Clea Raymond is a talented young photojournalist who has spent her entire life in the spotlight as the daughter of a Washington politician and a renowned surgeon. Haunted by the strange appearance of a mysterious young man in her photographs, Clea travels the globe with her best friends, Rayna and Ben, in a race against time to unravel a centuries-old mystery that could unlock the key to her soulmate's true identity and the secret of her father's disappearance--and ultimately save all their lives.

She told us: "Well, the second two times I went into rehab, to be honest with you, I had to go because it was a court thing. It was an obligation. I had to do it to stay out of getting any jail time. And I took responsibility for that. And it was like a vacation."

"I love meeting new people and seeing what they've been experiencing. That's what I go through in different characters. And I met some great people.

"It was a nice time to shut everyone off for a while because there was so much noise. There were some things I had done... I had put myself in situations which I probably should have thought through."

Peter Parker, official photographer of the mayor by day and New York City crime fighter by night, is going to face new challenges, including unemployment. "He's going to struggle with unemployment and trying to save the city while he can barely afford to keep a roof over his head," said Steve Wacker, Marvel Comics senior editor.

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In the near future, Parker will have to juggle paying bills and buying "web-fluid" and other materials to fix his superhero costume in addition to keeping his dual identities under wraps.

The Lafayette County coroner told The A.P. that Mr. Hannah died Monday afternoon of "natural causes," but declined to elaborate until he had provided details to the author's wife, Susan. The coroner said the death was not under investigation.

Mr. Hannah's first novel, Geronimo Rex, the unsparing coming-of-age story of the high schooler Harry Munroe, was nominated for a National Book Award and won the William Faulkner prize after its publication in 1972. His 1996 short story collection, High Lonesome, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and his work is to be among the subjects of the coming Oxford Conference on the Book, which begins on Thursday.

The author Richard Ford, a friend, told The A.P.: "Barry could somehow make the English sentence generous and unpredictable, yet still make wonderful sense, which for readers is thrilling. You never knew the source of the next word. But he seemed to command the short story form and the novel form and make those forms up newly for himself."

Net income dropped to $80.4 million, or $1.40 a share, in the quarter ended Jan. 30 from $81.2 million, or $1.43, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. The fourth-quarter loss will be 85 cents to $1.15 a share, the company said. Five analysts estimated a loss of 61 cents, on average, in a Bloomberg survey.

Gross margin, the percentage of sales left after the cost of goods sold, narrowed 370 basis points to 28.3 percent in the quarter. The Barnes & Noble College bookstores bought in September accounted for 270 basis points of the drop because textbooks are less profitable, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Lombardi said on a conference call. A higher percentage of online sales, including digital books and the Nook e-reading device, also ate into margins, he said.

"The main negative was their guidance for the fourth quarter and the gross margin overhang for Barnes & Noble College as well as the Nook," said Michael Souers, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York. "There's a longer-term impact there that investors are worrying about."

Reader's Digest, which filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in August, comes out of bankruptcy with $525 million in exit financing and a new board of directors that includes Fredric Reynolds, former chief financial officer of CBS Corp (CBS.N).

The company, best known for its namesake magazine, had been laboring under almost $2.3 billion in debt before filing for bankruptcy. But under its reorganization, the company was able to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and restructure other loans to save money.

Holders of Reader's Digest pre-petition senior secured debt will receive almost all of the new common stock. Private equity firm Ripplewood, which bought the company in 2007 for $1.6 billion, has no ownership stake going forward.

Over time, Reader's Digest has moved away from being known solely for its cornerstone magazine, expanding into some 78 branded websites, and selling as many as 40 million books, music and video products around the world each year. It also publishes food and lifestyle magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray.

"Comics could reach a much larger audience than they do right now," says Patterson, who often works with co-authors and whose thrillers are frequently at or near the top of USA Today's Best-Selling Books list. "With all of the quality work and talent that's out there, this industry could be so much bigger."

First up for release will be a five-part comic series based on the writer's best-selling young-adult novel Witch & Wizard. The new series, subtitled Shadowland, will be written by Dara Naraghi, with Patterson heavily involved in the story direction. (He is not involved with the artwork.) The Wizard series launch will be followed in June by a four-issue comic adaptation of Patterson's 2009 book The Murder of King Tut. Alexander Irvine will do the heavy lifting in terms of writing duties.

Patterson says he is excited at the prospect of translating King Tut -- a "non-fiction thriller" that investigates the mysterious death of the Egyptian pharaoh -- into a comic-book format. "We saw the potential there and worked with IDW to expand on it. It's going to be a very interesting series." Under the agreement, Patterson will also write original comic-book stories. "We're doing an all-new series called Beer Belly and the Fat Boy. I can't get into the details, but it's a lot of fun."

Spelling, whose acting credits include TV show Beverly Hills 90210, has already written an autobiography sTORI Telling and follow-up book Mommywood about being a Hollywood mother of young children. Her third adult book, tentatively titled Uncharted terriTORI, is due to go on sale in June.

***

"I love reading to my kids. It's our special time together. That and my passion for story telling inspired me to write a children's book of my own to read to them and children everywhere," said Spelling, 36, in a statement.

"Nothing is more exciting to me, as a writer, than creating a new type of story or introducing a new theme. Although I've briefly appeared in other comics, 'Super Seven' is the first time that I'll actually be a continuing character in a far-out, original superhero series," Lee said in a statement.

Lee and his then collaborator Jack Kirby appeared as themselves on the cover of a 1963 "Fantastic Four" comic book, and Lee has appeared in cameo roles in many of the movies based on the characters he helped to create for Marvel Comics.

The new book, Sweet Valley Confidential, takes place 12 years after the high school series, when the twins and their friends are in their late 20s and early 30s. It will, according to publisher St Martin's Press, see "the real world intrude after a perfect childhood". "I've had thousand of queries from fans over the years wondering what Jessica and Elizabeth would be like as adults. Well, Sweet Valley Confidential should give them all the answers," said Pascal, who was originally inspired to write the series by the experiences of her three daughters. "And I can guarantee they will be very surprised. Actually, more like shocked."

*****

St Martin's Press, which will publish the novel in early 2011, gave away little about the plot but fans are already speculating about which direction Pascal will take her characters. "Most everyone hopes Elizabeth and Todd are married, but we all have an idea Liz is having an affair if that's the case," said one reader, who has written about the entire series on her blog, Shannon's Sweet Valley High blog. "We figure Jessica has probably gone to Hollywood to be a star, but some of us are kind of hoping she's failed. Because seriously, that girl has had it too easy. And of course we all want to see the return of Lila, Bruce and the other side characters. It just wouldn't be Sweet Valley without them. A few of my readers are hoping Lila and Bruce are married, but I'd rather see Lila and Jessica trolling for guys together like they always have."

With independents blaming increased competition from the internet, supermarkets, a declining British high street and the credit crunch for their troubles, figures from the Booksellers Association show that 102 independent stores closed in 2009, leaving just 1,289 left in the UK -- a decline of 27% since 1999. Last year also saw the 45-store book chain Borders fall into administration, while like-for-like sales at Waterstone's were down by 8.5% in the crucial Christmas trading period.

"The current economic climate is undeniably tough and the book retail sector is suffering across the board," said the Booksellers Association's head of membership services Meryl Halls. She called on readers to support independents, saying that those shops which "are fighting so hard to survive continue to deliver an outstanding service – knowing the books they recommend and sell, knowing their customers, focusing on things that the deep price cutters can't offer and running fantastic and value-adding events".

"These booksellers are at the centre of their communities but, as with all retailers, they need to be supported in order to survive," she said.