Okay, it’s officially International Editions Week here at Casa Larbfeld.
Look what came through the transom today:
This is definitely the most literal cover out of all the Midnighters editions. It’s a scene right out of the book, with all kinds of elements you can’t point to right in the text.
There’s something really sweet about that, almost like a kid’s book cover.
For a truly huge file that reveals all nine kinds of fawsomeness in this cover, click here.
And like most Japanese editions, there’s a dramatis personae page at the beginning. I really like these interpretations of the five midnighters, although I’m sure you guys will find errors in detail.
Click here to read and translate the fine print, or to steal the line art for your own nefarious and illegal purposes. Like making shirts!
So I’ve been fooling around with making my own promotional shirts for a while, and sometimes people want to buy them from me. But it’s not like I’m going to manufacture things and then (shudder) mail them. I don’t do packages and stamps very well.
But with Extras coming out in just six weeks, I suppose it’s time to let the t-shirts flow. So I invite you all to the launch of . . .
Yes, it’s the online store for shirts and hoodies that reveal your Ugly (and Midnightery) side. Behold a few examples:
All these and more are available right now by clicking right here.
A few notes:
1) As with all online clothes shopping, check the size info carefully. I chose Spreadshirts.com because they’re very clear about the measurements of their stuff. Just click the product details for info.
2) I don’t get any money from this, but one dollar from each shirt goes to Katrina relief. If anything goes wrong with an order, please bug Spreadshirts and not your humble and clueless author.
3) If you think these shirts are lame, feel free to design your own at Spreadshirt or Cafe Press. Click here for a big tridecashirt file. And here for a big file with all the Midnighters symbols. Rock out and share with the rest of us.
4) Yes, they ship to Australia and many other countries, but it costs.
5) Discounts on bulk orders (25 of the same thing).
Hope you find these fine wearables amusing, and let me know if you have any Special requests. (nyuck, nyuck.)
Again, here’s the store.
Yes, I realize that Justine and I have been spending all our time over at Inside a Dog, but I have not utterly abandoned you!
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the first cover for the new trade paperbacks of Midnighters!
Pretty cool, huh? That’s Jessica of the red hair and green eyes, of course.
Remember, these are the same old book, just with new covers. And they aren’t available until early January 2008, so don’t go scouring for them. But I thought I’d give you guys your usual chance to sneak peak and comment.
Or you comment over at Inside a Dog.
A few notes on genre “reveals” and on the TV option of Midnighters, all starting with a long digression.
Digression begins.
Back when I was a young composer, I went to an early MIDI expo in NYC. Then (and now) MIDI* was the communication standard that allows electronic musical instruments to talk to each other, and back in those days of tangled patch cords and 8-bit sampling, that alone was a pretty cool thing.
But one of the exhibits was even cooler. It was a guy playing a trumpet, at the end of which was something that looked like a mute. This device was listening to the notes be played, analyzing their pitch, converting them to MIDI data, and then sending them to a synthesizer. All in realtime!
He also had a footswitch to change the change the sound of the synth. So it went something like this:
Stomp. He was a trumpeter making the sound of a piano.
Stomp. He was a trumpeter making the sound of a guitar.
Stomp. He was a trumpeter making the sound of an oboe.
This is still a fairly cool thing to watch. In 1980-something, it was wicked awesome.
Suddenly, though, he clicked his foot switch, and the synthesizer shifted to its next instrument sound . . .
Stomp. And he was a trumpeter making the sound of . . . a trumpet.
But a dorky, synthesized trumpet, instead of the real one he held in his hands.
I looked around at the rapt audience, seeing who else got the joke. Only a few did, but we exchanged wry stares. It was a moment of sublime post-modernity, irony, and outright geekiness.
But it was also a warning to the wise: If you twist something around too far, it’s just the same darn thing you started with. But suckier.
Flash forward almost two decades.
I’m watching Underworld, what looks to be a diverting film about vampires and werewolves at war.
Stomp. Latex-wearing undead.
Stomp. Matrix-like slow motion.
Stomp. The rain-slicked streets of Budapest!
What could possibly go worng?
Then suddenly, way too early in the film, an astounding revelation is made: In this war, the vampires use bullets full of silver nitrate-something-babble, which kill werewolves on contact. And now the werewolves have developed bullets with something-ultraviolet-babble, which kill vampires on contact.
