Camera Obscura

So my job for the last week has been to take pictures of places where Leviathan is set. Namely, towns in the old Austria-Hungarian Empire and glacial landscapes in the Alps.

Between this photo-taking and pitching my books at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, there hasn’t been much time to blog. Or even to think of what to blog. But here’s something to gnaw on. Here are my research photos for the illustrator of Leviathan (who shall remain nameless until the official announcement, which is soon).

I post them here for all to see, and to imagine what stories shall occur in these places.

Also, I would like to thank skiers everywhere for providing an economic incentive for the creation of low-level fly-overs of the Alps in relative safety. What did authors do before ski-lifts? Walk everywhere?

Click on the thumbnails for the big versions.

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66 thoughts on “Camera Obscura

  1. The photos are awesome! 🙂 The mountains are gorgeous but I like the architecture even better.
    And lol, I went on a ski-lift recently in the Dominican Republic… 😉

    ~I

  2. those pics are absalutly beautiful
    gosh somtimes i wish washington was like that
    i love mountains and forests

  3. I seriously wish I was ther right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why cant be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I love Superman/TOM wELLING!!!!!!!!!

  4. omgooodness !! i love the city i wanna go ahhh i can’t wait for this book !!!!!!!!

    p.S im listening to a live muse performance and its BEAST anyone else a muse fan??

  5. that’s so nifty and beautiful and…..amazing and all that. i SOO wish i was there. next time u should go to ireland, tho. SOOO pretty (haven’t actually been there, but i’ve heard a lot about it from my grandmother).

  6. preeeeeeeeeeettttttttyyyyyy……
    i can’t wait for Levithan.

    and i thought i’d heard somewhere a long time ago about who the illustrator for Levithan was, but i guess i must have imagined that. Or maybe i’m getting it mixed up with the Good Neighbors. *shrug*

    will still be awesome.

    and on the topic of “things to blog about”, who else would like to see more Hiro chapters? i know i would, the last ones were interesting to see.

    and the only adventures i can imagine occuring on ski slopes are werewolf chases, but that’s just how *my* brain works.

  7. and am i the only person who’s done both [re: preorder vs. buy] because the preorder’s taking too long? a stupid, wasteful habit, but it’s true.
    hey, i donate the extras to the library, so it’s karmically good.

    and i love the slanty little alleyways.
    i love old cities, or funky styled ones.
    *looks fondly at vacation pics of Reykjavik and Cork*

  8. Awesome pics!! Did u save then as tiffs? i bet u didnt! It helps with picture quality……..

    I didn have as much homework……today. Now, tommorow, that could be a diffeent story. i mean tommorow is another dayyyy.

    Im kinda bored, nothin to do, finished my book, need to write but dont feel like it. yep, life can be difficult. with nothing to do. but sit. and research on cowboys.

  9. hey Bran-la…. do u by chance have Kate Brian’s e-mail address?? …i tried to enter at her site to win ambition but it wouldn’t let me and i’m very confuzzled as to why not.

  10. No i dont! which sucks. she has a myspace which i have visited severl times but i dont remebr seeing an email adress. I guess i could look again but no nothing i can remeber. Sorry!

  11. Have u read all the private series? i have, they rock, im waiting for ambition to come out. and sorry if i alreasdy asked u this!

  12. lol i haven’t. i’m on Legacy. trying to pace myself. not going so good though. and yes they do rock! if you enter the contest on her site you can win ambition before it comes out in stores. but for some reason my computer is being retarded and won’t let me enter. 🙁 heres her site if you don’t already know about this one: http://privatenovels.com/ if you enter the contest let me know if it works pleasee.. and can you give me her myspace site? pretty please? 😀

  13. hi scott! im OBSESSED with the uglies series! im almost done with extras. they are so good! i wish you could make more too the series! That reminds me…i love the books so much, i’m writing my own books! not with the same charracters and futureistic items as the uglies books, but with my own! i’m only 13, but i’m going to try to get it published. i wonder if i will ever be able to write a book as good as yours? Well, if you have any writing tips or help for publishing, i’d love to hear from you. Please email me (londnbrigette@gmail.com) thanks SO much! you are like, my idol!

    -thanks again
    –Brigette

  14. danget. just typed up a comment and clicked to ex out of a website and accidentally hit the wrong one. bumma.

    well…i couldn’t find an email address. and i don’t have myspace so no luck there. but i did find out that she’s currently reading Specials! and that Uglies was at the top of her list for best books of 2007!…i gotta agree! and another weird coincidence is that her real name is Kieran Scott and her and Scott-la are my 2 fave authors at the moment. well just thought i’d point that out. kinda crazyyyy. or at least i thought so.

  15. Hey, Bridgette-la! I’m a teen author, also working on getting my first novel, and some poetry of mine published. I wish you the best of luck, and a tip is that you need to use a lot of patience because the publishing process is usually very long and very slow, but percervierance brings the best of joys!

