2010 Nancy Drew Convention Merchandise At Cafe Press!

Nancy Drew Sleuths 2010 Convention images available at our Cafe Press Shop! See below--convention specific images only available for a limited time.

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew at Jen's Ideas

Jen's Ideas has come up with a cute line of Nancy Drew shirts--and soon to come charms! The line features an 80th anniversary image and also a WWNDD? and silhouette design. WWNDD=What Would Nancy Drew Do?.

Jen sent some of these neat items to me to give away to the kids at the NBC Today Show taping and also donated some for our recent Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Web Con. The quality is great!

Visit Jen's website to order!

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew 80th Anniversary Silhouette Charms

Officially licensed Nancy Drew silhouette charms in--just in time for Nancy Drew's 80th Anniversary!

Click here to order.

They're 1" tall and come in silver or gold color pewter.

Jenn:)

365 Days of Nancy Drew Blog Preview 3

I'm adding a preview of what's going on at my 365 Days of Nancy Drew Blog Party below.

Join the Nancy Drew Blog Party that celebrates 80 years of Nancy Drew all year long with: Classic Nancy Drew Book Discussions (all 56), Nancy Drew Collecting, Behind the Scenes Mysteries, The Characters, Places, and Suspense we all love, Contests and giveaways, Monthly Projects and Crafty Endeavors, and an 80th Anniversary party! I'm going to work my way through classic and modern Nancy Drew within the books and behind the scenes. So hop in your roadsters and enjoy this nostalgia ride back to River Heights along with me!

Click here to join the Blog!

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A mysterious inn, chicken dinners, Maud Potter. Let's discuss!

A Few Fast Facts:

Ghostwriter: Mildred A. Wirt Benson for the original. Patricia Doll revised the story and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams rewrote the manuscript for the revision.

3 Cover Illustrations By: Russell H. Tandy, Bill Gillies, Rudy Nappi.

Outline: Last outline written by Edward Stratemeyer.

Synopsis From My Website:

Original Text:

A theft at Lilac Inn of Emily Crandall's diamonds leads Nancy on a search for the thieves to clear Laura's guardian, Mrs. Willoughby. In a dramatic ending, Nancy finds herself bound and gagged on a ship at the hands of the thieves. It's a mystery that begins and ends at Lilac Inn.

Revised Text:

Nancy and her friend, Helen Corning, visit Lilac Inn to help their friend Emily Willoughby, whose diamonds are stolen. A mysterious ghostly figure on the grounds of Lilac Inn, a message with the words "blue pipes," and someone impersonating Nancy leads her dangerously on the trail of a gang of thieves with a dramatic conclusion aboard a ship. (The revision is mostly a brand new story and actually takes place centrally at Lilac Inn which makes for a nice story.)

Lilac Inn is one of those books that when revised becomes an all new story/plot. What did you all think of the change of location and storyline in the revision? Did you prefer it?

I liked the setting of the mystery and the solving of it mostly around Lilac Inn. The description of the place makes me want to vacation there--sounds heavenly with the sweet smell of lilacs in grove after grove. I like how the revision incorporated some interesting facts about lilacs and some of them were used as clues. The closet with the secret entrance to the dining room was a nice touch for that suspenseful flair. I thought Nancy's dressing up as her impersonator was clever and exciting to play "ghost" at night.

Mary Mason in the original version was quite the nasty villain--trying to get Carson Drew to believe she was really Nancy in the end was an interesting turn of events. Diving for the diamonds in the revision was fun.

Original vs. Revised - 5 Interested Clues:

1. The revision is an all new story and plot!

2. In the original, the diamonds are stolen at Lilac Inn but there is no mystery centered around the inn. The revision centers the mystery around the inn.

3. In the original, Nancy's friend is named Emily Crandall. In the revision her name is changed to Emily Willoughby.

4. In the original, Hannah Gruen is more of a servant and in the revision she's more a part of the family.

5. The only villain who carries over from the original to revision is Bud Mason.

3 Mysterious Things About Nancy:

1. Nancy's an expert at skin diving.

2. Nancy never trusts an informer too far.

3. She won't take money as a reward.

An Important Lesson We Learned From Nancy:

Once a thief, always a thief!

Sleuthworthy Rating on a Scale of 1 to 10:

Original=6. As a mystery, it wa so-so, I didn't find it as interesting as the revision and the servants thing was a bit overdone.

Revised=9. I like this revision. I liked the mystery at the inn and the setting. I can smell the lilacs just thinking of the place!

Jenn:)

2009 Book Hunting for Nancy Drew #6

Ok, so you're a good sleuth and you noted that my title of this post was 2009 and it's now 2010 :) I'm slow to update. My last book hunting excursion of 2009 is late in coming but was a nice one. I was in Lubbock, TX just before Christmas and went to the best book store in town for vintage series books, The Book Inn, located on 2241 34th St. and their number is: 806-763-6682.

They have quite a few shelves of all kinds of vintage series books near the front of the store. Then in the back they have a kids' section that is always hectic and hit and miss--way too many books in the tiny space they have for it. They have a lot more books than I took photos of too.

As you can see from the images here, they have a nice variety--lots more picture cover Nancys than I took pictures of and a few in dust jacket or just boards and no djs.

Lots of variety of other books and series too--especially Rick Brant and Judy Bolton!

I ended up with some picture cover Nancy Drew books I needed and a few to sell--plus some higher numbered Trixie Belden paperbacks. These will go up shortly at my website's shop.

Jenn:)

My Today Show Appearance on Nancy Drew Hardy Boys

Penguin publishers was able to arrange for Al Roker's Book Club for Kids on the Today Show to select the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books for the kids in the club to read. The first books in each series were read and everyone met up on Jan. 29th at the Today Show Studios in NYC for the taping. View the segment here.

I was asked to be the expert guest on the show back in December and was very excited to be invited. Of course they normally have the author of the books on but in this case that was not possible. They normally have a different studio set up but that set was being used for a different segment so we were set up in another area.

I flew to NYC on the 27th to spend some time before and after the show at the New York Public Library to research in the Stratemeyer Syndicate archives for my Nancy Drew book I'm working on about her mysterious history. I was a bit nervous about the Today Show appearance and could barely sleep the night before. I arrived a little early and was ushered into hair and make up for touch ups. My hair was not cooperating :) It was so cold/windy and full of static. Uggh!

I got to meet the kids and their parents: Ian, Spencer, Delroy, Danielle, Treasure, and Tatiana. They had a make-shift green room area on the first floor set up. I brought gifts for the kids--Her Interactive computer games, Nancy Drew pins and magnifying glasses, and some neat Nancy Drew shirts from Jen's Ideas.

Meredith Jaffe lent her Nancy Drew books/collectibles for the segment--you can see them on a table in between the kids and I. Unfortunately they didn't focus on them during the segment which was a shame. The kids were interested in them though and seeing them before the segment went live.

We began the segment with Al Roker asking a few questions about the books and then we quickly went to the kids for their questions.

The kids were great and had some fun questions. I wasn't expecting Delroy's question about Chet's car :) While we were waiting for the segment to go live, they did several live shots of the kids with their books.

Once we went live, it was a whirlwind! It felt like the segment lasted about 30 seconds but I'm told it ran nearly 5 minutes. We mostly discussed the books and the characters.

We took some photos before the segment downstairs with the kids and their books. Treasure, standing next to me is going to be a tall girl! She's only 11 and look how short I feel :) ha!

Danielle had some questions for me and was very interested in the books. It's nice to see the kids have interest in these great classic books--and hopefully this segment inspires more to pick up our childhood favs and enjoy the same exciting mysteries.

Jenn:)