EarlyWord

Leading in holds next week is The Promise by Robert Crais (PRH/Putnam), featuring series characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. On the other hand, Mitch Albom’s new title, a novel, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto (Harper), is showing light holds in comparison to copies ordered. Anne Perry adds the thirteenth title to her list of Christmas-themed mysteries, this one set in Stromboli, near Sicily, A Christmas Escape (PRH/Ballantine). Based on holds ratios, this series is growing in popularity.

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Nov. 9, 2015

Media Magnets

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jon Meacham (Random House), EMBARGOED

Meacham, whose books on previous presidents have been well-received (he won a Pulitzer for his biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion) finds his new book making headlines in all the major news outlets, from the Washington Post, “George H.W. Bush slams ‘iron-ass’ Cheney, ‘arrogant’ Rumsfeld  …” to FoxNews, “HW Bush jabs at Cheney, Rumsfeld in new book.” There’s also speculation that this book will be “Awkward for Jeb Bush” (Slate).

All the publicity has caused the book to rise to #10 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Rules For A Knight, Ethan Hawke (PRH/Knopf)

While Booklist and PW found this modern fable by the actor heartwarming, LJ and Kirkus seemed to have read a different book. The latter sums it up its negative review saying, “By all appearances, Hawke aspires to write a modern Siddhartha, but what we wind up with is more along the lines of watered-down Mitch Albom- and that’s a very weak cup of tea indeed. Just the thing for those who want their New Age nostrums wrapped in medieval kit.”

It will get media attention next week, including an interview with Stephen Colbert on the Late Show and an appearance on Live with Kelly and Michael.

Year Of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person, Shonda Rhimes (Simon & Schuster)

You wouldn’t suspect that the producer of several major TV shows (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder) fears appearing in public so much that she suffers panic attacks. She discovered a way to overcome her fears by simply saying “Yes” to things that terrified her. Her new resolve will be tested this week as she is scheduled for appearances on a dizzying number of shows, including Good Morning America, Nightline, and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as well as NPR’s All Things Considered and Fresh Air.

The book is excerpted in this week’s People magazine.

Peer Picks

Dear Mr. You, Mary-Louise Parker (S&S/Scribner; Simon & Schuster Audio)

Both an Indie Next and a LibrayReads pick:

“Parker has created a unique and poetic memoir through a series of letters–some of appreciation, some of apology, some simply of acknowledgement–to the men in her life. Ranging from a taxi driver to a grandfather she never knew, each man has left an imprint and shaped her into the person she has become. Full of feeling, growth, and self-discovery, Parker’s book has left me longing to write my own letters.”
PJ Gardiner, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC.

Parker, who spoke to librarians this year at BEA’s AAP/LibraryReads Lunch, will appear on NPR’s Weekend Edition tomorrow.

Crimson Shore, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Hachette/Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample)

LibraryReads:

“In the latest installment in the Special Agent Pendergast series, Pendergast and Constance Greene investigate a theft of a wine cellar in an ancient village on the coast north of Salem, only to discover during their investigation the entombed remains of a tortured man. “I always thoroughly enjoy the Pendergast novels, and the interaction between Pendergast and Constance in this book was very intriguing.” Shari Brophy, Timberland Regional Library, Tumwater, WA.

A Wild Swan: And Other Tales, Michael Cunningham with illustrations by Yuko Shimizu (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio)

LibraryReads:

“These are fairy tales that have slightly more insight, for the discerning adult. The Wild Swans was actually my favorite when I was young, next to The Little Mermaid. These are a continuation of what happens after those stories end and are set, in some instances, in the modern world. Packed with humor, this is an easy gift for those who like to be read to at night or feel too old for idealistic fairy tales.” Andrienne Cruz, Azusa City Library, Azusa, CA.

