Fired... from what?

All right, so I will admit, that I am not always on top of things as I should be. I will also admit that not everything is necessarily my cup of tea. As much as I would like to, I cannot read every book in the world. As much as I would like to or want to, there is simply not enough time and it is not feasible, even if I do try to read anywhere from two to twenty books in a week depending on how busy I am. There are times though, when I take the advice of someone close to me and take a chance on something that I never thought that I would originally. Let me explain:

My mother is a fan of the strange and the weird on television. She likes watching things that are secretly ou tof the norm. For a very long time, she would love to watch The Jerry Springer Show, as it was almost a guilty pleasure. That was how she referred to it, a "Guilty Pleasure". Now, she still likes shows like that. These shows are what television puts out, that no body would normally accuse her or even be greatly surprised that she watches. One such show was The Vampire Diaries.

Imagine my surprise when I recognize the titles. A set of stories written for young adults which is about (I bet you can't guess), Vampires. These stories however are what some of the customers at the bookstore I used to work at like to refer to as "The original Bella and Edward". This story had more twists and turns than a back road in the middle of the night. Many people would ask for the books, but I had never laid a hand on them. After watching simply one show with my mother, where one of my favorite words was used, I had to read the books. In case you were wondering what word it was that spurned me onwards to want to read these novels was; it was doppelganger.

So I quickly picked up the first few books in omnibus form and began to read. I read and read and read and soon I was at the end of the current writings and heart and soul were demanding more! I however, like everyone else, had to wait patiently while L.J. Smith was writing the next one. Imagine my surprise, when I open my email and find that she would no longer be writing them. It was almost as harsh on my heart as when I discovered that Melanie Rawn might not be writing the third book in her Exiles series.

I quickly was directed to this article in which I was almost in tears. How on earth can a publisher fire an author from her won work?! I quickly, after a little more reading, was told of how HarperCollins retained the rights to the books as intellectual property rather than that of L.J. Smith. I was a little surprised as I was always under the assumption that it would always be the other way around. Needless to say though, I hope that the new writer will live up to our expectations whomever they may be.