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As part of First/Second's delightful Vampire Month extravaganza, I give you a most urbane vampire of alternate history, Don Sebastian de Ulloa, the central character in Elizabeth Bear's most excellent New Amsterdam. From the publisher's site:

Abigail Irene Garrett drinks too much. She makes scandalous liaisons with inappropriate men, and if in her youth she was a famous beauty, now she is both formidable--and notorious. She is a forensic sorceress, and a dedicated officer of a Crown that does not deserve her loyalty.

She has nothing, but obligations.

Sebastien de Ulloa is the oldest creature she has ever known. He was no longer young at the Christian millennium, and that was nine hundred years ago. He has forgotten his birth-name, his birth-place, and even the year in which he was born, if he ever knew it. But he still remembers the woman who made him immortal.

He has everything, but a reason to live.

In a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, where Holland finally ceded New Amsterdam to the English only during the Napoleonic wars, and where the expansion of the American colonies was halted by the war magic of the Iroquois, they are exiles in the new world--and its only hope for justice.

In this collection of mysteries, readers learn slowly about Sebastian and Abigail and how their relationship will become great enough to threaten the actions of the British Empire. The larger arc that reaches from the book's beginning to end is political but each self contained mystery covers all sorts of circumstance from greed to revenge. The mysteries are artfully written and reason enough to enjoy the book but the inclusion of true political figures (and Tesla even!) gives the book even more depth. What's really cool about it though is that while Sebastian is a vampire the point is not that he's a vampire - the point is that he is a detective; the issue he has with needing blood every now and again is what makes his life hard but is not who he is - and it's not why this title was written.

In other words, for all the fun Laurell K. Hamilton is, you won't find her issues here. New Amsterdam does have its share of horror and supernatural crimes, but this is a very urbane and sophisticated vampire and those are the type of stories that Bear has written. It's very cool, very different, and very smart. I've included the book in my June column at Bookslut along with some other awesome alt history titles (including Jenny Davidson's wonderful The Explosionist); I think New Amsterdam will be a winner for teen mystery fans who like a bit of horror with their stories.

For other fabulous vamp tales, check out First Second Books for more links. For me, Buffy will always hold a special place in my heart, as well Robin McKinley's Sunshine and yes, Anita Blake's complicated love life. As to the big screen, it is only and forever The Lost Boys - best vamp movie and one of the top ten soundtracks ever.

By Evan Schnittman

Recently I was on an airplane reading an article in the New York Times when the woman in the seat next to me leaned over and asked what I was holding. I told her it was a Kindle, Amazon’s new ebook reader. I showed her how it worked, explained e-ink, walked her through my collection of titles and subscriptions, and showed how I could look up words in the built in Oxford dictionary. Her response; “That is really cool, but I prefer the feel and smell of a real book.” (more…)

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Bill Hicks made it fairly clear how easy it will be for us Marketing folk to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but to misquote another couple of humorous gents, there's some advertising that doesn't so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.

Honda seem to be pretty good at what they do, here, here and here, Sony have also done some lovely stuff recently, here, here and here, and to give you a final trilogy, Orange don't do too badly either, here, here and here. Cadbury's caused a lovely bubble of chat with this ad (and some strongly worded emails between members of my family), and H&M have created this year's Heat-sponsored Advert of Guilty Pleasure, with Tesco (typed with gritted teeth) taking the runner-up place.

Of course, the bad old days of marketing remain; I noticed at the sides of my local swimming pool ads for Bratz DVDs, which forced me to duck my head under water to hide the tears. As a grown-up, I'm fully aware of all the things that advertising, however repugnant, allows - if it weren't for those Bratz posters, my local pool may well be my local Tesco - but when you see how well some folk do it, it makes you wonder why everyone doesn't. Or maybe it makes you feel the opposite. Volkswagen's current oddly phrased ad (about buying a VW "even though it's second, or even third hand") makes my temperature rise, as does Lloyds TSB's "Wouldn't it be nice" press ads (although that's mainly because they keep cancelling and losing my cards, apparently at random, and their customer service has been second-to-most).

Some ads seem to have a beautiful idea behind them, but very little to do with the product; some ads seem to have the same idea at the same time as everyone else (did anyone else notice in the last 12 months, John West, Fish4 and Bacardi all had ads featuring men dressed as fish running a marathon?); and some ads serve no purpose at all (why use the world's most famous supermodel to advertise making yourself look better with paints and potions, and why advertise TVs on TV - either it looks rubbish so you don't want a new one, or it looks great so you don't need one; plus, not one of us could name the product for any ads for TVs bar the Bravia ads). Some are just horrible; some gets tonnes of publicity while still seeming a little derivative. Some ads make the world seem a better place.

Penguin has dabbled in both cinema and television advertising, with some nice plaudits (and some criticisms) for each. We try to do new things, here and here, to entertain readers as much as anything else - and after all, it's books we're pushing, lovely books, not oil, drugs or cigarettes. Do you care about another newspaper ad, however clever the line? Would you like to be told about new titles? If so, how? And if not - what are you doing on the Penguin blog?

Sam the Copywriter

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