Gossip Teen

The Vampire Diaries characters are going to have their histories told in new novels starting this fall. Stefan’s Diaries Vol 1: Origins is the first of a planned trilogy to hit the shelves in November. The books will focus on the civil war era, when Stefan Salvatore (played in the TV show by Paul Wesley) and his brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) became enthralled with Katherine Pierce (Nina Dobrev) the seductress that eventually made them vampires and turned them against each other.

The show is based on books written by LJ Smith and the timeline of the characters is very different. This will be a great way to bridge the gap that fans of both the original story and the TV show have.

Origins is due in bookstores November 2nd and the next book, Bloodlust follows on January 4, 2011. Original author Smith is working on a spin-off series focusing on the character Damon and the final book finishes up March 15, 2011.

Author LJ Smith wrote the trilogy of books The Vampire Diaries, back in 1991. Thanks in part to the success of Twilight, these vampires have made it to television as a weekly show. Unlike Summit Entertainment Studios relationship with Twilight’s author Stephanie Meyer, Smith has had “minimal” input into the CW Network’s TV show of her work. So what does Smith think of the small screen adaptation of her work?

“I think they have done an incredible job of interpreting it, especially presenting it for a teen audience,” she said. “I love the music. I love the cinematography, I think the cast is fabulous. I especially like Damon. Ian Somerhalder does very well. But I really, really like the Elena that they picked, Nina Dobrev. Even though she’s brunette, and not blond, which took some getting used to for me because in the book she’s blond, she’s a great actress. And I love the Stefan [Paul Wesley] that they’ve picked.”

While she has been uncertain how some plot points would work out, she has been watching and is pleased with the results so far. Smith must be relieved to actually like the work. So often in Hollywood, an author is left out in the cold while studios change characters and plots at their whim and the author is left unhappy. Nice to hear someone is getting it right. I enjoy The Vampire Diaries - especially Ian Somerhalder, but I might have mentioned that a few times already…