July Art Reveal (Voting)

It’s almost July 1, and time for another art reveal! As usual, YOU get to decide which piece of Goliath art shall be unveiled.

This time we have no less than four pieces of art to vote on. Three are the former defeated contestants, just in case you’ve changed your minds about them, but the last is all new.

So will it be the high angle shot from the June reveal, Number 1?

Or the threatening weather vista, also from June, Number 2?

Or the also-ran from way back in March, Number 3?

ch01_full

Or finally, there’s this new one that you MIGHT find intriguing . . . Number 4.

Leave your votes in the comment thread below. And use this space to wheedle, coax, and inveigle your fellow fans to your cause. Because democracy is good.

I shall close the polls after 250 votes.

Forum Meet-Up Transcript

Yesterday at 2PM, me and a hundred-ish fans from the WesterForum hung out for about an hour and a half, and I answered many questions. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, I’ have compiled them into this blog post, typos and all! (So. Many. Typos.)

Enjoy:

“What kind of juice do you like?”

There are many juices I love. Mango! Pear! (Especially pear cider.) Apple!

“So Scott there’s been a rivalry going on (on the forum obviously) , based on the question : If the crew of the Leviathan got in a fight with Special Circumstances who would win? What’s your opinion?”

I think in a close-quarters fight the Specials would win, because they’re too quick. But in a proper battle, the Leviathan could mess them up with strafing hawks or bat-poo without ever being in danger.

“WHATS GOING ON WITH CROY?! CAN YOU GIVE US ANY INFO ON HIM?! ”

That info will be released at Leaky Con and Comic Con. THAT’S ONLY A FEW WEEKS. But I can’t tell you anything now, except maybe . . . you will SEE HIM.

“Did you use the same models on the cover of Goliath that you used on Leviathan and Behemoth?”

Yes. Same models, same photo shoot on the same day. Sometime I’ll show you guys the unaltered photos.

“At any point in Behemoth, does Dr. Barlow know that Deyrn is a girl? It has been a topic of great debate.”

Hah! Not saying now, but you WILL learn the answer to that in Goliath.

“Have you ever met someone in real life who reminds you of your characters?
Or vice versa.”

Hmm, not really. Although sometimes I see someone and say, ‘Whoa, he/she’s a total pretty!’

“Nice to meet you, btw. (and tell hi to Justine (Mrs. Larbaleister (sp?)) for me, please!)”

It’s Dr. Larbalestier, in fact.

“Can Justine cook?”

She’s a great cook of Thai food, and she wants me to add that she’s a good boxer too. (She’s been taking lessons.)

“What TV shows do you watch?”

Game of Thrones, Treme, just finished Vampire Diaries,

“This isn’t really a question, just a comment. I thought you’d like to know that I used to like history, and Leviathan made me love it again. I might even try writing something historical-ish myself. ”

Yay!

“Is Lilit lesbian/bi? (Please say yes.)”

They didn’t really have those categories for women back then, but she would be if she was alive today. (Strange but true fact: Male homosexuality was illegal in England back then, but female homosexuality wasn’t because lawmakers REFUSED TO BELIEVE IT EXISTED.)

“In Uglies, there are many messages, some obvious, some not so much. What messages/lessons do you want readers to take away from Leviathan?”

Hmm. I think that the big theme is about how different sides of a conflict (war or just ideological/technological) see each other, and how that can change when people are forced to work together.

“What kind of music do you like? (Do you like Florence+and the machine?)”

I like minimalism and trip-hop, and I don’t know of this Florence person.

“What is your opinion on the Hunger Games? (Will you see the movie?)”

Want to see the movie. Liked the first book, but didn’t read the others.

“When will you go on tour?”

September 17. DON’T KNOW WHERE YET! NOT MY CHOICE WHERE.

“Would you like to join my band of Ninjas?”

I have already infiltrated your band of ninjas!

“Do you like writing about diseases? Peeps was about parasites, Innoculata had to do with a virus and in So Yesterday the main characters dad is a Epidimiologist (I think).”

I love all kinds of biology, like beasties too. Studied philosophy of biology in college. (Yes, that’s a real thing.)

“Scott-la, in the Uglies series who was the most interesting character to create?”

Hmm, maybe Mr. Simpson Smith, because he talked funny and had a very different view of the world from everyone else.

“Is there a ball, wedding, or some other formal scene in Goliath?”

