Norton Win + Paris!

Posted on by scott

No, not me. Justine just won the second annual Andre Norton Award for Magic or Madness!

We weren’t in NYC at the time, so thanks to Eloise Flood (dear friend and editor to us both) for picking it up, and to fellow nominee Maureen Johnson for being the first to text us.

Amusing Story 1: The actual Norton Award object was somehow melted in transit. They had to give Eloise an old Grandmaster Award as a stand-in.

Amusing Story 2: Holly Black won the first one last year for Valiant, which we’d bet her she would. So she had to take us out for a hugely expensive meal. Absurdly expensive, it turned out. But now we owe her one. (drat)

Speaking of good food, the reason I haven’t been posting is that we’ve been here:

Amusing Story 3: I was trying to get my cool new camera (b’day pressie from Justine) on the right setting to shoot the Eiffel Tower. And it turned out that the setting for Big Buildings was indicated by an icon of the Eiffel Tower!

Ah, Paris. What an iconic city.

We were there to do press for Uglies, which came out last week in French. My adult sf is much more popular in France than the US, so I had tons of big papers inteviewing me: L’Express, Le Monde, Figaro, and a bunch of teen weeklies and monthlies.

Apparently, I am the Jerry Lewis of sf.

French interviewers are different from their English-language counterparts. More . . . philosophical. My favorite example:

What utopia would you fight for?

Gotta love the French. I said something like, “A chaotic utopia, with a thousand voices in tumult.” Because that’s what happens when I’m jetlagged and philosophical in France.

Especially enjoyable was being translated for six of the eleven interviews. It worked like this: The interviewer would ask something in French, Christian (my translator) would repeat it to me in English. Then I would waffle for a while, and Christian would translate my waffling back to the interviewer in French.

How Christian did this without head explodage is beyond me. A lot of my answers (and some of the questions) were a couple of minutes long. I can’t even repeat something of that length back in the same language, much less another one.

But it was way cool listening to my answers in French, trying to catch recognizable words flashing by. Christian and I got to know each other in a really interesting way. (That is, he saw me answer the same questions six different ways in some cases. This is something only Justine normally gets to do.)

I have a lengthy video of the process, which I’ll try to cut into uploadable form soon.

All in all, Paris was awesome. Great food, perfect weather, bars named after me, and everyone was supremely wonderful to us. A jolly birthday. (I’m 44! Ancient!)

Thanks to Christian, all the journalistes, and my Pocket publicist Christine.

More photos, etc., to come.

P.S. You can buy the Norton Award-winning Magic or Madness in fine bookshops everywhere or here.

116 thoughts on “Norton Win + Paris!”

  2. why os there no one to talk to?!?!?! you people are the only other people beside my best friends that i talk to out side of school. beside my writers club group.

  3. O, so it’s going 2 be a TV series!!! It seems like a movie would work better, but o well! Either way im glad it’s going to be somethin!! lol

  4. You know how sometimes in elementary schools, two different classes(like grade 5 and 2) pair up and do something or other together? For some reason I kept thinking about what Melissa would do.

    *stare balefully at each other for ten minutes*

    MELISSA: You go see Rex, okay?

    LITTLE KID: Okay. *tries to hug her in a nice little kid way*

    MELISSA: DON’T TOUCH ME!

    Not very imaginative, to be sure. But it’ll do.

  8. hey…. guess what i just got sick its soo ew lol i hate it any way only 15 more days of school left!!!!! oh and really really good book for everyone to read is Maximum Ride by James patterson i read it in like 2 days and same for the second one and the 3 one is coming out on may 29!!!!!! yey lol its really good 🙂 and im really bord lol and dont now what to say so yea

  9. Capt. Cockteil – I know! they r really amazing! I’ve also read Lord Loss! it gave me the creeps cuz i finished it @ like 1:30 in the morn’! and i was all like omg! i have to have the next one! lolol!
    Alexa – i’m bored toooo!

