I'm overloaded with spam. When e-mailing me, please put "lemon" at the start of the subject line, so I'll know your message is worth reading.

August 14, 2003 Mr. Anonymous brought my attention to the chapbook, "Stories of Love and Neuroses," that has been on eBay recently. The item's description states that this chapbook contains Daniel Handler's "'Naturally'-- an excerpt from his forthcoming book "Adverbs"". I've read that Mr. Handler is preparing a collection of short stories. Perhaps that is what the eBayer was referring to. It certainly doesn't sound like the title for a novel about pirates, which was the other book Mr. Handler has said will be published 'soon.' The good news, of course, is that fans hoping to read the story in that chapbook don't have to pay "signed rare book" prices for the privilege.
Mr. Anonymous also said that he will be sending some scans and photos soon!

August 13, 2003 ice9000 wrote in with the following VFD possibility: Very Fiery Deaths.

August 12, 2003 The lovely Cheryl wrote to say:
" I was at Barnes and Noble this weekend and saw a promo item in the Kids section for these things called Flash Charts. The sale is buy any 2 Flash Charts and get a Series of Unfortunate Events binder and exclusive Flash Chart. Flash Charts are $3.95 and the binder and special ASOUE chart is $2.95 after you buy the two other charts.
" The best part is the Flash chart has some info on it for a book called The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, and some clues about the 10th book, The Slippery Slope.
" I have scanned the cover of the binder and the exclusive flash chart for you! The binder is great for regular sized paper, if you don't plan to use the silly Flash chart things. "
Cheryl's scans are currently available in the gallery.

August 10, 2003 Yesterday, I finally got my hands on a copy of the ASoUE 2004 Calendar. It contains some fun facts that I will be posting on the site this coming week. Maybe even tomorrow!
Today, I noticed that the 6th book cover is up at the Japanese Amazon site and so now have it in this site's gallery.

July 30, 2003 Please check film news.

July 25, 2003 I just posted links to new 'articles' that don't really have any new info, but that's okay because one of them has a direct quote from Mr. Handler.

July 22, 2003 Ok, it took me until now to really notice the new ASoUE audio books on CD. Apparently, the CDs feature: "A perplexing word game[, ]Photos from The Lemony Snicket Archives[, and] Art from The Brett Helquist gallery", but are abridged. What's the point of that? Seems as though they're just trying to squeeze more money out of fans. I wish they'd just release an EP of all of the Gothic Archies songs so far that're only available on the audio books. I'd gladly put down money for that!

July 21, 2003 Film news.

July 16, 2003 Thanks to faboo contributors, there are a couple of new images in the gallery, featuring book 10 and the parlour game.
and some movie news, I think.

July 10, 2003 Hi-ho! Neil Gaiman (who'll be at ComicCon next weekend!) posted an article featuring Daniel Handler on his blog, and I've linked to the article from this site's 'articles' page.
Oh, and there's a little bit of film news as well.

July 3, 2003 Thanks to those fun people over at the board, I picked up a full size image of the Slippery Slope cover from the HarperCollins site [Sunny escapes, yeah! But the bugs in the border are a bit scarey. Eww!]. I also checked out what Amazon has, and found the cover to the upcoming "Calendar of Unfortunate Events." Both images can be seen in the gallery.
And have a fun holiday tomorrow, even if you don't live in the US. Don't forget your sunblock!

June 29, 2003 Many people over at this site's message board want to have a 'party' to countdown to the release of Mr. Snicket's next book on September 22. If you'd like to stay up late with them and countdown and whatnot, please feel free to do so. Check the message board for possible details.

     In today's issue of Parade magazine (available in most Sunday papers), someone wrote-in asking about the casting of the Lemony Snicket film. Aside from reporting the horror that is Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, the magazine also said that Emma Thompson and Johnny Depp had been mentioned but not confirmed. If you have been in the Snicket online community for a little while now, you might recall the message board at lemonysnicket.net (it's no longer there, don't try). Back on December 5, 2002, someone on that board posted that their cousin had heard that Ms. Thompson, Mr. Depp and Joan Cusack were all up for roles in the Snicket movie. Although this post had no supporting evidence (and poor spelling, to boot!), I posted the information on this site, asking if anybody could confirm or deny the wild rumor. I also e-mailed Harry at Ain't It Cool News, asking if he had any further info on the film's casting. Harry posted my e-mail on his site. Many people are silly enough to believe that anything posted on aintitcool.com is absolutely true. Had they even read the entire post about the Snicket movie casting, they would know that it concerned a completely unconfirmed rumor from a very unreliable source. Such silly people posted the rumor as fact on various semi-reputable movie news sites. I was horrified by accidently perpetuating a wild rumor, but figured that that was the end of it. I guess not.
This sort of thing proves just how lazy and uninformed many journalists are. In an era when fact-checking requires a point-and-click or a quick phone call, most reporters don't even go far enough to find the source of the most basic information. [An early Snicket interview reported the first name of Snicket's representative, Mr. Handler, as "David."] Please be aware of the media's fallability and keep it in mind whenever you read, watch, listen to or otherwise take-in any news.