Yes!

“Will we ever see Deryn in a dress in the final book?
I need some hope..

Fan Art Friday

At last! Here is another edition of Fan Art Friday for your art-viewing pleasure.

But first . . . it’s time for another meet-up on the Forum. For those of you who don’t hang out there, the Forum is roughly 99% of this site. It has over 30,000 members and about half a million posts. And once every couple of months, I hang out there and answer ALL the questions.

So let’s do one next Saturday, June 25, at 2PM, US-EST. (Sorry, I know that’s the middle of the night for Australia.) Come one, come all, and I shall try as always to answer as many of your questions as humanly possible.

And now to the fan arts . . .

As previously moaned about, I have read a bajillion fan fics, and it’s really too hard to choose just a few, because so many are so good. But I will choose just ONE, because it was quite off-center and unexpected. Even original.

It’s set many years before Alek or Deryn were born, when the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife-to-be Sophie first met. Now because there are historical characters, this might not have been a Leviathan fan fic at all. But there is a big WALKER at the beginning, so it totally counts.

Check it out, “Prague”, by fanfiction.net’s Cardboard Edward.

And while we’re talking fan fic, here’s some fic-related art, a cover created by LinnetLove for a piece of fan fic by Victorian Bombshell (Hah, I got two fics in there):

From Brazil, here is Irwin Dias’ dyptich of disturbing delight, featuring Dr. Cable and Special Tally:

Scary Special teeth are scary!

And now for a big bunch of pencil pieces. First, from Mercedes Amanda, here’s a picture from the ever-popular (and complicated) theme of The Lilit Triangle!

A cool split personality Deryn from Michelle, The Clanker, and color pencil sketch by her:

From Angel Sun, a CUTE manga-style Deryn and Bovril:

And finally from Ellyn, here’s a pre-crossdressing Deryn, looking discontent in her non-uniform!

It’s actually kind of weird to think of Deryn in a dress, isn’t it? And that’s the way it should be, too.

Enjoy your weekends!

June Art Reveal

Here is the Goliath art reveal for June, based on your voting!

I was going to wait until 300 votes had come in, but by vote number 222 one of the illustrations had achieved an unassailable lead! Here’s what I mean:

Illustration One: 125 votes
Illustration Two: 17 votes
Illustration Three: 29 votes

With 78 votes left to be counted, even if Illustration three got all of them, number one was still going to win. SO I STOPPED COUNTING, which I’m sure would be cool with the Supreme Court, who are all, like, whatever about this stuff.

So here we have it, Illustration One!

Click the image for a bigger, zoomable version.

Now, some of you may have noticed that it is time for Fan Art Fortnightly, but I have cleverly stomped on it with this art reveal. Why? Is it because I hate fan art?

NO. I LOVES ME SOME FAN ART. But I had foolishly promised to do a Fan Fic Fan Art Fortnightly (AKA FFFAF) and it’s been impossible to choose from among the bajillion weird and wonderful fan fics out there. So why don’t you guys help me out?

Use this comment thread to suggest to each other any awesome fan fictions you’ve found, from any of my books.

And in a week or two I’ll put up some more drawings, because that’s easier.

New Update

Leviathan just sold in Japan! So we’ll be seeing the Japanese version in a year or so. Cool, huh?

Art Reveal Democracy

It’s June 1, time for another art reveal! And it’s time to decide which of the fifty-something pieces of art in Goliath should be unveiled next. Which will have the perfect mix of mystery and appetite-whetting spoileriness?

It is up to you, the readers, to decide . . .

Will it be the enigmatic interior of illustration Number 1?

The extreme high angle of image Number 2?

Or the threatening weather vista of Number 3?

Leave your votes in the comment thread below. And don’t just vote. Debate! Squabble! Cajole! Enjoin others to your cause!

And enjoy.

Also check out this fanmade countdown timer to the Goliath release! (Man, that’s a long time from now.)

Update!

The splendid librarians of Seattle have launched Steampunk Summer, which means they’ve hidden copies of both Leviathan and Cherie Priest’s awesome Boneshaker in s3krit locations around the city. If you live in Seattle, check out the comments thread here for clues on how to find them!

Then read the book, initial the back, and pass it to a friend or re-hide it.

Then go back to the Steampunk Summer comments thread and leave clues where you hid the book (and where you found it, what you thought of it, etc.).

Then claim a free book at the Library as your prize!

