Barely. But the first leg of my tour is almost done. Last events in October:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29
7:00PM
Ann Arbor District Library
343 South Fifth Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30
12:00PM
Provo County Library
550 North University Avenue
Provo, UT 84601
My keynote speech requires tickets, and I hear they’re sold out! But google “Provo Book Festival” for details.
And don’t forget my chat next week!
And finally, I’ll be in NYC as part of the NYPL readings series next Wednesday. Check my Appearances page for details, and for the November part if the tour in France, Miami, and Vancouver!
I’ve been personalizing between one and two hundred books a day for most of this month, a process that means I have to spell people’s names correctly, a lot. Names, unlike most words, can be spelled pretty much the way the owner (or their parents) wants. As a result, first names are a hotbed of creativity. And I assure you all, you Jazmyns and Shons and Madelens, that I applaud your innovation and uniqueness. The minor chaos these mutations cause for me during signings is a small price to pay for a world full of unexpected variation
In fact, my new game is to figure out which common first name has the most spellings. And at the moment, I think it’s Caitlin, with forty-eight sixty-four. Here’s my logic:
There are six eight first halves of the name:
Cait
Cayt
Caet
Cate
Kait
Kayt
Kaet
Kate
And eight endings:
-lin
-linn
-linne
-len
-lenn
-lyn
-lynn
-lynne
And thus, six eight times eight is 48 64 ways to spell the same basic name, all pronounced exactly the same way. (In normal speech, anyway.)
Does this seem right to you guys? Or am I missing any?
But anyway, shine on you crazy Kate-lynns. And fill out that post-it clearly.
Here’s the rest of my tour this month:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25
7:00PM
Joseph Beth Booksellers
2692 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45208
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26
4:30PM
Blue Marble Bookstore
1356 South Fort Thomas Avenue
Ft. Thomas, KY 41075
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27
7:00PM
Anderson’s Bookshop
123 West Jefferson
Naperville, IL 60540
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28
7:00PM
Borders
43075 Crescent Blvd.
Novi, MI 48375
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29
7:00PM
Ann Arbor District Library
343 South Fifth Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30
12:00PM
Provo County Library
550 North University Avenue
Provo, UT 84601
My keynote speech requires tickets, and I hear they’re sold out! But google “Provo Book Festival” for details.
Hey, all. Still on the road, and having a great time. Thanks to everyone who’s showing up at the events. You’re all awesome.
For those of you who are missing me on tour, I have a Ustream Chat coming up. Basically, it’s me in video form answering your questions, combined with some kind of chat amongst yourselves.
Here’s the banner. Please click to RSVP, so that we can set up the bandwidth for the right number of participants.
And, as always, here’s my schedule for the rest of the week:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21
7:00PM
The Little Shop of Stories
133A East Court Square
Decatur, GA
Note that Justine will be here as well!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22
5:30PM
Quail Ridge Bookstore
3522 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC
Just had an awesome meal at Green Goddess in New Orleans, fuel for my upcoming crazy week of touring. Thanks to everyone who came out at the Texas Book Festival, both for me and the ZvU event.
I am now galavanting across the south. See me at the cities below or in Cincinatti, Michigan, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and points beyond. Click Appearances in the menu above for more.
Just got the news that Behemoth debuted at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. And I have all of YOU to thanks for that!
Now I must sleep!
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19
4:00PM
Signing only at Books a Million
757 Brookwood Village
Birmingham, AL
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20
7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
Mansell Crossings Shopping Center
Alpharetta, GA
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21
7:00PM
The Little Shop of Stories
133A East Court Square
Decatur, GA
Note that Justine will be here for certain!
She may be at some of the others as well.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22
5:30PM
Quail Ridge Bookstore
3522 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC
ALERT! Behemoth is out NOW in Australia. Enjoy!
I’m heading off to Texas, but I wanted to share some cool reviews, interviews, and images from the Behemoth tour so far. In no particular order:
You can now download Behemoth, read by the awesome Alan Cumming, as an audio book! Click to download from Audible or iTunes.
Check out this guest post I did for Figment, about the art of the Leviathan series.
And here’s another post I did for the Steamed blog, which is cool for all things steampunk.
Here’s an interview with me at Eve’s Fan Garden.
And here’s a slightly spoilery review of Behemoth at Boing Boing.
I AM ALL OVER THE INTERNETS.
But I’m also on tour, so if you live in . . .
Austin, TX
New Orleans, LA
Alpharetta or Decatur, GA
Raleigh, NC
Cincinnati, OH
Ft. Thomas, KY
Naperville, IL
Novi or Ann Arbor, MI
Provo, UT
Nantes or Paris, France
Miami, FL
or Vancouver, Canada . . .
Then please check out my Appearances page for when I’ll be near you.
Right now, there are exactly a hundred comments on the Behemoth spoiler thread. Maybe we should keep going there for book discussion, and use this thread to talk about the interviews or whatever.
