News from the wild: Uglies has its own dump bin!
For all you non-publishing industry types, a “dump bin” is one of those cardboard palaces that gives your novels their own little theme-home. Like Barbie’s beach house for books, sort of:
Dump bins are paid for by the publishing company, which humbly begs the bookstore (B&N, in this case) for the right to install them. They cost a lot, but they also attract a lot of eyeballs. Yay for S&S!
This bin was photographed in the wild by Diana Peterfreund, whose debut novel Secret Society Girl just came out last month. It’s a total page-turner about conspiratorial college hi-jinks. (Justine gives it a mini-review here.)
Special props to Diana for breaking the rules. For you see, you’re not allowed to take photos in B&Ns! They think we’re stealing their shelf arrangements, or something. (Stay as bad as you are, baby.) She’s also recently converted from Plutophancy, which is always good to see.
And also check out her hilarious account of having to outline a book for her editor, and her lovely review of the Midnighters series.
Now go buy things of hers and mine.
Pluto Update
The iceball is probably toast:
The bottom line, said the Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich, chairman of the Planet Definition Committee of the union, is that in the new definition, “Pluto is not a planet.†—NY Times, Aug 23, 2006
Many years ago, I saw an electric-powered skateboard in a sporting good store. I never saw such a thing again, but the image stuck in the back of my brain. Maybe it was still there when I dreamed up the hoverboards in Uglies.
I’d actually forgotten all about it, until I ran into this:
The company is called E-Glide, and it makes powered skateboards with the following specs:
0-20MPH in 4 seconds
10-15 mile range
about $500
about 40 pounds (18KG)
wired remote control
California attitude
So should I get one?
PROS
Would look like this video (warning: turn volume down if in school)
Save money on cabs
Save environment
Live life to fullest
Would write hoverboard scenes better
I need it
CONS
Expensive
Probably illegal in New York
Hard to bring on plane
Would have to grow soul patch
Last skateboard owned decades ago
Probable death
Please tell me what to do.
There’s a blog-meme going around about Elmore Leonard’s ten rules of writing. The Leonard Rules are pithy and fun, but I’ve found the meme oddly boring.
Why? Because everyone’s commentary about writing rules is pretty much the same: “Yes, that’s true, except when it’s not.” Or more detailed (and even more boring): “Following this rule would prevent beginning writers from making common mistakes, but many fine writers have eaten this rule for breakfast and shat gold before lunch.”
(Pardon my French on that last bit, but I spent last week in New Orleans. Mmmm . . . gumbo.)
So I thought I’d move beyond these generic comments and look specifically at how I break the Leonard Rules in my books. With examples!
Let’s start with Leonard’s opening caveat:
These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.
Of course, most writers who set down rules start with something like, “These may work for you or not.” Well, duh.
But Leonard is saying something much more interesting, that every set of rules has an agenda. That’s the whole point of rules, actually: to ingrain some sort of aesthetic into the style of your prose. Leonard’s rules are designed to allow him to “remain invisible.” That is, he doesn’t want you thinking about the writing or the sound of his voice, just the characters and their situation. This makes sense, given that he’s writing hard-boiled crime fiction, where flights of literary fancy clog up the works.
So one of things I’ll be looking at below is how much I want to remain invisible as a writer. Short answer: I’m not writing tough-talking gumshoe fiction, so I don’t want to be as invisible as Elmore Leonard. But I don’t want to be slathered across every page, either.
Another nice feature of Leonard’s rules is their explanatory notes. These tend to get left out (sort of like that “well ordered militia” bit in the Second Amendment), so I’ve included his clarifications where I think they’re important.
Okay, here we go. Note that bold is Elmore Leonard, italics are quotations from my books, and normal text is me jabbering.
Rule 1. Never open a book with weather.
Hmm . . .
The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit. —Uglies
Yeah, baby! I not only start with the weather; I start quarter-million-word trilogies with the weather. That’s how I roll.
But at least it’s weird weather: cat-vomit clouds! So you can already tell something funny is going on . . . probably in the point-of-view. Or as Elmore goes on to say in a well-armed-militia moment:
If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people.
