When I was at Adelaide Writers Week last month, I did an extended interview with Sean Williams, who writes the Trouble Twisters series with Garth Nix. The ABC was kind enough to film the talk and put it online.
I talk about Uglies, Leviathan and the history of illustrations, living with another writer, from whence inspiration comes, my other books, and pretty much everything else writerly. It’s a whole hour long!
Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Adelaide Writers Week for having me, to everyone who asked questions, to the ABC, and to Sean for being a great interviewer.
Here is the ABC page where you can download this as audio or video. Click here for the other talks from Adelaide Writers Week.
A few notes:
1) For you USians, note that “the ABC” (Australian Broadcasting Company) is not the same as “ABC” (American Broadcasting Company).
2) At 13:15, I meant to say “Book 2″ instead of “Book 3.”
3) Justine, in the audience, is caught tweeting at 26:45.
4) My pronunciation of “manga” is weird sometimes. I’m from Texas.
5) At 36:00 I briefly confuse Miyake with Miyazaki, because I was wearing the former. #humblebrag
I don’t have a book out this year, so I won’t be on any sort of tour. But I will be traveling around a bit and doing a few live appearances (mostly in Australia) so it makes sense to list everything in one place for easy linkage. And this is that place.
Here are all my known appearances in 2013. I will update this page as things change. Note that Justine will be at many of these things.
Conflux
Canberra, Australia
April 26-28
I’ll be doing a presentation about Leviathan and the history of illustrated novels on Friday (April 26) at 5:00PM, Event Room One. (And otherwise hanging out, so come say hi.) Conference site.
INTERNET DEAD ZONE
May 3-10
I am turning off my internet for this whole week. Get off my lawn!
Aurealis Awards
Sydney, Australia
May 18, 7PM
I’ll be hosting the ceremony for these yearly awards for Australian fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Hopefully I will be funny. Click here for details.
Sydney Writer’s Festival
Saturday, May 25, 11:30AM
I’ll be on a panel with Lauren Beukes, David M. Henley, and James Bradley. What is speculative fiction, and where do the boundaries start to blur between genres and sub-genres? Have the classic genres changed now that we live in a world where technology has caught up?
This is free and no bookings required. Event details.
Alpha Teen Workshop
Pittsburgh, PA
July 13-16
I’ll be teaching at this week-long writing seminar for teenagers. Admissions for the workshop are closed, but there will probably be a bookstore appearance in Pittsburgh. Check back here for details about that, or at the Alpha site.
San Diego Comic-Con
July 18-12
I’ll be hanging out here and getting into trouble. They might make me do a panel or two. Check back here for details, or at the con site.
Melbourne Writer’s Festival
August 22-30
I’ll be here and doing stuff. Details not set yet, but you can always check back here or on the festival site.
Brisbane Writers Festival
September 4-8
I’ll be here too! Details following. Festival site
All in all that’s a fair amount of travel, but nothing like when I go on tour. I’m kind of glad to be mostly hanging out at home and writing.
But next year i’m planning to have a book out, so who knows . . .
I’m headed to the Adelaide Writers’ Festival in a few weeks, so I’m hoping to see some of you South Australian fans there.
Here’s my schedule:
SUNDAY MARCH 3, 5PM
WEST STAGE
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden
Leviathan: Scott Westerfeld (US/AUS)
This is me having a long chat with my old buddy Sean Williams. We will be talking about All Of The Stuff.
Click here for more.
MONDAY MARCH 4, 5PM
EAST STAGE
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden
Highways to a War: A Reading
War stories are among our oldest narratives and this session of readings will explore some of our more recent wars. Christopher Koch has taken us to Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Peter Robb has introduced us to the mean streets of Italy and Brazil. Tom Keneally has chronicled both the World Wars. Scott Westerfeld explores an alternative First World War and Ross McMullin chronicles the letters home.
