#the night world

[iwishyouweretheonewhogotaway]

So I’ve got mixed feelings on one hand yay I’m so glad that LJ is in a great place to be posting again but on the other she’s embraced ai which is…something. Sone of the art of the characters is…..well…..interesting. I’m also lowkey side eyeing the “masculine” female character description of a new character & hoping lj isn’t slipping however unconsciously into transphobic stereotypes.

But strange fate is at the editors so that’s amazing news, lj seems well which is even better

LJ Smith is back!

Well knock me over with a feather!

Did anybody have “LJ Smith surfaces” on their bingo card for 2024?

The big news is, she’s back!  With a new website, theljsmith.com  It seems to have gone up a month or so ago.  Here’s the news you came here for:

The big news is that I  have recently finished the last two books in the Night World series, Strange Fate: Mystic, and Strange Fate: Apocalypse; as well as an adult book, Lullaby. They are all in final editing with my agent, the esteemed Mr. John Silbersack (john@thebentagency.com).  Lullaby is also with John, and it is my first book for grown-up readers.

So!  Strange Fate is finished!  For the… third time?  Certainly not the first, but it seems to be finished-er than it ever was before and that is very exciting.  I notice she mentions her agent (and his email address, so we can all hire him to promote our books if we want) but she doesn’t mention a publisher so it seems possible that no publisher has decided to buy the books yet.  

My knowledge of publishing is scanty but I think Simon & Schuster gets “right of first refusal” meaning they get dibs on Strange Fate since they published the rest of the series.  If they don’t want to take a chance on it… what?  Will Ms. Smith be free to shop around to other publishers or self-publish?  Or could S&S sit on the book without putting it out?  I don’t know.  Anybody in this fandom work in publishing? We need you!

Anyway, phoning up Simon & Schuster to see if they have anything in their system seems like a not-too-stalkerish thing we might do in the future.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up.  It seems totally possible that publishers will look at Strange Fate and go, “A sequel to this totally forgotten thing from 30 years ago?  That you need to have read all these 90s books to understand?  That is totally non-diverse and not on trend at all?  Written by some old biddy who isn’t in touch with today’s YA readers?  Nah, we don’t want it.”  But dangit, Ms. Smith is closer to getting it out than she’s ever been before and I’m rooting for her so hard… even if I’m not going to really believe it until the books are in my hands.

The website also has contact info for Ms. Smith: lisa@theljsmith.com  We can write to her! I feel like I should, I gotta work out what to say!

The about page includes the factoid that Ms. Smith is an anime nerd.  I wonder what series!  Well her pup is named Arslan, so we know one of them!

The FAQ I believe is questions we have seen before on the old site.  The books and fanart are also familiar.

The Short Stories page is where things get interesting.  Are some of the stories new?  Some are definitely missing.  I never paid as much attention as I should’ve to the short stories, and then the website came and went… there are some stories by “Jessa-lyn Kemp” aka “staff writer Jessica Sherman” that are definitely new.  Secret Circle stuff.  It looks like a fan? Friend? Employee? Of Ms. Smith’s is helping create content. Good!

Someone who’s not about to spend the evening watching British Baking with their mother can pull up the old website and the new one and compare stories.  I think the Strange Fate related stories are gone, because they’ve been incorporated into the books.

And then there’s the blog.

Ms. Smith comin’ in hot, barely back on the internet saying she loves AI art!  Which is, like, one of the top ten ways to get people on the internet to yell at you, so brave choice there!

Please, nobody yell at LJ Smith.  ^^;

Looking at the website Ms. Smith has used AI to clean up pictures of herself and even with the computer’s enhancements we can see that illness did a number on our poor author.  She is gaunt!  This is also the first time we’ve really seen many pictures of her, for years there was only the one.  She’s got gorgeous hair.  The other pictures are of characters from her books, and...

I'm also a writer who can't draw, and when I got a chance to play with picture AI I immediately made it make pictures of my characters and it was a really emotional experience. Like I was getting choked up. So while intellectually I know all the reasons AI is bad and there are a lot of them, that emotional punch of seeing people I knew so well but never thought my eyes would see is really powerful.

