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Nothing beats the morbid delight begot from a good old-fashioned bad dream. It’s the stuff memorable horror movies are made of. There’s no denying, being tantalised and terrified go hand in hand. But what about those bad dreams that leave you thrashing in a bed of sweat-soaked sheets and screaming for salvation? Nightmares can plague […]

This month we've seen some changes on the best selling middle grade books list due to the well timed releases of Jason Segel's Nightmares!—a great choice for the upcoming spooky season—and Mike Lupica's Fantasy League (Did somebody say football?).

Random House Children’s Books has published the first installment in a series of middle-grade fiction books by actor Jason Segel and bestselling author Kirsten Miller.

Nightmares!, the first in a trilogy by The Muppets star, is about a boy named Charlie and his kids who must face their nightmares in order to save their town. It’s a kind of children’s version of Nightmare on Elm Street.

Check it out: “What Charlie doesn’t know is that his problems are about to get a whole lot more real. Nightmares can ruin a good night’s sleep, but when they start slipping out of your dreams and into the waking world—that’s a line that should never be crossed.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Muppets and How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel has inked a book deal for a middle-grade fiction series he will write with Kirsten Miller. Random House Children’s Books will publish Nightmares! in fall 2014.

If you want to read more, you can join Segel’s 2.3 million followers on Twitter. WME and Abrams negotiated the deal with Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers publisher Beverly Horowitz. Executive editor Krista Marino will edit the book. The release had more details:

Both scary and funny, NIGHTMARES! is an adventure story about a group of kids who realize it’s up to them to save their town from fear, which has manifested itself in the form of nightmare creatures that have slipped into the everyday world. At its heart, NIGHTMARES! is about kids overcoming their fears … Says Segel, “I couldn’t be more excited that NIGHTMARES! has found a home at Random House. Ultimately, it’s a story about learning that we can accomplish anything, as long as we are brave enough to try. These are the types of stories that always inspired me.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Kiki Strike: The Darkness Dwellers Kirsten Miller

First off, I need to offer a great big THANK YOU to all that is good in the universe for FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY giving us another Kiki Strike book. IT HAS BEEN FOREVER.

And, has the wait been worth it? Oh yes, yes it has.

Kiki is off to Pokrovia to claim her crown and renounce it, officially supporting the democracy that has sprung up. When she leaves, she leaves Ananka in charge of the Irregulars.

In New York, Ananka and Betty stumble across the L'Institut Beauregard, a finishing school for New York's finest families. Ananka is already aware of them--every year they turn more of her classmates in zombies, completely draining them of their interesting personalities.

Meanwhile, Kiki doesn't make it to Pokrovia-- she's been kidnapped in Paris, but happens to meet two interesting young men with very extensive knowledge of the catacombs. While Amelia Beauregard takes Betty to Paris to help investigate a mystery from WWII, and Kiki and her friends are investigating more recent disappearances, the Irregulars at home are figuring out why Oona's been banned from every shop in Chinatown and trying to defeat an evil pharmaceutical company. Of course, there's still that bit about Kiki's kidnapping and Pokrovia's future as a democratic nation.

I love, love, love how Betty really comes into her own in this one. None of the other irregulars really trust her, because she's the nicest of them. But when she's in Paris, she's more or less on her own and has to prove what she's made of, and she has to decide how she does it. It's really well done. Actually, there's a lot in this one about the dynamics of the group and their relationships with one another. It's been so long since the last one, I can't remember if that's normal or not. All I know is that I love it.

I also loved the exploration of another city's underground. I loved the change in location and mysteries and secrets of the Paris catacombs (which, unlike the underground city that the Irregulars frequent in New York, is actually real.) I also like how much takes place in the catacombs that the tourists don't get to see.

The history buff in my appreciates that the older mystery was just as important as the recent ones-- it's never too late to solve a mystery.

I am not sure how I feel about the cover redesign (they're rereleasing the others as well in the new style).

Fans will not be dissapointed. I can only hope/pray/wish that there is more, and it is coming soon.

ARC Provided by... a friend, who knows how much I love Kiki. (THANK YOU DAVID!!!)

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

How often can you meet authors who write about outer space, werewolves, dystopian societies, fairies, and reincarnation in the same event?

The Breathless Reads tour featured Beth Revis, Andrea Cremer, Ally Condie, Brenna Yovanoff, and Kirsten Miller.

We caught up with the five authors for advice on writing, getting published, and more. Highlights from the interview follows below.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.

This month's recommended reads include the Kiki Strike novels by Kirsten Miller. We postergirlz felt that Kiki and company would have great fun with the Gallagher Girls. (Can you imagine how awesome that team-up would be? If these were TV shows, I'd be hankering for a crossover episode!)