Tie-ins

A new Bond movie hits theaters this weekend, Spectre, but 007 is now so far from his book origins that the Ian Fleming name is buried in the credits. Like the previous Bond movie, Skyfall, this one has no tie-in, but libraries can capitalize on the movie by displaying books that featured S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), which Fleming introduced in his 1961 novel, Thunderball and continued in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice. John Gardner brought S.P.E.C.T.R.E.  back in his Bond novel, For Special Services, continuing in Role of Honor, and Nobody Lives Forever. The Atlantic offers background on “The Messy, Improbable History of SPECTRE.”

Plenty of other movies open this week that do give credit to their origins. All have tie-ins, listed in our Movie Tie-ins:

Brooklyn — 11/4, limited — Based on the 2009 novel by Colm Toibin, starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by John Crowley, it is considered an Oscar contender.

Spotlight — 11/6 — People lists it as their #1 pick for the week, saying “All the President’s Men gets new competition for the best film ever about journalism.” It is based on reporting by Boston Globe journalists into child sexual abuse in Boston’s Catholic church and subsequent coverup. By comparison, the expected blockbuster, The Peanuts Movie trails at #9 on People‘s list, which is not to say they don’t like it, they DO, very much.

Trumbo — 11/6, limited — stars Bryan Cranston as the screenwriter who fought against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1940’s.  People lists it as the #5 pick for the week, noting Helen Mirren’s role as a “deliciously vile” red-hater columnist Hedda Hopper. Trumbo wrote the screenplays for many well-known movies, including Spartacus, Roman Holiday, Papilion, and The Way We Were. He also wrote and directed  Johnny Got His Gun, based on his own novel.

Peanuts — 11/6 — As People points out, a whole new generation is ready to be introduced to Charlie and the gang. In the NYT  Dana Jennings worries that introduction is flawed, “What I’ve seen of the balloon-like animation of The Peanuts Movie worries me” and lists new books that show off the “simple and lyrical drawing line of the comic strip.”

Charming Christmas — 11/8 (Sunday) — Hallmark movie, kicks off Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas.”

Tie-ins scheduled for publication this week are:

The Secret in Their Eyes (Movie Tie-In Edition) by Eduardo Sacheri (Other Press; OverDrive Sample).

A thriller baed on the Argentine novel, La pregunta de sus ojos. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Dean Norris, and Michael Kelly, it opens Nov. 20. It was previously adapted into an Argentine film which won the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The book was originally released in an English translation in 2011.

Carol by Patricia Highsmith (Norton)

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s The Price Of Salt, 1952, this is considered a strong Oscar contender. It also opens Nov. 20.

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (Movie Tie-in) by Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin; Penguin Audio)

If the trailer is any indicator, this will be one of the scariest movies of the season. Directed by Ron Howard, it opens Dec. 11.

A young reader edition was  released in September. In the Heart of the Sea (Young Readers Edition) by Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin/Puffin Books; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The Color Purple (Musical Tie-In) by Alice Walker (HMH/Mariner Books).

A new production starring Jennifer Hudson opens on Broadway Dec. 10.

Downton Abbey – A Celebration: The Official Companion to All Six Seasons by Jessica Fellowes (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press)

The final season debuts on PBS on January 2.

I Saw the Light: The Story of Hank Williams by Colin Escott, George Merritt, William MacEwen (Back Bay Books).

The biopic of the country music legend stars Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams and Elizabeth Olsen as Audrey Williams, also a country music star and his first wife. The movie release date has recently changed to March 2016, but the tie-in publication date is still listed as this week.

Disney has just premiered the first full trailer for their next Alice movie, Alice Through the Looking Glass scheduled for release in late May 2016.

All the main actors reprise their roles from the first movie, including Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen.

Like the first movie, the sequel departs from Lewis Carroll’s original. According to the plot summary on YouTube:

“Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past few years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland  … The Hatter has lost his Muchness, so Mirana (Hathaway) sends Alice on a quest to borrow the Chronosphere, a metallic globe inside the chamber of the Grand Clock which powers all time. Returning to the past, she comes across friends – and enemies – at different points in their lives, and embarks on a perilous race to save the Hatter before time runs out.”