Aha. And as Uglies continues in paragraph two:
Of course, Tally thought, you’d have to feed your cat only salmon-flavored cat food for a while, to get the pinks right. The scudding clouds did look a bit fishy, rippled into scales by a high-altitude wind. As the light faded, deep blue gaps of night peered through like an upside-down ocean, bottomless and cold.
Any other summer, a sunset like this would have been beautiful. But nothing had been beautiful since Peris turned pretty. Losing your best friend sucks, even if it’s only for three months and two days.
See? I’m not even breaking Rule 1. This cat-vomit sky is in someone’s head; the sky is actually quite beautiful, but Tally’s depression turns it ugly (so to speak).
And to return to Leonard’s overall agenda, starting with this glimpse of the weather through Tally’s eyes is probably more invisible that saying, “Tally was so depressed that the sky looked like cat-spew.”
Although that would have been funny too.
Rule 2. Avoid prologues. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.
Yep, that’s me. I never start my YA books with prologues. I generally start with a big action scene of some kind (crashing a party, fighting a vampire, having time freeze) and then drop back to explain what’s going on during a lull in the action.
Of course, I don’t mind info-dumps, as we call them in science fiction. In fact, the even-numbered chapters in Peeps are all info-dumps. And unless fanmail lies, readers totally love that stuff.
As Leonard goes on to quote John Steinbeck, “Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.â€
Aha. That’s pretty much what Peeps does: it has special chapters where the parasite-related hooptedoodle lives. You can skip ahead and read all the parasite-hooptedoodle first, as some readers have told me they did, or skip past the parasite-hooptedoodle and sweep through the story first, as others prefered to do.
But here’s an interesting factoid: When I first turned in Peeps to my editors, the parasite-hooptedoodle chapters and story chapters were reversed from how they are now. That is, the first chapter (and all subsequent odd-numbered chapters) were hooptedoodle-icious. Which meant that the book started with that long description of a snail-eating parasite’s life-cycle: pure hooptedoodle prologue!
Without refrence to Elmore, my wise editors suggested that I swap them around, so that the book started with Cal fighting Sarah, his vampire-afflicted ex-girlfriend. And thus Rule 2 was followed.
It is with these small (but huge) changes that books are made better.
Okay, I’ve gone on a while here, and I’ve certainly typed the word “hooptedoddle” more times than I’d ever hoped to. So I’ll stop for today.
Next time, I’ll do Elmore’s Rules 3 and 4, those old stalwarts: Never use a verb other than “said†to carry dialogue and Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.â€
“Oh, crap,” Scott asseverated wolfishly. “I’m in big trouble now . . . ”
But look over there! It’s the freaky yet colorful eye-stalk of a parasitized snail!
See you next week.
I’m still at ALA, and let me tell you that librarians rawk! We’re having a great time and meeting lots of excellent people. More about them later.
Because, of course, while I’m here away from computer and internet connections, The Big News has finally appeared!
From this week’s Variety:
As they prepare “Eragon” for a Dec. 15 release, 20th Century Fox and producer John Davis have bought into another young adult fantasy book series with “Uglies,” the Scott Westerfeld novel that hatches a trilogy.
Davis will produce with his wife, Jordan. Futuristic tale taps into teen angst over conformity and acceptance. Kids are called “Uglies” until they reach 16 and get surgically transformed into the attractive “Pretties,” who move to the glamorous part of town. A precocious teen is threatened with being denied the procedure unless she spies on a pal who skipped the operation and joined a rebellious group. Studio has bought the three-book series for a potential franchise. The second novel, “Pretties,” is near the top of the young adult bestseller lists; the IPG-repped Westerfeld’s third installment, “Specials,” was also released this year.
The producers were plugged into the tale by their daughter, who read the book in school. Studio has begun the search for a scribe to adapt.
Okay, actually, that’s only part of The Big News . . . more later, when I get back to my own computer!
Cool how the producers were clued into the books by their daughter. See? Word of mouth works!
Update: My agent has hard copy of the issue of Variety in hand, and it turns out the article was on page one. This is ego-boosting if nothing else.
For more discussion, the wheels are spinning here on westerboard.com.
So those of you who live in the greater NY Times-reading metrosphere can see the listing of Specials finally committed to paper.
You see, although it’s been five weeks since I made the list, the Times only puts its children’s bestseller list on papyrus every 4-6 weeks! Because Specials listed right after the children’s list had been printed, I had to hang on for five weeks to see my name in newsprint.
