Not Rory Gilmore

Not Rory Gilmore edited the overview of Harlan Coben Friday, January 13, 2012.

• From the author's websitehis official website:

  
  

  With 50 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben's last four consecutive novels, LIVE WIRE, CAUGHT, LONG LONG LOST and HOLD TIGHT all debuted at at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and lists around the world. His first Young Adult novel SHELTER will be out in the fall of 2011.was just released this fall. His books are published in 4041 languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in over a dozen countries.countries.

  Winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award - the first author to win all three – international bestselling author Harlan Coben’s critically-acclaimed novels have been called “ingenious” (New York Times), “poignant and insightful” (Los Angeles Times), “consistently entertaining” (Houston Chronicle), “superb” (Chicago Tribune) and “must reading” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His most recent novels, CAUGHT, LONG LONG LOST, HOLD TIGHT, THE WOODS, PROMISE ME, THE INNOCENT, JUST ONE LOOK, NO SECOND CHANCE, TELL NO ONE and GONE FOR GOOD have appeared on the top of all the major bestseller lists including the New York Times, London Times, Le Monde, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY.

  Harlan's novel TELL NO ONE has been turned into the commercial and critical smash hit French film of the same name, starring Francois Cluzet and Kristin Scott Thomas. The movie was the top box office foreign-language film of the year in USA, won the Lumiere (French Golden Globe) for best picture and was nominated for nine Cesars (French Oscar) and won four, including best actor, best director and best music. To see the trailer, click here and for stills and to see Harlan appearing in the film, visit our gallery page. The movie is now available in DVD and Blu-Ray. An American/Hollywood remake is in the works.works.

  In his first books, Coben immersed himself in the exploits of sports agent Myron Bolitar. Critics loved the series, saying, “You race to turn pages…both suspenseful and often surprisingly funny” (People). After seven books Coben wanted to try something different. “I came up with a great idea that simply would not work for Myron,” says Coben. The result was the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller TELL NO ONE, which became the most decorated thriller of 2001 – nominated for an Edgar, an Anthony, a Macavity, a Nero, and a Barry; winner of the Audie Award for Best Audio Mystery/Suspense Book (read by Steven Weber); and a #1 hardcover book on the Book Sense 76 list. Coben followed the success of TELL NO ONE with the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers GONE FOR GOOD (2002), NO SECOND CHANCE (2003), and JUST ONE LOOK (2004) and THE INNOCENT (2005). Bookspan, recognizing Coben’s broad international appeal, named NO SECOND CHANCE its first ever International Book of the Month in 2003 – the Main Selection in 15 different countries.countries.

  Coben was the first writer in more than a decade to be invited to write fiction for the NEW YORK TIMES op-ed page. His Father’s Day short story, THE KEY TO MY FATHER, appeared June 15, 2003.2003.

  Since his critically-acclaimed Myron Bolitar series debuted in 1995, Harlan Coben has won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award and was nominated for the Edgar two other times. Harlan also won the Anthony Award at the World Mystery Conference, was nominated for another Anthony Award, won the Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America, was nominated for another Shamus, and was twice nominated for the Dilys Award by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.Association.

  In the United Kingdom, his novel ONE FALSE MOVE earned him the prestigious “Fresh Talent Award”, given annually by Great Britain's largest bookstore chain, W. H. Smith, and GONE FOR GOOD won the W. H. SMITH “Thumping Good Read” Award. In France, TELL NO ONE (NE LE DIS A PERSONE) won Le Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle for fiction. His novels have been PEOPLE magazine Page-Turners of the Week and a Publishers Weekly Best of the Year pick.pick.

  Harlan was born in Newark, New Jersey. After graduating from Amherst College a political science major, Harlan worked in the travel industry. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, a pediatrician, and their four children.

Not Rory Gilmore edited the overview of Sara Zarr Friday, January 13, 2012.