Tim Burton produces the film but does not direct this time, leaving that to James Bobin, known for his work on the recent Muppets movies.

Tie-in editions:

Alice Through the Looking Glass
April 12, 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 9781484729595
$16.99 USD, $17.99 CAD
Described as a “deluxe novelization.”

Alice Through the Looking Glass: A Matter of Time
April 12, 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 9781484729601
$12.99 USD, $13.99 CAD

Described as a “unique illustrated novel” based on the movie.

Step aside, Thug Kitchen, here’s the real deal.

In an affecting interview on NPR’s The Salt, Gustavo “Goose” Alvarez talks about his new cookbook Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars (Workman; OverDrive Sample).

Alvarez spent over a decade behind bars and explains that those cheap packs of dehydrated noodles are everything to prisoners seeking some control over their meals, “maybe a guy has a bag of chips — that’s all he has to his name. And this other guy is blessed to have a couple of soups. Well, they get together, they make an interesting meal.”

His book is a mix of recipes and stories. It begins with the basic instructions for cooking the noodles without a pot or open flame. It goes on to offer advice for surviving hard time.

When asked who might use his book, Alvarez replies:

“I know some college kids might attempt to cook some of these. And quite frankly, I’ve had a few of them direct message me and say that they were awesome. They’ll go, ‘Man, these are great. I saved some money. It only cost me a couple dollars.’ Cool. And then I’d like others to read it and be humbled by the stories. And maybe, you know, they’ll have a friend of a friend or a family member — somebody that’s made a mistake and is doing some time. And they can probably share the stories with them, and hope it can teach them something. Maybe learn from my mistakes and others not to make these stupid decisions.”

A TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series is in the works by the BBC with New Line cinema producing. Pre-production and casting will not begin until next year and  no date has been set for the series debut.

The first book in the series, The Golden Compass, was made into a movie in 2007, starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, with plans for it to become a franchise.

According to Deadline, “Critical reception was tepid, and it failed to match the box office expectations domestically of New Line and Warner execs hoping for another Lord of the Rings.”

The Guardian, sees it differently, ” It was a success, taking £230m around the world, but some fans were upset about departures from the original storyline and planned sequels never materialised.” They also dismiss claims from cast member Sam Elliot that New Line was scared off by opposition from the Catholic church to its themes of atheism.

In a separate article, the Guardian writes “Why TV could be perfect for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.”

This is not the first time a movie franchise has switched to TV. The 2013 movie City Of Bones based on Cassandra Clare’s popular YA series made a similar move and will debut on Jan. 12 as a TV series titled Shadowhunters.

Gillian Flynn’s “new book” The Grownup (PRH/Crown; BOT; OverDrive Sample), released this week, is actually a short story that appeared in an earlier anthology. And, as a ghost story, it’s in a different genre from her domestic thriller Gone Girl. Fans, of course, are pressuring for a new full-length novel.

She gave those fans some hope during an interview with Salon, stating “I’m starting it right now. I’m a slow writer. I kind of overwrite and then whittle it down from there. I’m hoping to be done by end of next year. My guess is a 2017 publication.”

She is also suffering the anxiety of trying to live up to expectations after a runaway bestseller,

“I so wish I had one I was working on when Gone Girl came out. It’s a little intimidating to think about sending another thing out there. You’re never, ever going to repeat that thing – it was its own weird lightning in a bottle kind of thing … I think my main battle with the next one is to just do what has served me well so far, which is just write the kind of book I would read personally.”

Whatever the book is about, it will not revisit Amy and Nick. She says, “When people ask if I’m going to do a sequel, I always say ‘never say never.’ But it definitely won’t be the next one up. I feel like I need a break from their voices in my head.”

Flynn has a few other projects in the works that might get in her way. She is working with 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen on a heist thriller and is set to produce the TV series based on her novel Sharp Objects.

