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Italian Uglies Covers

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As I blogged earlier, the Italian cover for Uglies uses the same photo as the American, but flipped and with more of the model’s face on the front. But the cover for Pretties is totally different, and yet mysteriously the same.

And it’s just so . . . ciao.

Know what I mean?

But I love the translation of the title: “spotless ones,” “flawless ones.” Or, to follow the series style more closely, “perfects.”

UPDATE The tagline, Essere belli non basta, has been generally translated as “Being beautiful isn’t enough.”

German Uglies

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Okay, you’ve had to sit through me getting my cranky on in my last post. So here’s something much more happy-making:

Yes, it’s the German covers of the Uglies trilogy.

In a funny way, these are the most “realistic” of the covers for the trilogy. The model for Ugly looks like a real girl. Her skin is a bit freckly, her eyes a bit small. Not that she isn’t pretty, but she’s definitely not a pretty.

But the image for Pretty is almost freakish. As I’ve often said, if we saw a pretty here in our world, we’d probably find them a bit weird and exaggerated. Plastic sugery arms races tend to go in strange directions, after all. (Warning: Following that link risks severe eyeball damage.)

And Special is the best of all. It takes the exact same face and makes it totally mean. Sort of like a Chucky doll with tattoos.

Casting your eyes over all three faces, you see the subtle change in expression that mirror Tally’s journey, from curious ugly to vacant pretty to imperious, cruel Special. How cool is that?

Big props to the designers over at Carlsen, the German publishers of Uglies.

By the way, does anyone know a German-language reason why the titles are singular?

Norton Win + Paris!

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No, not me. Justine just won the second annual Andre Norton Award for Magic or Madness!

We weren’t in NYC at the time, so thanks to Eloise Flood (dear friend and editor to us both) for picking it up, and to fellow nominee Maureen Johnson for being the first to text us.

Amusing Story 1: The actual Norton Award object was somehow melted in transit. They had to give Eloise an old Grandmaster Award as a stand-in.

Amusing Story 2: Holly Black won the first one last year for Valiant, which we’d bet her she would. So she had to take us out for a hugely expensive meal. Absurdly expensive, it turned out. But now we owe her one. (drat)

Speaking of good food, the reason I haven’t been posting is that we’ve been here:

Amusing Story 3: I was trying to get my cool new camera (b’day pressie from Justine) on the right setting to shoot the Eiffel Tower. And it turned out that the setting for Big Buildings was indicated by an icon of the Eiffel Tower!

Ah, Paris. What an iconic city.

We were there to do press for Uglies, which came out last week in French. My adult sf is much more popular in France than the US, so I had tons of big papers inteviewing me: L’Express, Le Monde, Figaro, and a bunch of teen weeklies and monthlies.

Apparently, I am the Jerry Lewis of sf.

French interviewers are different from their English-language counterparts. More . . . philosophical. My favorite example:

What utopia would you fight for?

Gotta love the French. I said something like, “A chaotic utopia, with a thousand voices in tumult.” Because that’s what happens when I’m jetlagged and philosophical in France.

Especially enjoyable was being translated for six of the eleven interviews. It worked like this: The interviewer would ask something in French, Christian (my translator) would repeat it to me in English. Then I would waffle for a while, and Christian would translate my waffling back to the interviewer in French.

How Christian did this without head explodage is beyond me. A lot of my answers (and some of the questions) were a couple of minutes long. I can’t even repeat something of that length back in the same language, much less another one.

But it was way cool listening to my answers in French, trying to catch recognizable words flashing by. Christian and I got to know each other in a really interesting way. (That is, he saw me answer the same questions six different ways in some cases. This is something only Justine normally gets to do.)

I have a lengthy video of the process, which I’ll try to cut into uploadable form soon.

All in all, Paris was awesome. Great food, perfect weather, bars named after me, and everyone was supremely wonderful to us. A jolly birthday. (I’m 44! Ancient!)

Thanks to Christian, all the journalistes, and my Pocket publicist Christine.

More photos, etc., to come.

P.S. You can buy the Norton Award-winning Magic or Madness in fine bookshops everywhere or here.

