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Forgot to do Fan Art Friday Fortnightly, but I’ll do it over the weekend. Promise!

In the meantime, here’s CL, Minzy, Dara, and Bom of the Korean girl-group 2NE1 with their latest video, “UGLY” . . .

Good news: the Forums are working again! But as you can see the interface doesn’t look all Leviathan-y anymore, which is sad. We’re going to get that fixed, but I figured it was more important to make them work again before making them boo-tiful.

That was not scheduled maintenance, by the way, just a tech’splosion followed by some updates that we had to do anyway. Sorry for your withdrawal symptoms! I hope you spent the extra time learning French or something useful like that.

Okay, now for your manga questions! (All taken from the last comments thread.)

Do you know where you will be going on the Goliath tour yet?

It’s almost confirmed. I will be posting the tour dates soon! Most of you will hate me, but that’s the way it works, because you outnumber me and are widely distributed. (You should, like, all clump together.)

People on the west coast will certainly be happy, and some people in the middle too. No plans for anything outside the US yet, but I will be doing something in Australia this next southern summer. (If you’re Brazilian, write my publishers and demand me! I want to go to there.)

Any particular reason you chose left to right instead of right to left?

This is original-English manga, which are usually done in the left-to-right way, cause that’s how we English speakers roll. I read both ways without much bother, as I’m sure most of you do, so I didn’t actually think about it.

Regarding the Uglies light novel in Japan- did you try to branch out and make the characters look different from that one?

My artist never saw those editions (even though he’s in Japan), so we weren’t starting with that set of images at all.

Where can we buy this manga?

AT ALL THE STORES (that sell manga or graphic novels) and on the usual internets. The publisher, Del Rey, has very wide distribution in stores, schools, and libraries, so it should be pretty easy to find.

Do you know when they’ll be available in stores?

May 2012. That’s as specific as I have so far.

You should, like, give us a slight sneakity-peakity every so often. Just enough to make us want it more, you know?

Yes, I do know. And I WANT you to want it more.

Luckily, there are lots of pages to show.

How, if at all, do you think the creation of this manga will influence the making of the movie? Do you think the casting director will try to chose actors based on their appearance in the manga, etc.?

Casting directors will probably pay no attention. With actors, it’s more about stuff like fame and chemistry and salary. But I have sent manga pages to Lola (the vfx company involved with the Uglies movie), and they’re doing “pre-visualizations” now, so it’s possible that the architecture and tech in the film will be influenced by Steven’s work.

There’s no concerted effort at consistency, however.

So….which big announcement was the Croy project?

The manga! As one of the original Crims, he’s in volume 1 quite a bit. Do you want to SEE HIM?

Anyway, will any pages be in colour, or is it all going to be in black and white?

Just black and white and shades of gray.

I honestly pictured dorm uniforms having a plaid kilt EXACTLY like the one in the illustration! Maybe someone important read my fanfic…JK LOLZ.

Yes. We ALL read your fan fic. And, yeah, manga is all about school uniforms.

What IS manga, anyway? What sets it apart from plain old comic books?

Well, as someone pointed out in the comments, “manga” is just the Japanese word for “comics.” Here it means, of course, comics in a style that started in Japan but that has become global in reach and influence.

Steven

The day after tomorrow, Tuesday August 9, is the release date of Behemoth in paperback! So Keith and I made this poster for you all.

Click here for a wallpaper-size version.

And now for some more exciting news: The Ugies manga!

For those of you who haven’t seen this elsewhere on the interwebs, my OTHER big announcement at Comic Con was the upcoming manga based on the Uglies series. I say “based on” but rest assured, this isn’t simply the same story in graphic form. Instead, we’re telling much the same story as in the novels, but it’s all from Shay’s point of view. (So who’s we, you ask? More on that later.)

Now as you Uglies scholars know, Shay taught Tally everything she knew. Shay was involved in subversive activities long before the novels open, and was part of the Crims back then they were an ugly clique headed by . . . Zane. (Ugly Zane!)

And remember how Shay and Zane almost ran away to the Smoke together, but they both chickened out? Well, that’s the story they told Tally. But what really happened back then?

In these manga—three of them, about 180 pages each–we will tell all!

Okay, we includes me, Devin Grayson, Steven Cummings, and Yishan Li. That’s right, there are four of us. Here’s what we all do:

Devin is writing the scripts. She’s written lots of superhero comics, including a ton of Batman titles, but I was won over by a miniseries she created for Vertigo called User, which is about the fantasy lives of gamers in the real world.

Now you may be thinking, “Why didn’t you write it, Scott? Arne’t you, like, a writer and stuff?”

Rest assured, I outlined every book in detail, rewrote some bits, and approved every word. But, seriously, I don’t know how to write comics scripts! And part of wisdom is knowing what you can’t do. It’s been amazing to see Devin adapt this story to another medium, and get into the mind of Shay. (A great learning experience that I may put to use one day . . . )

Steven is the artist for the series. He’s drawn many western titles for DC and Marvel, and manga books for Tokypop and Udon. He lives in Japan, and has worked bravely through earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear meltdowns. Again, I’ve paid close attention to everything, approving all the characters, costumes, technology, and the architecture of the Smoke, New Pretty Town, and other locales. Of course, Steven brings his own flair to the characters’ expressions and movements, and to the look and feel of the future. For me, it’s kind of like directing actors who have their own style.