The live chat has now ended, Read the transcript below.

Signaling high expectations, AMC debuted the first  trailer for their upcoming series, Preacher, during Sunday’s extended episode of the Walking Dead series, utilizing what Deadline calls “prime preview real estate.”

 It also has some prime talent attached. Developed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the show runner will be Breaking Bad‘s Sam Catlin, who also wrote the script, it stars Dominic Cooper. It is expect to debut midyear 2016.

As the trailer states clearly, the series is “Based on the cult comic series” by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Published by DC Comics/Vertigo, it is available in several compilations (no tie-in has been announced yet).

Can a quirky nonfiction book on cleaning sustain a half-hour comedy show? Deadline  reports that NBC is willing to find out.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, (Ten Speed Press; Tantor Audio) by Marie Kondo will serve as the inspiration for a new show.

The cult hit racked up long holds lists and sat atop bestseller lists for nearly a year. It is currently holding tight to the #2 spot on the NYT Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous list. So popular is Kondo’s message, she was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” of 2015.

Writer Erica Oyama (Burning Love, Schooled) and Greg Malins (Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Will & Grace) will work on the project, which “centers on a young woman in a moment of crisis who attempts to get her messy life in order.” Note to neat freaks, it sounds like the show will be very loosely based on the book, basically just using the title as a launching point.

The group behind the project and is also, as we noted earlier, working on Josh Schwartz’s horror dramedy Horrorstör for Fox TV. It is based on Grady Hendrix’s faux-IKEA catalog/horror story, Horrorstör (Quirk).

This is becoming a thing. Last night on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had John Irving read him a bedtime story (last week, Jonathan Franzen did the honors). The source of the story is not identified, but it contains some familiar Irving themes, including bears, circuses, blood and endangered children.

Irving also got the opportunity to talk about his writing. He says his books play out worst case scenarios that are not  happily, based on his own life.

Irving’s 14th novel, Avenue of Mysteries (S&S) published yesterday, came under fire from New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner for just those pre-occupations, saying, “The things that for a while were magical in Mr. Irving’s writing long ago came to seem, instead, like tricks.”

Irving was also interviewed on NPR’s Morning Editon yesterday. Avenue of Mysteries rose overnight to #33 on Amazon’s sales ranking.

Tonight, Elizabeth Gilbert is scheduled to appear on The Late Show. She will be followed the next night by Norwegian memoirist Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of the 3,600-page, six-part autobiographical novel, My Struggle. We’re hoping the “modern-day Proust” gets the bed time story challenge.

If you were charmed by Lily James in the trailer for the Weinstein/BBC adaptation of War and Peace, take a look at her in a parody of period dramas, as “Lizzy” Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

This is the first full trailer. A teaser was released last month.

The movie is scheduled to open on Feb. 5, 2016.

A tie-in is scheduled for December:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Movie Tie-in Edition)
Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
Quirk Books: December 15, 2015
Trade Paperback; 9781594748899, 1594748896
$14.95 USD, $16.95 CAD

For more books to movies and TV, see our list of upcoming book adaptations, as well as our list of tie-ins.

In news that might overshadow her PR push for the newest Cormoran Strike novel, JK Rowing said during an interview on BBC Radio 2 Book Club that she is going to write another children’s book:

“I’m not going to give you an absolute date because things are busy and I’ve been writing a screenplay as well. But I will definitely write more novels under JK Rowling. I’ve written part of a children’s book, which I really love. I will definitely finish that. I have ideas for other adult books.”

Let the watch begin.

UPDATE: The U.K. trade publication, The Bookseller, followed up with Rowling’s agent. You can almost hear the sigh in his voice as he replies, “J K Rowling has talked previously about writing a children’s book and, as she said to Simon Mayo in the interview, it is on-going, with no plans to publish as yet.”

