Because Russia has to have new covers every year, or something.
Here they are:
I don’t have much to say about these covers, except that I love the darkling dragons in them. For the earlier versions, click here.
Insert here the usual apologies about not blogging lately. Yes, I have been taking rather a long break. But I assure you, it’s only because I’ve been writing loads. I’m at about 70,000 words in my current work in progress, currently titled Afterworlds.
Now, what does 70 kilowords this mean? That this book will be out soon?
Hah! I’m afraid not.Afterworlds is going to be a long piece of work, with two novels wrapped into one in a strange and mystical way. I’m maybe halfway done, so the novel isn’t going to be in anyone’s hands until late next year. (Or later, because art is no science.)
Anyway, thanks to those who continue to hang around my dusty windblown blog. I apologize for letting this space that we’ve all created together lie fallow. But rest assured that some day it will spark back to life, when I have more energy and time, or simply find something to rant about.
Till then, hope you’re all having fun.
🙂 first comment
cool pictures
Why must everyone’s covers be cooler than ours?
What about the uglies movie? You said you would post some news about it a few posts ago 🙁
I’m so excited that your new book is coming along! I can’t wait for it to come out!
Awesome covers!
I’m excited for Scott-la’s new book (insert fangirl giggle here) but I’m still going crazy for this uglies movie news. YOU PROMISED US! Just for the wait, you shoudl give us all advnaced copies of Afterworlds. Or at least tell us what it’s about.
wow even the title has me interested! hmm… “Afterworlds”… sounds epic. why do the Russians have such epic covers? *prints out images and tapes them over my books*
UGLIES MOVIE NEWS??? where is it?
Yes, there will be Uglies movie news soon. There was a delay as we look at things again and get them exactly right. All I can say is . . . soon (-ISH).
Wow, I really really love the darklings. A lot. And less blogging just means that we enjoy the posts we get more.
Mlegh, who am I kidding? I hate waiting…
@ Roxanne (whenever you show up here 🙂 ): It took me a while because I needed an Italian name that wasn’t PAINFULLY Italian. I got it down to four, then chose. Mine is a nickname too! (LOL I think he would die if anyone called him Leonardo. XD not really) It actually became ironic later, when I realized he had the same name as da Vinci, who created the perfect man ideal, and then Leonardo Bruni, who named the study of old Latin and Greek classics and Church Fathers “humanism.” It’s ironic for secret reasons. 😛 XD Mine is futuristic, but I changed the past around. So it wasn’t our present that the world evolved from….if that makes any sense….
Oh! And I’m so sorry! You were right! CampNaNoWriMo IS in April and July this year. I just got an email from the Young Writers’ Program saying that, and that YWP is participating this year. That could’ve saved me making two accounts last year…. I’m doing July. (With Leo’s sequel =D) You?
[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/20igv4p.png[/IMG]
Made this 😀
Sorry didn’t work before:
http://i46.tinypic.com/20igv4p.png
You just love to torture us don’t you? lol. oh well, I’m use to it by now. I’d have to be seeing as I’ve stuck around since 2007 😛
I went dress shopping yesterday, and I was once again reminded why I wear mostly black. I look dead in everything else, I’m so pale. -_-
I really want to read Midnighters, I’m still searching for a copy of it… :/
My history teacher was talking about the good ol’ days last week and he goes “We didn’t have toys back then, we’d clean out the barn then play king of the mountain on the manure pile. You ever hear the term ‘tastes like crap’? Crap doesn’t actually taste all that bad. It’s kinda neutral.”
I laughed so hard!
@9: Your book sounds cool. And the alternate present/past thing does make sense.
As for CampNaNoWriMo, I’m not sure I’m gonna do it. NOT because it’s intimidating, but because since I’m already in the midst of writing a novel, I don’t really feel like I need to. I realize that it’d be good for me to do it anyway, but I’m slow enough when it comes to writing, and I have to finish my chapters monthly. I give them out to my family and friends so they can force me to keep my deadlines (without their insistence, I’d probably have gotten lazy and quit long before chapter 6).
Also, this might sound like a weird question, but: are you a boy or a girl? I feel like you’ve mentioned it before (but they’re a lot of people on this blog, so I may be confusing you with someone else), but “Midshipman K” is kind of ambiguous.
Scooooooooooott, please post more! :’O
I visit your blog everyday in hopes that something has been posted… Uglies movie news. Soon. Please. Thanks.
@14: Wow, I wish I had that sort of commitment! It’s all fine and good to write a novel in a month, but since then I haven’t done any REAL writing, except for my Alpha app story. (Which makes me feel guilt when I give it to my friends for criticism and they ask me if they can read some of my other stories….because I have none. >.<)
In answer to your question (which is totally fine by they way lol), I am a girl. Sometimes I forget that this isn't like DeviantART, where you can just go to my profile and see my gender. XD Also, I assuming you're a girl….?