Stomp. Superhuman monsters at war . . . and they shoot each other with guns.
You know, guns. The things that kill regular people.
Except the vamps and werewolves die even faster than regular humans. So that one extra reveal brings us right back to normal. But suckier.
Wait! These things can kill people? No one told me that.
Flash forward to yesterday!
I’m watching Tremors 2 on cable, and of course I’m not stupid. I know it won’t be as good as the original. But at least I’ll get some more of those fantabulous underground monsters!
And yet here we go again. After a long and mysterious metamorphoses that promises a great new evil being unleashed upon the world, the underground monsters change into . . .
Stomp. Monsters that can run around on top of the frickin’ ground!
Stomp my beating heart.
A war where people shoot at each other? Above-ground monsters? Trumpets that sound like trumpets? Doesn’t sound so magical.
I find this turn of events to be less than beneficial!
This brings us to the Midnighters TV show.
Last October, Scifi Wire brought us an interview with former Charmed producer Brad Kerns. He’s the man that the CW (formerly the WB and UPN) has hired to look into creating a Midnighters TV show.
He is quoted saying:
It’s a very intriguing world. It’s a very cinematically visual area. At this point I’m not yet convinced that we’ve figured out how to make it a series. We’d want to up the ages of the characters in the book from all teenagers in high school to probably in their middle to late 20s.
Stomp. Twenty-six year olds who . . . stay up till midnight!
Can you feel the magic? Because, you know, when you’re 26 and the blue time rolls around, you’re probably, um, in a bar. Or watching TV. You know, like, hanging out.
Now I’m the last person to say that visual media must stay exactly like its literary source. Or that twists on an old story can’t create something new and extraordinary. Or that we authors shouldn’t be made rich by TV. No, you won’t hear those arguments from me.
But come on. When you’re 20-something, midnight just ain’t magic. I’m hearing a trumpet that sounds a lot like a trumpet.
Which sort of blows.
Update! According to web rumors the CW plans to bring back Veronica Mars with a brave new format: a few years in the future, Veronica has become an FBI agent.
Stomp! That’s right, an FBI agent . . . who solves crimes!
Now that, my friends, is a twist.
___________________________________________
*Musical Instrument Digital Interface, to its friends.
Not “die” as in “expire,” of course. “Die” as in “the.”
That’s right, the Midnighters series is now in German! And the new website for the series is far cooler than anything in English.
Like check this out:
Because, you see, German midnighters have entirely different symbols! (It’s a teutonic thing; you wouldn’t understand.)
There are pages and pages of fun to be had, including many screensavers like the one above. But the funkiest thing is the Tridecalogism-Generator, which looks like this.
Okay, if anyone knows what “abschicken” means, do tell. Is that like a dude who’s afraid to take his shirt off in public?
Go here to check out the generator.
These are the German midnighter desktops, like the one above.
And here’s the mighty home page.
Thank you, Kosmos, for a very cool site.
____________________
This just in: Justine also got some cool downloads today, including a Magic or Madness screen saver that rocks out loud. Here’s her post linking to the screensaver.
Two quick things:
Blue Noon, the last book of the Midnighters series, is out in paperback at last. Now you can own all three for about $20.
Also, Justine is reading here in New York on Wednesday night!
When:
Wednesday, March 7
6:00 to 8:00PM
Where:
Tompkins Square branch of the New York Public Library
331 E. 10th Street (west of Ave. B)
Who:
Erin Downing (Prom Crashers)
Maryrose Wood (Why I Let My Hair Grow Out)
Justine Larbalestier (Magic’s Child)
Leslie Margolis (Price of Admission)
Eireann Corrigan (Ordinary Ghosts)
Daniel Ehrenhaft and Adrienne Maria Vrettos (reading from 21 Proms)
See you there!
Allow me to destroy your mind: SCROTUM!
Gee, that was almost too easy.
Okay, for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about: There’s a front-page story in the NY Times today about Susan Patron’s Newberry Award-winning book The Higher Power of Lucky.*
The novel starts with a ten-year-old girl named Lucky hearing a conversation from next door. The neighbor’s dog has just been bitten by a snake . . . on his scrotum. (Poor thing.)
