HarperCollinsCanada Set to Publish Charmed e-Books

[cyma]

HarperCollinsCanada Set to Publish e-Books Based On Hit TV Series

Ghost Whisperer and Charmed to release this spring and summer

TORONTO—HarperCollinsCanada announced today that the company will publish original content based on popular, long-running TV shows, starting with Ghost Whisperer and Charmed. Licensed by CBS Consumer Products, the content will be published initially as e-book novels, serials and collections, starting this spring, with the addition of printed books in the future. E-books will be made available world-wide.

"The reading experience gives these already hugely popular shows a completely new dimension," said Steve Osgoode, Vice President of Digital Product at HarperCollinsCanada. "Books are the perfect medium for these wonderful storylines to endure and flourish for years to come."


Content for all the properties will be developed by Toronto-based packager Joe Books, a company known for its expertise in television, movies, music, books and cross-platform media.

"We've crafted these stories to appeal to die-hard fans and newcomers alike," said Jody Colero, President at Joe Books. "It is exciting to see how they evolve and take on new possibilities. I'm really looking forward to seeing how fans react."

The first Charmed novel, The War on Witches, is written by Paul Ruditis, the author of numerous companion books and novels for TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, The Walking Dead and The West Wing. He co-authored both of the official Charmed episode guides along with writing several earlier Charmed novels and the New York Times bestselling comic book series revealing the show's "unaired" ninth season. The War on Witches will be on sale May 26, and the first Ghost Whisperer novel will be on sale this summer.

www.harpercollins.ca/press-releases/16/harpercollinscanada-set-to-publish-e-books-based-on-hit-tv-series

[cyma]

Description:
Having won the ultimate battle against the forces of darkness, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige—The Charmed Ones —are looking forward to a hard-earned, peaceful future. But when Phoebe’s former love, Cole, returns from the dead and the sisters are reunited with Prue, now imprisoned at the magical convergence between the realms, a dangerous new threat emerges. As seemingly normal mortals violently steal the magic of witches, The Charmed Ones must shield their kind while protecting themselves from a modern-day witch hunt.

Charmed: The War on Witches continues the story of the Halliwell witches, picking up where the hit television series, Charmed, left off. With only the Book of Shadows to guide them, the Halliwell sisters are the fulfillment of their ancestor Melinda Warren’s prophecy that three sisters descending from her line would become the most powerful witches of all time. As The Charmed Ones, the sisters use the Power of Three to protect the innocent and banish evil from the Earthly realm.

charmedcomicfan10.jimdo.com/2015/05/01/new-charmed-novel-written-by-paul-ruditis-coming-this-may/

[Esmeralda]

BY PAUL RUDITIS???

Maybe this is why he's no longer editing the comics...

I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Although I must admit - it sounds an awful lot like a novelization of the comics....and I could be hoping for a continuation from where Season 9 ended - an ALTERNATE Season 10...

Although *sigh* of course what I really want is an alternate one that starts with "All Hell Breaks Loose" rewritten so the sisters aren't so stupid and so we can see what happens between this episode and the next one - which hopefully includes PHOEBE dying rather than Prue...either that..or better...NO ONE dies, except maybe Cole saving Phoebe...

[Deleted]

Yes!!! So glad to see Paul still working on Charmed in some format. Can't wait to read it. I can think of it as a Charmed movie between two seasons

EDIT: Apparently he's already working on book 2.

May 1, 2015 14:13:43 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

BY PAUL RUDITIS???

Maybe this is why he's no longer editing the comics...

I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Although I must admit - it sounds an awful lot like a novelization of the comics....and I could be hoping for a continuation from where Season 9 ended - an ALTERNATE Season 10...

I am hoping he stays with Charmed. Pat seems to think it's pretty unlikely that the comics will get a season 11, because the sales aren't great. With that in mind, if - a big 'if' I know- but if Charmed was to continue beyond season 10, novelisations might be the most likely format. And if Paul is writing them, then that suits me just fine.