It looks like I’ll be doing a reading for this second one, and with Tom Keneally! (AKA the guy who wrote Schindler’s Ark.) Click here for more.
For more details about the festival, click here. Note that these sessions are FREE, and at the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden.
Long time, no see. Like, a lot longer than usual.
Turns out I didn’t post for our whole six weeks away in St Louis, Las Vegas, New York and South America. It was a very awesome and exhausting trip. But sorry to leave you hanging.
Luckily, good times were had by all, and were well documented, so there are a ton of cool pictures and videos to share with you. Spoiler alert: Brazilian fans are very awesome.
At this exact moment, however, I’m jetlagged to buggery, and will share with you just this one amazing thing.
On our flight from Rio, Brazil to Santiago, Chile, Justine tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the window. (She is a window sitter and I am an aisle-ist. Is there any more perfect marriage?) Outside, somewhere over Argentina, was a huge anvil of clouds, its structure revealed by the lightning flickering and flailing within.
It was a very big and violent thing to witness, especially from the fragile vantage of a flying machine. But any nerviness was totally outweighed by old-fashioned awe.
My iPad camera I managed to capture a fraction of what it looked like:
Pretty intense, right? But go look at it bigger on YouTube.
More cool stuff soon. Promizes!
Still traveling, but here are some things you might want to see:
That’s right, there is now a paperback boxed set of Leviathan! Collect them all, or just throw them at people. (Very heavy, with sharp corners.)
Part 2 of the Uglies graphic novel is out December 4, and I haz cover flats!
I am excited.
And finally, Leviathan is out in Brazil . . . with subway ads! I am fancy in South America, it seems.
Note that Justine and I will be down in Brazil next weekend! A rough schedule follows:
SAO PAULO
November 24th
4:00 pm – Presentation at Cine Livraria Cultura (room 2). About Leviatã and books with pictures. With simultaneous translation.
5:00 pm – Signing session at Livraria Cultura (ground floor), with Scott Westerfeld (Leviatã, Ugly and others) and Justine Larbalestier (Zumbis x Unicórnios)
Address: LIVRARIA CULTURA – Conjunto Nacional – Av. Paulista, 2073
November 25th
2:30 pm – Debate at Livraria da Vila with the public about Zumbis x Unicórnios. With Justine Larbalestier and author Fábio Yabu. Moderator: Ana Lima. With simultaneous translation.
3:30 pm – Signing session
Address: LIVRARIA DA VILA – Rua Fradique Coutinho, 915 / 11 3814-9954
RIO
November 27th
7:00 pm – Signing session at Livraria Cultura/RJ with Scott and Justine.
Address: Livraria Cultura – São Conrado Fashion Mall Shopping Center, 2nd floor
More details following, including (maybe) another event in Rio!
Okay, so it’s time to vote for the next Manual of Aeronautics art reveal. But first, my appearances at San Diego Comic Con have been finalized. There will be two signings, one panel, and two Cool Random Things. Keep reading to find out what those are.
Thursday July 12
noon-1PM
Signing at Mysterious Galaxy Booth #1119
I’ll be signing and chatting to anyone who drops by, and there will be plenty of my books for sale. SPECIAL RANDOM THING: Mysterious Galaxy may have secret advanced copies of The Manual of Aeronautics, which you can actually buy! There will be a code word or something. (Check back here to see if this becomes a real thing, rather than a thing that didn’t really happen, because I dreamt it.)
UPDATE: Yeah, this is real. Twelve copies only. First twelve peeps in line for this signing gets to buy one each. (The code word is “WEASEL-FACE”!)
Saturday, July 14
4:00-5:00PM
Me having coffee with you.
That’s right. SPECIAL RANDOM THING 2 is that during Comic Con I will announce a phone number via this blog and my twitter (@scottwesterfeld). Text the name “SCOTT” to this number to be automatically entered into a contest. The winner of this contest will have coffee with me on Saturday at 4PM, at Comic Con. Or maybe instead of coffee we will saunter across the convention floor and pose with Full Metal Alchemist cosplayers. That is the sort of thing that would be fun. (I asked, and you will NOT be signed up for spam by entering this contest. But you will received a text asking you to opt in for more “news and offers.”)