And now, because I missed Fan Art Friday, here are some fan art images from the tour!
First, a great life-size version of Alek, which greeted me at River Dell Middle School.
And here’s Deryn, me, and the artists! (Sorry I forgot your names!)
And the drawing on the left was given to me at a signing in Pennsylvania by Patrick. It’s modeled on a real WWI propaganda poster, but changed to show Clanker sensibilities!
Behemoth is out NOW in the US, Canada, and in the UK! (Sorry, Australia, you have to wait till October 12.) The audio book, read by the awesome Alan Cumming, is also out now.
For a bit more about the book, click here for an interview with me on Tor.com about researching Behemoth, writing process, and FOOD.
I’m on tour right now and will attempt to blog from the road, but it may be patchy.
Am I coming to your town? Well, do you live in . . .
New York
Houston, Allen (near Dallas), or Austin, TX
New Orleans, LA
Alpharetta or Decatur, GA
Raleigh, NC
Cincinnati, OH
Ft. Thomas, KY
Naperville, IL
Novi or Ann Arbor, MI
Provo, UT
Nantes or Paris, France
Miami, FL
or Vancouver, Canada?
Then please check out my Appearances page for when I’ll be near you.
And finally: THE COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD ARE SPOILERS!
ABANDON NARRATIVE TENSION, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE . . .
Behemoth comes out this Tuesday in the US, and next Tuesday (Oct 12) in Australia!
When it comes out, I’ll be putting up a Spoiler Comments Thread. The actual post won’t have spoilers, but do NOT click the comments unless (a) you’ve already read Behemoth or (b) you want your brain to explode.
Don’t believe me? Just ask the people who accidentally read the Specials spoiler thread. (Mwah-hah-hah.) And no, this doesn’t mean that anyone is necessarily going to DIE or anything in Behemoth. But stuff happens, you know?
In other news, shortly after the book comes out in the US, this countdown timer will start counting down again to a date in early November. “But what is the significance of this date?” you ask.
That is currently a secret. But it will be FUN.
Just click “SHARE” and the “COPY” to put the embed code on your clipboard.
Oh, and by the way, Behemoth came out in the UK today!!!
(The US and Canada is Tuesday the 5th, and Australia is on the 12th.)
And use the player below to check out an excerpt of the audio book.
Alan’s rendition is, if I may be so bold, made of awesomesauce.
Look what I got today . . .
And as you can see, I ignored the label. Bwah-hah-hah! (But seriously, don’t try this at home, or especially at your bookstore. I’m what you call an expert, with years of training that keeps me safe.)
Now, some of you have been asking in the comments of my tour details post exactly what my appearances will be like. That is an excellent question!
Here’s roughly how they go:
1) The events are in a bookstore and somewhere between 30 and 100 people show up. These numbers seem to be completely random. (Sometimes at book festivals or other large venues, hundreds appear.) Those who come early sit closer, but no one is turned away! You can always buy my books at my appearances.
2) First I do a half-hour talk about how Leviathan came to be, and how Keith and I work together. This presentation has many slides of his boo-tiful art, which allow me to make hilarious visual jokes! Later in the tour, my schtick is smoother, but it is always stirring.
3) Next I answer all your burning questions about everything—the Leviathan series, the Uglies books, the Midnighters and New York trilogies, my adult books, writing advice, or whatever you want to know. Pro tip: Raise your hand early on when everyone else being a weenie, and your question will be answered.
4) I sign stuff. This can take a while, but your patience is rewarded by me signing pretty much anything put in front of me. I pose for pictures too. In case of very long lines, some stores have rules, like, two things signed for every book you buy there. And I would strongly encourage you to buy at least one book at the store hosting the event. I mean, it’s in your interest to keep them in business! (But please come up and say hi, even if you are penniless.) And please assume I don’t how to spell your name, even if it’s “Rick.”
5) Sometimes Justine is there. If you like her books and say so to her, she will not harm you. She may even sign things or amuse you in other ways. But there are no guarantees!
That’s it, really. So if you live in or near . . .
Exton, PA
West Chester, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Glen Rock, NJ
Houston, TX
Allen (near Dallas), TX
Austin, TX
New Orleans, LA
Alpharetta, GA
Decatur, GA
Raleigh, NC
Cincinnati, OH
Ft. Thomas, KY
Naperville, IL
Novi, MI
Ann Arbor, MI
Provo, UT
Paris or Nantes, France
Miami, FL
or Vancouver, Canada . . .
then please check out my Appearance page for when I’ll be there.
See you on tour!
As you can see, my website has had its first makeover in many years. This is to celebrate the fact that my first new series in years, Leviathan, comes out this autumn. (October 6, to be exact.)
Things may be wonky for a while as we play around under the hood. But I hope you enjoy the new look. Let me know what you think!
Click here to contact Scott Westerfeld.
Jill Grinberg
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
info@grinbergliterary.com