Lucky hasn’t heard this word before. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.” Like any language-loving kid, she finds these secret words fascinating. (Much like my tridecalogism obsession in Midnighters, but along a somewhat different axis.)
Cue the real world.
According to the Times article, Librarian.net has been burning up with this seven-letter kerfuffle. That’s not exactly true, but some school librarians have actually said they’ll ban the book, and the debate has leaked out to various litblogs and library sites. So I thought I’d offer my thoughts.
First some odd but revealing quotes.
The Times reporter writes, “Authors of children’s books sometimes sneak in a single touchy word or paragraph, leaving librarians to choose whether to ban an entire book over one offending phrase.”
Hmm. How does one “sneak” something into a book? Everything in a book is right there in black and white, literally. The only people past whom the contents of a book can be snuck are people who don’t read books. You know, the ones who leaf through them distractedly, looking for reasons to ban them.
Nice of you to adopt their framework, NY Times.
And by the way, the word (cover your eyes!) “scrotum” appears on page one of Lucky. That’s some pretty crappy sneaking. All my snuck-in words are printed upside down on page 217 in invisible ink. (Hint: Lemon juice.)
Also bizarre is the phrase “leaving librarians to choose whether to ban an entire book.” Yes, that’s us lazy authors, leaving librarians to ban our books. Why can’t we ban our own books for once?
A teacher and librarian from Colorado is also quoted: “This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind.”**
This is just so random. Who else would Susan Patron have in mind, except children? Children who find fascination in new words. Word-nerd kids for whom the mysteries of the body and those of language are wrapped up together. And does anyone really believe Patron is trying to get on Howard Stern with this?***
But I don’t mean to be harsh, especially not on school librarians! I know you have a tough job. You have all the usual trials of working at a school, plus tons of crackpots hanging around waiting to pounce on every word in every book you shelve. I also realize that librarians have more at stake in this than I have. Like, their jobs. And I get that my books are YA, while Lucky is middle grade, and will admit that I haven’t ever used the word “scrotum” myself. (The subject hasn’t come up.)
But let’s remember that we all have children in mind. They are our readers, without whom we’re just wasting our time. No authors I know are trying to sneak, offend, or randomly envelope push. We’re trying to write the best, most relevant books we can.
That often means balancing the needs of kids who want to read their own stories in their own vernacular with the needs of parents who don’t want their cotton-candy invented memories of what childhood is like disturbed. This is a very hard line to walk.
Susan Patron walks this line by telling an uplifting tale of surviving the loss of a parent, while throwing in one amusing anatomical term. I walk this line by writing about bomb-throwing, eco-terrorist, self-harming, champagne-drinking, tattooed heroines, while never using dirty words. (The astonishing thing is that I get away with it and Patron doesn’t. Even with the age difference, this tends to support what I said about some folks scanning rather than reading.)
But we all face the same problem: it’s impossible to please everyone. So all we authors and librarians can ask of each other is, yes, to keep children in mind. Especially these children:
The word-loving kids, for whom silly seven-letter terms that make adults blush are pure magic, the sort that animates a lifetime of language acquisition.
The kids who face abuse and addiction at home, whose only way to understand what they’re going through is through narratives that will curl your hair and mine.
The bomb-throwing kids, for whom tales of future revolution give a framework for their own necessary confrontations with authority.
The vacuum readers, who consume anything and everything, and thereby learn to filter out whatever they’re not ready for.
As long as we keep all these kids stocked up with lots of books, we’re doing a pretty good job.
Now a question for my teen readers, for whom this post was no doubt really boring:
What’s your favorite dorky-dirty word? The kind that makes you giggle, and you’d get vaguely in trouble if you used it at school.
Mine is “dingleberry.”
_____________________
*Full disclosure: The publishers of Lucky are Simon & Schuster, one of my 29 publishers worldwide. Dude! I just counted : I have 29 publishers!
** “They didn’t have the children in mind?” Why “they”? Lucky is written by one author. Is this a conspiracy? Why am I always the last to be informed of the scrotum-sneaking children’s literature conspiracies? I pay my dues! And why are people always worried about “the children,” and not just “children”? What’s up with that?
***Some people seem to subsist entirely on outrage, and think everyone else is constantly trying to outrage them, because we want to get famous or something. Trust me on this: Most of the time, we had no clue you’d be outraged!