Here's a bit of a recent message from Pat responding to a fan asking about a season 11:

"The online fandom is vocal and active and that’s amazing. I love it. However, that doesn’t even close to translate to sales. It’s the sad truth of why some beloved shows get canceled. No matter how much we love them, the size of “we” might be shockingly smaller than we think.

Hence my extreme trepidation to voice anything but doubt at the idea of a Season Eleven.

The novels, though? No idea. That’s Paul’s courtyard. If they’re still going on after I’m done on S10, I bet Ruditis would pick up after the end. I don’t know if they’d do seasons there, technically, because I honestly don’t know anything about the novels except that Paul is swell, they’re gonna be good, we’ve spoken about the way the comics fit with the books, and that I can’t wait to read it."

[Esmeralda]

LOL, sounds like Paul realized that the comics weren't going to succeed, so he's switched back to books where he does it so well.

It definitely sounds like he's going to stick with the same universe, which probably means S10 will still be...S10, darn it anyway!

The best part about books - they can be longer, more detailed, and he doesn't have to worry about the artists and all of the other things. We'll probably get the books about as often as we got the volumes.

And with e-books, you don't have to worry about paper and all of the other expenses, so you can have a smaller audience and still be successful.

Like others, I'd prefer a REAL book to e-book, but a choice between something written by Pat Shand and Paul Ruditis, there's no choice.

ETA: And the best part about e-books is that anyone in any place around the world can get them, unlike the comics or even real books.

[cyma]

Preview chapter 1 featuring Piper and Prue at the Nexus of the All and chapter 2 featuring Paige and a new character, Jackson at Halliwell's.


The novel will consist of 22 chapters and as promised by the placeholder image, the cover will be revealed soon.


You can read the preview at KoboBooks: store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/charmed-the-war-on-witches#readThisOn

charmednovelfan.jimdo.com/2015/05/07/preview-chapters-1-2-of-the-war-on-witches/

[Deleted]

Damn, I want more... guess that's the point huh?

I have a feeling I'll read the whole thing in one sitting. It's really nice to go into more detail about where they're at and how they feel.

[Esmeralda]

Darn it! It still wouldn't work for me at home!

Would someone mind copying it and PMing it to me, please???

[Chrisaholic]

Sounds interesting. Need to find a software for reading eBooks, especially one for free.

[Deleted]

A bit of news that some you may not have heard. Paul has 3 books planned so far and The War on Witches will be loosely connected to Morality Bites.
He also said that the books he's planned so far will be set at the same time; what he's referring to as season 9.5

Oh and book 2 will involve Greek and Roman mythology, but no costumes will be involved.

[Esmeralda]

OOOO, extremely interesting. So the first one *won't* be a novelization of the comics - I wondered about that. But I sure hope he gives a synapses of the comics for those who never got a chance to read them.

The Greek and Roman mythology ones - especially sans costumes - sounds like fun. I love how he keeps fixing all of Kern's mistakes...

[Deleted]

Well the first novel starts with Prue and Piper in the nexus of the all and a summary of the events in season 9 is given. Whether it'll go further into detail than that I'm not sure. Supposedly they're meant to be pretty self-contained, so I think the Prue situation will be the biggest thing in need of explanation.

Yeah I'm looking forward to the mythology too. I always loved Greek and Roman myths...which made Oh My Goddess all the more disappointing to me for being so lousy.

EDIT

Details about book 2-

Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons

When Piper, Phoebe, and Paige undo a spell that turned a local politician to stone, they little realize the powerful magic behind the hex. As attacks on innocents mount, The Charmed Ones enlist the help of their sister, Prue, confined on the magical Nexus, only to learn that the most heinous of mythical creatures-a gorgon-is to blame.
Freed from her underground tomb, Medusa joins her sisters in a crusade to avenge womankind, turning those who cross her to stone forever. At the same time, dark magic seems to be undoing all of Phoebe’s good works, distracting her from the impending battle with the gorgons. With time running out, will the sisters be able to defeat Medusa and restore their innocents to life?
Inspired by the hit televisions series Charmed, the new novel Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons continues the story of the Halliwell witches. With only the Book of Shadows to guide them, the Halliwell sisters are the fulfillment of their ancestor Melinda Warren’s prophecy that three sisters descendin from her line would become the most powerful witches of all time. The sisters use the Power of Three to protect the innocent and banish evil from the Earthly realm.

