Autographed Galley Giveaway of Our New Book Tempestuous: A Modern-Day Spin on Shakespeare's The Tempest

Amy and I are thrilled to officially announce that the first two books in our YA series Twisted Lit will be published by Merit Press very soon! Tempestuous: A Modern-Day Spin on Shakespeare's The Tempest will be available on December 18 and Exposure: A Modern-Day Spin on Shakespeare's Macbeth will be available on January 18. To celebrate this exciting news, we're giving away autographed copies of our galleys over at Goodreads throughout the next couple of months. Our first giveaway is for Tempestuous.

Here's more info on the books: 

 

Coming in January 2013: The 2nd book in the Twisted Lit Series. Pre-Order Exposure via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s.

Double, double, toil and trouble. Sometimes, the quest for high school royalty can be deadly! In this emotionally-charged twist on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a self-conscious shutterbug named Skye Kingston navigates a treacherous school year in Alaska fraught with unspoken secrets and tragic twists of fate. Along the way she encounters three strangely prophetic BFFs; one social-climbing, sociopathic cheerleader; and a heart-stopping hottie named Craig McKenzie: the man who would be Prom King. Can Skye save the boy she loves — and herself — before they get caught in the crosshairs?

Coming in December from Merit Press. Available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s.

Recently banished, unfairly, by the school’s popular crowd, former “it girl,” Miranda Prospero, finds herself in a brave new world: holding dominion amongst a rag-tag crew of geeks and misfits where she works at the Hot-Dog Kabob in the food court of her local mall. When the worst winter storm of the season causes mall workers and last-minute shoppers to be snowed-in for the night, Miranda seizes the opportunity to get revenge against the catty clique behind her social exile. With help from her delightfully dweeby coworker, Ariel, and a sullen loner named Caleb who works at the mall’s nearby gaming and magic shop, Miranda uses charm and trickery to set things to right during this spirited take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Macbeth and Time Travel in Looper

Till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane

Proving once again that, if you look hard enough, you can find Shakespeare in just about anything, Adam Sternbergh at the New York Times has an interview with Looper director, Rian Johnson, where Johnson mentions Macbeth as inspiration for his sci-fi flick:

"[Macbeth is] ...a kind of time-travel story itself, insofar as the main character is told, right at the start, what the future holds, and that knowledge affects all his subsequent actions, 'right up to the fact that Macbeth does all these horrible things to retain this vision of what the future could be,' Johnson says."  

You'll want to read the interview for more of Johnson's sources, including Casablanca. (Amy and I both saw Looper this weekend and thought it fantastically entertaining.) Sadly, thanks to the recession, my "hipster" neighborhood is already starting to resemble the urban dystopia shown in the film. You can read more about Looper and its portrayal of income inequality at Ed Champion's Reluctant Habits. --Kim