Well, mission accomplished:
Note that newsprinty goodness. (It’s on page 16.)
Okay, enough about that.
On Friday, Justine and I head off for New Orleans and the ALA Annual Conference. I’ll be posting my schedule tomorrow for the librarians who read this blog. Can’t wait to see you guys there.
In New Orleans, I’ll be photoblogging a bit. I visited NOLA in 1991 and 2000 and had a great time, but I haven’t been there since Katrina. Can’t wait to discover what one of my favorite cities looks and feels like these days.
I’ll let you know.
A bunch of Westerfeldian forums have sprung up all over the place lately, and have been mentioned in the comments, but I thought I’d link to them from here.
Westerboard.com just appeared and has been rocking, with discussions on all my books. [Update: This one has moved to this new link due to high demand. Update your bookmarks!]
This forum has been around a while, and is specifically about Midnighters.
Here’s the Westerfeld Fans Myspace site.
And the Westerfeld LiveJournal community.
Have I missed any? Let me know.
In other news, Simon & Schuster, publishers of Uglies, have created a free sampler of their fantasy authors. It includes an excerpt of Specials and nine other books:
SWASHBUCKLING FANTASY features excerpts from 10 series by bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Margaret Petersen Haddix, author of the Shadow Children series, D.J. MacHale, author of the Pendragon series, Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies and Holly Black, author of Valiant. This online sampler also highlights six debut series from rising stars in fantasy, including Kai Meyer, Jane Johnson and Obert Skye. This fantasy sampler is the perfect way to introduce middle grade through teen readers to alternate worlds, distant pasts and fantastic creatures!
You can either take a look at the sampler or go straight to downloading.
Also, enjoy this lovely piece of fan art from Refrigerate Kate, which shows Tally hanging out in Diego.
I love the use of lighting to show that Tally’s sort of freaked out and alone.
And finally, for those of you who want to know what a tridecagram looks like, here’s one from . . . Alissa! And it came from the fan art section of Morgan’s site. Kewl.
So we lost the internet for two days thanks to a certain phone company being unspeakably lame. Sorry if I haven’t been posting, commenting, and answering email to your satisfaction.
Plus . . . moving!
We just left the Sydney flat, which was sadly empty and smelling of cleaning chemicals. We’re staying at the in-laws’ for two days before flying back to NYC. And now it is time to reminisce.
Sure, Specials may be at number 5 now. And yes, there’s that big news I’ve been promising you and not delivering, because I am a bad, bad man who drops hints and then is told by his agent that certain news is not public yet (grinds teeth).
But instead of discussing these things, I’m going to pause a moment to list all the things I’ll miss about Surry Hills.
The arched-tree promenade of Hyde Park, a mere five minutes’ walk away.
The glorious AMP Tower, seen at sunset out the glorious big window.
The telescope, which is staying here, alas. No more shall the moon be this cratered disk—orbalicious, blinding. Back to the mercury-vapor-pink skies of Manhattan.
The carnivorous plants of the nearby Botanical Gardens. You ate bugs so we didn’t have to, and yet we hardly knew ye.
The mighty Chesterfield, where much of Specials and The Last Days was penned. Plus, I loved that 6.4-meter ceiling.
Goodbye.
Last photo by Justine, all others by me.
Here’s an interesting question: Is Uglies a “girl book”?
Well, okay, if you put it that way, it’s a stupid question. It’s just a book, and it has as much supposedly “boy stuff” (things exploding, hoverboard chases, science fiction) as it does supposedly “girl stuff” (relationships, plastic surgery, things not exploding).
So the first thing I’ll say is, I’d hate for this post to suggest to anyone that these books aren’t for them. I write for everyone. (Except for boring people.) And I’d especially hate to suggest to any male readers that reading Uglies will “un-man” them. (Snorts derisively.) But it’s still a really interesting question about how readers see themselves, especially teens.
For example, I’ve seen the following in email and comments over the past few months:
A) Girls saying that they couldn’t get male friends to read the series.
B) Boys wondering if they’ll get hassled for carrying the books around.
C) And people of all genders saying the whole question is silly, of course.
