Campaign I Love Myself

I love Myself is a campaign focused on young people who pass through any kind of emotional disorder as bulimia, anorexia, bullying, depression.

Hollywood é aqui!

Hollywood é Aqui é um sonho que virou realidade, é a sua conexão direta com Los Angeles, sem sair de casa.

Pencils of Promise

There are currently more than 61 million children without access to education, but together we can do something about it.

quinta-feira, novembro 28, 2013

Interview with the one and only L. J. Smith.

Luana: Why did you choose this genre? What is your connection with the supernatural world?

Lisa: Um, see above!  I love fantasy of every kind.  I adored the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis when I first read them when I was nine years old.  I made up a land like Narnia in my head, and it was named Felicity, which means “happiness.”  It always made me happy to think about my fantasy world, which was ruled by a beautiful white unicorn, who could turn into a boy with white hair named Julian (I suppose that this was one of the beginnings of The Forbidden Game).
When I was ten or eleven I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I was breathless from beginning to end.  By then I was realizing that I wasn’t going to actually find real magic, and that I would just have to think up my own magic in my head.
My first two books, The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor, were pure fantasy.  Although I wrote them for children around 12 years old, they were sold to an editor at MacMillan who didn’t like fantasy and they were marketed as middle-grade books, for kids ages 8-10.  Also the cover of Solstice was hideous!  The beautiful mansion Fell Andred looked like a giant spaceship, and Alys was black-skinned with yellow hair!  I was so disappointed that I cried.  Even the people who wrote me fan letters (and there were a few) said that it was the ugliest cover they had ever seen and that they almost hadn’t read the book because of the awful cover.
Those books sold very few copies, but they did get some nice reviews, and also they were read by Elise Donner.  Elise worked for Alloy Entertainment (it was called Daniel Weiss Inc. back then).  They were doing some books for HarperCollins.  She called me to say that she had read my books and enjoyed them very much and that they were looking for a writer to do a “special, high class vampire trilogy.”  I thought it sounded like a good offer since she guaranteed that my books would appear in lots of bookstores, something that hadn’t happened with my first two books.
I had to write each book—and edit it—within three months.  I worked harder than I ever had, to get three books finished within nine months I had finished the entire trilogy.  After that I took a little vacation in the far East, and soon after I got back the first Vampire Diaries book came out and my whole life changed.
So I guess my connection to the supernatural world is half chosen (by me even as a child) and half accidental (by being asked to write what became The Vampire Diaries series).  

Luana: You started writing "The Vampire Diaries", around 1991 (am I correct?) I wasn't even born and you were making history in the entertainment business. How cool is that, huh? What I am saying is that the story you wrote in the nineties became even more successful in the 21st Century. Twenty years ago, when you started writing the book did you expect it would be a huge success, even on TV?

Lisa: Well, you see even back then I had TV offers and options and things.  There was a Secret Circle TV pilot that almost got made—the producer would call me and ask me for ideas and tell me how wonderful the books were (quite different from what eventually happened on the TV show).  So I was content with being on the bestsellers list with every book I did back in the 1990s.  I didn’t know it could all get bigger.
But no, I didn’t really imagine the happiness (and sadness) that could come with even greater exposure.  Back in those days there was no question of my own website, my books being on TV (even if the series flopped like Secret Circle), of getting messages from around the world or doing interviews with Brazilians!  I didn’t know that I was a big fish in a very small pond back then.  Now I know how big the pond is and that I’m only a guppy!

Luana: The TV producers had to make some changes to adapt the story you created to TV. For example, Elena is blond on the book, but Nina Dobrev has dark hair. I heard the fans complained about it in the beginning. But after watching Nina's performance on the pilot, everyone felt in love with her. How do you feel about the changes that were made by the writers? 

Lisa: As I said, I honestly can’t say, as I don’t watch TV!  I’m so sorry!
I also felt very sad when an actress claimed that they “had” to change Elena because in the books she was “mean.” 
I don’t think of Elena as mean in the books.  She is a very intelligent, very strong young woman.  Yes, she evolves in the books from being selfish and spoiled to being unselfish and willing to give her life to save Damon and Stefan.  That’s because in every book the main character needs to learn and grow, so they don’t always start out as perfect.  But I like my characters to be strong young women from the start, even if they don’t know it themselves, like Cassie in TheSecret Circle.  Cassie thinks she’s weak, but she is brave enough in the opening chapters of The Initiation to hide Adam from witch hunters and to undergo having her wrist twisted and bruised without giving any information about him.  I think this shows Cassie as being a girl with a core of true strength.  By the end of the trilogy, Cassie fully accepts herself as a strong young woman.  Anyway, to get back to my original point, there are too few truly strong young women on TV and in the movies.  I suppose that’s another reason why I don’t watch TV and why I am often critical of movies I watch.   I think that it is sad when a strong character “has” to be made weaker or more “vulnerable” before she will appeal to a TV audience.


Luana: Your characters are all mystics, mainly vampires. But the plot of the book is about family, friendship,  love, revenge, which are all  human feelings. Why did you choose the vampire universe to discuss family matters?
Lisa: Are we talking about The Vampire Diaries here?  If so, see my answer above as to how I came to write it.  As for why my books deal with family, friendship, love, revenge, optimism, and fighting for what’s right—well, that’s because each book is just a disguise so that I can get in a bunch of preaching about how everyone can make a difference if they will work together and how strong young women are better than weak ones.
As to why use vampires to talk about human feelings—well, I can’t speak about anything besides the books, but in the books the vampires were all once human (in The Vampire Diaries) and they have feelings about family (like Stefan and Damon’s connection as brothers); friendship (as in the way Stefan is friends with Matt, Bonnie, and Meredith); love (obviously!); revenge (obviously!) and so on.  The vampires are just metaphors for humans who deal with all these themes.