  12. LUCKY DUCK!!!!!!!!!! wow i wish today was my last day of school!!!! that would be tatally fawsome lol but i have like 16 days left and some of them are like feild trips and stuff so thats all good 🙂

    oh and i got my hair high-lighted lol wow that was randome but anyway its a lighter blonde so its both of them mixed togher but i think it looks good so yea
    today is national bingo day… can you say BORING unless you like playing bingo i think its fun sometimes but not like when they show a whole bunch of old ppl playing and stuff taht looks boring lol 🙂

  13. well not really next week is exams and i only have to take my orchestra exam and all that i am doing for that is i am practing my all state solo cometition music. so it is like friday was my last day of school. and also on friday we had a student vs. teachers dodge ball game.

  14. My school ends this tuesday!!! Only two dayz left!! But the way my school works, we are still actually doing work!! We don’t even get report cards until 2 weeks after skool ends!! OMG!!! Every other skool is having field trips, and doing fun stuff, and we are working!!! But we already had our awards day… so I know what i’m getting on my last report card. But for all you who get 2 do fun stuff @ the end of the year…. think about how much you’d like to come 2 my skool!!! Yea……… 🙁

    But anyways happy summer, I guess!!

  15. My school ends on June 25th. This is not fair! It was going to end on June 20th, but we had snow this year. Darn snow. Why do all of you get out of school in May? Sucks for me, I guess.

  16. I ended last Friday. haha. Of course, I have never seen more than half an inch of snow, so snow days aren’t really an issue.

    I read something on AOL while checking my mail, about a blue light keeping kids alive. The first line was,
    “Across the moonless dark of Lancaster County, where horse-drawn buggies clatter along country roads and many families shun electricity, a strange blue light cuts harshly through the night.”

    I thought that sounded strangely familiar to something I’ve read (haha). Anyway, thought it was interesting.

  17. my last day is June 4th but im not going cuz its a monday..this week we have year book signing parties and our 8th grade party where we walk to the bowling alley and our Wild River Country (water park) trip and the last two wednesdays we went on feild trips oh and also we get out half a day for an awards ceremony 🙂

  18. heyy guys havn’t posted in a while!!! jus finished TLD it wuz sooo fawesome!!!!!!!! uhh im sad cuz thats my last scott book 4 the year. but i end skool on june 19th & also yea Alexa-la I KNOW!!!! Maximum Ride is sooo good and im reading the 2nd one right now. the 3rd comes out next week.

  22. Yeah… Florida doesn’t get 2 much snow… haha! Actually NONE!! I have seen snow only once in my life in tennesse.

    We got our yearbooks this week… and I realized something freaky!! I will graduate in 2012!! And for some reason, it really scared me for a second!! My friend who reads the same stuff I do pointed at it and started laughing!!! Just my luck to graduate in a tear with the letter ’12’ in it!!!

    Tomorow is my last day of skool! Just thought id let you know that..lol!! Im soooooo happy!!
    🙂

  23. I graduate in 2011. Yearbooks at my school are really weird. We have all these pages for things like “Best Smile”. So apparently if you’re not on the page your smile is not good enough. I won “Most Original” which I didn’t understand. How can someone be the most original? Oh well.
    There is never any snow here usually, but this year it snowed a lot. It was really scary, actually. I hate the snow, too, so I was sad and had to stay inside all day.

  26. OMG snow is the BEST!!!!!!!!!11 i love love love love love love love snow :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its so fun to play in and stuff

    and i have 11 days left of school!!!!!! yeppe oh and kayla-wa i already read the second one it is totally fawsome!!!! really good. and i read like the frist cupple chapters of the 3 one and i was like OMFG OMFG OMFG wow its good really good but idk? i think i liek the 2 better but thats just me!

  27. I graduate in 2011 too capt cockatiel!
    7 more days for me and it snows every year here but like only for a day and then it melts..one year it iced but i can’t remember it all that much

  28. i loveee snoww!!!! evry year its snows up hea in RI and man it gets cold. sometimes i get sick of it tho.

    i jus figured i graduate in 2013…huh im younger than you guys 🙂
    Alexa-la i like the 2nd one soo far but like it alwayz seems the same.like wherever they go i know that the erasers are gonna come
    but stilll its fawesome. cant wait for the third!!