She is also gamely promoting her latest adult title, Career of Evil (Hachette/Mulholland), the third in the Cormoran Strike mystery series.

She has much to say on that same BBC interview but she also talked with David Greene for NPR’s Morning Edition, discussing how her research into the feelings and motivations of killers gave her nightmares and why she chose to disguise herself as a male author.

“… there was a phenomenal amount of pressure that went with being the writer of Harry Potter, and that aspect of publishing those books I do not particularly miss. So you can probably understand the appeal of going away and creating something very different, and just letting it stand or fall on its own merits.”

The New York Times Magazine features Mary Gaitskill in a lengthy profile written by Parul Sehgal, an editor at The New York Times Book Review. It is online now and set for the Nov. 8 print edition.

Gaitskill just published a new novel, The Mare (PRH/Pantheon; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample), and Sehgal says “she seemed jittery about its reception.”

Perhaps, as Sehgal goes on to point out, that is because:

“at first glance [the novel] feels out of place in her oeuvre … [it] doesn’t have the usual feel of Gaitskill’s fiction, the prickly wit and enveloping sanctuary, the lure of a dark bar on a hot day. It’s earnest and violently of the daylight, stuffed with squalling schoolchildren and focused less on missing connections than surviving them.”

Sehgal says that instead the novel:

“is a more expansive, more elaborately plotted story than we’ve come to expect from Gaitskill, and it’s not a book she ever wanted to write … What, after all, does she know of motherhood or writing from the point of view of a poor child of another race — let alone horses? But Gaitskill has always written from the margins, peering in: Feelings of exclusion and confusion powerfully motor her imagination. And in The Mare, in writing about race, poverty and family life, she has traveled to some of the farthest vistas of her career.”

The novel centers on Velvet, an 11-year-old Dominican-American girl from Crown Heights Brooklyn who is sent to the countryside to spend the summer with a childless white couple. It traces the complications and connections between her family, a horse, and the couple she stays with.

Reviewing for the NYT Dwight Garner was not blown away, saying “The Mare gallops, but on a closed track, not out there in the wild.”

Reviewing for the LA Times, author Elissa Schappell completely disagreed, writing:

“This is a coming-of-age story in the way we are always coming of age, whether we are 13 or 47. What elevates it is the way Gaitskill rides herd on sentimentality, which isn’t to suggest that the work isn’t emotional — it is. It’s just that there are no false notes, no stumbles in the rare moments of tenderness. It’s brave and bold to publish a book like this. Make no mistake: The women in this book, like Gaitskill herself, are mares.”

And booksellers like it, making it an Indie Next Pick for November:

“The Mare is the heart-wrenching story of a young inner-city girl in the Fresh Air Fund program who travels to a host family in upstate New York, where she befriends a frightened and abused racehorse at a nearby stable. Gaitskill navigates the ugly realities of both human and equine abuse, but, ultimately, this is a triumphant novel shaped by authentic characters and in which trust and determination win. Readers will be reminded of how our real-life connections with animals can both guide and heal.” —Nancy Scheemaker, Northshire Bookstore, Saratoga Springs, NY.

Gaitskill gets even more attention in Alexandra Schwartz’s profile for The New Yorker, “Uneasy Rider,”  online now and in print in the Nov.9 issue.

Actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini appeared on ABC’s 20/20 on Friday and reaction to her hour-long interview has skyrocketed her memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology (PRH/Ballantine) to #3 on Amazon.

The LA Times calls her conversation with ABC’s Dan Harris, in which Remini dishes the dirt on Scientologist Tom Cruise and his ex-wife, Katie Holmes, “explosive” and reports on the fallout, which was still going strong yesterday as Remini appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Much of the Good Morning America segment covered the Church-based “reprogramming” of Remini due to Church reports filed against her by Cruise and Holmes after they became displeased with her in the run up to their wedding.

Remini is also featured on the cover of the Nov. 16 issue of People magazine (on newsstands this Friday) and is scheduled  for an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN.