This sounds like fun.

Update 2!

As usual, you have all voted early and often. I will close the balloting at 300, and then the art shall be revealed!

The Curious Case of Klout

Because I wrote Peeps, everyone emails me the latest news on parasites. Thanks to writing Uglies, I’m always up on hovercraft and tattoo technologies. And thanks to the Leviathan series, I get a lot of mail about walking machines.

Being the author of Extras means I hear a lot about Klout.

Klout is a company that generates face-ranks of Twitter users. They have software that constantly scries the “Twitter firehose”—the sum total of everyone’s tweets—and boils them down to a set of rankings. Basically Klout behaves like the city interface in Extras. People following you, retweeting you, mentioning you, and using twitter to converse directly with you makes your score go up. People ignoring you makes your score go down.

Unlike Aya’s city, Klout doesn’t give everyone their own unique number, but gives everyone a score between 1 and 100, with higher scores representing more influence. The scale is logarithmic, like the richter scale, so the distance from 10 to 30 doesn’t mean a lot, but the distance from 80 to 100 is vast.

Here are some examples of Klout scores:
Scott Westerfeld: I bounce between 60 and 62
Youtube Magnate John Green: 71
YA Twitter Queen Maureen Johnson: 74
US President Barack Obama: 88
Genuinely Famous Person Lady Gaga: 94

As you can see, Twitter Klout and real-world clout don’t necessarily match up. I mean, Lady Gaga can’t dispatch Navy Seal teams . . . yet. And possibly running the federal government doesn’t leave a lot of time for @replying with your pals. But a high Klout score is a measure of one sort of celebrity, notoriety, fame, and influence. And the idea of scoring everyone in the (online) world is so inherently Extras-like that I knew you guys would be interested in it, so I took a closer look at what Klout were doing.

Last week I had a short phone conversation with the Klout CEO and Co-Founder Jed Shearer. Here are some interesting factoids he unleashed on me:

1) The Twitter firehose that goes into your Klout score includes direct messages. (Note to self: DMs aren’t as private as I thought.)

2) The overall scores listed above are the tip of the analysis iceberg. Klout also scores people with regard to specific subject matter. For example, you could have a big sports or literature score, but a crappy cooking or politics score.

3) Klout keeps that more specific data secret, and then sells it to marketing companies, who want to find Twitter “influencers.” For example, if you are the biggest manga expert on Twitter, you might get invited to the opening of Akira. (This is actually more So Yesterday than Extras.)

4) There’s only ever one person at a time with a Klout score of 100. Basically, they’re like Nana Love in Extras, or Christopher Lambert in Highlander. And at the moment that person is . . . Justin Bieber. (Of the clan McBieber.)

There’s obviously a lot to talk about here, but it’s nice (for me) how the themes in Extras keep popping up. I’ve seen articles about people with higher Klout score getting hotel upgrades, and of some tech parties only allowing in people with a certain Klout score or above. This is a very mild equivalent of what happens in Aya’s city, where your face-rank determines how big your apartment is, how many resources you can consume, etc. Perks for influencers is very old, of course.

My social media expert friends tell me that people have begun “gaming” Klout. That is, they change their online social practices with the sole intent of boosting their score. Some of you may recall the Reputation Bomber clique in Aya’s city, who chant one member’s name all night to spike his or her face rank. Same basic thing.

Klout seems to me to be simultaneously silly and the first stage of something important. We humans are social creatures, so it’s a survival skill to determine the status of the people around us, especially when we’re in an unfamiliar environment (or an environment that is being newly created, like Twitter or the internet in general).

You will remember this scene from pretty much every high school movie: The new kid arrives at school, and is led on a social safari by a savvy new friend. Usually set in the cafeteria, this scene often contains the dialog “That’s the jocks’ table over there.” Like Klout itself, these little expository set pieces are an oversimplification, an exaggeration, and a kind of a joke, but they’re also useful for learning the lay of the land.

Using math to improve survival skills (the whole Klout enterprise is about computers crunching numbers) is what the last few centuries of human culture has mostly been about. So I’d be surprised if the world didn’t wind up with many tech companies whose sole purpose was the tracking, scoring, and gaming of reputations.

So where did I get the idea for the face-rank culture in Extras? From a much simpler source: authors sitting around and checking their books’ Amazon rankings. (Amazonomancy is the technical term for this.) A humble beginning, but in a way Amazonomancy is more grounded in reality than anything Klout does.