Today, Kirsten told me what this month's theme, Courage, means to her:

My favorite superhero has always been Batman because he wasn't born super. Unlike Superman or the X-Men, Batman is an average human being just like the rest of us. His skills aren't the result of toxic waste spill or a nip from a radioactive spider. Batman chooses to be super. It's that choice that sets him apart from the rest.

In my opinion, we all place far too much stock in the gifts we're granted at birth. Beauty, intelligence, wealth -- the world tells us these are the things that make us who we are. They play a role, no doubt, but far more important are the traits we develop as we grow older.

In other words, it's not what we're born with, it's who we eventually become that counts.

No one is born courageous. Impetuous, maybe. Reckless, perhaps. But you'll never meet a courageous toddler. They simply don't exist. You have to choose to be courageous. It isn't hard. Everyone over the age of five can do it. All it takes are two simple steps . . .

1. Listen to your gut. (It will almost always identify the right thing to do.)
2. Do what your gut tells you, no matter what the consequences may be.

It's that second step that stymies most people. They know what they should do, but they lack the intestinal fortitude to follow through. That's why we're so fascinated by stories of individuals who have risked their lives, their jobs, or their freedom to help others. They're exceptional. They do what the rest of us can—but won't.

I'm fortunate to have been raised by one of those people. My own mother may be the most courageous person I've ever met. She's never rescued anyone from a burning building or testified in court against murderous mobsters. Hers is an everyday sort of courage. She always stands up for the powerless. She never bows to convention. She will accept any challenge or take on any fight if she thinks it's the right thing to do. (And believe me, you don't want to fight my mamma.)

One of the proudest moments of my life was when my father told me I was, "brave and stupid, just like your mother." (If you knew my dad's sense of humor, you'd find that incredibly touching.)

Throughout her life, my mother has chosen to be courageous. From what I've seen, it hasn't been easy. And although it's a constant struggle, and I don't think I'm quite there yet, I will always try my best to follow her (and Batman's) example.

- Kirsten Miller

Hey guys - sorry I was not here on Friday. Don't worry, I'll make this Friday's round up and Vlog extra stupid :)

I had a procedure done last week and I was not expecting it to kick my arse!

Until then, I can still give stuff away - right? :)

So last week's winner of Eternal Ones signed by Kirsten Miller is...

ABYSS!!

email me your address ([email protected])

Since we've done alot of YA books, today's giveaway is a Middle Grade LOT (mostly new ARCs by Little Brown)

Obert Skye's Pillage (bestselling author of Leven Thumps, Shadow Mountain) , President of the whole 5th grade (10/2010, Little Brown), Tumtum and Nutmeg - The Rose Cottage Tales (10/2010, Little Brown), and Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream (01/2011, Little Brown).

Just comment and I'll enter you :)

Tomorrow, Natashya Wilson, Senior Editor of Harlequin Teen will be here giving away a bunch of HQTeen books including the The Soul Screamers Series by Rachel Vincent!

Go check out Lisa and Laura's blog about Characterization - if you don't learn anything (and don't get your hopes up :), you'll at least laugh! :)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Faeriality?alt=rss

The winners of The Duff ARCs are (actually I only had 2 books so Natalie email me offline and I'll find something great for you!):

1 Laura Pauling (signed)
2 Sharon Mayhew
3 Natalie Bahm (email me for your choice- sorry :(

Congrads and email me your addresses [email protected]!

Today, we have Kirsten Miller (also author of Kiki Strike novels) who dropped by to answer a few questions. You can also visit her blog.

Win a signed hardback of Eternal Ones. Just comment on the post and tell me: If past lives were real, what/who do you think you were? (only open to US residents)

Hi Kirsten, thanks for stopping by. Tell us about you as an author. Tell us about Eternal Ones (in 140 characters :)

Much like my books, I appear normal at first glance and get increasingly weirder the more you get to know me. (Or so I’ve been told.) I’ve always found myself drawn to odd facts and ideas that make the world seem more magical. Which is probably why all of my novels follow heroines who accidentally discover that beneath the ordinary often lies something quite extraordinary.

For instance . . .

The Eternal Ones is a twisted tale of past lives, passion, and sinister secret societies that asks the question: Does true love ever die?

(All that with three characters to spare!)

What inspired the idea for Kiki series? Eternal Ones?

Before I wrote the Kiki series, I used to daydream about a girl mastermind who secretly controlled New York City. Over time, the character started to become increasingly real to me. She was the sort of girl I always wanted to be—powerful, enigmatic, and good with a bazooka. I started writing Kiki<