A just-released trailer gives a taste of the lavish new adaptation of Leo Tolstory War and Peace. The result of the first-ever collaboration between the Weinstein Co. and the BBC, it is set to air on the BBC in early 2016 and some time later on A&E in the U.S. (UPDATE: it is now scheduled to premiere on all three A&E networks on Jan, 18).

After seeing previews at the major TV marketplace Mipcom last month, Deadline called it “one of the most ambitious event series ever made for the BBC” The sic-part series stars a familiar face from Downton Abbey, Lily James who co-stars with Paul Dano and James Norton.  Gillian Anderson, Jim Broadbent, Stephen Rea and Rebecca Front are also in the cast.

Harvey Weinstein has a librarian to thank for discovering the source material. Reports Deadline, “As a child undergoing repeated eye-surgery, [Weinstein]  was left with few entertainment options until aproaching a librarian neighbor who handed him the book. ‘It was so beautiful. It captured the lonliness I was feeling and the exuberance.’ ”

The official novelization of the new Star Wars movie will be pushed back until January.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney/Lucasfilms is so determined to prevent spoilers that they have asked their publishing partner Del Rey (PRH) to delay publication of The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster (PRH/Del Rey/LucasBooks; Random House Audio/BOT) until January 5, several weeks after the movie hits theaters on Dec. 17.

WSJ quotes a Lucasfilm’s spokeswoman who confirms that the move is “an effort to keep as many surprises as possible for audiences seeing the movie on the big screen.”

The e-book version (9781101965504) will release earlier than the print, on the day the movie opens. According to WSJ, Disney fears that, because of the lead time for publishing a print book, the files could be hacked ahead of the film’s release, but the company doesn’t see that as an issue for e-books.

There are still plenty of books related to the film to keep readers occupied.

Chief among them is Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig (PRH/Del Rey/Lucas Books; OverDrive Sample), a bridge book spanning the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Books for the children’s market such as Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure by Jason Fry (Hachette/Disney Lucasfilm Press; OverDrive Sample) are also not affected by the delay as they too are set between movies and do not encroach on The Force Awakens story line.

Once the movie debuts, more books will arrive, such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo (PRH/DK; Dec.) and The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Phil Szostak (Abrams, Dec).

After that, the floodgates open. The website Outer Places reports that many new titles were announced during last month’s New York Comic Con. Pablo Hidalgo, LucasFilm’s Creative Executive “revealed that fans could expect a host of new Star Wars publishing stories, which would range from e-shorts to Star Wars Insider shorts to full novels…. all part of a huge new wave of Star Wars storytelling, which is scheduled to kick off in Spring of next year.” (See our listing of tie-ins).

As part of this wave Chuck Wendig’s second and third books in the Aftermath trilogy were announced, Aftermath 2: Life Debt (PRH/Del Rey/LucasBooks, 978-1101966938; May 31, 2016) and Aftermath 3: Empire’s End (no bibliographic info. yet).

Also forthcoming is a book by Claudia Gray titled Star Wars: New Republic: Bloodline. PRH/Del Rey/LucasBooks, 978-0345511362; March 29, 2016). According to Outer Places, “whereas Aftermath explores the moments immediately after Return of the Jedi, Gray’s new novel will be set 6 years before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, skipping ahead and hopefully giving some backstory to the characters and worlds that will be core to JJ Abrams upcoming movie.”

Gray’s most recent Star Wars title is Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Lost Stars (Hachette/Disney Lucasfilm Press; OverDrive Sample; Sept)

It will not end there. As the WSJ noted in their story, “Del Rey has published more than 150 Star Wars titles, including the first in the series, based on the original 1977 movie.” In a niffty incident of closing a circle, that original novelization says WSJ, was ghostwritten by the author of the new one, Alan Dean Foster, althoughGeorge Lucas was given the credit.

The most recent trailer for The Force Awakens set the Internet ablaze.