Yishan is doing the toning and lettering for the series. In other words, she shades Steven’s art and adds the word balloons. Key steps, and ones I never really thought about much before this project. But you’ll see below how Yishan’s shading “lights” the scene.

Let me show you how this all works, starting with page 12 of the first manga.

We start with the script:

PAGE 12, panel one
ECU on Shay’s interface ring as she gently puts it down on a bedside table.

1 SHAY:

Page 12, panel two
Pull back for our first establishing shot of Shay’s dorm room. It’s very small and very basic, the only truly decorative elements (IMPORTANT!) being huge software-

DAVIS ENTERTAINMENT AND LOLA VFX TEAM TO PRODUCE SCOTT WESTERFELD’S NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING FUTURISTIC TRILOGY. “UGLIES” BEING PREPARED AS FIRST OF THE PLANNED LIVE ACTION FEATURES
 
Project Signals Premier Visual Effects Company Move Into Film Production
 
LOS ANGELES (JULY 24, 2011) – Producer John Davis and the founders of Lola Visual Effects (Lola VFX) will team to finance, develop and produce a theatrical, live action feature based on Scott Westerfeld’s New York Times best-selling “Uglies,” the first of his futuristic trilogy first published in 2005.
 
The filmmakers have also acquired Westerfeld’s PRETTIES and SPECIALS, the remaining trilogy installments published by Simon Pulse, a Simon & Schuster company, with total sales of over 3 million copies. Jacob Forman (“All The Boys Love Mandy Lane”) will write the screenplay.
 
UGLIES will be produced by John Davis (“Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” “I, Robot”) and Jordan Davis (“Jump In”), along with Colin and Greg Strause via their Hydraulx Entertainment banner. Lola’s Edson Williams and Thomas Nittmann will executive produce along with Adam Schroeder
 
Lola is the groundbreaking visual effects company paving the way for an entirely new level of story-telling, most recently transforming Chris Evans into the 90-pound weakling Steve Rogers for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. The company was founded by Colin and Greg Strause, Edson Williams, and Thomas Nittmann.
?
Set in an Orwellian future in which teens undergo surgery on their sixteenth birthdays to become supermodel “pretty,” UGLIES is the story of Tally Youngblood, one such “ugly” teen who is forced by authorities to forgo her transformation until she infiltrates The Smoke, a community of rebels who choose to retain their appearance and live outside of normal society. Tally soon discovers appearance isn’t everything and her world is not all that it seems.
 
“’UGLIES’ is a smart, youthful, and edgy trilogy peopled by sophisticated characters who have to navigate through a dangerous but fascinating world,” stated John Davis. “We are at this time in the development of cinema magic where we have the proper technology to fully realize Scott’s vision for the screen.”
 
In addition to CAPTAIN AMERICA, Lola is the company behind Brad Pitt’s youthification in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and flawless twining of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss in THE SOCIAL NETWORK.  With this technology and expertise, Lola will handle the dramatic transformation of characters into the “pretty” versions of themselves while Hydraulx will create the futuristic world of UGLIES, an exquisite yet eerie dystopian future.
 
Stated Greg Strause: “With UGLIES, Scott created a visually stunning world that capitalizes on the strengths of both Lola and Hydraulx.  Our partnership demonstrates the expanding possibilities of enhancing creative storytelling with innovative visual effects.”
 
Hydraulx is an award-winning visual effects facility with work including 300, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, 2012, BATTLE LOS ANGELES, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, and AVATAR, the latter two films in 3D.  Founded by Colin and Greg Strause, the company leverages the Brothers’ extensive filmmaking experience to provide a comprehensive and unparalleled photographic and photorealistic approach to visual effects.
 
DAVIS ENTERTAINMENT
Chairman of Los Angeles-based Davis Entertainment, John Davis has been a producer on more than 80 feature films and movies for television that have earned more than $4 billion worldwide.
Davis’s three divisions–-feature film, independent film, and television-–develop and produce film and television projects for the major studios, independent distributors, networks and cable broadcasters. The Company, established in 1986, has enjoyed a long-standing first-look production deal at 20th Century Fox,

Yesterday at 2PM, me and a hundred-ish fans from the WesterForum hung out for about an hour and a half, and I answered many questions. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, I’ have compiled them into this blog post, typos and all! (So. Many. Typos.)

Enjoy:

“What kind of juice do you like?”

There are many juices I love. Mango! Pear! (Especially pear cider.) Apple!

“So Scott there’s been a rivalry going on (on the forum obviously) , based on the question : If the crew of the Leviathan got in a fight with Special Circumstances who would win? What’s your opinion?”

I think in a close-quarters fight the Specials would win, because they’re too quick. But in a proper battle, the Leviathan could mess them up with strafing hawks or bat-poo without ever being in danger.

“WHATS GOING ON WITH CROY?! CAN YOU GIVE US ANY INFO ON HIM?! ”

That info will be released at Leaky Con and Comic Con. THAT’S ONLY A FEW WEEKS. But I can’t tell you anything now, except maybe . . . you will SEE HIM.

“Did you use the same models on the cover of Goliath that you used on Leviathan and Behemoth?”

Yes. Same models, same photo shoot on the same day. Sometime I’ll show you guys the unaltered photos.

“At any point in Behemoth, does Dr. Barlow know that Deyrn is a girl? It has been a topic of great debate.”

Hah! Not saying now, but you WILL learn the answer to that in Goliath.

“Have you ever met someone in real life who reminds you of your characters?
Or vice versa.”