Book sales are, after all, a reputation marker you can eat.

On Twitter? You can look yourself up here. Or check out my detailed score here.

Fan Art Friday, Now Fortnightly

Yes, having missed fifty percent of the last few Fan Art Fridays, I hereby declare Fan Art Friday to be Fan Art Fortnightly. (It’s not easy being a lazy blogger, okay?)

This part 2 of the Non-Drawn Fan Art trilogy, guaranteed to have zero paintings or drawings, but with lashing of tattoos, cosplay, and photography. (Fan fic will be the concluding edition, in two weeks.)

First up we have tattoos, which are the most flattering/disturbing medium of fan art, because they’re, like, PERMANENT. This should go without saying, but I’ll say it: Do not get fan tattoos without serious consideration!

And yet, kind of awesome.

For all you Midnighters fans, here’s an awesome mindcaster tattoo on a fan I met in Florida. I have forgotten his name! (Sorry, dude. But I follow you on Twitter.)

And showing even more commitment, here’s an unknown rockstar in Russia who is obviously a huge fan of Keith’s!


Photo by Theodor Melmoth.

Note that this isn’t from Leviathan, and is Westerfeldian in no way. But as you all love Keith as much as I do, I thought you’d want to see it.

Finally, here are a couple of non-real facial tattoos. (Non-real being the way to go with facial tattoos, I’d say.) The first is from Rachel, and is a mix of Special Tally and the cover of my (very) adult book, Evolution’s Darling:

And here’s another (fake) Special tattoo, spotted on the Behemoth tour last October:

By the way, if you want to read an academic paper on tattoos and body modification in the Uglies series, click here.

And now for some cosplay! Here’s Saiyuki-15, playing multiple roles:

Yes, that’s some awesome costuming AND jewelry making.

Here’s an intense Dr. Barlow, from FlyingBicycle at Deviant Art.

And now some photography from Zvaella, featuring a page of Leviathan:

Our last piece of FAF is photography plus Photoshoppery, from Ponylov. It’s one of my creations that amuses me the most, Shay’s eye-clock from Pretties:

It appears to be showing five four o’clock, given the angel of the eye and the fact that Shay’s clock runs backwards.

So here’s a mind-bending question for you: Why does Shay’s eye-clock run backward? Yes, it’s partly because pretty fashion is always silly, but there’s also a perfectly reasonable answer. Bubble-headed Tally and Shay never figure out in the books, but I bet you guys can. First correct commenter gets a virtual fist-bump from me.

(UPDATE: Solved in comment 2. But many other good theories have been proposed.)

Okay, that’s it for today. Come back in a fortnight for the all fan-fic Fan Art Fortnightly! Sorry to take so long, but there’s a lot to organize.

In the meantime, those of you in the New York City area should remember that my Book Expo America events are coming up next week! Hope to see some of you there.

Goliath Art Reveal

Okay, here we are only a couple of days late, a sneak preview of some art from Goliath!

Click here for a zoomable version. You can zoom it up REAL BIG.

In other news, there’s a new book out now called The Steampunk Bible. It has interviews and art from a bunch of steampunk authors and artists, including three pages about me and Leviathan.

Here’s what it looks like:

Click here to read more about it.

More blogging soon. Thanks for your patience!

Fan Art Friday

Back in my younger days, when people would ask where I went to high school, the conversation would often go like this:

“I go to Arts Magnet.”

“Oh. So you’re a painter.”

“No.”

“A sculptor?”

“Um, no.”

“What? You just draw?”

“Nope.”

“But . . . you’re an artist, right?”

“Yep. I compose music and direct and act in plays.”

“Oh, right. Artssss Magnet.”

*sighs*

One of the fudgeries of spoken English is the way we often use the word for a subset to mean the whole set, and vice versa. To some people, “artist” means “painter,” “American” means “from the USA,” and “animal” means “multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdoms Animalia or Metazoa BUT NOT HUMANS CAUSE WE’RE SPESHUL.”

Of course, we’re starting to get rid of a lot of these fudges, but it’s still tricky. I often use “USian” instead of “American,” but as a southerner I correct Aussies who call me a “yank.” The politics of who’s the subset in these verbal habits can be very problematic, you see. (But at least pretty much everyone has given up saying “man” for “humanity.”)