AND!  As if this Hogswatch miracle hasn’t given us more than we were ever expecting, there’s a blog post all about Strange Fate with new information and I am just falling out of my chair with excitement… but this post is long enough and Mom and I are up to pastry week on British Baking, so that will be a post for another day.

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

A New Website?!

Hello, night world! There’s been a lot of development in the last month with L.J. I didn’t immediately get to post about it, because I was sick and wanted to check it over more before doing so but I’m fairly confident it’s real so I’m here to share the update!

LJ is active currently! Shes’s made a new website, with a current photo of her in a blog post to better sooth the worries of if it’s her or not as well.

Her new website is theljsmith.com (her original is LJaneSmith.net)

I also emailed her account, which I learned she has an admin team now for one. I asked a bunch of questions and between her account and the replies I will sum up the important parts below:

Strange Fate is fully written!!!

It’s so big it became 2 books in general, as well as Lullaby which originally was split from it as well. All 3 appear to be finished, and are currently with her agent.

The names for Strange Fate are now Strange Fate: Mystic and Strange Fate: Apocalypse. LJ also does have a news letter as well, which you can sign up for to keep up with Strange Fate as well as the Strange Fate contest that is coming up in January!

She also no longer has access to the original website, but if she manages to get this going again she will post on it to direct original fans to the new site.

How are all you incredibly patient people feeling about this news?

[iwishyouweretheonewhogotaway]

[thesoulmateprincipal]

[pinkhazeandsilverchords]

[velociraptor-sisterhood]

Maggie: what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger

Rashel: what doesn’t kill me should try harder

Keller: what doesn’t kill me better start running

Hannah: you’re all either going to cancel each other out or combine to kill god and I do not know which is worse

[ljsmithnet]

Ash & Mary-Lynette

[leche-flandom]

Most of my fandom friends I've met through fanfic, but I did have one backwards case. Through sporadic, cautious conversation over many months, my coworker and I learned that we were both obsessed with Night World fanfic in the early days. She was telling me, "There was one author on ff.net called Kiana--" at the same time I was googling "Kiana Caelum" to show her my favorite and the SHRIEKS WE SHRIEKED when we realized what had just happened! We ducked under the reference desk when we remembered we were at work and, after we resumed our battle stations, we got so many dirty looks from the patrons that day.

Reblog if you've found friendship because of your fandoms.

[firefly464]

Is this anything

[valentinbelleyh505]

y'all can comment which character that is also a moon that i forgotten 😔

edit: Princess Yue, Melody, Loona, Moony and Lunala are thereeee and i losting some followers and i wanna get 2.000 followers :(

[chloesimaginationthings]

The day FNAF Charlie Emily was shut out..

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

Ash Redfern Chapter Preview - Strange Fate

*Listed as Poppy and Phil and James.

In case any Night World fan out there is unaware of the bonus short stories published in the verse, I decided I’d link it here for fans to possible discover and read. This one was not linked directly under short stories so it’s a bit more hidden on L.J. Smith’s website.

You can find the rest of the story HERE.

[iwishyouweretheonewhogotaway]

Listen i despise AI ‘art’ but this is the closest I’ve ever come to seeing the Mary Lynnette that lives in my head

[thesoulmateprincipal]

Claire and Val have touched and realised they are soulmates. Post huntress

“Hey,” Jez says softly as she settles on the couch opposite her cousin, “how’re you holding up?”

Claire scoffs, “you were the one who got staked, shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

“Turns out I’m pretty indestructible,” Jez says. “And you’re dodging,”

Claire’s mouth tightens, “I’m fine.”

“Look, I know this soulmate thing comes out of the blue like, well, a freight train, but you aren’t alone. I’m here.”

Claire’s smile was a little more genuine. “Thanks, but you should probably focus on healing and being like one of four people who can save the world.”

“I can do that and be a cousin,” Jez says, “and I promise the longer you resist the bond the worse it gets. If it helps Val is as miserable as you.”

“Great,” Claire says sarcastically “great we make each other miserable that’s exactly how soulmates and true love should be like,”

[pinkhazeandsilverchords]

Title: the opposite of hate is…something

Author: vicennial

Rating; Teen/ heading towards mature. See content warnings at end of chapters

Summary: Pre-Huntress: in which Jez and Morgead encounter a rival gang and bicker for 80K words