I haven’t posted anything for Midnighters fans in a while, so here are a couple of bits of fannish art and one document for obsessed scholars.
But first, the event at Kinokuniya was a blast. Our thanks to all of those who came, especially fan-mail deliverers and shameless flatterers Steph, Jaimee, and Christina/Mikey! Fun was had by all.
So, a few days ago I got this present from Kallie, my own anti-darkling coffee mug!
In addition to this triple-decker tridecalogism, the other side has stuff too intricate for my still-life photography skillz to capture. It features thirteen 13s in Phoenician numerals and the five midnighter talent symbols. Kewl.
Now here’s something for your CafePress pleasure. The tridecashirt!
Yes, it’s amazing how much free time I used to have. But what is this for? Well, I hereby give you all the right to copy, re-mix, and promulgate this image in all media in existence or yet to be invented, forever and throughout the known universe.
In other words, steal it to make t-shirts if you want. Or coffee mugs.
Click here for a much bigger file, and here if you want a vast Photoshop doc without the white background. (‘Save As’ under File after it loads, then open in Photoshop.)
And finally, for the truly Midnighters obsessed, here’s the chronology of events for whole series, from September 1 to October 31. Funny how October 6 in Blue Noon takes 100 pages to unfold!
I apologize for the formatting, but this is the stuff of novelist’s working documents. Page numbers refer to the hardbacks, btw, and may have shifted slightly since page proofs.
Massive Spoilers Warning!
Chronology, Book 1
p. 1 first day of school at Bixby High (Sep 1) Rex sees that Jessica has Focus; Jessica meets Dess in trig
p.17 that Thurs. (Sep. 4) Jessica’s first week of school almost over, she has first midnight experience with frozen rain
p.21 next day (Fri., Sept. 5) Jessica has lunch with Jonathan; midnight with cat, snakes, and panther
p.100 next day (Sat., Sept. 6) Jessica at Clovis Museum; midnight with Jonathan, flying, attack by slithers and darklings, busted by Sheriff St. Claire
p.177 next day (Sun., Sept. 7) Rex and Dess tell Jess at midnight about lore site
p.189 next day (Mon., Sept. 8,) Constanza invites Jess to party at Rustle’s Bottom on Fri.
p.201 next Wed. (Sept. 10) during midnight hour Melissa changes Jess’s parents’ minds about grounding
p.211 next day (Thurs., Sept. 11) Jess ungrounded, kisses Jonathan on top of Pegasus sign
p.231 next day (Fri., Sept. 12) party at Rustle’s Bottom, Jess discovers talent of flame-bringer
p.302 two midnights later (midnight of Sun., Sept. 14) right after midnight time, Melissa picks up on human thought threat to JessicaChronology, Book 2
p.4 Sat. night (Sept. 20) Jessica goes out at midnight although still grounded for another two weeks, Jessica has been in secret hour two weeks, two weeks later bruises from letting go of Jonathan’s hand just fading, Jessica has physics test on Mon., Jessica and Jonathan spot stalker with camera, Dess awakes early Sun. morning from dream, takes dad’s GPS
p.30 next day (Sun. Sept 21) Jessica had only felt secure in Bixby for a week before cameraman danger started, she and Jonathan visit Rex, Rex and Melissa touch, a week since drive back from Rustle’s Bottom; at midnight Rex and Melissa find Darkling Manor, see halfling
p.89 next day (Mon. Sept 22) Rex and Melissa skip school, ten days since Dess led Rex and Melissa across desert to snake pit, weekend before last found out Jessica was flame-bringer, Jonathan and Dess go back to Los Colonias, visit Darkling Manor, find bill for Ernesto Grayfoot, Jessica locks Beth in closet while out with Jonathan
p.157 next day (Tues. Sept 23) Dess finds Madeleine, Melissa and Rex go to Constanza’s house at midnight, Melissa finds out Ernesto is Constanza’s cousin, Madeleine puts directions to Constanza’s in Jessica and Jonathan’s heads, fight with darklings
p.206 next day (Wed. Sept 24) plan to meet at Constanza’s house on Friday, Beth resumes Beth Spaghetti night
p.235 next day (Thurs. Sept 25) at Madeleine’s, Dess realizes that runway is where halflings created
p.248 next day (Fri. Sept 26) Rex kidnapped, changed into darkling, Anathea released but dies, Jessica burns Rex back into human form