It hasn’t been a huge thing. Most people who post here are pretty much into discussing the characters, themes, and imagery—which is as it should be. And no one seems to worry about Peeps, Midnighters, or So Yesterday. But there’s been just enough gender questions about Uglies to make me curious, and I’d like to hear from you guys. Because you’re all really, really smart.
So please answer whichever of these questions feel relevant to you:
1) When you suggest Uglies to friends, is it easier to get girls interested?
2) Do boys ever go “Nah, that’s girly!” if you suggest the books to them?
3) If so, do you think it’s the covers? The beauty themes? The titles?
And some other questions:
4) Do you think that girls read more than boys in general?
5) Do any of you boys feel weird talking about/carrying/liking Uglies?
6) Have I made you paranoid just by bringing this up?
Of course, my ulterior motive for doing this research is my next book, which is called:
Hah! Just kidding. But I had you going there, didn’t I?
Yes, I did.
Well, that headline pretty much says it all.
This morning (it’s Thursday here) my editor emailed me to say that Specials has appeared at number 6 on the New York Times chapterbook bestseller list!
I believe the word is . . . w00t.
Thanks to all of you who told your friends and librarians, made your parents drive you to the store, and forced some poor bookstore employee open a box early (you know who you are). You have been counted! Thanks to Rodrigo Corral for his ace cover designs. Thanks to S&S for being an excellent publisher.
Oh yeah, and thanks to J.K. Rowling, who single-handedly forced the Times to create a set of children’s bestseller lists. Because, like, they got sick of Harry Potter books getting all up in Salman Rushdie’s and James Patterson’s face. (Hah! YA rules!)
That little story reminds me to mention that all bestseller lists are mysterious and kind of fake. No one really knows what books are selling everywhere in the country (much less the world), so it’s all done by polling a hundred or so bookstores. And every list picks stores that tend to sell the kind of books that they like. And of course putting things into categories is always fraught; like, Specials is a chapter book and the latest Potter is a series book? Huh? The USA Today list doesn’t even bother with categories, just goes by raw Bookscan data, which misses non-bookstores like Target and K-Mart.
But you know what? I’ll take it. Because the NY Times is the list everyone’s HEARD OF! And that’s all that really matters, this big fat banner of credibility:
What’s REALLY annoying is that it’s not online yet, because the Times has this crazy system where they don’t publish lists until a fortnight after the end of the week in question. (Why? Why?) This news came from my editor (who must have some sort of Secret Publisher Decoder Ring) leaving me half wondering if a Terribly Embarrassing Mistake has been made.
But probably not, so once more . . . w00t!
Also, Midnighters fans will note that Specials is my thirteenth novel! Trideca-liscious!
(By the way, this little surprise is STILL not the big news I’ve been talking about. Soon, baby, soon.)
UPDATE: I have proof! (Thanks, Shana.)
First off: We had a great time in the Blue Mountains, which are exceedingly beautiful. Thanks to Justine for a view-tastic birthday!
So I’ve been getting a lot of mail asking about the infamous Uglies series format shift. The first two are in paperback, but due to the great success of the books, Specials is in hardback. See, it’s your fault for telling your friends about them.
Granted, most people don’t care, but some folks don’t like the extra expense and some collector types really seem to hate the inconsistency. (Me, I love small hardbacks, and the more money is nice too. But it wasn’t my idea, yo. Me write words only. Publisher all else do!)
Fortunately, there is a solution, at least for the collectors among us. The Canadian and Australian version of the book is soon coming out in trade paper, in an edition that exactly matches the first two USian books. It’s a bit cheaper too, but probably not after getting it shipped to America. That depends on your source.
This non-US paperback comes out on June 1. The only place I’ve found it available online is Amazon.ca. But I know that at least one Canadian bookseller reads this blog, so comment away, and I’d be happy to update.
Now if you live in Canada or Oz, of course, this is all moot. Moot, I say! And if you live in the UK, mootness also graces your shores. Because you will eventually have a lovely trio of books with entirely different covers in totally matching format. Same goes for all translations. It is only us Americans who suffer, so it probably has to do with the metric system, writing our dates wrong, or affordable health care.
Me, I blame soccer.
And so to add visual interest to the most boring post in the history of this blog, I present the SOCCER PLAYING ROBOTS of MR. SOCCER!
(Oh, and that really, really exciting news? Yeah, it’s coming. Any. Day. Now.)
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
