudice Heathcliff faced as a Gypsy in nineteenth-century England, I changed Henry’s race. Given the current tension in our country over immigration, especially when it comes from south of the border, I thought making Henry of Mexican descent would capture something of the hatred the original character endured from people of the upper classes.
The switch to first-person narrative was the second big choice I made. Wuthering Heights is told in third person from Nelly’s point of view. I wanted to delve into the personal feelings of doomed love from the perspective of both characters directly involved. So I decided to tell the book in alternating chapters from Catherine’s and Henry’s points of view. This was the most challenging update. Both voices needed to feel unique and honest. It created a rather long period of schizophrenia for me, but in the end, I think the results were worth it. I think both voices came out really strong. I also think it makes the story even more romantic in that it becomes impossible to take sides because as the reader, you come to know and identify with both characters.
For The Heights, I also changed the setting to San Francisco. Fog and mist play such an important role in the original, which was set in the lakes region of England. I visited that area the month before writing The Heights. There was a mysterious charm to the area that made it feel like you weren't there even when you were. San Francisco had a similar feeling for me when I visited it in 2001. I spent an entire day alone walking around the area below the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a strange feeling about the place. It felt almost like part of me was becoming a ghost. I didn't know it at the time, but six years later, that day would serve as the basis for The Heights. In my mind, San Francisco captures that tragically romantic feel that the story needs.
My intent was never for The Heights to replace the original book. I don’t think that should ever be the intent in modernizing a classic story. What I wanted to do was create a work that could enrich and add to the original. I wanted to give an internal voice to the characters that one could only observe before. The Heights is my version of how I imagined the two main characters’ thoughts and feelings. I truly hope that anyone who enjoys Wuthering Heights will find something special in my book, just as I hope anyone who enjoys my story will take the time to read the classic. Because in the end, I believe literature can be a conversation between stories that can be carried on for a long period of time within a reader’s thoughts.
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