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Ten years after the TV series was heartbreakingly axed Veronica Mars is making a comeback. First there was the much-anticipated, kickstarter funded, movie and now there is a series of novels that continue the Neptune universe.

A TV/Movie spin-off book is not usually on my radar and I don’t think I would have read this but when I found out Kristen Bell was reading the audio book I was in. (Plus the movie was sooo good!)

(SPOILER ALERT: you must see the film before reading the book and the rest of my review will talk about the movie’s ending)

At the end of the movie Veronica has returned to Neptune and is in the PI business again. The book takes off right from there with Veronica taking on her first big case. The storyline is like a good, solid double episode from the show. Now older and wiser things get a better darker and more dangerous for Veronica than her school/college PI days. It is spring break in Neptune and a teenage girl has gone missing. Fearing the negative press coverage Neptune’s Chamber of Commerce hires Veronica to look into the case which is being handled with the ineptitude and laziness we have come to expect from the Sheriff’s department. When a second girl goes missing Veronica must quickly re-find her PI shoes before it is too late.

All our favourite characters make an appearance with a surprise thrown in. My only grumble was that the story is told in the third person, which still works but I was really looking forward to being inside Veronica’s head more (like the TV show) especially with Bell narrating the audio book. Otherwise it was a really fun story and it is really great to see the story being kept alive, whatever the format and I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.

Buy the book here…

Spring has sprung, and with it a whole bunch of movies I want to watch have arrived at the movie theater (as well as this bunch, see my recent review of Snowpiercer at Strange Horizons).  Though I haven't exactly been suffering, there's certainly a somewhat fannish slant to my recent moviegoing that verges on the embarrassing--I need to get around to watching some grown-up films, pronto.  Of

Veronica Mars.

The Plot: Veronica Mars is having a rough Junior year at Neptune High School.

Last year, Veronica Mars's best friend, Lily Kane, was murdered. Veronica's father, the Sheriff, bungled the investigation and lost his job; her mother fled, never to be seen; and Veronica's friends not only deserted her, they turned on her, with the abuse culminating in Veronica being drugged at a party and raped.

Welcome to Neptune.

But don't cry for Veronica. She picked herself up, dried those tears, cut her Alice in Wonderland long blond hair and dealt with it. Her dad is a poorly paid private investigator, helped out often by Veronica; and now that she's learned a trick or two about investigating people, she has a plan.

Find out who killed Lily Kane.

The Good: Veronica Mars may have the most perfect first season of television, ever. Even with Paris Hilton as a guest star. No, really. Rob Thomas, the former young adult author turned television producer, created this show and wow, the benefit of having someone do this who understands story, especially long term story arcs, shows.

Veronica herself is fabulously flawed yet always likable; her view of things is not always right, but it takes a while for the viewer to understand that. Pay attention to how she she labels her former friends who turned on her in the first episodes. As time and flashbacks reveal, those friends also loved and lost Lilly and truly believed that Veronica's father screwed up the investigation to find her murder. It takes time for Veronica to see that she is not the only one hurting.

Veronica's friendships and romances are not perfect but are perfectly shown, perfectly developed. She starts with "no friends," and is a rather prickly teen. Yet a few people have the patience to befriend her and in return she gives loyalty. Also? Veronica Mars has one of the best father/daughter relationships in the history of television. If I had to pick a TV dad, it would be Keith Mars. Keith, who has lost wife, house, job, place in community. Yet he picks himself up, creates a new home (in a crappy apartment complex on the bad side of town), starts working as a private investigator and most importantly, loves and supports his daughter. Always.

First season, Veronica solves the murder of Lily Kane. How she does it is beautiful; there are false leads, there are road blocks, there is doubt. Always, Veronica is smart, and driven, and kicks ass. She doesn't apologize for who she is and what she does and what she wants. She is both a terrific role model and also scary as hell. Veronica was hurt in the past, so can be slow to trust. Who can blame her, though?

Thomas, perhaps fearing this would be a one-season show, answers all the mysteries raised in the first season. Which, as a viewer? And as someone recommending that you watch this ASAP? Was terrific. However, this led to a problem -- what would be the next mystery for Veronica to solve? In addition, part of the strength of season one was the artful use of flashbacks into Veronica's life "before," before Lily was murdered. Thomas brilliantly used Veronica'

No, really! I'm so there.

Rob Thomas says a Veronica Mars movie his next project (which means it's a long ways off) and that it'll probably take place a few days before her college graduation.

Thomas: '"I've talked to Jason Dohring, I've talked to Enrico Colantoni and I've talked to Kristen, obviously. I know that Kristen wants to do it. I want to do it."

As for funding, Thomas reveals: 'Joel Silver does have a certain pile of money that he can decide on, and he called me asking, ‘Can we do this now?' "

This is the best week Ever!


via Mom. Thanks, Mom!

In getting to know Jennifer we've learned her husband has been a strong influence on her writing, but we wondered if there was a teacher or librarian along the way who set her on her path to publication. Here's her heartfelt answer....