AND YET, here I’ve done more than a dozen Fan Art Fridays, and about 99% of the fan art I’ve shared with you is drawn or painted (or the digital equivalent). Apparently I’ve been colonized by my painterly high school oppressors without even realizing it!

So here we are at last, a special edition of Fan Art Friday in which NO art is drawn or painted. (Well, some of it is, partly. There is no escape.)

Let’s start off with costumes. Here’s an awesome piloting jacket by DA’s WaxesNostalgic, based on Alek’s from Leviathan:

Cool, huh? You don’t see enough leather in cosplay.

And here’s some self-portraiture by bano–kagi, which is partly cosplay, but also involves the art of resembling Deryn Sharp without even trying.

I mean, seriously. It’s like she jumped out of the book.

SPEAKING OF WHICH:
This one is sort of on the border between drawing and sculpture, but you will agree it’s totally cool. See if you can find the Leviathan characters in “Jump Off the Page” by ThePrinceOfParties.

This is a crop. You must follow this link for the whole thing!

Characters jumping out of books makes me happy.

More sculpture! Of a Huxley Ascender! This one from Parker-Strom.

And in a more jewelry mode, Heather L. offers up one of the Leviathan‘s fabricated bees:

It’s so glittery, kind of like I describe the bees in the gut.

And now . . . something that will keep you Midnighters fans in stitches.

Heh, in stitches. (Bada-BOOM.) From Kristen G, who is clearly awesome, because those midnighters symbols are really detailed.

And in the photography category, Ren W. and Sammy sent me shots of the sky that might be related to Leviathan, of course. But which might also be somehow related to a CERTAIN LINE at the beginning of the Uglies series!


That one’s by Ren W, and this next one’s by Sammy.

Okay, we’ve covered Leviathan, Midnighters, and Uglies, and EIGHT pieces of art, so I think I’m stopping here. (Still fluey.) Rest assured, though, there will be more non-painterly art next week, including the bajillion pieces of fan-fiction you all sent me. (So. Much. Fan. Fiction.)

There will also be a tattoo, or perhaps even two. Seriously.

If you’re coming to BEA or simply live near New York City, don’t forget
my appearances next month. I’m coming 10,000 miles for this BEA, so I don’t want any empty chairs!

And just a reminder, you guys know I’m on Twitter, right?

Book Week Events

Before I get to Fan Art Friday, there’s a bunch of STUFF I should mention.

1) My New York Public Library event for Book Expo America has been moved to a bigger venue. If you tried to book tickets and were denied due to overflow, you can try again. Here are the deets:

NY Book Week Science Fiction/Fantasy Evening
NYPL Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 42nd and 5th
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
6:00 – 7:45PM
Contact: Chris Shoemaker, [Christopher_Shoemaker@nypl.org], 212.340.0958
Authors: MC: Gavin Grant (Small Beer Press)
Music: Brian Slattery
Lev Grossman, John Scalzi, Catherynne M. Valente, Scott Westerfeld
Sponsored by: BEA, NYPL, KGB Fantastic Fiction Series, NYRSF Reading Series
Each author will be reading for about twenty minutes, accompanied by original improvisational music courtesy of the excellent Brian Slattery. Then: Q&A.

I’ll also be at the BookRageous Bash later that night, at 8:30. Google it!

2) For those of you attending actual BEA, I’ll be signing at 1PM on Wednesday, May 25. This is a ticketed signing, so check out this schedule of all the authors, which also explains how to get tickets.

3) And I have a panel on Wednesday night too!

Writing for Teens Today : Authors Speak
Join some of today’s hottest YA authors as they discuss writing for teens in today’s market. From developing authentic voices to keeping the reader hooked, from plot twists and turns to keeping the slang right, find out their tips and tricks to staying in style.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Mulberry Street Library
10 Jersey St.
New York, NY
212-966-3424

Ally Condie – Matched
James Dashner – The Scorch Trials
Ellen Hopkins – Fallout
Maureen Johnson – The Last Little Blue Envelope
Lauren Kate – Torment
Scott Westerfeld – Behemoth

Bring your copy from home or buy a fresh edition on site and collect autographs! Fully accessible to wheelchairs. Ages 12-18. (Does this mean adults can’t come? I doubt it, but maybe we’re only signing for teens. Who knows?)

There are many other things going on around BEA, of course. Here’s a list of all the other events that are open to the public.

See you at BEA.