June 22, 2003 Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me this past week about the Slippery Slope cover's availability online. You can visit this site's gallery to see a tiny gif of the cover, on which Sunny appears to be in quite a bit of danger.

May 28, 2003 There's a 'new' interview with Mr. Handler up that I enjoyed quite a bit. Also, I'm sort of between computers right now, so updates and e-mail responses will most likely become spotty during the next month or so.

May 22, 2003 !*PENGUIN*! e-mailed me the following:
" Book The Tenth (The Slippery Slope) WILL be in books stores on September, 16, 2003.
" Also on June, 26th, 2003 Lemony Snicket will be in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. "

May 14, 2003 Here's a Snicket event in Colorado from the Denver Post:

" Fun with Lemony Snicket
" Students in grades 1-6 are invited to "After School Fun" at 4 p.m. today at the Golden Library, 1019 10th St. "A Program of Unfortunate Events" is the theme for this activity based on the popular books by Lemony Snicket. Free tickets, available at the library, are required. "

May 13, 2003 I finally found a little more about Mr. Handler's movie Rick, which can be accessed through this very new site: geocities.com/rickthemovie.

May 12, 2003 There's a new article up about people in Ventura trying to raise funds for their local school who are trying to get Mr. Snicket to make an appearance to help. There's also a wild unconfirmed casting rumor in the 'films' section.

May 8, 2003 First, somebody's going to rewrite Mr. Handler's Snicket screenplay. Check 'films' for details. Second, the Rocky Mountain News reports an ASoUE event in Colorado:

Family calendar, May 7
After-school fun for kids - Kids in grades 1 through 6 are invited to the Golden Library for "A Program of Unfortunate Events," based on the popular books by Lemony Snicket, 4 p.m. May 14, 1019 10th St. Free tickets are available at the library. (303) 279-4585.

May 6, 2003 Kill the Poor, based on a screenplay by Daniel Handler, will be premiering this Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival. Please visit my Kill the Poor Fansite for details.
I just noticed an Internet Movie Database entry for a film called Rick that was also written by Mr. Handler. If anybody knows anything about this film other than what is available through IMDb, I'd love to hear it!

April 29, 2003 Julie e-mailed me with the following blurbs from barnesandnoble.com:

" From the Publisher
Snicket's saga about the charming, intelligent, and grossly unlucky Baudelaire orphans continues to alarm its distressed and suspicious fans the world over. The tenth book in this outrageous publishing effort features more than the usual dose of distressing details, such as snow gnats, an organized troupe of youngsters, an evil villain with a dastardly plan, a secret headquarters, and some dangerous antics you should not try at home. With the weather turning colder, this is one chilling book you would be better off without.

" Synopsis
Like bad smells, uninvited weekend guests, or very old eggs, there are some things that ought to be avoided. "

April 28, 2003 Not particularly newsworthy, but Quazmo e-mailed me to say that The Slippery Slope will be 224 pages long (according to amazon), and it will be released on October 15 of this year; which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, as that's a Wednesday (books are released on Tuesdays in the US). Also, if you click on the 'Monotreme Books' link (on the 'links' page), they currently have scans of their binding of The Baby in the Manger up.
And from the fabulous Neil Gaiman official site:

" Sunday, April 27, 2003
" posted by Neil Gaiman 4:28 PM

" Hi Neil,
" Strangely, you didn't mention that you were asked to sing the rat song from 'Coraline' at the Fantasy Fair Q&A session today. Possibly because, and I quote, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever been asked". But you did a great job - properly clammy voice and everything.
" Thanks for coming back to the Netherlands!
" Katrien Rutten

" You're welcome. I very cleverly didn't mention it, because if I mention it then every reading I do across Europe someone will ask me to sing the whole Coraline rat song, and probably be disappointed when I refuse. But yes, I was asked to sing the rat song, and I did. If Henry Selick actually makes the Coraline movie I think me and Stephin Merritt and Daniel Handler should do the rat songs. We could be the creepiest rats in the world. "

April 24, 2003 An interview with Mr. Snicket and an article on his popularity from the Washington Post are now up. In the interview, Mr. Snicket states that a very minor character will be returning in book 10, but he refuses to state whom.
In the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2003 ASoUE was voted Favorite Book.
HarperCollins says that the paperback of the UA will be released on May 6 in the US.
Efogoto was kind enough to transcribe the answers given by the ASoUE Magic 8 Ball, and they're available from the 'Miscellany' page.

April 16, 2003 I'm going out of town again (sadly, not to momentarily cross paths with our beloved Mr. Handler). Therefore, don't expect any updates for about a week. Please check the other Snicket sites on my 'links' page or this site's messageboard if you're craving Snickety news.
Oh, and I've added another faq.

April 14, 2003 I've posted my crazed fangirl remembrances of Future Bible Heroes' San Francisco show in 'articles' today, and I added an update to the FAQ yesterday.