TV Tie-In Novels (Part 2)

Last week, I discussed four shows that have had “tie-in novels” published; furthering the stories of the characters within each show through countless books, including the TV shows Smallville, Everwood, Alias and Glee.

This week’s focus will be on the ABC Family Channel series Greek, the WB/CW shows Charmed and Supernatural and the ABC juggernaut series Lost.

Greek

The recently ended college-based drama Greek aired on the ABC Family Channel for 4 seasons from July 9, 2007 until March 7, 2011, consisting of 74 episodes in total. The show focused on the students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University, located in Ohio, who participated in the school’s Greek system. The majority of the show stories took place with the fictional fraternities, Kappa Tau Gamma and Omega Chi Delta, or the fictional sorority Zeta Beta Zeta.

Among the cast were actors Clarke Duke, Scott Michael Foster, Spencer Grammer, Paul Jones, Jake McDorman, Amber Stevens, Dilshad Vadsaria and Jacob Zachar.

The “tie-in novels” for Greek included “Double Date” by Marsha Warner, published in May of 2010 and “Best Frenemies” also by Marsha Warner, which was published in October of 2010.

You can learn more about the TV series Greek here.

Next up is the long-running WB series Charmed that chronicled the lives of the Halliwell sisters who are “the culmination of the most powerful line of good witches in history – known as The Charmed Ones within the supernatural world. The series debuted on the WB on October 7, 1998, airing for 8 seasons with 178 episodes. The series finale aired on May 21, 2006.

Each sister possessed unique magical powers that grew and evolved over the course of the show; yet they attempted to live normal lives in San Francisco. Starting out with Prue (Shannon Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) Halliwell moving back into their childhood home after their Grams’ funeral. They navigated the supernatural world through the spells contained in the family’s secret book known as the Book of Shadows. In Season 3, Prue was killed and the remaining sister learned they had a half-sister Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan).

Charmed

About a year after the show started, the first of many “tie-in novels” was published focusing on Prue, Piper and Phoebe. That book was called The Power of Three and was written by Eliza Willard. It was released in November of 1999.

There were nine other novels released from February of 2000 to July of 2001, including the following:

Kiss of Darkness by Belinda Alexandra
The Crimson Spell by F. Goldsborough
Whispers From the Past by Rosalind Noonan
Voodoo Moon by Wendy Staub
Haunted by Desire by Cameron Dokey
The Gypsy Enchantment by Carla Jablonski
The Legacy of Merlin by Eloise Flood
Soul of the Bridge by Elizabeth Lenhard
Beware What You Wish by Diana G. Gallagher

Starting in February of 2002 through January of 2008 (two years after the show concluded its run on television), a new series of books were released, focusing on Piper, Phoebe and Paige. Those books included the following:

Charmed Again by Elizabeth Lenhard
Spirit of the Wolf by Diane G. Gallagher
Garden of Evil by Emma Harrison
Date With Death by Elizabeth Lenhard
Dark Vengeance by Diana G. Gallagher
Shadow of the Sphinx by Carla Jablonski
Something Wiccan This Way Comes by Emma Harrison
Mist and Stone by Diana G. Gallagher
Mirror Image by Jeff Mariotte
Between Worlds by Bobbi J.G. Weiss and Jacklyn Wilson
Truth and Consequences by Cameron Dokey
Luck Be A Lady by Scott Ciencin
Inherit the Witch by Laura J. Burns
A Tale of Two Pipers by Emma Harrison
The Brewing Storm by Paul Ruditis
Survival of the Fittest by Jeff Mariotte
Pied Piper by Debbie Viguie
Mystic Knoll by Diana G. Gallagher
Changeling Place by Micol Ostow
The Queen’s Curse by Emma Harrison
Picture Perfect by Cameron Dokey
Demon Doppelgangers by Greg Elliot
Hurricane Hex by Diana G. Gallagher
As Puck Would Have It by Paul Ruditis
Sweet Talkin’ Demon by Laura J. Burns
Light of the World by Scott Ciencin
House of Shards by Micol Ostow
Phoebe Who? by Emma Harrison
High Spirits by Scott Ciencin
Leo Rising by Paul Ruditis
Trickery Treat by Diana G. Gallagher

There were two other anthology “tie-in novels” released with the first being called Seasons of the Witch, Volume 1 by Laura J. Burns, which followed three season for three sister witches: Samhain, Yule and Imbolc, and was released in September of 2004. And, The Warren Witches, which was published in May of 2005, featuring a collection of short stories about the Warren-Halliwell line of witches.