Hmm, not really. Although sometimes I see someone and say, ‘Whoa, he/she’s a total pretty!’

“Nice to meet you, btw. (and tell hi to Justine (Mrs. Larbaleister (sp?)) for me, please!)”

It’s Dr. Larbalestier, in fact.

“Can Justine cook?”

She’s a great cook of Thai food, and she wants me to add that she’s a good boxer too. (She’s been taking lessons.)

“What TV shows do you watch?”

Game of Thrones, Treme, just finished Vampire Diaries,

“This isn’t really a question, just a comment. I thought you’d like to know that I used to like history, and Leviathan made me love it again. I might even try writing something historical-ish myself. ”

Yay!

“Is Lilit lesbian/bi? (Please say yes.)”

They didn’t really have those categories for women back then, but she would be if she was alive today. (Strange but true fact: Male homosexuality was illegal in England back then, but female homosexuality wasn’t because lawmakers REFUSED TO BELIEVE IT EXISTED.)

“In Uglies, there are many messages, some obvious, some not so much. What messages/lessons do you want readers to take away from Leviathan?”

Hmm. I think that the big theme is about how different sides of a conflict (war or just ideological/technological) see each other, and how that can change when people are forced to work together.

“What kind of music do you like? (Do you like Florence+and the machine?)”

I like minimalism and trip-hop, and I don’t know of this Florence person.

“What is your opinion on the Hunger Games? (Will you see the movie?)”

Want to see the movie. Liked the first book, but didn’t read the others.

“When will you go on tour?”

September 17. DON’T KNOW WHERE YET! NOT MY CHOICE WHERE.

“Would you like to join my band of Ninjas?”

I have already infiltrated your band of ninjas!

“Do you like writing about diseases? Peeps was about parasites, Innoculata had to do with a virus and in So Yesterday the main characters dad is a Epidimiologist (I think).”

I love all kinds of biology, like beasties too. Studied philosophy o

I’m headed out to the Blue Mountains for a weekend of birthday fun, so there will be no Fan Art Friday this week. Instead, allow me to belatedly roll out the new Uglies covers!

They’ve been around on the internets for a while, but I haven’t shown them here. The new covers are finally leaking into stores, though, so now is a great time to show them.

Click here for the bigger and zoomable version.

Of course, whenever new covers appear online, they create dissent and controversy. Fans mostly don’t like new looks for books, because the old covers are the ones they’re used to. If you’re a fan, after all, that old look was probably the reason you picked up the books in the first place!

So really, the new covers aren’t for fans at all. You guys already HAVE my books, after all. These are for all the people who’ve never picked up Uglies because the old covers looked boring or stupid to them. Maybe they never even noticed the series on the shelves. It’s for non-fans (who probably don’t read this blog) that this new look exists.

So feel free to complain!

For me the Original Style covers are still classics, but I get why S&S has to hit the refresh button after, what, six years? And you have to admit that these new covers are very lovely indeed, and are unified in a way the Original Flavor ones weren’t. (Pretties had a different designer than the other three, in fact. You can tell.) The new ones also have a cool, clinical feel that nails a lot of what the series is about.

But I will take this opportunity to express my appreciation to Rodrigo Corral for his awesome work on the first cover of Uglies. Covers matter, and a lot of you, possibly many thousands, would never have seen the Uglies series without his strokes of genius. And that would mean less food, clothing, and shelter for me. And I like food, clothing, and shelter.

So, thanks, Rodrigo. The rest of you should click here for an archive of his other work. I think you’ll agree that the dude rocks.

Just in case you thought I’d given up serious blogging to spend all my time trolling Deviant Art, let it be known that I just wrote a real essay about Literary Things.

It was for Tor.com‘s Dystopia Week (to which I say, ONLY A WEEK?) and was an analysis of why teenagers like tales of dystopia.

The funny thing is, lately everyone wants dystopia essays from me, because dyslit is BIG and I am officially a famous fake expert in how teens think, especially about dystopian fiction, thanks to the whole writing Uglies thing. (Score.)

A snippet:

Teenagers’ lives are constantly defined by rules, and in response they construct their identities through necessary confrontations with authority, large and small. Imagining a world in which those authorities must be destroyed by any means necessary is one way of expanding that game. Imagining a world in which those authorities are utterly gone is another.

It’s little wonder, then, that a lot of YA dyslit embraces both extremes of hyper-control and of chaos, wedding an oppressive government with post-apocalyptic ruin . . .

Click here to read the rest. And then comment here or there with your gentle sledgehammers of correction. Don’t let us fake expert adults define you!

And now . . . back to trolling Deviant Art! Because it’s Fan Art Friday. (Well, not here in Sydney, or even in New York, but somewhere in the world. Like, say, Hawaii.)

Here’s a cutie from strawberrycream17:

I mean, seriously: Awww. Happy times. Check out strawberrycream17′s stuff at DA.

And another quiet moment from Tobuishi, who, after last week’s Fan Art Friday, quite understandably requested that I use a piece of hers that didn’t have the word “boobs” in it:

Click here to see her other stuff at DA.

I love how a lot of fan art and fan fic shows characters doing, you know, sort of nothing. Fan artists like showing the downtime that’s part of everyone’s real life, but doesn’t ever quite get shown in canonical texts, because doing nothing isn’t part of the uber-dramatic Story we authors are telling. Believe me, if we put it in there, editors would probably edit it out!