@16: Maybe you should try it. When you have people eagerly awaiting the next installment of your story, it motivates you to get it done. Like I said, I may not have even finished chapter 2 without everyone egging me on. And if it makes you feel any better, I only have a few stories myself (like, six maybe?).
I suspected you were a girl, but I didn’t want to say that in case you were a guy and I insulted your masculinity or something, lol. And yes, I’m a girl, too (Roxanne would be an interesting guy’s name).
[AAAGGHHHH! Still 5 weeks before we know if we’re accepted!!! TIME MOVES SO SLOW!]
Validation on the Uglies movie: Yay! I fancast that book so obsessively, it isn’t even funny. Scott-la, you should have the producers look at my cast. It’s fantastic!
@17: It does seem like a really good idea. I’ll try it, but maybe in a month or two when I’m no longer so busy. ^^ Yeah, my problem is having ideas or impressions of things, but not actual stories. There’s like four that I’ve got really thought out.
LOL That’s okay. Right after I got my hair cut, someone mistook me for a boy from behind. It was so funny, because they asked my sister and I if we were fraternal twins, then we said we were identical and the person did a double-take and looked at me closer and was like, “Oh….” XD
[AHHH! I’m trying not to think about it! Strangers reading my story, judging me….O_O]
Those covers make me want to read the series…
Miss me, anybody? XD
Did anyone know that Harry Potter uses the phrase “Barking mad” in the sixth book? I was listening to the book and he said it and I went all fangirly. LIKE. A. BOSS.
@20: OMG THAT IS AWESOME.
I remember in a bonus feature of the seventh movie part two (I think) there was a discussion between Jo and Dan and Jo used the phrase “stark staring mad” and I was reminded of Chapter 30* of Goliath when Deryn was thinking that Alek’s company kept her from going “stark raving mad.” <3 I couldn't stop using those two phrases for the longest time. Also, my sister will constantly point out the quote from Philosopher's Stone**: "'Barking,' Uncle Vernon said. 'Howling mad, the lot of them.'" XD
*For those who haven't read Chapter 30 a million times, it's the chapter that takes place perpetually in Deryn's cabin and is basically just Deryn and Alek talking. (After the Mexico incident) I LOVE THIS CHAPTER. ^^
**I'm American but I prefer the British title, kay? Yeah. ^^
@19: Yeah, I’ve got several full novel ideas that I just can’t seem to really flesh out. One series I have I want to be six books, but right now I have no clue as to what happens in most of the middle ones. (That’s my only really long series though.)
Well, I’m not exactly sure who reads and judges the stories, but I’m sure they’re just as cool and lax as the Alphan staff.
What’s your story about anyways?
I only recognize 2 names on here 🙁 I remember when we got 2k comments a day… Ugh I miss that </3 I miss my uglies friends. I just re-read specials so Scott-la.. Please hurry on the UPSE movie news(: I'll be the first in line at the midnight premiere
Cool pictures! I still think there’s some sort of unspoken rule that other countries get the best covers.
I fully understand that your work has occupied your time and effort, so it’s fine that there hasn’t been much posting.
I really hope the Uglies movie news isn’t a statement that there won’t be one, but I can wait and see. Patience is a good skill to develop.
@23- SOPHIE-LA! It’s been ages since we last talked!
So how has everyone on here’s lives been going?
I’m pretty good. I’ve decided that I wanna be a piano technician when I grow up.
@26: Pretty well. School filling up most of my time, but that’s a good thing I suppose.
@26: Life’s goin’ good.
…I’m reading a manga called Death Note, and the main character’s name is Yagami…my friend pointed out that Yagami backwards is I’m A Gay. It was pretty funny.
@28 Death Note is great! how far have you read?
@29: Ummm…I’m reading it online so it’s hard to tell. The fifth book, I think. L is adorableee…^-^
I’m glad most peoples’s lives are going good.
Today we had a student vs. Staff basketball game, which I played in. They never call the teachers on anything, so if you ever have a game like that, don’t try to take a charge. They got the points and I hurt my wrist. But it was pretty fun anyway. I made my school all do the wave .
@22: WOW! Six books? The longest idea I have is a trilogy….And I’m going to try to write the second for July CampNaNoWriMo but I only have a slim idea of what will happen. For sure, I just know the first book and the end of the third. But who knows what will happen really?