I'm pretty sure the expectation for this question was that I'd talk about a teacher or librarian from my own schooling that influenced me. And I had some great ones—Gail Kirkland at Daviess County High School and Linda Tatum from Tamarack Elementary to name two—but the person who really got me started writing in the way I'm writing now is Cathy Belben.

Cathy is the librarian at the school where I taught for eight years, Burlington-Edison High. She was assigned as my mentor my first year, and I'm so lucky for it. Cathy is an amazing teacher, a passionate librarian, and absolutely one of the funniest people I know. But she is also a gifted writer. She's published hundreds of articles on all sorts of topics. From incorporating crafts in the library for professional magazines to her piece on donating her own remains to the body farm for Bust Magazine. She's published award winning fiction, spent a season living in Hollywood writing for Veronica Mars, and generally inspires everybody who comes into contact with her. She's the one who really got me hooked on great YA, and who invited me to join her writing group even though I didn't really write much at the time. She's just one of those people who make you want to join the party of words and story and craft, and we're so lucky to have her in our community.

She's also a great friend. Here we are on one of our homecoming dress up days at school. I think it was superhero day, and we came dressed as twin triathletes. Goggles, running pants, towel capes. We took our bike helmets off for the photo so we wouldn't, ahem, look dumb.

Cathy truly is a superhero. (But she might need to hire a new costumer.) Tomorrow we learn why some writing contests left Jennifer wondering if she'd ever get published.

Hot off the season 3 DVD, the Veronica Mars season 4 'pilot', Rob Thomas's attempt to sketch out the show's revamped form with Veronica as an FBI agent: part 1 & 2. (See also the season 3 blooper reel.) The crazy thing is, I actually have a list of likes and dislikes in response to this, as though it weren't just a sad reminder of something that'll (probably) never be but an actual prelude to a

By now you've probably heard about Veronica Mars's cancellation. Michael Ausiello has it from the horse's mouth. Everyone always says that it's better for a show to die at its peak, rather than linger for an unnaturally long life, hemorrhaging quality and viewers. That's usually true, but it less painful--for the viewers--when a show dies at a midpoint between these two stages--when it's still

Shaken & Stirred has this report about Veronica Mars, which is hanging on by a thread; I quote the pertinent part: And according to CW insiders, the CW has not officially canceled Veronica Mars. However, here's the catch: They are currently considering a different format for the fourth season. From what I hear, that format would leap four years into the future and focus on Veronica Mars as an FBI agent.

What's freaky is I have been saying this is the way to save the show. Seriously, ask anyone who I've bored to death about it. (I posted it as a comment to some one's livejournal...damn.. Cannot remember who.)

See, what was so cool about Season One? Flashback Theatre, as we watched Veronica investigate a murder that was a year old. What has been missing from VM? That sense of Flashback, the real uncovering of a story, that not knowing ourselves what had, and had not, gone on.

I think this could be really, really good.

E!Online's Kristin Veitch reports: According to CW insiders, the network has not officially canceled Veronica Mars. However, here's the catch: It is currently considering a different format for the fourth season. From what I hear, that format would leap four years into the future and focus on Veronica as an FBI agent. Aside from returning star Kristen Bell (duh), the rest of the cast is yet to be

How much do I love the decision to split Veronica Mars's third season into mini-arcs? Not only has the shift in format completely re-energized the show, it gives me three convenient stopping points from which to take stock of the show's progress. And, since I share producer Rob Thomas's fears about the likelihood of a fourth season, it's probably best to take advantage of the opportunity to do

I just got back from watching the new Will Ferrell movie Stranger Than Fiction with a friend. What a GREAT show! I like Will Ferrell about half the time--he's a good comedian, but I don't go for over-the-top humor. I liked Bewitched and Elf, though, and with the premise of the story being what it was, and on the recommendation of a friend, I went, and it was worth it.

The idea, if you didn't know, is that Harold Crick wakes up one morning to hear Emma Thompson's voice narrating his life. He's an IRS agent, and his life is extremely boring--lives alone, no friends, counts his brushstrokes when brushing his teeth, etc. A few days after he starts hearing the narrator, she says, "Little did he know, [something something about an event] would lead to his imminent death."

There is so much meta-fictional stuff here that my Victorian children's lit teacher in grad school would have had a heyday with. Then again, it would be interesting to compare this movie to Veronica Mars's narration, as well. What an interesting twist on the breaking of the narrator-reader wall. "Slippage" was my Victorian teacher's favorite term, and what slippage was here! But it wasn't the usual kind, the kind that breaks the wall between the reality of the book and the reality of the reader, which was so prevalent in Victorian children's lit. Instead, it broke the boundaries between the narrator and the character, in a very obvious way (a way another friend terms "pretentious," saying that the movie was too self-aware, yet I think was that way on purpose).

Anyway, great movie. Funny and original. Highly recommend it for the lit geek and non-lit geek alike.

The good news: according to two different sources, Veronica Mars has received a full season order. The bad news: the CW has ordered only 20 episodes instead of the expected 22. In the short run, this means Rob Thomas and his writing staff will have to scramble to rewrite the season's final plot arc, which will end up getting the least screen time--only four episodes. What really worries me,