Investigative reporter and author Michael Hastings has died following a car accident. He was working as BuzzFeed’s correspondent-at-large and a Rolling Stone contributor.

Hastings was the author of The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan and I Lost My Love in Baghdad. Hastings made headlines in 2010 for his Rolling Stone article “The Runaway General,” a story that ultimately cost General Stanley A. McChrystal his command. At Reddit, Hastings shared this advice for writers:

Mainly you really have to love writing and reporting. Like it’s more important to you than anything else in your life–family, friends, social life, whatever … Learn to embrace rejection as part of the gig. Keep writing/pitching/reading.

A new international trailer has been released for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie.

We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think? It offers fans several major events in the story and glimpses of the Shadowhunters world. In 2014, Cassandra Clare will release the sixth and final installment in her popular young adult series, City of Heavenly Fire.

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Exploring the public domain Kunstformen der Natur, writer Casey Dexter turned a gorgeous 1904 illustration into part of an eye-catching book cover.

If you are looking for public domain images for your next book cover, we’ve created a list of free resources below. In a Reddit post, Dexter explained how he used the free Microsoft Paint and Pixlr to create the complete cover. Check it out:

I should also give credit to Ernst Haeckel, whose beautiful Kunstformen der Natur is in the public domain … the large text is in century gothic and my name is in century. I don’t know if they’re actually related in any way, but the title was a challenge because of the two big Os – it’s hard to get a default font that kerns properly with vowels like that, and century gothic seemed like one of the best. Century just happened to fit in well with the illustration, I thought. Maybe I’ll eventually get to go at it in Photoshop or something, all the text was done in MS Paint because for some reason there’s a really small text size limit on pixlr.

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Did you love The Dark Crystal movie as a kid? You could win a contract to write the first book in a new YA series based on the late Jim Henson‘s beloved fantasy film. “All professional and aspiring professional writers” are eligible to participate.

The Jim Henson Company and Penguin Young Readers Group’s Grosset & Dunlap imprint have teamed up for the online Dark Crystal Author Quest contest. You can submit your entry between October 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2013. Check it out:

This new Dark Crystal novel will be a prequel story set at the time of the Gelfling Gathering, between the Second Great Conjunction and the creation of the Wall of Destiny. We will be placing all known lore from this era on DarkCrystal.com, the definitive home of The Dark Crystal. There you will find all the knowledge available for you to shape and build your story—and all we ask is that you share your stories with us … Your submission should be an original story set in the era outlined above. The final novel will be upwards of 50,000 words, but please send in 7,500-10,000 words that represent the story you would tell in a full-length Dark Crystal novel. It can either be the first chapters, final chapters, a collection of middle chapters, or a short piece that would form the inspiration for a novel-length story.

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As you can see by the sobering First Book infographic embedded above, out of 3,600 books for kids, only 3.3 percent focused on the lives of African Americans and 1.5 percent focused on Latinos.

At this year’s Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI), the literacy nonprofit First Book pledged to fight these glaring statistics. The group unveiled a two-year plan to help thousands of young readers. The push began in March In March 2013, First Book bought “$1 million worth of culturally-diverse content” from Harper Collins and Lee & Low Books. Here’s more about the initiative, from the release:

As part of its CGI commitment, over the next two years, First Book will: Add another 30,000 Title I classrooms and community programs to its network, giving them permanent, ongoing access to First Book’s resources. Provide matching grants resulting in 600,000 culturally-relevant books and resources to kids in need. Create 9,000 collections (50 books each), featuring a wide array of culturally diverse titles. Conduct a landmark assessment of educators in underserved communities to determine exactly what resources they need most. Convene authors, illustrators, and other leaders to inform new content selection and inspire new and diverse artists to approach publishers with their work.

Publisher Quirk Books worked with the digital storytelling app Tapestry to create an interactive version of the publisher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars book.

AppNewser has the scoop:

This is the first time that the user generated storytelling app has partnered with a publisher. As part of the partnership, Quirk Books is contributing 5 stories to Tapestry’s 2.0 relaunch including a William Shakespeare Star Wars mashup written by Ian Doescher. Reading on the Tapestry app is not like reading on your run-of-the-mill eReader apps. The app lets users both create and read stories. Readers are encouraged to take the time to take it all in, as it is designed for readers to move the story forward but as the website explains, ”There’s no going back, so take your time—that’s the whole point.”

During a HuffPost Live interview, LeVar Burton revealed that his favorite children’s books are Mary Hoffman‘s Amazing Grace and Derek Munson‘s Enemy Pie.

Watch an excerpt from the interview in the video embedded above. Burton discovered these books while he hosted Reading Rainbow TV series.

For Burton, working “on that show has enriched my life in so many immeasurable ways.” What was your favorite Reading Rainbow book?

Members of The Rock Bottom Remainders, the rock band composed of bestselling authors, are answering questions on Reddit today.

Authors Stephen King, Scott Turow, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan and more are part of Hard Listening, a new book about the band.

One Reddit reader asked: “Since you all are writers, do you have a hard time choosing who is going to write the lyrics for your songs?” and received some funny responses.

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This week, HarperCollins is hiring a marketing manager, while Kirkus Media needs a book translator. Quirk Books is seeking a cookbook designer, and St. Martin’s Press is on the hunt for a senior marketing manager. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

• Marketing Manager HarperCollins (New York, NY)
• Book Translator Kirkus Media (New York, NY)
• Cookbook Designer Quirk Books (Philadelphia, PA)
• Senior Marketing Manager St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY)
• Conference and Events Manager Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY)

Find more great publishing jobs on the GalleyCat job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented GalleyCat pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

On this encore edition of the Morning Media Menu, one filmmaker outlined his unique promotional efforts to introduce the world to Branded (the film is now streaming on Netflix).

We caught up with filmmaker Jamie Bradshaw to talk about building the campaign for his mind-bending movie. Bradshaw explained how he used San Diego Comic-Con, potato chips, QR codes and movie trailers to introduce readers to his first film. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

We are actually getting a really great response [to QR codes]. A lot of people are feeling empowered to use them. We are using more of them than I think anybody has ever used before (that’s what they’re saying to us). There are a hundred QR codes embedded throughout the trailers and the poster for the film. And they are all live and take you to different subversive content that is all part of the labyrinthine universe of this story.

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