You can learn more about the TV show Charmed and its “tie-in novels” here.

The next TV series to include “tie-in novels” was the worldwide phenomenon from ABC: Lost. The show debuted on September 22, 2004, chronicling the lives of the survivors of downed Oceanic Flight 815 that crashed on a mysterious island somewhere between Sydney and Los Angeles. The series ran for six seasons, airing its finale on May 23, 2010.

The casting of this long-running series primarily consisted of Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Naveen Andrews, Terry O’Quinn, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim. Other cast members over the seasons included: Adewale Akinnouoye-Agbaje, Nestor Carbonell, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Jeff Fahey, Maggie Grace, Malcolm David Kelley, Ken Leung, Rebecca Mader, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Harold Perrineau, Zuleikha Robinson, Michelle Rodriguez, Ian Somerhalder and Cynthia Watros.

Lost

During the course of the show, three “tie-in novels” were published by Hyperion Books. They were:

Secret Identity by Cathy Hapka
Endangered Species by Cathy Hapka
Signs of Life by Frank Thompson

There was also a “meta-fictional” book entitled Bad Twin that was written by Laurence Shames – but credited to fictitious author Gary Troup, who – it was claimed – was a passenger on Oceanic Flight 815.

To learn more about Lost the TV series Lost, please visit here.

The last TV series to be covered this week is the WB/CW series Supernatural, which stars actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki as Dean and Sam Winchester, brothers who hunt demons and other figures of the supernatural. The series debuted on the WB on September 13, 2005, made the transition over to the CW and is currently airing its sixth season.

Supernatural

The first set of “tie-in novels” were published by Harper Entertainment and included the following:

Nevermore by Keith R.A. Decandido (released in July of 2007)
Witch’s Canyon by Jeff Mariotte (released in October of 2007)
Bone Key by Keith R.A. Decandido (released in August of 2008)

Another series of “tie-in novels” were released by Titans Books and included the following:

Heart of the Dragon by Keith R.A. Decandido (released in February of 2010)
The Unholy Cause by Joe Schreiber (released in May of 2010)
The War of the Sons by Rebecca Dessertine (released in August of 2010)

The latest set of “tie-in novels” – that will be released this year – include the following:

One Year Gone by Rebecca Dessertine (to be released on May 10)
Coyote’s Kiss by Christa Faust (to be released on July 12)
Night Terror by John Passarella (to be released on September 13)

To learn more about the TV series Supernatural here.

Please watch for the final part of this article series next week when I take a look at the “tie-in novels” for show such as Burn Notice and Battlestar Galactica

Eva Cassidy

Musician Spotlight: The late singer Eva Cassidy (1963 to 1996) grew up in a musical family on the outskirts of Washington DC who had an amazing gift for perfect harmony. In the late 1980’s she was heard by producer Chris Biondo who stockpiled tapes of her recordings while she worked as a back-up singer. In 1992 she recorded the album “The Other Side” with Chuck Brown and they toured the following year. Unfortunately in 1996 she was diagnosed with advanced melanoma and by the end of that year she passed away at the age of 33. Two years after her death, her family was approached by Blix Street Records to put together a new album called “Songbird,” which was a compilation of tracks from her earlier recordings. The album languished in obscurity for two years, though, until given airplay on the wide-reaching BBC Radio show “Wake Up to Wogan”. The album sold more than 100,000 copies in the following months. In 2000, a video of Eva performing “Over the Rainbow” was aired on Top of the Pops, causing the album “Songbird” to climb the charts. The black-and-white video became the most requested video ever shown on Top Of The Pops. The following year, Nightline aired a short documentary about her; and that weekend, all of her albums occupied the best-sellers lists at Amazon.com. Her albums, all released posthumously, were “Time After Time” in 2000, “Imagine” in 2002, “American Tune” in 2003 and “Somewhere” in 2008. An acoustic album titled “Simply Eva” was to be released in January of this year. Her music has been featured in the box office films Love Actually and Maid in Manhattan as well as the TV series Judging Amy and Smallville. For more information about the late Eva Cassidy, please visit her long-running website here.