Fans actually want to see the downtime, though, or at least imagine it, because that makes the characters more real, more like someone you could hang out and do nothing with. So downtime becomes a major theme of the para-literature of fan fic and fan art.

Maybe I’ll save these thoughts for another essay about Literary Things. But you know I’m right.

And speaking of just hanging out, here’s another example, by Irrel, of everyday life aboard the Leviathan:

HAH! GOT YOU! Awkward moment is awkward! (Here’s the source on DA.)

Okay, some fan art

The postings have been slim here. Justine and I have done our bisummeral relocation to Sydney, where the weather is rather better than it is in New York.

I haz proof:

Yes, this is the view from where I work. Neener-neener.

Check this out. It is TOTALLY FAKE, but cool.

JarredSpekter of Deviant Art.

And it comes with this awesome FAKE poster, also by Jarred:

I quite like the fake movie trailer/poster art form.

But yes, this is me just being lazy, posting random stuff. I GET TO BE LAZY. I’ve been traveling all over the world the last few months, after all. And I’ve spent the last week working on a s3krit project, which I can’t even tell you about. (Yes, so why tell you that I can’t tell you? I dunno. Just to sound cool, I guess.)

Oh, also! Those of you who are e-book readers (or who know one) here’s a cool new thing:

It’s the Uglies Quartet all together in e-book form! Check it out here. And here’s a list of the many reading devices supported.

Anyway, I will get back to more regular postings in the new year. In the meantime, happy holidays to everyone.

Just got back from France last night, and have TONS of cool photos and videos to share. But I must get them organized first! Give me a day or two.

In the meantime, there are exactly TWO more events in the not-quite-endless Behemoth tour:

Miami Book Festival
w/Darren Shan and Ellen Hopkins
November 20 1:30PM
Prometeo Theatre
(Building 1, 1st Floor, Room 1101)

Vancouver, Canada
November 24 7:00 PM
West Point Grey United Church Sanctuary
4595 West 8th Ave
Come dressed in a Victorian/Steampunk costume to be eligible to win a signed framed print from Leviathan by illustrator Keith Thompson!
Tickets: $5.00 (goes towards the purchase of a book at the event)
Click here for tickets.

Alas, Justine won’t be at either of these events. But she says hi.

And check out this awesome trailer from the Portuguese publisher of Uglies, Vogais & Companhia:

Also, I like this photo from an interview in the French press. (Mmm . . . French press. Must get coffee now.)

UPDATE

This interview with Suvudu at New York Comic Con is also cool, in that I talk for 17 minutes without saying anything stupid:

NYCC Video Interview: Scott Westerfeld from Suvudu on Vimeo.

It’s Fan Art Friday (the 13th!) today, but first a couple of other things:

ONE
My introduction to the Mind-Rain collection is up for your free perusal until Tuesday morning. Mind-Rain is a collection of essays about the Uglies series, written by YA and adult authors. Click here to read my intro essay.

TWO
There’s a meet-up at the Forum tomorrow, Saturday, August 14. If you’re a USian in the Eastern Time Zone, it’s at 5PM. For people in London it’s at 10PM Saturday night, and for Australians it at the HIGHLY CONVENIENT time of 7AM Sunday morning.

Hope you all can make it. Alas, I am going to a basketball game (Let’s Go, Liberty!) and can’t make it. But there will be many cool people to discuss thing with. To get to the Forum, just click that button on the menu bar above, all the way to the right. (THE ONE THAT SAYS FORUM.)

Here are the other Meet-Ups scheduled this year. Note that in Australia they’re always the next day.

Sept 11 US Eastern (7 pm) Aussie Eastern (9:00am) London (MIDNIGHT)
Oct 9 US Eastern (4 pm) Aussie Eastern (7:00am) London (9:00pm)
Nov 13 US Eastern (5 pm) Aussie Eastern (9:00am) London (10:00pm)
Dec 11 US Eastern (4 pm) Aussie Eastern (8:00am) London (9:00pm)

And now for FAN ART!

We begin with this piece from Deviant Art’s ThursdayJay:

Click on the picture to see it MASSIVE. See more of ThursdayJay’s work here.

Next comes this lovely Lego Huxley by Ben and Ann!

And you thought only Clankers could have Lego contraptions, didn’t you?

Because there are no doubt some fans out there missing Uglies fan art, here’s a cover remix from Kristen.

Click the image to make it big.

It’s always great to see you guys in Specials make up when I’m on tour, so keep it up! And please keep the fan art coming, so we can do many more Fan Art Fridays.

Watch this space for details of my October tour, which should be scheduled in early September. Note: It looks like I’m coming to Vancouver for the first time ever in November! I am excited by this.

I just got a new telescope. It’s happily snoozing in the guest room at the moment, and doesn’t wish to be photographed, but here’s a picture of the moon I took with it last night. This was with my iPhone camera held up to the eyepiece, so you’d think it would suck. But my telescope makes even this silly procedure AWESOME.

Observe:

That’s a tiny bit of the moon, because from now on I am magnified. Must now learn the names of all the craters and snack bars on the moon.

Here are Four Other Things of possible interest:

Thing 1
The Uglies series is launching in Brazil this week, complete with a really cool website:

I love the look and feel of it, and hope it does well for my publisher there, Editora Record. If you speak any Portuguese, check it out here.

Thing 2
Just noticed that Behemoth has an Amazon page now, but no cover. (Amusing reviews for some other book are there at the moment.)

Thing 3
Justine are about to head back to NYC, where we have an event for Read This, a charity that collects books for people who need them, including schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, troops overseas, etc.

Justine Larbalestier, Bennett Madison,
Scott Westerfeld, & Cecily von Ziegesar
Reading and Q&A
12:30PM-1:15PM, Saturday, 10 April
Center for Fiction
17 E. 47th Street, Second floor
(between Madison & Fifth Ave.)
NY NY

The price of admission? Your donation of two or more new or gently used board books through grade 12. Cool idea, huh?

Thing 4
The next New York Review of Science Fiction Readings features three awesome YA authors!

Barry Lyga, Marie Rutkoski, & Robin Wasserman
curated by Carol Cooper

Tuesday, 6 April, Doors open 6:30 PM, event begins at 7:00 PM
SoHo Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street (between Houston & Prince St.)

Admission is by a $5 donation. (If circumstances make this a hardship, let them know and they will accommodate you.)

All times USian. In Australia, we’re talking Thursday, noon Sydney, 9am Perth.

And don’t forget I’ll be hanging out at Readergirlz all month.

In other news, check out the cover of Uglies in its Brazilian Portuguese version.

Last week there was a short piece in MTV News’s Hollywood Crush last week about the Uglies movie. Let me quote it:

Industry sources have confirmed to MTV News exclusively that Screen Gems, in the wake of the success of its current release “Dear John,” is developing — and in fact, fast tracking (!) — a film version of “The Uglies” series.

While there haven’t been any decisions made regarding things like casting yet, we can tell you that our source said production of the movie is planned for later this year. That means we will all hopefully know soon enough who could be playing the beloved teen Tally Youngblood in the futuristic, meaningful tale about a dystopian society that places an incredible emphasis on looks.

Emphasis theirs. Here’s the rest.

In the words of my Hollywood agent, fast-tracking means, “it’s on the list of projects that they are hoping to make vs. the ones that will never see the light of day.” In other words, this is not a done deal. But it’s a lot better than being in that other, not-so-fast-tracked pile.

Now, some of you are no doubt asking about casting at this point. STOP! I’m the wrong person to ask. Trust me, if I hear anything I will tell you here on this blog, on FB, and on the Twitter machine. But in the meantime, I have nothing to do with casting movies.

If it were up to me, you would all get to play Tally for exactly three seconds of screen time. (And this would be why it’s not up to me.)

Plus, I doubt it’s as far along as this article makes it sound. Like, the casting isn’t going on right now. Probably.

Watch this space for more.

In other news!
If you live in Sydney, you can catch me at the launch for Foz Meadow’s debut novel, Solace and Grief.

It’s about a girl named Solace who has grown up in foster care her whole life, and who’s always realize that’s she’s kind of . . . different. She doesn’t like the sun, she’s wicked strong, and if she concentrates really hard, she can hear a conversation two blocks over. Then someone starts invading Solace’s dreams, and things get really complicated from there.

It looks like this:

Here’s the launch deets:

Sunday, March 7
12:30PM
Kinokuniya Bookstore
Level 2, Galeries Victoria
500 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

I’ll be giving a wee speech about how cool this book is. Of course, I’ll be more than happy to see you guys there and say hi. But please remember that this is Foz’s party, not mine, so buy her book!

It comes out in Australia on March 1. When it finds a US publisher, I’ll let you know.

And finally!
Sorry that I missed the latest Forum Meet-Up. It was scheduled for early Sunday morning, Sydney time, and I woke up ill. Too ill to type!

But I hope you all had fun. I’ll try to check out the questions you left me, and answer some of them here on the blog.

My apologies again.

Hey, sorry for not blogging for a while there. There was travel, research, and lots of writing (on Behemoth) to do.

But now I am back in the blog-saddle, so it’s time for some fan art!

First, for you Midnighters fans, I present the Midnighters Fingerpuppet Five!

What’s cool is that you can tell who’s who. I could have totally used these while writing the book for, like, acting out scenes.

These were made by Chloe Wiccith, who also created this awesome mindcaster symbol pumpkin:

That’s some mighty fine carving.

And for you Uglies fans, check out this remix of Extras with a self portrait by Zhen Xiao, doing his best emo-manga-head impersonation.

Any more fan art out there that needs to see the light of day? Sent it over.

NaNoWriMo is over, so it’s time to get back to regular posting about regular stuff. Here we go.

Thing Number One:

You guys have been asking for a Forum for a while, and when I re-jiggered the site a few months ago, we planned to have one. It took a while, but it’s been active for the last few weeks.

We were working out some bugs, so I didn’t announce it here. But people randomly found it, and various interesting conversations have started. You should go check it out.

To get there, click on the Forum button on the top-right of this page (over the message lizard) or cheat and use this link.

Thing Number Two:

RH Mondadori, my publisher in Spain, had a very cool idea. After publishing Uglies and Pretties using the American covers, they decided to go in a new direction. They held a contest, the first prize of which was to be the cover model for Especiales.

The guy who won is a total fan, which is great, and he also has a definite Special look. The designer held off on the flash tattoos on the front cover, but he has one on his cheek on the back cover. (Which I don’t have a jpg of yet.)

Anyway, here he is:

I don’t actually know his name, only that he’s 22.

Thing Number Three:

Justine and I are about to head to Istanbul (aka Constantinople). If you’ve read Leviathan, you know why this is. If you haven’t, then just ignore this blog for a week or so. (Or get reading!)

Anyway, it’s going to be wicked cool. I’ll be posting photos and such here, assuming the internets are good at our hotel.

Thing Number Four:

And now it’s time for, Walker Wednesday!

Today’s walker comes from CrabFu SteamWorks, who specialize in making steam-powered robots and other toys.

Check this out:

Yes, that smoke is REAL steam that REALLY powering the walker. That’s why Keith’s Clanker walkers are always spitting out scads of smoke.

Click here for many more delicious CrabFu SteamWorks toys.

As you probably know, Justine and I are doing writing tips for every day of NaNoWriMo. She’s doing even-numbered days, and I’m doing odd. Her tip from yesterday about the glories of square brackets reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while. And I think it’s going to be a multi-day thing.

So here’s the first of several essays on the subject of meta-documents! (And don’t forget to check below for my NYC appearance this Tuesday.)

Sometimes in the headlong fury of trying to make our word count, we writers forget to keep track of our characters’ scars and bruises, of their eye and hair colors, or even what day of the week it is. We forget, in short, to make meta-documents.

So what does this fancy term mean? Well, the main document your working on for NaNoWriMo is, of course, the Novel itself. But in order to keep that novel coherent, you almost certainly need meta-documents. That is, documents about the main document.

Think about it: novels are at least 50,000 words, and can be three times that length or more. That’s a huge project, and you, dear novelist, are the Project Manager. You need a clipboard with you at all times, or you will start forgetting stuff.

Of course, the most famous type of meta-doc is the Outline, the chapter-by-chapter plan of how the Novel will unfold. Some of us writers love to outline, some find it a chore, and some find that outlining is a novel-killer, destroying any need to tell the story at all. Finding your own place on that continuum is the job of every writer.

But heed this well: Just because you’ve given up on outlining, don’t think that you can throw aside all other forms of meta-documentation. The outline is actually quite an odd meta-doc, in that you usually work on it before you start writing. But most meta-docs are things you maintain while you write. They are maps of where you’ve been, not of where you’re going. They are the keepers of consistency and realness.

Trust me, the sooner you start making meta-docs in the writing process, the less you will be pulling out your hair later on.

So for the next few odd-numbered days, I’ll be giving descriptions of some meta-documents that I use while writing. Today, I cover the mighty timeline . . .

Timelines

Timelines are possibly the most important meta-doc for me. Without them, I have no idea what day it is. And without that, all sort of details get shaky. Bruises heal instantly. People go to school six days in a row. The moon stays full for a week and a half. This makes for an unconvincing novel.

More importantly, emotional reality breaks if you don’t know how much time has past. A horrible fight with your best friend feels very different a week later than it does the day after it happened.

And take it from me: Timelines are extremely easy to create along the way, and a ROYAL PAIN to reconstruct later on. So do them while you write. Start one NOW.

Okay, but what should your timeline look like? In the timeline for the first book in the Uglies series, I started every line with a chapter of the book, and then give a calendar date. (I use a calendar even if the characters never mention dates themselves, just to keep myself on track.)

I also annotate jumps in time and other oddities, especially these three:

1) What off-screen characters (Shay, in the case below) are up to while the main action is taking place.
2) Any cues about time that appear in the text. “three days later” “It’s taking too long”
3) If characters are saying something untrue about time. (In Part II, Tally lies to hide her departure date.) It’s tricky to keep fact and fiction separate, for the reader as well as the writer.

Check it out:

Part I
Chapters 1-3 “New Pretty Town,” “Best Friends Forever,” “Shay”: late June 7
C. 4 “Wipe Out”: afternoon June 14
C. 5 “Facing the Future”: afternoon June 25
C. 6 “Pretty Boring”: afternoon June 28
C. 7-9 “Rapids,” “Rusty Ruins,” “Waiting for David”: late June 28
C. 10 ”Fight”: morning Aug 26
C. 11 “Last Trick”: late Sep 2
C. 12-14 “Operation,” Special Circumstances,” “Ugly for Life”: morning Sep 9
C. 15 “Peris”: a few days pass, Peris comes in dawn of 9/12
C. 16 “Infiltrator”: morning of 9/12
NOTE: Shay (off screen) leaves to go to the Smoke late 9/2, and gets there early 9/8, 5.5 days later. (Same as Tally, basically, with a slower hoverboard but with David’s guidance.)

Part II

C. 17 “Leaving”: night 9/12
C. 18 “SpagBol”: night 9/12 through morning 9/13
C. 19 “The Worst Mistake”: starts sundown 9/13
then three days’ travel on bottom p.121
sundown 9/16 on p.122
C. 20 “The Side You Despise”: very late 9/16
9/17 dawns on p. 127
C. 21 “Firestorm”: late afternoon 9/17
C. 22 “Bug Eyes”: sunset 9/17 through wee hours 9/18
C. 23 “Lies”: morning 9/18
Tally arrives at Smoke
She claims she left late 9/8 (night before birthday) and took 9.5 days.
She actually took 5.5 days.
C. 24-27 “The Model,” “Work,” “David,” “Heartthrob”: all 9/18
C. 28 “Suspicion”: on p. 172 two weeks pass until 10/1 morning
C. 29-32 “Bravery,” “The Secret,” “Pretty Minds,” “Burning Bridges”: night of 10/1 except last paragraphs , which are dawn of 10/2

Part III
C. 33-37 “Invasion,” “Rabbit Pen,” “In Case of Damage,” “Run.” “Amazing”: early morning and onward of 10/2
C. 38-39 “Ruin,” “Maddy and Az”: morning 10/3
C. 40 “The Oil Plague”: night of 10/3
p. 259 is daybreak of 10/4
C. 41 “Familiar Sights”:
reach edge of desert during night of 10/4 p. 263
reach sea “three days later” on 10/7
travel for “a few days”
hunker down for storm from 10/10 to 10-14 p. 264
p. 265 is morning of 10/14
reach Rusty Ruins night of 10/17
In this chapter, David predicts they will make it to the city in ten days, but it takes 14 due to the 4-day storm, which is why he says (during the storm on p. 264 ): “It’s taking too long.”
C. 42 “Accomplices”: night of 10/17
C. 43 “Over the Edge”: as darkness falls on 10/18
The book ends 21 days later, the night of 11/8.

See how that works?

One quick note: Tally’s culture doesn’t use days of the week, but normally I keep careful track of those as well, just so no one goes to school/work on Sunday for no reason.

Another great thing about timelines is that they show you how your novel is paced. You might have three chapters in a row all set on the same morning, and then a series of chapters where time flies faster. Maybe this little pattern keeps happening again and again. Now, maybe that’s okay, or maybe it’s getting monotonous. But without a timeline, you might not notice the pattern at all.

Uglies is paced in a very particular way. Each book has a few intense days in the beginning, but then time spreads out as the characters go on a journey, allowing them to absorb the lessons they’ve learned. The timeline helped me recognize that pattern, and use it to my advantage.

Two days from now, I’ll talk some other types of meta-documents.

Take it away, Justine!

Also, don’t forget that I’m appearing with Justine and many other fabulous writers in New York City tomorrow!

Tuesday, November 10 6:00PM
Books of Wonder
Libba Bray – Going Bovine
Kristin Cashore- Fire
Suzanne Collins – Catching Fire
Michael Grant – Hunger
Justine Larbalester – Liar
And me!
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

Click here for all tour details. And click here to buy Leviathan.

In anticipation of a "Post-Apocalyptic Teen Fiction" panel I'm attending on Thursday (look for a post early next week,) I've been catching up on Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series. I'm in the middle of the first book right now and loving it. It's a... Read the rest of this post

Four things:

One: As you may remember, Leviathan is coming out on Tuesday, a mere three days from now. (Update: After a quick recount, turns out it’s actually four days from now: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, TUESDAY!)

But there is another object going on sale that very same day, October 6. I call it “the brick,” because it looks like this:

The brick contains all four books in the Uglies series—Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras! And they all live together in a lovely box that references all four covers. I love me a slipcase.

Two: Simon & Schuster Canada sent me this amusing steampunk video on how to install a “Leviathan Wobbler,” a bookworm dazzler of astonishing complexity.

I think you need to watch it.

Click here to visit Simon’s Urban Fantasy Blog, home of the Wobbler.

Three: I have moved my tour dates away from the blog post of a few days ago, and put them in a more sensible place: my Appearances page. From now on, all updates and changes will be made there.

To go to the Appearances page, click the “Appearances/News” button up in the menu at any time. Or just click here.

Four:

So. Close. Can. Smell. It.

Thanks to everyone who came to the NYPL reading last week. It was totally awesome and packed, which is how we authors like it. For those of you who weren’t there, I read a bit of Chapter 2 of Leviathan, the part that goes with the image I posted last week.

And now a message from our sponsor, Swarovski Crystal.

Tally took a steadying breath, the room spinning again, but in a good way. She gestured for the windows to transpare a little more, and in the sunlight she saw the new additions.

“Ooh, pretty-making.”

Bolder than all the other implanted glitter, twelve tiny rubies ringed each of Shay’s pupils, glowing softly red against emerald irises.

“Bubbly, huh?”

No, I didn’t photoshop that, and it’s not a prank. It’s the second-place winner of a competition co-organized by designboom and Swarovski Diamonds, by Anthony Mallier. It’s kind of amazing how close this design is to Shay’s eye surge.

Not that I’m complaining. I doubt I’m the first to come up with this idea, given how long people have been saying, “you’ve got a sparkle in your eye.” It’s only a matter of time before diamond-laced contacts are real, and not just a prototype. Read more here in Mami Magazine.

Of course, there’s no time-telling feature with these, so Shay still wins!

Thanks to Twitter-pal @13stars_above for spotting it.

In other news, the Leviathan trailer has almost 60,000 views on YouTube! Thanks to everyone who watched it, and told your friends about it. (Clearly, some of you did.)

Sorry I haven’t been posting much, but there is a book to write—Behemoth, sequel to Leviathan! That’s right, I have to finish Book 2 before I go on tour for Book 1 at the beginning of October. Speaking of which, I’ll be posting the tour info soon, once I get a few details sorted.

Watch this space for details!

Like Scott Westerfeld’s writing? Then you might be excited to know that you can download his Uglies ebook for free this month. The ebook is in PDF format. You just have to sign up with your email address, birthday, and zip or postal code on the Simon and Schuster site, and you’re good.

Westerfeld says that the first chapter of his new book Leviathan is included in the ebook, along with an illustration you probably haven’t seen before.

What great book promotion!

So tell me–are you going to download the ebook? I am. (smiling)

With Leviathan on its way (60 days and counting!) my publisher and I thought we would give you guys a little present. So for the next month, Uglies will be available free in pdf form.

That’s right: Free book! Free Uglies! Free Tally!

