Parasite Saturday*

Posted on by scott

I’ve been blogging about Extras sort of non-stop lately, and have been thinking it’s time to talk about some other series.

Luckily, this new cover treatment came in the mail today from my pals at Atom Books:

Very splashy, huh? The colors (or colours, as this is the UK edition) are actually better than this, which is just a photo taken on my floor. An electronic version has been requested!

It’s more like the Aussie covers than the US ones. See?

And speaking of which, the Australian The Last Days is out now!

In more parasite news:

One of my librarian pals at TLA told me about these parasite plush toys. Squeezable. (Thanks, Kerry!)

Boingboing just blogged Who Is Sick?, a site that allows you to post your illnesses for amateur epidemiologists to track. Sort of a GoogleMaps for symptoms. (Warning: site runs slowly.)

This is a post from Carl Zimmer’s blog about “Corydceps, a parasitic fungus that drives its insect host up a plant before growing a spike out of its head.” With video! You may remember that Zimmer’s book Parasite Rex is the inspiration for my novel Peeps.

And here’s a very amusing and fictional Powerpoint presentation for Peter Watts’ book Blindsight, a novel with a very Peeps-like scientific explanation for vampirism. It’s available here in PDF for free!

Anyway, I’m not sure when TLD comes out in the UK, but the US version of the The Last Days is available here.

*Sunday in Australia.

78 thoughts on “Parasite Saturday*”

  1. first comment… yay… cool its coming out in england, even though ive already read the american one (thanks amazon)

    i hope this doesnt happen with extras, that the english one comes out way later

    and you said TLS instead of TLD
    [fixed! – scott]

  4. You know, I think I like the Australian covers a lot better than the US ones. Hm. They’re all cool covers, though!! 🙂

  6. yea the Australian covers are way cooler!!! lol and i cant wait for extras to come out!!!

    also…. i kind of missed the chapters about parasites in the last days…. but naming the chapters after bands is totally fawesome!!!! lol 🙂

  7. The covers are cool. As one of your librarian readers, I thought I’d mention that a new thread on LM_NET, the school librarian’s listserv is about everyone’s top 10 checkouts of the last school year–guess who made the top 10 on most high school lists? One or another of your books, and frequently more than one–true most of the time throughout the country.

  9. Oh, that’s awesome! (Or should I say fawsome?) That face sort of looks like one of the Night Watch angels. Well, to me. It looks watercolory, but in a good way.

    Also, I want one of those plush parasites.

  10. Finished reading TLD last night. Loved how you laid it out re the pov-ing & band names (which I actually ‘got’).

    Covers are fawesome, but then I’m spoilt with the Aussie versions. Soon as I spied it on the shelf I was taking one home.

    Next on the hit-list is Specials, so I’ll be ready for Extras when it gets here.

    You give me a high writing-bar to do chin-ups on that’s for sure.

  11. Have you ever watched the TV series Planet Earth? (I’m a Discovery Channel junky.) Anyway, I was watching an episode about the rain forests and it TOTALLY SHOWED AN ANT CLIMBING UP A TREE AND HAVE A RELIGIOUS/PARASITE INDUCED MOMENT! I screamed and mum came running but all I could squeak out was,

    “Peeps!”

    When she came back from the store she handed me a box of marshmallow peeps. Not what I meant, but I wasn’t about to complain.

    Anyway, it totally showed in super-fast motion a parasite growing out of its head and the other ants carrying it way far away so the rest wouldn’t get infected.

    Now I’m going to watch closely for any cats having fond relationships with cats or anything else suspicious of a Westerfeld world take over. Which I expect to happen any day now.

    …I hope.

  12. I love our Aussie covers, they’re really cool! First thing tomorrow i’m gonna go find TLD and buy it!
    …and thank you dearly for not forgetting us all the way down here in Aussieland! Its much appreciated!

  13. That cover’s pretty cool. Almost menacing. I don’t think I’d wanna run into that person in a dark alley at night. 😉 I like the colourtasticness.

  14. awwwwwwwwww i want a plushie parasite! too bad my birthday was yesterday. i would have told my friend to get me one. :). very fawsome cover my favorite cover is the Aussie version of Peeps. its so fexcelent. and hannah, i want to see that so bad. Westerfeldian world take over! yes!

  20. I’m with you, Hannah, a Westerfeldian-world takeover would be fexcellent. I bet all the fans would be given positions of power.

  26. OK, get this..i start the first Midnighters book at my dad’s, then i finished it on the EXACT day i started, and i was already AT my dads! and i didnt have the second book! i was going insane the whole weekend! but now i’m back at my mom’s and i get to read it!!

  27. IS the UK language the same as the american language? by the way those covers are beastly (cool/sweet/awesome)

  30. cool covers!!!!! personally i like the Austrailian ones bettere than the US! yea the Parasite plushies are awesome (FAWESOME) i want one! culdn’t go on the other sites (VERY old computer) but i just finished Peeps and gonna get TLD soon!!!!

  31. I love the Australian covers too, but I might be biased…lol.
    I started reading The Last Days at one o’clock this morning (I’m werid, I know) and finished it at about five o’clock this morning!
    So. Very. Good.
    If you haven’t read it yet GO AND BUY IT. Now.

  32. I just finished reading Peeps and I thought it was one of the best books i ever read. (In the top ten) I cant wait to read The Last Days!!!

    P.S Scott, You have not responded to a very important e-mail that I sent you. I was doing a project about you at scool. I did a biography about you and a poster about you. It was really fun finding quotes among your books. Other kids who actually got a response from the author they chose got a higher grade. So if you can reply as soon as possible, that would be great. Thanks!

  37. Thanks Scott, Now I simply must go and get a plush tape worm. I will name him Spike, and set him loose in one of those things the agility dogs run through on Animal planet, just so he can feel at home. and maybe get him a vlack death to keep him company…

  38. so what?? no first chapter, are you trying to change the subject or something??

    parasite plushtoys?? what the heck?

  39. I want a giant microbe. I’m sad that they don’t have toxoplasma gondii, as it is my all time favorite parasite. Dang.
    I love that cover! It is so bright and vibrant! I want it…

  44. Hey Shan!!!! & other people!! jus got Midnighters 3….readin it!! no info plez about it & the Last Days.

  45. Shannon – Yeah, but still…i mean..w/e
    Kayla- i jst finished reading Touching Darkness..it took me 2 days! I’m gonna start Blue Noon tomarrow.

  47. ugggg. Scott! Could you at least mention that the powerpoint presentation is 35 MINUTES LONG!!! jeez

    It was interesting though, and cool cover 🙂

    Okay, now I need to work on homework now

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