I hope you’re having a good Barzak Day!
If you haven’t heard of Barzak Day, don’t feel bad. This is the first Barzak Day ever, because Chris Barzak’s very first novel is arriving in bookstores right now . . .
Beautiful cover, beautiful book. It was sent to me last year to blurb. Now, I’ve only written a few blurbs in my career (five or six), because I’m a slow reader and want to spend my blurbs wisely. But after reading One for Sorrow, I knew it was time to peel off another one from my tightly rubber-banded roll. Here it is:
“An honest and uncanny ride through the shadows between grief and acceptance. This is how real magic works.”
-Scott Westerfeld
Blurbs are hard to write. Distilling a whole novel into a few words, while trying to sell something to someone standing in a bookstore, is no easy task. But this felt like the right blurb for this novel. One for Sorrow is about that weird intersection between grief and magic, how sadness can bubble up and move the world in paranormal directions.
One thing that my blurb doesn’t convey is that this book is also scary, in a very cool way. Not the kind of scary where you’re nervous about a monster under your bed. More like the kind where you’re nervous that there might be, um, another universe under your bed. One where the rules are skewed and different and a little bit wrong, but that you’d probably crawl on into if you glimpsed it, just out of curiosity.
It’s that kind of book.
A quick word of warning: this book is also probably best for 14 and up. There are some fairly steamy scenes.
You can look up more details or buy it here.
August 29th, 2007 03:08
Putting this one on my to read list – an ever growing list – thanks.
August 29th, 2007 03:44
Looks absolutely amazing – thank you scott, and happy Barzak day!
August 29th, 2007 03:45
Ooh, sounds interesting. Definitely gonna have to add that to the list of books to check out.
Thanks!
August 29th, 2007 04:43
WOW!! LOOKS FWASEOME. Wow, I think I spelled that wrong. I can’t wait to read it!!
Kadie-Wa Only 35 days until extras!! Or
1 month 4 days or
3,024,000 seconds or
50,400 minutes or
840 hours or
5 weeks
Wow, really not that long of a wait!
August 29th, 2007 04:47
Sounds good, Scott. Ill keep my eyes peeled for it.
People should pay you for talking about their books in your blog. I mean about a hundred more or less people read your post everyday. Most of the people are bound to find which ever book your talking about interesting because of the genre of your books. Maybe only 15 of the 75 people buy the book. the other people will request libaries to order them and borrow the book from friends. Therefore the author of the book has had their fame increased and same with their profit.
August 29th, 2007 04:51
Good point Addie-Wa. But I bet that other people do the same for Scott’s books too. At least, i think
Kadie-Wa
August 29th, 2007 04:54
If thats the deal, Kadie, maybe Scott doesnt need to get payed and its just a cycle of one author helping another author. Round and round it goes.
August 29th, 2007 05:18
Good cover…Thank God its not another headless girl…Argghhh.
Will read it! *salutes*
August 29th, 2007 05:22
Must read
August 29th, 2007 05:28
I found a great countdown site for those of us who aren’t polymaths
http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?month=10&day=2&year=2007&hour=9&min=0&sec=0&p0=64
Time until Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 9:00:00 AM (Chicago time)
34 days
835 hours
50131 minutes
3007911 seconds
August 29th, 2007 05:31
Copy-Cat!! Lol, I’m only kiddin!
My kittie is licking my toe, so now I have to go pet her. BYE BYE!
August 29th, 2007 05:44
Sooo, the book is out today and it’s what? semi-fantasy, the cover looks interesting and I love those books where there might be a universe under your bed! Which is why I’d rather have invisibility than time travel.
August 29th, 2007 06:51
Wow, I’m intrigued already. I love the title, I’ll be going to put it high on my books-to-read list.
August 29th, 2007 07:26
Sounds good. Its going on my list.
August 29th, 2007 09:47
ooo sounds very goood
I’m going to share with all of you how stupid I am now. Where i am it’s still August 28th and when i saw that that was posted Aug 29 i started gettin all confused and freaking out because my friend birthday is the 30th and i need a present. of course i reilizied there are things called time differences and calmed down.
August 29th, 2007 10:08
=D Sounds like a book for me, i’ll have to go check it out. maybe even buy it.
I just bought the whole midnighters series b/c i’m tired of them being checked out at the library. I was going to wait for the new covers but you know, I didn’t want to wait long.
You should really recomend books more often, I like reading books people suggest.
August 29th, 2007 10:17
totally gonna read it! just ordered it. yesterday i went to Scholastic warehouse and bought 39 books! (lucky number) its gonna be a while before i need to check out a book from the library!
August 29th, 2007 10:30
34 days
830 hours
49829 minutes
2989770 seconds
until extras!
August 29th, 2007 11:13
did nobody miss me? llolol, looks fool Scott, i’ll check it out. thanks much. i’ve been readin ur blogs, jst havnt had the time (nor the patience) to write a comment. i’ve had so much to do latly, i’ve had skool, swimming, chorus, reading (=p) which btw vampire lovers, 13 Bullets is an amazin book, along w/ Marked, Moon Called, Blue Bloods, and much more. lol. well, i’ll try postin comments more often. hope u guys still remember mmee
August 29th, 2007 11:36
blurb nice name
i got my shirt to day its time to confuse people
August 29th, 2007 11:57
yeah nobody gets mine ether.