My Alpha story is about a girl who seeks the help of a cursed witch woman to find her sister, because no one else will help. It’s traditionally fantasy,in my opinion, because that’s all I could find at the time. I had a month, and it was the first thing I came up with. It was a extension of a scene we were supposed to write in English class, focusing on sensory details, which actually helped because I’m usually so lax on description. My biggest fear about it is that it’s cliched, but I find my ideas of cliches tend to be more detailed than other people’s. It’s called One Thousand Souls. What about yours?
@28: OMG DEATH NOTE <3 I haven't finished it yet, though….I have no time….
@31: I can’t think of anyone on my school’s staff that would even attempt a charge, ’cause there goes their back for a couple weeks. 😉
@31 last year, my school had a student/staff basketball games too. It was great fun to watch as the student team is really good, while about half the staff team was about half people who played college ball, and half the least sporty people imaginable. My then English teacher was one of the latter.
@32: Well, like I said, there is a LOT of empty space. At this point it’s pretty much six books just because it always has been, but whenever I seriously get down to making HARD edits, that is likely to change. It’s a complex story I’ve had with me since I was like eight, growing and changing as I do, and basically I feel the only way for “future audience” to love my characters as much as I do is to give them a million novels, lol.
That actually sounds nice. I find it’s quite hard to write a nice short story with a solid beginning, middle, and ending. All my ideas usually end up being too big for 6000 words.
Anyway, my story is about a girl who cuts herself to force spirits to leave her head. She gets sent to a cutter institution (because, of course no one understands), but then someone is murdered there. Unable to get a knife to cut out the person’s ghost, she solves the case instead. Lemme tell you, writing a DECENT 6000-word murder story is quite tough. Not nearly enough time to introduce red herrings people will believe. Hopefully I pulled it off well enough.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO L WHYYYYYYYYYYYY???????
I HAAAAATE YOOOUUU REEEEMMM!!!!!!!
*cough* Pardon me while I go into mourning for L.
@38 it’s ok. i kind of thought that too when i read that part.
@36: Yeah, my one other novel that I have really worked out changes like that. Plus, I can’t grasp the voice of the character because she’s so NOT like me. I love her anyway….She’s just difficult. Too logical. How on earth did I create a math and science character when I’m so history and English?
I admire your effort to write a mystery in 6000 words! I’m actually pretty bad at writing short stories; 6000 words is usually one or two chapters for me. I just hope I wasn’t too brief; my story was 5700. I don’t think I was….I hope….
@38: DON’T! SAY ANYTHING ELSE! I DON’T WANT TO KNOW! GAH! *hides in the corner*
Okay, sorry, I’ll just try to ignore any more Death Note spoilers.
*continues to hide*
@40: 300 words off from the limit is NOT by any means “brief.” The minimum is 2000, that’s brief. 5700 is perfect. But it’s better to be brief anyway. I was right on the doorstep of 6000 the WHOLE editing process. It was a nightmare. I was like, “Okay, if I add this, what has to leave?” Gah, awful.
My Alpha story narrator is quite like me. Not her deadpan manner (I could never speak my mind like that), but her overly-sarcastic personality. 🙂 I actually do that with my novel, too. The narrator isn’t a character in that one, but still quite snarky. Otherwise, I’m very serious in my stories. I like to think all my characters (narrator and otherwise) are different and unique, but I don’t think I’ve written enough to know for sure.
@41: I thought I would be having your problem. Thank God I didn’t; my English teacher and I sort of have this….understanding. She always stresses the MAXIMUM pages, because when we were doing a Rite of Passage essay, I couldn’t bring mine down to three pages so I….deviated from MLA format and and made the font 11 point. She took off a whole letter grade. There went my A….
My Alpha narrator is….much more jaded than I am. And she has way more at stake; which is sort of the point. But she’s not like Miranda in that Miranda is very logical and tries not to get emotionally involved in anything. (But obviously she would change….) There’s actually a character in my novel with Miranda that is like an exaggerated me (she’s read all the books that I’ve had on my To-Read list for years and she quotes even more than I do, which is saying a lot). She’s nice and fun to write. I am SO bad at sarcasm; it comes to me so rarely. But my dad is really sarcastic, so that helps. I like to think that my characters vary from each other, as well. The one trend I’ve noticed in my girls is I cannot stand weak girls. Whether they’re sarcastic, headstrong, loyal, downright mean, or whatever, they’re never weak, like damsel-in-distress style. *shudders* When we were studying archetypes in English class, I honestly couldn’t come up with anything for Damsel in Distress because I hate being cliche and putting Disney princesses. (Now, though, I suppose I could’ve put Cossette….)
@40- ACK! sorry…*ashamed*
@43: Haha, it’s okay. I’ll just try not to read anything if it comes up….
@42: Yeah, it seems like no matter what series I read, the main characters always become annoying. That’s what I love about Leviathan, Alek and Deryn never got old or obnoxious!
