What Strange Fate

I don’t even remember the reason why, or how I even got there, but somehow I ended up on L.J. Smith’s page on Simon and Schuster and I noticed something that made me – and my teenage self, many many years ago – practically bounce up and down with in excitement and making grabby hand motions.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with, she is the author of the (original) book series that the television shows The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle were based on, as well as other early-mid 90s paranormal YA series such as The Forbidden Game, Dark Visions, and The Night World. Not only was Daughters of Darkness my gateway into paranormal (and vampire) YA, I still consider L.J. Smith as one of the great influences on my writing.

So when I saw that there were new covers (albeit with only the first six revealed) for what are to be special collectors editions of The Night World (to I assume celebrate the 20th anniversary of the books’ publishing) I lost it. Not quite as much as when L.J. Smith left a “happy birthday” message on my facebook, but there was still a good amount of it being lost.

(The only thing that will probably exceed the birthday wishes would be an actual release date for Strange Fate.)

Aren’t they gorgeous? I especially love how the combined spines form their own picture. They would look gorgeous on a shelf. And there’s all the little details in the artwork – Daughters of Darkness in particular has some amazing details with the black iris, the fire, the stars and the knife. They have changed the title of the first book it seems, from Secret Vampire to simply Night World. I don’t know exactly how I feel about that.

I do know what I want for my birthday though! 😀