p.328 next day (Sat., Sept. 27) midnight hour, Jonathan meets Beth in Jessica’s bedroom, Dess, Melissa, and Rex at Madeleine’sChronology, Book 3
p.4 (Mon., Oct. 6) a month ago beginning-of-football-season pep rally, TEN DAYS ago Melissa invaded Dess’s mind to save Rex, blue time falls just after nine a.m., TEN DAYS since Rex’s transformation, Jessica’s grounding to end, a month from when police brought her home, Jessica’s last night of grounding, Dess at Maddy’s figures out Cassie captured by darklings, midnighters rescue Cassie
p.104 next day (Tues., Oct. 7) Rex found lore signs in kitchen this morning, at midnight Melissa mindcasts Cassie to make her forget
p.123 next day (Wed., Oct. 8,) Constanza tells group in a couple of weeks moving to LA with grandfather, Halloween MORE THAN three weeks away, another eclipse during lunch, Rex meets that night with Angie, then with ancient darklings, refuses their offer to join hunt
p.199 next Wed. (Oct. 15) Beth Spaghetti Night, Beth has Cassie over for dinner
p.210 that same night (Wed., Oct. 15) Samhain is SIXTEEN days away, Madeleine, Melissa, and Rex meld with old mindcasters, find out what darklings put in Rex’s mind about Samhain
p.224 next day (Thurs., Oct. 16) midnighters meet at Madeleine’s at night, to meet for experiments on Sat. morning
p.237 next day (Sat., Oct. 18) another eclipse, Rex does experiment with Caddy, ten days to Halloween
p.255 a week later: (Sat., Oct. 25) Halloween is SIX days away, Constanza to fly to LA day after tomorrow for a week
Samhain (FRIDAY., Oct. 31) Jessica stops rip by putting hand in frozen lightning on Mobile building
p.336 two weeks later (mid-Nov.) Beth taken by midnighters to remains of rip, meets Jessica
Here’s some fan art to amuse you all, perhaps making up for my lack of postage.
But first a little news: Specials and Pretties have appeared on the NYT bestseller list! Specials has re-listed at #7 on the chapterbook list, and Pretties debuts at #8 on the paperback list.
The crazy thing is that Pretties has been out for more than a year. So the book’s appearance on a bestseller list means that you guys have been talking it up! And I mean that: At this point the only marketing is word of mouth. (And slipcases! Someone give me slipcases!)
So onward to the fan art . . . Here’s happy Tally celebrating the news. Dance, Tally, dance!
Animated gif by Breca H.
And here’s a vision of New pretty Town from the UK.
Picture by Joanna L., who’s working on a university design project based on Uglies.
And finally, an entry in the long-awaited Halloween costume ball, Dess with Purposelessly Hyperinflated Individuality!
Costume designed and worn by Kallie P., plus Psychokitty!
Send any more costume shots to my fan mail address. To do that, here and click “contact” in the upper right corner. Then replace the “at” with the “@”. Why is this so hard? To make spambots choke on their own bile, that’s why.
(I will keep your names secret, of course.)
And again, thanks for getting me on the list. Without you guys, I’m a crazy guy saying “bubbly” way too much.
Yes, I may be in Thailand, but I’m working terribly, terribly hard on my next book.
No, really. So it wasn’t me who found these videos on YouTube, I swear. I’m working way too hard.
But here they are:
This video for So Yesterday has lots of cool split-screen energy.
And a smooth one for Midnighters. Check out the casting.
And this one, although it’s not really about Uglies, does give you some idea how much work goes into making people in magazine ads into pretties. (In some ways, Photoshopping inspired the trilogy more than cosmetic surgery.)
And here’s another really creepy one about extreme retouching. A must watch. It’s like the operation unfolding before your eyes.
And finally, I mentioned this excellent video review of Uglies in a previous post, but include it here for completeness.
Can you guys find any more? (One link per post, please, or my spam filter has a whole bag of zap with your name on it!)
Shay's Story, a graphic novel version of Uglies, is OUT NOW!
The Uglies series has been adapted into graphic novel form, with the events of the trilogy told from Shay's point of view in three volumes.
The first one comes out March 6, 2012!
Click here to contact Scott Westerfeld.
Jill Grinberg
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
info@grinbergliterary.com