August 29th, 2007 12:10
that looks so good! ^_^
oh, so you’re (Scott) a slow reader? *phew* i’m a slow reader, too. i was a bit worried that something was wrong, being a slow reader and a soon-to-be author (i hope!). lol.
~nya!
August 29th, 2007 12:16
Really? A blurb is that hard to write. I think it would be fun to be just a blurb writer. It involes reading and advertising. Stuff I love.
August 29th, 2007 12:55
hey dose anyone here live in Altamonte springs florida
August 29th, 2007 13:24
sounds like another book to add to mty ever growing list… and im so getting a shirt when i well hav money for it (he he)
scott: havent read other comments in a while so excuse me for bugging but we have like a month to get the contest started!!! then extras will be out! Hurry with the plan making there are a lot of ideas in the comments!!!
August 29th, 2007 13:46
i wanna Maximum Ride t-shirt!!!!!!
August 29th, 2007 13:47
*giggle* wings kick @$$!!!
August 29th, 2007 14:35
that books sound intrasting i’ll look for it at the library!!! Still cant wait for the book EXTRAS !!!!
August 29th, 2007 15:09
You know 13 Bullets: A vampire tale, by David Wellington? I tried reading that. You didn’t mention it was also appropriate for 14 years and up, or at least very mature kids who love blood and gore and a fair amount of cussing, and aren’t too religious to mind lesbianism. I’m all of the above, except I didn’t like the blood and gore too much. I suppose it’s my fault: I should have realized that a hunting-down-vampires book should be full of blood. And gore.
August 29th, 2007 22:44
hm. now i need to read this, and the book thief.
(scott, you must be bored. why are you posting so much?)
August 29th, 2007 23:24
i want to read it now!!! i’m gonna request it from my library…but i’ll probably have to wait like a month till they have it.
hey, haddy-la and lizzy-wa, what shirts did you get?
random thought: whoa, there’s like some bird freaking out right outside my window. it just keeps chirpingandchirpingandchirping and it’s been going on for at least three minutes.
August 30th, 2007 04:45
Huh. Maybe it’s just me, then. I never read the blurbs on books. In fact, the more blurbs I see on a book, the less likely I am to want to read it. Certain kinds of blurbs (”The next (insert author name here)!”) actually make me so angry that I immediately put the book down without another glance (because these sorts of blurbs tend to indicate yet another mediocre item in the genre).
I’ve never cared what others think of a book; I’d much rather read it and find out for myself, thank you very much. The recent trend of putting increasingly more blurbs on books (so many that a great number of books I’ve come across lately don’t even have their book description on the cover or even inside) frustrates me. I feel like the industry thinks I can’t figure out a good book for myself, that someone else has to tell me it’s good or I won’t read it (sometimes someone else does have to tell me, but that someone is a friend whose opinion I trust, not another author I’ve never met).
Still. Your description (not your blurb) of this book makes me want to see it. Glad I saw this post before I accidentally picked up the book and read the blurbs.
August 30th, 2007 09:01
ya know my friend once wrote a story in which there WAS a whole other universe under the main characters bed. we were supposed to write a story based off the ol’ “monster under the bed” thing. and when the character crawled under her bed she was teleported to another world…. but i digress. that book sounds pretty awesome.
And what a beautiful blurb! very deep.
August 31st, 2007 12:20
yeah…love the blurb!
September 1st, 2007 14:50
Your blurb’s on teh Amazon!
September 2nd, 2007 06:02
fawesome!
September 5th, 2007 00:42
if tally can wait three months to turn pretty i guess i can wait 1 month for extras!!!
September 6th, 2007 14:07
I dont no if i can.
September 7th, 2007 13:03
wait so if that was barzak day, does that mean october 2 is westerfeld day???
September 8th, 2007 09:50
no. that doesnt sound two Kool. it should be declared a world wide holiday called…
Druuuuummmmmmrooooollllll…
EXTRAS!
a totally hypochondriac holiday celebrating Ugly Minds. and US of course. celebrating free speach and thought. celebrating differences and uglylinesslinessness. celebrating Scott-la and Tally-wa and Zane-la and Shay-la and Lizzy-wa(me) and Kadie-wa and Hannah-wa and Bri-la and Amy-la and Jess-la and Razz-wa and kheidi-la and Jess-la and Talor-wa and Haddy-wa and Addy-wa and Hilary-wa and everybody else! and MOST IMPORTANTLY celebrating the totally Unconquerable Awesomenessly Hypochondraic Overzealously Awesomenessla of UGLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you.
-Lizzy-wa OUT!
September 8th, 2007 09:53
oops! after that totally awesome speech of mine, i reread it and realized that i said Jess-la twice! oh well. it still should be a holiday. well im declaring it a holiday. FOREVER!!!!!
-Lizzy-wa OUT!
October 20th, 2007 20:47
Well i followed your advice, and i’m reading One for Sorrow, almost finished actually. And it’s grzeat really. Makes me really think of The Catcher in the Rye, with ghosts. Thanks for the advice;o)