Luana: You're became a famous writer for your books "The Vampire Diaries", "The Secret Circle" and "NightWorld". Do you have another book coming out soon? If so, can you give us a little taste of it?

Lisa: Are TheForbidden Game trilogy and the Dark Visions trilogy not available in Brazil?  How sad.  I will have to speak to my agent about this and see if maybe they can be released there.  A lot of people pick The Forbidden Game as their favorite of all my works, and I will do a sequel to it when I have time. Meanwhile, I am working on three new works.  One is Strange Fate, the last book in the Night World series.  Another is The Last Lullaby, which sold a year ago to Farrar Straus and Giroux in the USA, and to many foreign publishers (maybe even to a Brazilian publisher—I don’t remember).  It will come out in the fall of 2014.  The third is  . . .  a secret project.  I think many people will be surprised when I unveil it.  I hope they will be excited.  I can’t give an exact date right now as for when it will come out, but it will be sooner than next fall! As for a little taste, below is a short explanation of what The Last Lullaby is about and I will attach the first chapter of Strange Fate (I doubt you’ll want to translate it all, but I’ll give it to you anyway).

Luana: Your books are a huge success in Brazil. The TV show is a hit there too. Would you like to send  your Brazilian fans a message?

Lisa: Yes!  I’d like to say to them that I love all the readers from Brazil who write to me (info@ljanesmith.net ) or visit my new Facebook Page: (https://www.facebook.com/ljsmithauthorofvampirediaries).  I cherish all my Brazilian fans and hope that I can come to see them for a book signing when I am not writing three books at once!  I thank them for their support and loyalty, and I send them the best of wishes for the future.  

Luana: I would like to thank you for responding all these questions.
I wish you all the best, on behalf of all your Brazilian Fans.


Lisa's social networks:

http://www.ljanesmith.net/
https://www.facebook.com/ljsmithauthorofvampirediaries

segunda-feira, novembro 25, 2013

Um manual para a vida!

Eu costumo dizer que fomos enviados a terra com uma missão e parte dessa missão está em descobrir que missão é essa. Confuso? Pois é, eu também já estive assim, mas o fato é que, se fosse o contrário a vida realmente não teria sentido, ou você se contenta com essa história de viemos de uma explosão que resultou em átomos que magicamente se juntaram e formaram tecidos, ossos e membros? que do pó viemos e ao pó voltaremos? Não se engane! Nosso corpo veio do pó, e sim ao pó ele retornará, mas sua alma veio de Deus e a Ele retornará, ou pelo menos assim deveria ser.

Embora, a vida nos seja dada de forma simples e natural, biologicamente falando, nós sabemos que cada habitante -que já viveu, vive ou viverá- nesta terra tem um propósito maior do que simplesmente manter a preservação da especie. A vida também não vem com um manual de instruções, a medida que, cairemos algumas (muitas) vezes antes de aprendermos a nos equilibrar sob nossos próprios pés. Agiremos por impulsos e sofreremos pequenas correções, algumas arestas terão de ser reparadas até que possamos ser reconhecidos como gente.

Eu disse que não que a vida não vinha com um manual de instruções, certo? Mas eu não disse que você não iria encontrar um quando chegasse a hora de começar sua missão. E eu acho que você sabe do que eu estou falando, sim, este manual é a Bíblia! E o fato de isso não ser uma surpresa para você é porque essa é uma das verdades que perdura desde que o mundo é mundo. Sem querer apelar para estatísticas mas, todos sabemos que a Bíblia é o livro mais antigo, o mais traduzido, e por consequência é também o livro mais vendido.

Um dos meus livros favoritos de toda a Bíblia é o livro de Eclesiastes, escrito pelo sábio Salomão nos últimos dias de sua vida, após o exílio na Babilônia. Eclesiastes é um resumo de tudo que nossa vida é, de como as escolhas erradas nos levam a sofrimentos desnecessários, e que de fato o que se planta se colhe. Mas acima de tudo, o livro de Eclesiastes, me faz lembrar do que realmente tem valor!

"O que foi, isso é o que há de ser; e o que se fez, isso se fará; de modo que nada há de novo debaixo do sol. Há alguma coisa de que se possa dizer: Vê, isto é novo? Já foi nos séculos passados, que foram antes de nós." ~Eclesiastes 1:9-10 Em outras palavras: Nada se cria, tudo se copia. Não há nada mais previsível que o ser humano, suas atitudes e suas escolhas. Essa passagem foi escrita a mais de 2.000 anos atrás e ela ainda faz sentido para nós nos dias atuais, e é por isso que a Bíblia é o único livro que pode trazer resposta para os maiores questionamentos humanos, pois o que hoje sabemos é fruto dos muitos questionamentos como os do sábio Salomão.

O livro de Eclesiastes é composto por 12 capítulos que irão lhe mostrar como ter uma vida saudável e regrada, você encontrará nele duvidas e respostas. Acompanhe essa reflexão e surpreenda-se com a sabedoria daquele que deixou um legado a toda a humanidade.



sexta-feira, novembro 01, 2013

A letter to Nicholas Sparks (and his wife).