• Sara Zarr is the acclaimed author of threefour novels for young adults: Story of a Girl (National Book Award Finalist), Sweethearts (Cybil Award Finalist), andOnce Was Lost (a Kirkus Best Book of 2009).2009), and How to Save a Life. Her short fiction and essays have also appeared in Image, Hunger Mountain, and several anthologies. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband, and online at www.sarazarr.com
  I grew up in San Francisco in the seventies and early eighties, in a family of creative people. My parents met in music school, and my maternal grandfather made a living as a journalist. There are a bunch of writers among his progeny. Growing up, I was surrounded by stories—many of them in the form of music, ranging from Handel to the Beatles to Christian folk music and Broadway soundtracks. I would sit on the living room floor listening to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and poring over the lyrics, trying to figure out what was really going on in songs like “She’s Leaving Home” and “A Day in the Life,” making up my own stories about the characters.
  Not being rich in money, we didn’t have many toys but imagination and a library card are free. So was TV, back then, and on the weekends there were the Dial for Dollars movies and Abbott & Costello and late night horror and also, on PBS, the classics. My mother read to my sister and me almost every night: novels, memoirs, the Bible.
  Life was all about stories. Stories in church, stories in music, stories on TV, stories in movies, stories in books, stories the Russian immigrants that my mom tutored would tell us around the table, and the stories I made up with my best friend, Christine, and my sister: Tornado, Orphanage, Schoolhouse, Covered Wagon, Discotheque, Fishing, Princess, Kidnapping, Bar, Store. Plus, reenactments of Grease, A Chorus Line, and Little House on the Prairie.
  Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer
  If you’ve read much about writers, you know that many of us grew up with an alcoholic parent or in some otherwise dysfunctional home. Me, too. Kids who are raised in households where feelings of safety and predictability are up for grabs might be more likely to turn into storytellers. We spend a lot of emotional energy trying to guess what might happen next, and mentally drawing up different contingency plans. It puts us in the “what if” habit early.
  I was often described as “imaginative,” or, less flatteringly, “dramatic.” I always enjoyed creative writing assignments in school and of course loved books and reading, but there wasn’t any single moment that I knew I wanted to be, or decided to be, a writer. Eventually the “what if” habit led to increasingly serious attempts at writing a whole story. For years, I was totally in the closet with it. Saying I wanted to be a writer was like saying I wanted to be an astronaut, or the President. I knew people were those things, but not regular people, not poor unglamorous chubby people. (The irony is I now know that poor, unglamorous, and chubby pretty much describes most writers…) I was a Speech major in college, with a side of Theater Arts, and knew some people who were in the Creative Writing program and I’d think, wow, they are brave. You can just…sign up for that? And no one says, “No, you can’t”? I wasn’t that brave.
  When I was twenty-five, the Internet was just becoming a household item, and in an old IRC chat room I met some writers—real writers with books and contracts and agents. They were just regular people, like me. If them, why not me? I decided I would start and finish a YA novel. (I don’t feel like I ever chose YA. It chose me.) My goal was to be published before I turned thirty. Three other novels, two agents, and ten years later (about six years behind schedule), I sold Story of a Girl. During those ten years, I wrote a lot, made friends with writers, learned everything I could about the business and the craft and my voice, and worked on patience and thick skin and self-editing. About six months after selling Story of a Girl, I quit my day job. A year after that I ran out of money and went back to work for a couple of months, and that was not the end of the world, at all. Right now I’m able to make my living writing, but there’s no guarantee that will always be the case, so I’m grateful.
  Sometimes I think I could have just as easily not been a writer. For example, by not writing, because of fear or self-doubt or not feeling entitled to give it a try. Or by watching more TV instead. Or giving up when I couldn’t figure out what happened next in a story, or after the first five years of rejection, or after I lost my first agent, or after the second five years of rejection. Et cetera. I’m still aware, every day, that this career is mine to keep or lose. There lots of things from the business side of things I can’t control, but if I don’t keep writing I definitely will not be a writer.
  As Of Now
  I live in Salt Lake City, UT, with my husband, and a parakeet named Peanut. We came here from San Francisco in 2000, thinking we’d give it a couple of years and predicting we’d be high-tailing it back to CA soon after. The place kind of grew on us, and it’s home. For now.
  My life is pretty unexciting, in a good way, full of normal things like cooking and cleaning and movie-going and reading and procrastination and lunch dates and good days and bad days and stupid days and boring days. I say this because before I was published I had this idea of what a published author’s life was like, and it’s not. At least, mine isn’t. But, I’ve got great friends and amazing colleagues and a close family. I’m blessed with a good, full life, and am pretty happy with my job.

Not Rory Gilmore edited the summary of Harlan Coben Tuesday, May 6, 2008.

• Date of birth: 1-4-62
  
  His novel Tell No One was made into a movie in France, titled: Ne le dis à personne. This film should hit U.S> theatres sometime in the summer of 2008.
  
  At the Cesar Awards in France (basically the French version of the Oscars), the film Ne le dis à personne was nominated for 9 awards and won 4.
  
  His official newsletter mentioned that his popular Myron Bolitar book series may be adapted into a television series.