UPDATE: New rules: Just go by the Simon & Schuster booth (#1138) to find out how to enter.
Sunday July 15th
12:00-1:00PM
Room 25ABC
I’m on a panel called: What’s Hot in YA, with Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures series), Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me), Lish McBride (Necromancing The Stone), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), Melina Marchetta (The Lumatere Chronicles), Myra McEntire (Hourglass series), James Dashner (The Maze Runner series), and moderator Nathan Bransford (Jacob Wonderbar series). After the panel is another signing:
Sunday July 15th
1:30-2:30PM
Autograph area AA09 in the Sails Pavilion
Signing with me will be all the people above, plus bonus guest Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky). My books will be for sale here too, but I can’t guarantee there will be any Manual of Aeronautics left.
And finally, if you’re in Sydney instead of San Diego, you might want to check out my wife Justine’s book launch for Team Human:
Thursday, July 12
6:30-7:30PM
Kinokuniya Sydney
Lvl 2, The Galeries, 500 George Street
Sydney, Australia 2000
Justine will be in conversation with the lovely and talented Margo Lanagan. Come say hi! It’s free and stuff. Click here for the event details on Facebook.
AND NOW FOR THE VOTINGS
This will be the all-beastie extravaganza! Would you rather see . . .
1) The mighty Behemoth!
2) The fearsome spike-pooing flechette bat!
3) Or the all-knowing message lizard!?!
How do you even DECIDE such a thing when the choices are so awesomely Thompson-esque?
Oh right. You decide by voting—by number, please. And as always, feel free to use this comment thread to debate and inveigle your co-commenters.
Let the voting begin. See some of you at SDCC.
I won’t be formally touring this year, because I don’t have a novel out. But I might get to see some of you, thanks to several events I’ll be doing over the next month.
The first of these is an online chat with Figment.com.
Sunday July 8
8PM US-ET (5PM Pacific Time, 10AM Monday AUS-ET)
I’ll be chatting with Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan, co-authors of the upcoming book, Team Human. Mostly we’ll be discussing what it’s like to collaborate on a novel.
I’ll also be at San Diego Comic Con
I have three events in San Diego, two signings and a panel.
Thursday July 12
noon-1PM
Mysterious Galaxy Booth
I’ll be signing and chatting to anyone who drops by. Mysterious Galaxy will have plenty of my books for sale.
Sunday July 15th
12:00PM – 1:00PM
Room 25ABC
Panel: What’s Hot in YA
1. Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures series)
2. Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me)
3. Lish McBride (Necromancing The Stone)
4. Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone)
5. Melina Marchetta (The Lumatere Chronicles)
6. Myra McEntire (Hourglass series)
7. James Dashner (The Maze Runner series)
8. Scott Westerfeld (Uglies)
9. Moderator: Nathan Bransford (Jacob Wonderbar series)
Note: Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky) is not appearing on the panel, but will appear at the post-panel signing in the autographing area.
Sunday July 15th
1:30-2:30pm
Autograph area AA09 in the Sails Pavilion
Signing with me will be Nathan Bransford (Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe), and featuring Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), James Dashner (Maze Runner), Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures), Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me), Melina Marchetta (Froi of the Exiles), Lish McBride (Hold Me Closer, Necromancer), Myra McEntire (Hourglass).
Dalek Week!!!
And finally, those of you who create fan art might want to check out Dalek Week over at Deviant Art, which runs from July 8 to 14. Here’s the scoop:
Dalek week is a seven day challenge where you upload one deviation per day for seven days. Each day has a certain theme that you will need to centre your entry around. . . . After Dalek week, myself and the judges will decide on our favourite entries from each day. There will be one winner per day/theme.