I try to make strong characters, but the people in my novel…well, I’m sorta making fun of the whole “damsel in distress” thing in a melodramatic way, so they’re special. One of my main females is ridiculously pure good, but not in a good way. I hate when characters are all “I’m so good, I can’t do anything bad ever, even if the bad guy doesn’t deserve any more chances to change and I just really need to kill them” (OUAT: Snow, I’m looking at you), so I’m having the narrator point out how she’s actually kinda useless in her goodness. And the other female is the exact opposite: ridiculously evil.
@45: I know. Deryn and Alek are just….I can’t even find the words. I was so doubtful about the book at first, too. Especially of Deryn, because everyone knows girls disguised as boys never last long and I expected her to be all arrogant and whatnot. But she did! And she wasn’t! And it fit and it was realistic and they were just so many things that I hadn’t expected. And Alek….I don’t know what I expected of him, but who he really is is just so endearing. I picked up Leviathan so many times before actually reading it. I was a Dummkopf, but I often am, so that’s okay. (Seriously, everything I love I thought I would hate, from Leviathan to Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings to ballet to even my dream college. You’d think I’d learn by now.) I wish I could write characters as beautiful as Deryn and Alek. Not to say they don’t have their flaws–because we all know they do–but that’s part of what makes them so very lovable. Okay, I’m rambling now. Stopping….
What you said about “good” characters reminds me of Jem, if you’ve read the Infernal Devices trilogy. And even all the characters believe that, have said it to his face. “You’re just so….good.” ; “Nothing is above mockery.” “Jem is.” ; etc. SO ANNOYING. Especially when my sister is obsessed with him. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Even the truly “good” characters have flaws, like Finny (A Separate Peace) and Hassan (The Kite Runner). I’m also a very strong believer in the anti-hero. I can spend an entire books believing that the villain is actually a good guy. (That seriously happened with Poison, but Aelthar was murdered before I could prove my theory.)
What’s OUAT? I’m trying to figure it out, but I’m not getting the reference. Sorry. 🙁
@46: Oh, I could ramble about Dalek and LBG all day! I wanna meet Scott so bad…! Sorry, will. Not. Let. Myself. Rant!
I read the first three TMI, got annoyed that she decided to continue the series and didn’t read the others, and read the first TID before I got bored (Will is a complete copy-cat of Jace. Also, Tessa GRAY, Clary FRAY…really?).
I don’t see how it’s so “good” not to kill the bad guy when it puts innocent people in danger. That’s being a bad ruler.
OUAT is Once Upon a Time. You should look it up, because I’m bad at/hate explaining premises to complex TV shows. If you like villains with backstory, you might actually enjoy it, although I feel it’s been poorly executed. Anyway, the person I’m talking about is Snow White. She’s so freaking good, but kinda pathetic in her goodness. I could literally rant about all the problems with this show I want to DESPERATELY to love, but I’ll just say this: she reclaimed her kingdom, caught the evil queen, gave her one last (billionth) chance to change, and then when she refused, STILL couldn’t bring herself to execute her! And look what happened, a 28-year curse that ripped your daughter from you! [<–Sorry, ranting. Like I said, so many issues with this show.]
@47: Yeah, I used to love the books. Not anymore. This is how I feel now: The whole world can go to hell and everyone can die as long as Magnus and Alec are okay. It’s mean, but I honestly couldn’t care one bit about the rest of them.
Oh! I know that show! I remember when it first came out I thought it would be really interesting, but then I actually saw a few episodes and the characters were just….weak. 2-D. It’s totally okay to rant. The world is full of so many disappointing characters.
@47 I agree that all the characters are copies of each other (though, TMI was started before TID, but who cares, they’re all the same characters with different names). That’s one of the reasons I like Scott’s writing so much, through different series, his characters are completely, totally, and utterly unique (and not in the least redundant)
@48, 49: Don’t get me wrong, I still love CoB, CoA, and CoG, but all the rest in her entire Shadowhunter world can just…die or something, I really don’t care. And I think, given where we are, we can all agree Scott and his stories are AMAZING! (Rose, did you apply to Alpha, too?)
I don’t remember the last time there was a real fantasy show, you know? Everything’s like a sitcom, or a teen or crime drama. Same with movies. What happened to awesomeness like Stardust? I think the fantastical era is over, at least for now. 🙁 That’s why I was so excited when OUAT came on air, it was about fairytales for Pete’s sake! But, especially now in the second season, it hasn’t done much but disappoint. :'(
Also, Midshipman K, there’s a “worry thread” over on the Alpha site, if you want to, you know, worry, lol: http://alpha.spellcaster.org/2013/03/01/the-2013-worry-thread/