[Esmeralda]

Now that definitely sounds like fun - MUCH more than "Oh, My Goddess!"!

[cyma]

Paul's answer to whether new readers have to read the Season 9 comics also:

Interview with Paul Ruditis--Novels


CNF: Will readers who haven’t read the Season 9 comics be able to follow the novels considering the huge developments S9 brought to the show’s universe?


PR: That’s the intention. They don’t need to read one to understand the other. They don’t need to know about Neena or that fact that the world was turned upside down with magic for a while. However, if they want to fully understand how Prue and Cole came back, then it would be helpful to pick up season 9. I did my best to explain what happened with those two characters as simply as possible in the novel so new readers would be up to speed, but I didn’t spend too much time going into detail there. I didn’t want to recap the entire comic book line because that would have been incredibly boring to those who have read the comics.

One benefit of this is that readers can then imagine the characters however they like. I don’t really spend a lot of time describing Prue beyond her being blonde and having magical tattoos because I’m well aware of the fact that some people are not comfortable with her being in a different body. So, while she still is in that body in the books, readers are certainly free to imagine her however they please. When I’m writing her, I personally imagine her as Elisa is drawing her in the comic book line, but if people who don’t read the comics want to imagine her differently, so be it. When working on season 9, I came to learn that people can be quite dismissive of comic books in general and refuse to read them because they think they’re for kids (as if it would be a bad thing if they were). While I certainly don’t understand that type of thinking, I don’t want that to keep those people from reading the ebooks.

CNF: Will all the books take place between Seasons 9 and 10 or do you plan for new stories for other seasons too?


PR: At the moment the stories will be set in that timeframe, which I’m calling season 9.5, but you can feel free to think of it however you want. At the moment, there’s not a lot of interest at the publisher, CBS, or with me in going back and reliving the past beyond that time period. As for the future, we’ll have to see what happens as both the books and comics continue. Pat is telling a very specific, very serialized story in the comic books. There really isn’t a way to insert a novel into that timeline without one impacting the other. It’s hard to set the novels after Pat’s season because the Heavens only know if he’s planning on killing anyone else. Seriously. The guy’s a serial killer. He even killed a character I created! He will pay for that one day.


Full interview here: charmednovelfan.jimdo.com/2015/05/08/interview-with-paul-ruditis-charmed-novels/

[Esmeralda]

Has anyone downloaded this yet? If so, what do you think?

[Deleted]

Just bought it now, will post some thoughts soon

EDIT:
Well I've read most of it and I've loved it. We get some really good insight into Prue's situation and how the sisters feel about it. We also see where Benjamin Turner's soul has been since season 3. It's a really interesting story and I just wanted to keep reading. I'm so glad Paul is writing more; because this is quality Charmed.
Also, while reading season 9 would certainly make things easier, Paul goes into quite a lot of detail summarizing relevant comic events when needed.

Just a couple more chapters to read.

[Esmeralda]

Where did you download it from? For some reason or another, my Amazon account isn't working, so I can't use that.

[Deleted]

May 31, 2015 21:59:49 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Where did you download it from? For some reason or another, my Amazon account isn't working, so I can't use that.

Yeah I downloaded from Amazon I'm afraid.
Here's a list of sites it's available from though if that helps: charmednovelfan.jimdo.com/pre-order/

[Esmeralda]

Jun 1, 2015 5:56:48 GMT -5 @p3nathan said:

May 31, 2015 21:59:49 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Where did you download it from? For some reason or another, my Amazon account isn't working, so I can't use that.

Yeah I downloaded from Amazon I'm afraid.
Here's a list of sites it's available from though if that helps: charmednovelfan.jimdo.com/pre-order/

Thank you. I'll try some of those tonight after I get home from work.