Something About A Printing Error

A real page-turner.

BiblioFile: Puffin Publishes Barnavelt (Part 2)

I see a decade has passed since the blog promised a follow-up about Puffin Books publishing the Lewis Barnavelt series.  The post was near completion so I’ll give it a go and get this one out there.

Something About Sleuth

Bear with us.

Something About Paperback Publishing in the 1980s

Judging a book by its cover.

Something About Ludovicus Barneveldus

Ex libris Johannes Bellairsus

Something About Middle Grade Adaptions

...and the books that inspired them.

Presenting Snake Year Press

We stumbled upon a strange celebration of a singular moment from The Face in the Frost in the form a publishing group named for ... ewwww ... snake year cherry.  Author Quentin Dodd has this to say on his new publishing venture:

A Mad Dash (or, N or M?)

Blogger Michael Dennis recently shared some thoughts about The Face in the Frost, both of the book itself and the way it was published.

BiblioFile: Puffin Publishes Barnavelt (Part 1)

You can credit Brad Strickland for many things – continuing the sagas of Lewis Barnavelt and Johnny Dixon, extending John’s literary life, sparking fans to band together on the Internet, and so on – including the push of paperbacks.

When Strickland’s The Ghost in the Mirror was nearing its initial publication in April 1993, the powers-that-be, knowing it would eventually hit paperback, seemingly decided to start fresh with the series. John’s original Lewis Barnavelt trilogy was first released in paperback during the mid-to-late 1970s through Dell’s Yearling imprint and, with at least two new books in the series due out in 1993, there would have to be some changes when those covers went soft. Those Yearlings were approaching being two decades old by this point, for goodness sakes!  What better way to connect the original books with the new adventures than with a new round of paperbacks? What eventually surfaced was published through Puffin with contemporary layouts and artwork by illustrator Brad Goldman.

To Think What Follows....

The Bookshelves of Doom notes the news of the sixth book in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, after Adams's widow sanctioned Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) as the author. The site then notes:

I generally don't like it when people continue the work of much-beloved-but-sadly-deceased authors (see Anne of Green Gables, Harriet the Spy, John Bellairs, etc.).

The sixth Hitchhiker’s book, And Another Thing..., will be published in October 2009. 

Prosperity Be Thy Page Count!

Over the past few months our inbox has had the fair share of questions about the new book: when is it going to be released, which character is the book about, what is the plot, and so on. Well, we know The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer is due out this October, it features Lewis Barnavelt, and that Amazon.com says the book is 176 pages.

Bibliofile: Peter Smith Publishing

No book collecting topic has been discussed more at Bellairsia and the Compleat Bellairs over the years than the fine art of tracking down the hardcover first edition copies of John and Brad’s books with the wraparound dust-jacket artwork by Edward Gorey and doing so without shelling out fistfuls of money in the process.

Jacket Whys: Swirls and Light

We found recent commentary about the "ever-growing trend toward the exclusive use of photo-shopped images on kids’ book covers." The author cites four examples, including Brad Strickland's Grimoire: Tracked by Terror (2007):

Something About Amazing Stories

Blogger Madripoor_rose posted the titles of fiction pieces from the July 1986 edition of Amazing Stories - in which Brad Strickland’s short piece, "The Winds Of Oberon," was printed - and asks: