westerblog

About a year ago, Justine and I were guests of honor at High Voltage Confusion, a yearly convention in Detroit. As we blogged here and here, we had an incredible time and met lots of lovely people.

Our introduction to the local folks was via a long interview with blogmeister John Scalzi, best known for his crankiness at the Whatever. He asked us the usual stuff about ourselves and our work, but then we branched into a far-ranging discussion of YA. I listened to the interview recently, and it was one of those, “Huh, I was pretty smart that day” things.

It really sums up my thinking about our field, and Justine is also on song. So if you’ve got a spare, um, close to an hour(!) forty-five minutes, take a listen.

After you click here, you have to scroll down to “Teh Awesome Duo—Revealed!”

And if listening to me and Justine pontificate for that long is too much, there’s always . . . hoverboards!

So I’m happily perusing this article about Iceberg, a new iPhone novel-reading application, and what do I see . . .

That’s right, the little graphic showing how the app works uses page 12 of Specials as the example!

But shouldn’t they have, like, War and Peace or whatever?

Pteropus, also known as the flying fox, is one of my favorite inhabitants of Sydney. The “foxes” are really fruit bats, with meter-wide wingspans and a taste for figs and mosquitos. They don’t echo-locate like smaller bats, but they do have a distinctive chirp, like a tongue click in some alien language. Pteropus also has a pleasant musky smell, like a faraway skunk in those moments before you realize what you’re smelling.

For the next couple of weeks, we’re staying within view of the Royal Botanical Gardens, which swarms every evening with foxes heading out to the suburbs. Dusk is prime mosquito hunting time, of course.

Here’s the view from our balcony, with the Opera House peeking out from the trees. In the top right, the first bat of the evening has just taken wing.

After many tries, I managed to catch one whizzing just overhead . . .

In close-up, you can see the mammalian skeletal structure—the tiny feet and the vestigial fingers sticking out from the wings.

And remember, this thing’s big. Three feet across! Walking at night, we occasionally startle one out of a low tree, and it’s like a leather kite coming to life just over your head.

Anyway, that’s what I’m staring out at these days. Book 1 of Leviathan is in copy-editing, and the research for Book 2 is in full swing . . .

The other day I went into the offices of Simon & Schuster to shoot some video about Leviathan, and they cleverly had me doing double duty on this pre-Xmas video. It is slavishly devoted to the notion that Books Make Good Gifts (aka Publishing Is Recession Proof, Right? RIGHT?), but still pretty cool.

The amazing thing is the company I’m keeping. Just try to imagine the after-shoot party with me, Bill O’Reilly, Maya Angelou, and Dan Brown all hanging out. The mind boggles.

Click for the actual video.

By the way, my 50s college professor shirt is by D.L. Cerny, my new fave place for dapper. Because shirts make great gifts!

A common phenomenon in publishing is the “lookalike cover,” which happens when two covers share the same stock photograph (or at least a very similar one).

Here’s an example from the first of my new Midnighters covers:

Note: This lookalike was first spotted by Pop Culture Junkie.

This isn’t such a bad lookalike, because the photos have been cropped, Photoshopped, and used in very different ways. Plus, it’s a fairly normal-looking stock photo.

But the crazier the photo, the more obvious the lookalike. Like this one that was pointed out to me recently (thanks, Eloise). It involves the Australian cover for Peeps and, um, the Bible.

Now what sort of Bible is that, you ask? It’s a coffee-table version with slick magazine-like layouts, that’s supposed to appeal to you slick young things.

As one might expect, The Bible: Illuminated was surrounded by a fairly boring controversy over whether publishers should try to make religious texts “cool” or not. Blah, blah, blah. Some people will like it, others not. For some, the juxtaposition of modern images with ancient texts will be brain-rattling, which is probably a good thing.

But for readers of Peeps, the cognitive dissonance should be especially intense. And that’s the fun part of lookalikes—when the same image works in different ways for two very different books.

Any more lookalikes out there that you guys have found?

Update: And it turns out there are more of these eyeball covers! Check them out on Pop Culture Junkie.

It’s good to be Скотт Вестерфельд. Very good indeed.

Sure, Scott Westerfeld gets to live in a stable democracy (two of them!), with thousand-channel cable networks and no Siberian winters.

But Скотт Вестерфельд has covers like this one:

Yes, that’s the new edition of Midnighters: The Secret Hour. Or The Owl, as the series is known in Russia. It is even more insanely cool than the old Russian cover.

Too awesome for words, at least words in English. Speaking of which, here’s the plot description, courtesy of the always profound Google Translator:

Biksbi small town in Oklahoma at first glance, nothing remarkable. But in fact it is one of the most dangerous and mysterious places on the planet. Few know that at midnight Biksbi lasts not a moment, a whole hour. Hour, when the whole world stops and go hunting producing darkness, who can resist only those born in a minute of midnight. Their five, all of them students, and each has a unique gift to brighten the whole manifested in a secret hour: Rex sees traces of touching the darkness of Melissa could not hide other people’s thoughts, Dess loves numbers and mathematical laws, Jonathan with the midnight has become almost weightless. Jessica came to Biksbi more recently, and her talent was the most dangerous to night creatures.

Suddenly, the guys show that they are not the only one who knows about the secret hour. And that previous generations owl Biksbi disappeared is not a coincidence …

Actually, that sounds like the plot description to Book 2. But, hey.

And check out this Скотт Вестерфельд classic:

“The Rebel”
Three hundred years ago, human civilization collapsed - and reborn from the ashes. Surviving disaster firmly decided not to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors. Now the world is designed to truly correct. Cities swim in the greenery, aeromobili quietly slipping in the air. But most importantly - on the ground there is real justice. Because there are no more plain people … Well, not counting teenagers. All who turned sixteen - madly, giddily beautiful thanks to plastic surgery. One trouble: how is painfully long stretch last months before the Sixteenth birthday! ..

However, in the meantime, much can happen. Vylazku risky thinking of booking for “ugly creatures, Telli and did not suspect, than it would - that it is destined to become new friends, overcome dangerous and distant way, and learn about the terrible secret” Operation Beauty “…

Scott Vesterfeld - one of the most recognized authors fiction for young people. Russian readers, he is known primarily for the TV series “owl” already successful earn great popularity both in the world, and we have.

Oh, yeah, we have. Of course, The Mignighters TV series never really happened, but don’t let a little pravda slow you down.

And the back of “The Rebel” is even cooler. It has an airship on it, for some unknown but probably awesome reason! Once I get the real book in my hands, I’ll make sure to scan it.

So here’s to you, Скотт Вестерфельд! You’re a better man than I.

So I think it’s time for another IMterview.

You may remember previous IMterviews, such as my discussion of Cycler with Lauren McLaughlin, and this chat with Robin Wasserman.

This one is a little closer to home, as it’s with my wife, Justine Larbalestier. We’ll be discussing her new book, How to Ditch Your Fairy.

Because we’re sitting next to each other as we IMed, it turned out a bit sillier than usual.

If you need catching up about what the book is about, here’s what I said back when it came out.

And here is the IMterview. (Okay, I’ll stop saying “IMterview” now, because it is lame.)

Here’s what the book looks like:

You can order HTDYF at Powell’s, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

No, this isn’t my review of Twilight, it’s a post about a new anthology (out this week!) that includes a short story by me.

Actually, at 60 pages it’s really a long story. There are only five stories in the anthology, so everyone got to stretch out a bit and write mini-novels. As you can probably tell from the title, the subject is love and romance of a supernatural kind.

Here’s what it looks like:

And here are the stories:

“Stupid Perfect World” by me
Set in a future in which the ancient scourges of humanity—war, sickness, hunger, teen hormones—have been eliminated. In fact, the only place you ever experience them is in a special history class called Scarcity. Extra credit proposals are due today, and Kieran’s and Maria’s class projects are going to bring them together in unexpected ways.

“Thinner Than Water” by Justine
This tale of culture clash is set in a town that follows the old ways: no TVs or cell phones, no factory-made clothes or food, and marriages way too young. This sucks for Jeannie, who’s sixteen and supposed to be “hand-fasted” soon. But when she chooses Robbie, who has a touch of faerie blood, the clash of cultures takes on a new dimension. Click here for an excerpt.

“Love Struck” by Melissa Marr
A love affair with a selkie has its complications. Melissa can explain this better than I can.

“Fan Fictions” by Gabrielle Zevin
Paige falls for a mysterious new boy at school. As Gabriel puts it: “Say, have you heard of that book where the ordinary, clumsy girl falls for the sparkly, vaguely obsessive vampire dude? (I think it’s just starting to catch on.) My story is a bit inspired by that whole thing.”

“Sleeping with the Spirit” by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Loving a ghost ain’t easy, but it’s totally worth it.

Love is Hell is available now at fine bookstores everywhere, and online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Booksense.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit College Summit, a nonprofit that helps more kids get into college.

Justine and I are in Texas this week at NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), and we did a joint appearance in Austin on Wednesday night. The questions were written down by audience members and read to us by the host. It was kind of fun and extra classy that way, and had one added benefit—after we ran out of time, we still had all the unanswered questions!

So this morning, for all those of you who didn’t get a live answer, Justine and I answered them on her blog.

Click here for the Q & A.

And here for Justine’s account of the event.

And we’ll be seeing all you lovely teachers, librarians, etc., at NCTE/ALAN soon.

In case you haven’t been following the zombie-versus-unicorn thread on the internets, it has come to a mighty climax with the announcement of:

The Zombie Versus Unicorn Anthology! A collection of zombie and unicorn short stories to settle the issue for good, co-edited by Justine Larbalestier (aka, my Justine) and the fabulous Holly Black.

Justine is, of course, the head of Team Zombie, and Holly is the head of Team Unicorn.

Here’s Justine’s announcement of it, and here’s Holly’s.

Stay tuned for an amusing video on this subject.

But first, some appearance news: Justine and I will be in Austin, Texas this Wednesday night, at the awesome bookstore known as BookPeople.

Wednesday, Nov 19
7:30 PM
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin, TX 78703
512-472-5050
800-853-9757
Click here for more.

And the next night, Justine will be appearing at a Barnes & Noble in San Antonio.

Thursday, November 20
7:00PM
Barnes & Noble
Northwoods Shopping Center
18030 HWY 281NSuite #140
San Antonio, TX 78232
210-490-0411

Hope to see you there!

And now, a short video from Lauren Myracle, she of the Scare-a-thon and (sadly) a member of Team Unicorn.

Let the battle continue!

Update
A few things that I need to remind everyone about are:

Westerboard! The oldest Westerfeldian forum on the web.

Midnighters, Inc. The newest forum about my books on the interwebs.

How Bubbly Are You? A survey for everyone who comes here regularly, old or young. Contribute to science!