  16. The parts with just the wilderness, you know, the mountains and stuff, remind me of Oregon. Man how I miss that place!
    It looks absolutely gorgeous! Hope you had fun.

  17. Judging from the license plates and from some words on the signs you were in Italy, from the architecture (and since you wrote “old Austro-Hungarian Empire) I think the pictures were taken in Alto Adige. Where? Bolzano? Bressanone? What’s the castle name? And what skilift is it?

  18. wow so preetttyyyy scott-la!!!!! i wish i was there!! can u take me with next time???

    o and i think you should make another uglies book (from tallies point of view) hint hint nudge nudge

  19. o and i forgot to tell u, i luved the uglies trilogy so much that i started to make a book(just for fun) about what happens to Tally after Extras. I’ll maybe post it when im done. It might b a little different than what u had in mind for Tally but ya. I am on like chapter 6 or sumtin like that.

  20. Our Spanish teacher gave us new seats
    and the person who sits next to you is your partner for all assignments
    I sit next to this dude that is really annoying when you’re trying to work.
    She told us that she specifically gave us these seats so that one partner could help the other
    and since he has a D- and I have 107% I’m guessing I should take that as a compliment but for some reason it just makes me angry.

  21. Good luck Bridgett-la! The first novel is the hardest. I don’t actually know that though, because I haven’t finished my first novel. As for tips…I’d say don’t listen to what anybody says.

    Make your own way, it’s bound to be more fun.

    Being a teen author would OWN. But I guess I’ll wait until I’m older, so I know my first book will be the best it can be.

  22. myspace.com/katebrian

    her website is pretty cool, i have never seen it before. My Billings BFF was Natasha. shes nice. By the way, i didnt like Inner Circle. and i didnlt like legacys ending……

    Im not even close to finishing my first novel, although i dont want my first one published, cause, well, its my first!!

  23. I’m getting some of my poetry published in the extremely near future and I’m SOOOOO close to finishing my novel then I’ll send in my manuscript to publishers and start the very long and very slow process of publishing! Whoot!

  24. Man scott.! your making me want to go visit the Alps.!

    those pictures are greatt.! and i definitely cant wait for
    Leviathan. ive read midnighters, uglies trilogy + extras, peeps, the last days, and so yesterday.. and now im not sure what
    to read.! lol so yes, cant wait for Leviathan.!

  25. my billings bff was Natasha too! i liked inner circle. i agree though, not as good as the others. and i haven’t read the end of legacy yet.. so i don’t know bout that one.

    i wish i had the patience and the skills to write a novel. i’ve tried. haven’t got to far though. and i think being alone for that amount of time would make me insane. i mean i can’t stand going a week without seeing my friends or someone other than my parents. let alone being alone like 24/7. my passion is photography. so far this week i’ve taken about 450 pictures. working on macro and technique and things. i’ve been enjoying it.

    i hope all you guys get your books published! 😀 …and when they are i will buy them! i promise!

  26. Haha, maybe they give Natasha to everyone, lets hope not. Or maybe we have similar personality, which since i love how i act, would mean you are sooooo cool! (not that i didnt think you were cool before, but ur cooler now!)

    So, it 8:34 here soooo, yep. I cant believe tommorow is friday. it came fast, ans i liek that. On monday i remeber talking to myself (i bet you do too!) and saying “i wish it was friday!!”

  27. Wow. Those are BEAUTIFUL (and you’re a very good photographer). Now I am REALLY looking forward to reading it! Again, it’s great that you get the opportunity to travel into the lands upon your pages.

  28. Breathtaking. Just imagining the enormity of those mountains stuns me. How the two slopes meet, with that huge gash like gap between, trees looking like teeny shrubs! Oh, it’s amazing. The earth is so beautiful. And all those ruins, on the irregular countryside. History just seems to permeate the entire atmosphere. I am looking forward to Leviathan a whole lot more now!

  29. haha. thanks. and your cool too Bran-la! 😀 i bet that if we lived close to each other we probably be best friends.

    and yeah. this week did go really fast! …probably cuz i didn’t have much homework. well i kinda have some right now that i should be doing but i haven’t yet. hehe. well i suppose i should probably go do it now. *sigh* laters.

  30. i dunno about being a teen author, it seems like everything you do would be all, “oh, that’s good. for a teen author”, or judged on a different scale or whatever.
    i’ve got no problem with waiting to get published—if i have stuff out there, i want to know it’s something i’m proud of even later.
    so first. learning to write well.
    which is learn by writing.
    a lot.
    seriously, that’s been my spring break accomplisments. lots and lots of writing. hit 40,000 on one story. did MAJOR rewrites and a lot of new material + fixing on another. wrote two hugely pivotal scenes in another.
    so, i’m feeling pretty good about writing this week.
    tommorrow, there will be faery extortion.
    and possibly graverobbing.

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