Our sales partner, Cafepress, has a special going on. I don’t know how long they’ll be doing it, but it’s buy three shirts and get one for free. So, stock up on those tee shirts, maybe go in with a friend and save some money on Twilight Lexicon merchandise.  We just came out with a new design. It was inspired partly by Stephenie’s comments last year in Nashville when she said, "I think Jacob would make the perfect winter boyfriend and Edward would make the perfect summer boyfriend.", and partly by the recent Boarders interview where the interviewer asked, "Doesn’t anybody like Jacob and Edward?"

So…we now have:

The Edward Lover Shop
The Jacob Lover Shop

And introducing
The Who Says I Have To Choose Shop

Apparently we are not the only ones who think Stephenie is poised to be the next JK Rowling. Here’s a fabulous article from Publisher’s Weekly on Eclipse expectations.

Pel~

While trolling are the Internet today while waiting for the Borders video  to load (I’m starting to wonder if we broke Border’s bandwith) I noticed something interesting on the New York Times Bestseller List,

1. New Moon is still at number one with 50 weeks total on the list. This means (for those of you keeping count) it has never left the bestseller list since it debuted almost a year ago.
2. The paperback version of Twilight is enjoying its 49th week on the list. It has been on the list since it debuted in paperback form.
3. And now, for the first time in almost two years, the hardcover version of Twilight is back on the list just under New Moon in the number 4 position.

If you go to Amazon.com (Borders.com is one of their partners) you can see the Eclipse based on pre-orders is their 7th bestselling book period…not on a children’s listing, overall.  It is ahead of the current Oprah book pick, and the new James Paterson novel. Unsurprisingly, the only children’s book outselling Eclipse is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; however, Eclipse is outselling every other Harry Potter book except for the full book gift set.

I know most of us are also Harry Potter fans, but let’s launch Eclipse to catch Harry. If we can do that it will really be something.  Just as a reminder,  the Changing Hands bookstore will be happy to ship you autographed copies of Eclipse in case Stephenie is not doing a signing in your area.  They ship anywhere in the world. So if you are overseas and want a to be assured of a legit autographed copy, they are a great source. Changing Hands got a lot of media attention for their Harry Potter release, wouldn’t it be cool if they could report that Eclipse was outselling Harry? That would be a story.

So get out there and preorder those books, or make plans to get one from your local bookseller the week of August 7th!

Here’s an image of how the interview was advertised to Borders members

As many of you know, Stephenie will be appearing on Good Morning America (barring a major national crisis breaking) on August 7, 2007.  Some lucky Lexicon members like Be My Escape, Alice, and me applied to be audience members and have already gotten confirmations. Well…we need more people. I just received an email from Stephenie’s publicist, Elizabeth, and Good Morning America wants 40 fans(in addition to those already confirmed) of Stephenie to participate that day.  Here’s part of the email  from Elizabeth:

GMA finally got back to me, so is there any way you guys can help me get 40 NY area fans for GMA?  Basically they need to be at the studio by 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 7^th.  The show runs from 7-9 a.m.  Fun t-shirts, signs and screaming encouraged!

So after I stopped laughing because she thought it would be hard to get 40 rabid fans to NYC, I emailed Elizabeth back and here is the plan we hatched to do this in the fairest way possible. If you are available to be at the Good Morning America Studios in New York City on August 7, 2007 from 6:30am-9:00am then see the directions below (pay attention and follow them exactly, quality counts!)

If you are 100% positive you can attend (no maybes, I mights, I have to check with my mom…don’t email unless you know for sure. This is a commitment! ) do the following:

• send an email to [email protected]
• the header of that email must say Lexicon GMA Participant
• in the body of the email you must state
• Your Lexicon name
• Your real name
• the real names of anyone else coming into the studio to participate with you (like your mom, siblings, etc.)

The first 40 participants to check in with the info requested will have their information forwarded by me to Elizabeth. Elizabeth will then email you with complete details and answer any questions you might have.

EDITED BY PEL: We have the 40 people needed. If more space becomes available we will repost.

Pel~

 PS. Since this got buried in yesterday’s new, Borders has an AWESOME video of an interview conducted with Stephenie and fans (a bunch of whom are Lexiconers) on their website.

PPS. I know in our recent podcast Alphie and I called out for all fans to rally and have Eclipse reach the same heights as Harry Potter. For you fans overseas who don’t fancy waiting months, I confirmed with Faith of Changing Hands Bookstore that they are more than happy to ship autographed copies of Eclipse overseas. For that matter they’ll ship autographed copies anywhere in this hemisphere too. So if Stephenie isn’t going to be in your neck of the woods for a signing, and you want a signed copy, you can get one from Changing Hands.

Hi all –

I recieved e-mails from both Stephenie and her publicist asking me to close down our message boards until the 7th due in part to a shipping error from a major book chain.  I’ve also been asked to spread this to other message boards and ask them, on behalf of Stephenie who just doesn’t have the time to go and e-mail each and every single message board, to lock down their boards as well.  Many of the main message baords in the HP fandom did this before the release, such as Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron. 

So until Eclispe is released on Aug. 7th the message boards here at the Lex will be off limits and closed to all discussion.  The Eclipse Midnight party thread will remain open for two more days so that you can make final arrangements.  We will lock that thread on Friday of this week.  The thread is only to be used for contact or meet up information.  All posts pertaining to discussion of the books in any way in that forum will be deleted.  We will happily reopen all the boards around midnight eastern time on August 7th at which time Eclipse will be discussed in the Eclipse forum.  The message from Stephenie herself follows this post. 

Thanks so much for understanding.  We will see you on the flip side.