That sounds fun, and I can’t wait to feature some of the winners here.
Click here for more details about Dalek Week.
I had a great time at the Somerset Festival, and met lots of cool writers and students. My thanks to everyone for showing me such a great time, and congratulations on another successful festival.
While I was gone, what should appear in my inbox but the REAL TRAILER for Shay’s Story! (Not to be confused with the humble home-made trailer of a couple of weeks ago.)
Check it out:
If you want to see it bigger or embed it on your own site, head on over to YouTube. You can also see it super-big on my video page.
And finally, I’m doing a meet-up over at the WesterForum this Tuesday night, March 20, at 8PM US Eastern. Note that with the time change in the US, that means 11AM here Wednesday morning here in Australia, and midnight Tuesday in Britain.
Anything else? I would think not.
Update!
I’ve added my signing times below. I’ll be signing three times during Comic Con. Sorry I forgot!
I’m headed to Leaky-Con tomorrow, and will be on panels all of YA Lit Day, also known as Wednesday. That schedule is right here. (It’s been sold out for ages.)
Next week, July 20-25, I’ll be at Comic Con in San Diego! (Also sold out.) For those of you coming, here’s what I’m doing:
Thursday, July 21
4:30-5:30 Comics for Teens— Comics creators Cecil Castelluci (Plain Janes), Hope Larson (Mercury), Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), and Gene Luen Yang (Level Up) come together for a discussion of what makes a comic fit a teen audience. Do books for teens have something special that books for kids and adults don’t have? Moderated by Scott Westerfeld (New York Times bestselling teen author). Room 26AB
Saturday, July 23
1:00 – 1:50 Saturday, July 23
Signing at the Mysterious Galaxy booth, #1119.
Sunday, July 24
11:15-12:15 Building the World of Leviathan, an Illustrated Steampunk Series— Bestselling YA author and Comic-Con special guest Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Midnighters) discusses how illustrated adventure novels disappeared in the early 20th century and how he worked with artist Keith Thompson to create one for the 21st, Leviathan, a steampunk reimagining of WWI. Lots of visuals (and some secret news about Uglies). Room 6DE
Signing after Scott Westerfeld Spotlight
Smart Pop will be handing out free copies of Mind-Rain at this signing.
Comic-Con Autograph Area
AA18 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
2:45-3:45 High School Bites— Let’s face it: High school sucks enough without having to add a constant thirst for blood, going all furry under a full moon, or being hunted by all of the above. But for these YA authors, going back to high school was the best decision they ever made. Scott Westerfeld (The Uglies series), Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke and Bone), Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness), Debbie Viguie (Once Upon a Time series), Anna Carey (Eve), and Heather Brewer (The Vlad Tod series) discuss their characters’ formative years with moderator Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy. Room 5AB
Signing after High School Bites
Comic-Con Autograph Area
AA3 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Also you might want to check this out:
Thursday, July 21
7:00-8:00 The Scoop at Simon & Schuster!— Get the inside word on Simon & Schuster’s upcoming books and the chance to win exclusive prizes! Lucille Rettino (marketing director), Elke Villa (senior marketing manager), Carolyn Swerdloff (associate marketing manager), and Anna McKean (publicity manager) give you the scoop on upcoming books from exciting authors, including Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld, Orson Scott Card, and Becca Fitzpatrick. Hear what is going on with S&S’s hot properties — Star Trek and The Smurfs — and get a chance to win exclusive giveaways. All attendees will receive a limited edition T-shirt for Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Prince. Room 9
That’s it. I hope I get to see some of you while I’m on the road the next two weeks!
(I will be getting Fan Art Friday up this week, though, even if I’m not at home.)
Hey, all. Sorry I haven’t been posting much, but I’ve been acclimatizing to New York and getting rested for a summer (and fall) of travel and appearances! The Goliath tour will start a few days before September 20, when the book comes out. I DON’T KNOW YET where I’ll be going on tour, but I’ll post here when I do, and in the meantime I’ll be doing a few events on my own.
