So you think you can come up with a good story using nine Talecraft cards?

Find the cards on the Talecraft contest page and submit your story. The best four stories will be chosen and read during the Talecraft event on March 30 at Booktopia. Prizes await the winners!

Visit the contest page and make sure to read the rules. To learn more about the game, make sure you visit the About pages of the Talecraft site.

Baen Free Library

Baen, a leading publisher of speculative fiction has made available for free some of its titles through the Baen Free Library. The home page, if you are interested, has an extensive discussion on book piracy and how the library came to be. Contributing authors to the library are well-known science fiction and fantasy authors like Mercedes Lackey, Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, Larry Niven…

LibraryThing

It’s like a library thing, you know, a way to catalog your personal library and arrange your books on virtual shelves. And then it’s also more than that because their BookSuggester gives you recommendations for books similar to books in your library. Strangely enough, they also have a device called the Unsuggester which will give you “humorous recommendations of books you probably wouldn’t enjoy.” You can also meet other members with the same interests by forming communities like the 50 Book Challenge group or the Read YA Lit group. Take their tour of the site to find out more.

Join us for a night of creative exchange! Come to the Talecraft Event at Booktopia on March 30, 2007, Friday, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

We first encountered Talecraft at the Read or Die convention. People were gathered around a table near the entrance to the convention hall and we couldn’t quite get a good look at what was going on. It turns out, they were playing a game, a storytelling game using a deck of cards. Ah, we thought. Interesting.

A few weeks later, I sat down with the artist and creator of TaleCraft, Ria L., and she showed me what Talecraft was all about. It is a deck of 86 cards composed of three types of cards: genre, archetype, and key cards. Players take a combination of random cards from the deck to come up with a story of the chosen genre, with characters based on the chosen archetypes, using the chosen key cards for plot elements. During RodCon where they assigned judges, the best stories were judged and chosen. It’s really very engaging.

* Designs for the Adventure genre card and the Pied Piper archetype card.

If you think playing Talecraft is difficult, think again. At RodCon, players who never thought they could tell a story from start to finish did surprisingly well. TaleCraft traces its roots to a game that Ria and her siblings used to play as children. (We’ll let her tell you that story during the event on March 30.) So it’s something that young adults can play too. Perhaps younger players will need the assistance of their parents to be able to understand some of the more difficult words printed on the cards.

You and your friends can invent different rules for the game and you can find helpful suggestions on how to play from the Talecraft website. Better yet, come to the event we are hosting on March 30. See the game at play, meet its creator, and take home your own story-creation deck.

Tell us if you are attending and how many friends will be there with you.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, priced at P1,700, is available at a discount if you reserve now. The first batch of reservations will be awarded a 10% discount.

To reserve, you can either drop by the store and make a payment there (our reservation fee is P500) or make a deposit to our bank account. You may reach us through our contact form if you need bank information.

To Internet Explorer users, we’ve fixed the problem of the right sidebar appearing at the bottom of the page. Our subscription forms should now appear correctly. Thank you for your patience.
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We have added a new page to our site called “Events @ Booktopia” where we list past and future events. We have also posted pictures of recent events. The link to this page is on the left side under STORE PAGES.

What to do this Valentine’s? Join us this Friday, February 9, from 6-9pm at Booktopia for Cozy Conversations — an engaging evening chatting about Heartbreak, a new book featuring stories from ten of the country’s promising and prolific writers. Get a chance to meet some of the authors and have your book signed. Mingle and get into intimate discussions with other book lovers. Who knew Heartbreak can be this cozy?

Heartbreak: Stories That Will Stay With You Longer Than Your Ex Did
by Cel Coscolluela (Ed.)

Cozy Reads proudly presents Heartbreak, a collection of stories featuring new and exciting voices alongside prize-winning authors, all of whom tell the story of love’s many disappointments with the grace and wisdom of the experienced.

A jaded model lands a gig at a fantasy convention where she dons an Arwen costume and promptly falls for a man who calls himself “Aragorn.”

A woman files for annulment, and on the very same day, loses an arm when the train she is riding gets bombed.

A perennially single twentysomething contemplates wedding invitations until her romantic prospect comes knocking on her hotel room, arm in arm with another man.

Here are ten stories that show the tragedy and comedy that is heartbreak. A demonstration of the human propensity for getting high on an emotion that, unfortunately, also has the power to bring anyone crashing down. Unfortunate? Yes. Inevitable? Perhaps. And does it make for a good read? Absolutely.

At Read or Die last weekend we asked Harry Potter fans the following questions:

1. J. K. Rowling will never say if Professor Snape is evil or not. Snape makes like difficult for Harry and bears a grudge against Harry’s father. Yet Albus Dumbledore said in the 5th book that he trusts Snape. What do you think? Is he evil or not? Why?

2. J. K. Rowling has said that the last word of the last novel is “scar.” Give us your best guess. What do you think that last sentence looks like?

3. She has also said that two characters will die in the last book. Who do you think these characters are?

We got a good number of interesting answer which we are posting below. Most of you seem to think Professor Snape will redeem himself in the end. Also, that Harry’s scar will somehow fade or disappear at the end of the series. Most popular to die in the seventh book are Harry and Voldemort. Harry? Really?!? J. K. Rowling did say she understands why an author might want to kill a character from the point of view of not allowing others to continue writing after the original author is dead.

If you want to tell us what you think, fill up our contact form and we’ll post your answers here.

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From February 5-18 we are holding a Post-Read or Die Sale

Books up to 50% off!

If you have a favorite foundation or public school, we are giving away tickets to the Read or Die Convention on Feb3-4 at the Intercon in Makati. Read or Die is a book festival, the first event of its kind in the Philippines. We will have book sales, book signings, book discussions, book auctions, book exhibits, storytelling, book-related movie screenings, etc. This is a way for your foundation or sponsored school to be part of this literary revolution. Let’s celebrate reading!

Call us at 634-6544.

Scholastic has just announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on July 21, 2007 at 00:01AM BST which translates to 7:01AM in Manila. It will have a list price of $34.99. A local price will still have to be determined. We are now happily accepting reservations/pre-orders.

The following is an excerpt from the announcement:

Publication Date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on Saturday 21st July 2007 at 00:01 BST in the UK and at 00:01 in the USA. It will also be released at 00:01 BST on Saturday 21st July in other English speaking countries around the world.

Watch out for more announcements from this blog and if you are not yet on our Harry Potter mailing list, sign up using the form on the right of this page.