  30. yea i graduate in 2011 lol and yea ur like 2 years yunger then us i guess if u graduate in 2013? but idk? this isnt math class (witch im sick of!!) hehe 🙂 i was absent and she gives me a make up test and i like failed it cuz i didnt now any of the stuff so yea she did taht twice!!!! o well 11 more days left yeppe!! 🙂

  32. yea i hate math tooo!!! my teacher is such a bore and i usually get a little zz’s during then 🙂
    ugh i have 28 more days of skool….but i cant wait until my last day!!!!!!!

  33. How can u hate math!!! Im taking 9th grade classes in math next year, even though i’ll be in 8th grade. But most of my friends are taking them too. But I love math!! I make all As in that class, and every other class. But math is the only thing I don’t study for, which is why i love it!!!! But if u were like me, u would like math to, because I’ve never made a B before, so I always study like crazy to keep it that way, and math is just something u don’t study for!!!

    My skool is out!! Yay for summer!! LOL Im like completely crazy now! I LOVE summer!!

  34. All you guys are so lucky! I don’t get out for 15 more days… yes I am counting.
    Congates to Justine! I love the ‘Magic’ series. It melted??
    Happy late b-day! You are not old. my step dad is 51.
    Go Midnighters series! That will be so awesome!

  36. gratz justine and scott your not that old. 44? isnt old…your not old till your 50 plus mi dads 46 and he wants to retire when gets “old”(50) but he cant cause then we wont have as much money and my boyfriend(18 now 22 then) wouldnt have a job and i’d be 19(now 15) with a 5 year old and no job cause thats ‘posed to be what my dad is for

  39. Jessie im a straight A person too!!!! im good at math, but jus dont like it. i never study either because its all too easy. i hope they dont put me in advanced classes next year!! this one kid ha d to take 8th grd algebra.

  41. I have um… 23 days left of school. Dang.
    What’s with all you people and snow? It’s horrible! I admit: it looks nice at first. But then all the snow-obsessed crazies (aka Topaz) go out and stomp in it, make snowmen and snow forts and such and ruin it all! Where I live we don’t get that much snow, so if you make a snowman or something you use up all the snow in your yard and are left with fozen grass and a snowman. It is truly ugly. That is why I hate the snow. Plus, it’s too cold. And wet. Ew. And it turns into mud and sludge.
    I am a straight A student! Why are we talking about our grades, though? Strange…

  42. Hey, Scott! Have you ever seen that new V-Cast music hunter commercial? Because it made me think of you and your book So Yesterday.

  43. well i think i was a straight A student like once in my life in like 2 grade lol yea

    snow is the best when it isnt all messed up for like 1 day hehe yea then you go and play in it but when its melting i hate it!!! cuz its all muddy and slushy and stuff but other tahn that its totally fawsome!!!!! 🙂

  44. okay we arereaching 100 scott, now would be a good time to post eventhough the internet at your hotel cost 7 million dollrs acording to justine..haha j/k

  46. How old is this post? Im to lazy to look and see…lol. But yeah it would be a good time 2 post!!!

  47. dang this post is pretty dang old… may 13 is when he posted it so yea if you want to know how many days thats been look it up your self… this is not math class and i dont inted it to be 🙂

  48. Scott, I also thought I should let you know that last night, I had a dream that I was a Peep.

    And it was FAWESOME!

    Let me just say that I had the safer strain, and that I was not eating people. I just had super cool powers. But I wasn’t horny :\ It was a non-horny Peeps dream.

  49. 12 days!!!!!! this post has been on for a long time. (yes here we go wit math again) Scott doesn’t post as much as he used tooo…..dont u like your fans??? j/k.

  50. i think that he just has a life… un like some of us… not to mention any names (jk)

    a good book so far is looking for alaska by john green but im only like on page 55 or something but its good so far its bout this geek kid who goes to bording school and meets this girl named alaska its good so far tho might want to look it up?!

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