Event 1
I’ll be at Comic Con in San Diego, July 20-25! As always, it is sold out. But for those of you coming, here’s what I’m doing:
Sunday, July 24
11:15-12:15AM Building the World of Leviathan, an Illustrated Steampunk Series. Bestselling YA author Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Midnighters) discusses how illustrated adventure novels disappeared in the early 20th Century, and how he worked with artist Keith Thompson to create one for the 21st, Leviathan, a steampunk re-imaging of WWI. Lots of visuals (and some secret news about Uglies).
There’s another panel about teen comics that I’ll be in, but it’s not confirmed yet. It will probably be Thursday, July 21, 4:30-5:30.
Event 2
I’ll also be at Leakycon in Orlando FL, from July 13-17. I’ll be appearing there for Lit Day, July 13, a YA-fest run by the tireless Maureen Johnson.
Sorry, but Lit Day also appears to be sold out! For those of you who are coming, here are the bits with me:
All Wednesday, July 13
10:00-10:50AM
Let’s Talk about Vampires: Let’s just do it. Let’s just talk about vampires. Why do people love these toothy freaks? Is there any new territory? Will they ever go away? Do we really want them to? We’re just going to talk about vampires, because someone has to. (GT I)
With: John Green, Scott Westerfeld, Robin Wasserman, Barry Goldblatt, Jennifer Laughran Moderator: Maureen Johnson
11:00-11:50AM
The Scott Westerfeld Experience: Scott Westerfeld discusses working with an artist to create his illustrated steampunk series, Leviathan. He reveals hitherto unseen artwork from the final book in the series, Goliath, and from his latest top secret project. (AT I)
12:30-1:20PM
Love and Romance: What’s the deal here? Common wisdom says girls demand these things in their books and boys dislike them… but is that true? How do authors decide how to handle the squishy bits of life? How is LGBTQ literature bringing a fresh perspective? How far can scenes go? Is there really a difference between a love story and a romance novel? This panel wants to be in a relationship with you on Facebook, so you know it is serious. (GT II)
With: Ally Carter, John Green, Kate Schafer-Testerman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephanie Perkins, David Levithan Moderator: Robin Wasserman
1:30-2:20PM
I Was a Teenage Author: Think all published authors start out writing works of pure, undiluted genius? Think your work is terrible and you’ll never get anywhere, ever? Be prepared to be amazed. Authors read actual works from their tortured teenage years, giving you hope and inspiration to keep going. (TT IV)
With: Scott Westerfeld, David Levithan, Libba Bray, John Green, Robin Wasserman, Stephanie Perkins Moderator: Maureen Johnson
And at 2:30 I’ll be signing. (Dude, Maureen is a harsh taskmistress. WHY ARE THERE NO BREAKS?)
And finally, it’s time for another Walker Wednesday, the extremely infrequent feature on this blog where I share images of Clanker-ish or not walking machines. This one is from Japan’s Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and has the lovely name “HRP-4C humanoid.”
And it walks kinda like this:
(via io9)
Hmm. Not quite Uncanny Valley, and not quite human-like. Just sort of . . . disturbingly careful.
There’s a weird thing about walkers, whether they have a face or not. Because they walk, like us humans do, we see their walking in human terms. Their movements look angry, or jaunty, or drunken to us, in a way that cars (or anything else with wheels) never quite do. And as a novelist, that expressiveness makes walkers more interesting to me than other kinds of machines.
Not that you can’t write an evil car, like Steven King’s Christine, but it’s still very different, dramatically and novelistically speaking, when a machine stands up.
I think the world will get much more weird when more of our devices start to walk around.
The Manual of Aeronautics is OUT NOW!
The full-color art book for the Leviathan series, The Manual of Aeronautics, is out now!
Click here to contact Scott Westerfeld.
Jill Grinberg
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
info@grinbergliterary.com