Alphie

As you may be aware, some copies of Eclipse were accidentally shipped early.  As we all just saw with Harry Potter, the shipping of books is an imperfect system and despite the painstaking efforts of many, copies can get out early.  The on-sale date of Eclipse is August 7th, and technically nobody should receive a copy of the book until then.   

I have a big favor to ask of you lucky early readers.  First, I hope you enjoy Eclipse.  When you’re done, I know you’re going to want to talk about with your friends, but please remember how you felt reading it for the first time.  Do you want to ruin that experience for someone else?  I hope not.  Please, for me, and for the other readers, don’t post spoilers on the internet.  Don’t destroy the fun for everybody.  Be kind to each other and my sanity. 

Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and devotion to my characters.  Just a few more days, and then we’ll all be discussing Eclipse together.  Hold on!  You can do it! 

Stephenie 

 

EDITED BY PEL:  In oder to avoid a stray comment spoiling you on MySpace here is a suggestions courtesy of Elisabeth, "I would lock your MySpace comments so that they have to be approved before they can be posted."

Earlier this month Stephenie taped an interview in Michigan for the Borders Book Club with several Twilight fans, some of whom are regular Lexicon posters.

Since the link is mailed out in the club newsletter that hits members inboxes tomorrow night, the video might be a bit patchy until then as they may still be doing last minute tweaks.

Pel~

I’m prefacing this by saying I love spoilers, however that love stops at me posting them because I don’t fancy jailtime and ruining books for other people.

It really sucks when you see a spoiler and you don’t want to. Imagine my frustration this time last year when I signed into the Lexicon boards and someone had posted the following topics:

OMG! Could you believe Bella jumped off a cliff?

Edward wanted to kill himself!

I was ready to scream. I couldn’t avoid the spoilers because they were in plain sight. I didn’t have a choice as to whether I saw them or not.

AGAIN, if you are in the "know" about spoilers for Harry Potter, Eclipse, or anything else for that matter:DO NOT STATE IT ON THIS BOARD. WE ARE A NO SPOILER SITE. The relationship this site has with Little Brown and Stephenie Meyers will cease to be a friendly one if we allow spoilers! I can’t control, nor do I want to, what happens between people in their private emails or PMS. That remains private and out of sight. Don’t even mention that you have such a thing n public!

Lastly I just want to draw your attention to the following:

1) People who stole pages of HBP and posted the Dumbledore spoilers are doing JAILTIME in the UK!

2) As quoted from Mugglenet: 

"The LA Times is reporting that the US Harry Potter publisher obtained a subpoena to learn the identity of a user who allegedly posted copies of Deathly Hallows on a California website.

Scholastic said in a court filing Monday that "materials hosted on Photobucket.com’s system" contain materials that infringe copyrights owned by Scholastic and J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. Photobucket.com, a News Corp. unit, is a website for sharing photos and videos on social networks such as MySpace.

The subpoena was sent to Gaia Interactive Inc. in San Jose seeking the identity of a user on gaiaonline.com, a social network, according to the filing in San Francisco federal court.

Gaia complied with the subpoena, removed the material and temporarily banned the user from the site, said Gaia spokesman Bill Danon."

3) As quoted from Mugglenet:

"The US book publisher has issued a statement this morning which reveals where a leak of Deathly Hallows occurred:

We are taking immediate legal action against DeepDiscount.com and Levy Home Entertainment. The number of copies shipped is around one one-hundredth of one percent of the total U.S. copies to go on sale at 12:01 am on July 21st."

4) And yest one final quote from Mugglenet:

"After receiving an early copy of Deathly Hallows from an unnamed bookstore, the New York Times has posted a review of the book which also contains a few plot details.

UPDATE: In response, JK Rowling has spoken out about this New York Times review and numerous others:

    "I am staggered that American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children, who wanted to reach Harry’s final destination by themselves, in their own time. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry’s last adventure for fans."

Bloomsbury has also addressed this concern:

    The release date and time embargo of 00.01AM BST on Saturday July 21st is being enforced unflinchingly and without exception by the publishers. We confirm that all Bloomsbury’s customers in 93 countries worldwide are robustly supporting this embargo time to ensure secrecy for the children and adult readers of Harry Potter."

In other words, to sum it up, THE LEAST OF YOUR WORRIES IF YOU POST SPOILERS WILL BE THAT ALPHIE AND I WILL BAN YOU FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY I LOVE EDWARD CULLEN!

We can’t be online 24/7, if spoilers abound, we will shut down our forums until the Eclipse releases. I don’t think anyone wants that, but we will do it if we have to.

Pel~

Currently I’m at Newark Airport and Alphie is the Nashville Airport. We’re traveling to Texas to meet up with some Harry Potter friends. Before we left we recorded two Forks-Casts which I am uploading now courtesy of the Newark Airport Internet connection. They should be up later today.

Pel~

Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen of New Moon have now been posted. The discussions and summaries can be found by following the links below:

Chapter Thirteen – Killer
Summary
Discussion

Chapter Fourteen – Family
Summary
Discussion

Chapter thirteen was prepared by silly_bella and chapter fourteen was prepared by ECABS. Be sure to let them know what a great job they did!

Seraphyn

Chapter 12: Intruder has been updated and added to our New Moon chapters. Many thanks to Taxi for her work on this one.  Becasue of an error on my part, two people ended up working on this chapter.  You can read the discussion questions from both Taxi and Alcyone over on the message boards. 

Folks – I’m going to try very hard to get the majority of these chapters posted in the next three weeks before Eclipse, but I make no promises.  If you have signed up to be a chapter leader, please send me your information ASAP.  Thanks so much!

Alphie