Of course, this isn’t just free for you, my faithful blog readers. I mean, if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve got a copy of Uglies sitting around somewhere already. But if you have any friends, siblings, crushes, or enemies who you think might be interested in the series, why not send them over?

Cause, you know, people like free stuff.

Oh, and by the way, the first chapter of Leviathan is also included, along with an illustration you probably haven’t seen before. (That’s right, this is all a promotional scheme! Bwah-hah-hah!)

Click here to go to Simon & Schuster’s free download site.

Enjoy.

A quick technical note:
Obviously you can read a pdf on your computer, and both Sony e-Readers and Kindles take them too. If you have technical questions, feel free to ask them in this comments thread. I probably can’t help you, but hopefully somebody will.

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent part of Friday afternoon on the phone with the Uglies movie production team. It was great to go into that conversation armed with all the suggestions you guys have been making, both here and on my Twitter feed.

So thanks for all your input. Now here’s what’s going on:

Uglies is currently optioned to be a movie, or possibly a series of movies if the first one does well. To “option” a book is Hollywood-speak for buying the exclusive right to make a movie based on it. But the buyers don’t have to make a movie. Most options never go anywhere, in fact. But it certainly means that these producers are interested.

(What happens if this group doesn’t make the film(s)? In a couple of years I have the right option the book to someone else. In other words, options have time limits.)

Where are we now? Well, there’s no script, director, or actors lined up yet. So be patient and stop asking me about casting! If there are open auditions, you’ll see it here first.

So this phone was mostly us getting to know each other and talking about what makes Uglies special to us. Most of the conversation was me talking, which was interesting. Sometimes Hollywood folks seem compelled to tell me all about my books. But these folks listened. And when I told them about my previous post, they were dying to shoot over and read your comments. So keep them coming!

Here are some of the things I told them:

Most of you guys want unknown actors for Tally and Shay, but maybe someone famous for Dr. Cable. The producers get that, and they also understand how important casting is, given that you could break the whole theme of the film by putting the World’s Most Beautiful Actress in the starring role.

I also told them how important setting is to you guys. How the world-building, tech hoverboards, etc., have to be real. This movie should look good, and more importantly, it should look right. Excellently, it turns out that one of the producers has read Bogus to Bubbly. She also sends it along to the screenwriters they’ve been approaching. That is a Good Thing.

I told them you guys want a faithful adaptation, and they said definitely, because, as one of them put it, “The book is a movie already.” In other words, the story doesn’t have to get completely reshaped to fit the screen. (I doubt there will be any of this putting-all-three-books-into-one-movie crap.)

So what are the chances of the movie happening soon? Well, movies cost tens of millions of dollars, and nothing that requires that much money plus human creativity is ever easy to predict. But the producers did say that there’s lots of support for this project at their studio, where certain execs have been known to speak in bubble-talk. This seems like a very good sign to me.

Anyway, that’s everything I know. Watch this space for further developments.

(So you can stop asking me about casting calls. Seriously.)

Do I have your attention now? Good.

Okay, so let’s say you were going to talk on the phone tomorrow with the producers of the Uglies movie. What would you most want to tell them?

Don’t get into specific casting suggestions or anything like that, because you are a mere author, and they are powerful and wise in the ways of Hollywood. But what one key thing—big or small—should they never forget while working on the film(s)?

Comment away. You have until 3PM Wednesday, New York time.

Fans of Scott Westerfeld rejoice! For there is a book of essays about the Uglies series, and the first one is by me!

The book is called Mind Rain.

In Extras, the last book in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, Aya tells us that when Tally Youngblood made the mind-rain fall, it cured all the pretties and changed the world forever. But Tally and her friends did more than change their world; they changed ours too.

Mind-Rain continues what Tally started, with startling, funny and insightful essays on the world, characters and ideas of the Uglies series, plus the short story that inspired Westerfeld to write the books in the first place.

Think you know everything about Tally’s world? After Mind-Rain, you'll never look at the Uglies series the same way again.

With Pieces From …

• Lili Wilkinson
• Robin Wasserman
• Diana Peterfreund
• Sarah Beth Durst
• Gail Sidonie Sobat
• Rosemary Clement-Moore
• J. Fitzgerald McCurdy
• Janette Rallison
• Linda Gerber
• Charles Beaumont
• Ted Chiang
• Will Shetterly
• Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Delia Sherman

I forgot to mention that Mind-Rain is out! Yes, a few of you commenters have already found it in various stores. If you can’t find it, just ask for it by name!

I was reminded by this contest to win the book on contributor Janette Rallison’s blog.

Anyway, it was lots of fun working on it.

Click here to learn more about the collection.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Here’s a brief description:

In Extras, the last book in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, Aya tells us that when Tally Youngblood made the mind-rain fall, it cured all the pretties and changed the world forever. But Tally and her friends did more than change their world; they changed ours too.

Mind-Rain continues what Tally started, with startling, funny and insightful essays on the world, characters and ideas of the Uglies series, plus the short story that inspired Westerfeld to write the books in the first place.

Think you know everything about Tally’s world? After Mind-Rain, you’ll never look at the Uglies series the same way again.

With essays by Lili Wilkinson, Robin Wasserman, Diana Peterfreund, Sarah Beth Durst, Gail Sidonie Sobat, Rosemary Clement-Moore, J. Fitzgerald McCurdy, Janette Rallison, Linda Gerber, Charles Beaumont, Ted Chiang, Will Shetterly, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Delia Sherman.

You can pre-order the book from Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and of course Indie Bound.