Greetings, Victorians!

Next week Justine and I are headed to the Melbourne Writers Festival. I’ll be doing five events, and at all of them I’ll be revealing fabulous Leviathan art and talking about the series, as well as other Deep Topics as listed below.

Note that you have to get tickets for these events. The Sunday event Justine and I are on is a bit pricey. You can book tickets here. All my other events are only $6, and you can book them here.

See you there!

Event 1
Day: Sunday
Date: 23/08/2009
Time: 4:00 PM
Venue: ACMI 1
Event Name: Taking Over the Grown-Ups Table
Panelists: Isobelle Carmody, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier
Chair: Agnes Nieuwenhuizen
Join Justine Larbalestier, Isobelle Carmody and Scott Westerfeld, three authors who have successfully marketed their books to crossover audiences. Join these hugely successful YA authors as they discuss just who they think are reading their books.

Event 2
Day: Monday
Date: 24/08/2009
Time: 12:30 PM
Venue: ACMI 2
Event Name: The New World
Panelists: Scott Westerfeld, China Míeville
Chair: Cordelia Rice
Join two of the festival’s sci-fi superstars Scott Westerfeld and China Mieville, as they discuss the boundaries of science and fiction. How does fiction repackage Earthly themes into other worldly packages? What are the rules of science fiction, and how do you break them? All of Scott’s books in the Uglies series have made the New York Times Bestsellers List, while China has won two Arthur C. Clarke awards for his speculative fiction.

Event 3
Day: Tuesday
Date: 25/08/2009
Time: 1:45 PM
Venue: BMW Edge, Federation Square
Event Name: Creating New Worlds
Panelists: Scott Westerfeld
Chair: Cordelia Rice
How does science fiction combine the known with the unknown? Join young-adult and sci-fi novelist Scott Westerfeld as he talks about creating new worlds, and of writing Extras – the latest book in his Uglies series, all of which have made the New York Times Bestsellers List. His next work, Leviathan, an illustrated novel of an alternate World War I, will appear in October 2009.

Event 4
Day: Tuesday
Date: 25/08/2009
Time: 11:15 AM
Venue: ACMI 2
Event Name: Place, in Space
Panelists: Scott Westerfeld, Anthony Eaton
Chair: Andrew Finegan
Why is setting so important to a reader? What elements of a setting bring a place most alive? Scott Westerfeld and Anthony Eaton take you through their building techniques. Anthony is author of the Darklands Trilogy and Scott is an award-winning science fiction and young adult author whose next work, Leviathan, will appear in October 2009.

Event 5
Day: Wednesday
Date: 26/08/2009
Time: 11:15 AM
Venue: ACMI 2
Event Name: The Science of Fiction
Panelists: Scott Westerfeld, Penny Tangey
Chair: Cordelia Rice
Join young-adult and sci-fi novelist Scott Westerfeld, and award-winning comedian and writer Penny Tangey, as they show the ways that science can accelerate fiction; how to blend science into writing; and why it is such an exciting element of any fictional world.

I know what you’re thinking: “Um, new haircut?”

No, new website!

Given that Leviathan is coming out on October 6, I thought we should retire the old Extras look and get all steampunk’ed around here. Hope you enjoy the gears. (Mmmm . . . gears.)

Thanks to all the folks who made this possible, especially Deena Warner Design and all the folks at Simon & Schuster. Without them, this wouldn’t look so fabulous. In fact, it would look exactly the same as it used to, because I’m way too busy these days to work on non-book stuff.

Well, except for heading down to the recording session for the Leviathan audiobook, where I got to hang out with star of stage and screen Alan Cumming (aka Nightcrawler of X-Men, Fegan Floop of Spy Kids, and the Emcee of Cabaret).

I haz proof:

I really enjoyed listening in. When I got to the studio, Alan (um, if I may) was just starting the huge battle scene in the middle of the book, and he was really rocking it. He’d invented voices for all the characters, which was freaky for me (but in a good way). Everything was so much more dramatic than how I read my own stuff aloud. Old-school storytelling is really nothing less than magic.

Alan was working off a specially marked recording script, and hadn’t seen the art yet. So over lunch we went through the Big Book of Illustrations I carry around with me, and he was suitably impressed and kept saying, “This should really be a movie.” (I told him he should play Count Volger, and he was down with that.)

Then we talked about old Saturday Night Live sketches, which I’ve done with a lot of people over the years, but not anyone who’s actually hosted the show.

It was loads of fun, and he had the grace to notify me when there was something unattractive stuck between my teeth, which is really all I want in a celebrity. (Note to self: black bean soup = tactical error.)

Enjoy the new site!