At about 3PM yesterday, all my publishing pals pinged me to report that I had achieved true publishing geek nirvana: Tally was name-checked in Tales from the Slush Pile!

Slush Pile is a comic strip that’s part of Children’s Bookshelf, the email spin-off of Publisher’s Weekly that covers our corner of the business. I rushed to check, and there Tally was in the first panel:

She is now part of publishing culture. Rejoice!

Click here to read the strip from the beginning.

The next time I blog, I’ll be in California!

Click here to watch me talk.

More on this later; out the door now.

This has been such an intense couple of days: six school visits, two big bookstore appearances, a zillion bookstore drop-ins and wonderful fannish encounters.

I don’t have words to say how incredible everyone has been, plus it’s really late at night and I have to get up tomorrow to be driven to Wisconsin. So how about some pictures?

Here’s some amazing fan art that was presented to me by the member of Midnighters Board. Check out the text on these Peeps-alicious treats.

An awesome window display:

Also, the folks over at FanLib have started a Extras fanfic contest. The winner gets an Aya-skinned PS3!

Click here for details.

Now I must SLEEP. See you tomorrow, Mequon and Cedarburg!

October 2 has come. Extras is in stores now. So that means it’s time for me to post the . . .

Extras Spoiler Page!

Now, those of you who haven’t read the book, and think it will be okay to dip in for a tiny glimpse, consider this woeful comment from the Specials Spoiler Page:

“oh god, i read the spoiler section before i read the book. i would have read the book by now but the bookstore doesn’t have it in yet! i got the first two before the sale date. why can’t i do that now!? crap i can’t believe i read the spoiler section…crap

Don’t let this be you! Read the book first.

And let the spoilage begin!

You can buy it at fine bookstores everywhere, or online if you prefer.

I’m spending the day tomorrow at Kennedy Jr. High School and Crone Middle School in Naperville, IL. And starting at 7PM tomorrow night, both Justine and I will be at:

Andersons
123 West Jefferson Ave
Naperville, IL 60540

Click here for the rest of the appearance schedule.

Hope you enjoy the book!

(Spoiler page appears at noon, for those of you who read really fast.)

We’re here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, nascent space of Borders Books, spending the last 36 hours before Extras comes out!

While the countdown ticks away, feast your eyes on Cory Doctorow’s review on BoingBoing.net, the internet’s premier clearinghouse of the geek-tastic.

Cory always has cool points to make. Here’s his review of the first two books, of Specials, and of Peeps.

Oh yeah, and now BoingBoing has comments, a much needed feature.

See you Tuesday.

It’s a slow day on tour today, waiting for next Tuesday, the all-important release date of Extras. So I thought I’d show you one more cover that came in last week.

It’s the complex Chinese version of Uglies! (My recent post about translation was for the CC version of Pretties.) I really like this cover. It’s slick and jazzy, but also dark, which can be a tricky combination to pull off.

Here’s the publisher’s site, for those of you who can read traditional Chinese.

Sorry this was so quick, but my internets are running out!

More tomorrow from the road.

The online version of Publisher’s Weekly has a lovely article about the Uglies trilogy and Extras. It contains unexpected revelations about the origins of my ideas for the book.

It also turns out that the series has sold more than a million copies, which is pretty bubbly. Thanks to all of you who made your friends and family read it. No book sells that many copies without word of mouth.

Click here to read it.

Also, my Taiwanese translator thinks you guys are awesome: “I am impressed [by] your readers’ definitions (I spent a lot time to read through all the posts, they made me laugh sometimes). . . . It’s great to know how other readers comprehend and perceive this novel, and certainly it helps me to get more clear ideas about these terms. Many thanks to them.”