The Crash of 2007

Posted on by scott

So last Thursday there’s me, sitting and doing the final rewrites of Extras. And I do mean final, because the manuscript is due to copyediting on Monday. (Yikes!)

Sitting with me is writing companion and corruptor of youth Maureen Johnson. We have a conversation that goes like this:

Scott: Dang! My computer is acting funny. I better reboot.

Maureen: Yeah, mine was acting funny before. This is the evil computer table.

Scott: Heh, heh. Hmm, this is taking awhile . . .

Ten minutes pass.

Maureen: Still spinning?

Scott: Yeah. You know what? I’m just going to go for a walk. You mind texting me when it’s done rebooting?

Maureen: Sure.

Scott walks to Broadway Panhandler. Looks at the coffee machines. Looks at the knives. Ten minutes on, a text from Maureen appears!

You now have a mouse pointer.

Yay, comes Scott’s reply.

He looks at the knives again. Wanders over to the Games Designers’ Workshop store and looks at tiny goblins with laser guns. Many more minutes slowly unfold.

You have a task bar, but no dock, comes fresh news.

I hate the earth, he replies.

Scott, you see, has not backed up the manuscript today. Yes, he is good and backed up last night. But the last two hours were smooth, flowing rewrites! And he doesn’t have time to piss around. This thing is due Monday!

More time passes. And endless non-time, a frozen hour, if you will.

Desktop icons are appearing!

Argh. On my way.

But not before looking at the knives at Broadway Panhandler again. Knives may be needed.

Scott returns to find his computer almost booted. He launches Mail, which takes another twenty minutes to grind into existence. Sends himself the all important Extras file.

Scott: I can’t tell you how much this sucks.

Maureen: I made you an appointment at the Apple Store.

Scott: You are like unto an angel.

They head to the Apple Store.

Genius-Bar Guy: Nothing can be done here. This hard drive is totally pooched.

Is this the end of Scooter?


Dark days for Scooter. And yes, my hard driver is named Scooter.

Genius-Bar Guy: But wait! Here comes TekServe to the rescue! (Or rather, they are a short cab ride from here.)

One new computer purchase and a short cab ride later.

Scott: Can you save Scooter, TekServe?

TekServe Woman: We don’t know. Your hard drive is pretty pooched.

Scott: *sadness*

TekServe Woman: *Smiles wisely, like a veternarian who has put down many a pet, and has seen sadness before.* Don’t worry. We’ll try. Are there any files in particular you need?

Scott: Hmm, maybe a . . . folder called “Extras.” (In which the manuscript has been saved every single day, showing the entire development of the work! Argh.)

TekServe Woman: Don’t you back up, dude?

Scott: Yes, every time before I travel. Well, except the last time. So, maybe last October? You see, I was waiting until the day we leave for Paris. Which is Monday. By the way, um, can you get this back to me by Monday?

TekServe Woman: *raises eyebrow* We shall try.

Scott heads home, saddened. At least he has a new 15″ G4! With a cool new remote control for playing music! (But he has no music, unless he rips all his CDs again.) And a great new version of Mail! (That doesn’t know his addresses, and has lost all of his spam teachings.) And wicked fast Wifi! (But Safari has none of his bookmarks . . . )

It is not the same. Scott works doggedly on the rewrite for Extras, but the larger keyboard is maddening! Key rewrite notes to himself are gone! It is a time of pain.

Then on Saturday, TekServe calls!

TekServe Guy: We have your computer. Your data has been rescued, and a new hard drive with that data installed!

Scott: The crops are saved! If by “crops,” I mean hours of hideous work!

Scott plunges back into the rewrites, full of joy. He is finished just in time to pack for Paris. The world is happy again.

Except . . . why are people banning Maureen? Stupid school boards who haven’t even read her book?

Don’t they know she made me an Extras-saving appointment at the Apple Store?

I am so calling TekServe about this crap. Maybe they can fix it.

First amendment good. Maureen’s book good. TekServe good.

Plus: Everyone go back up their computers. Now.

Last 100 Hours

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In one hundred hours, I have to turn in the first draft of Extras. In the unlikely event that this fact slips my mind, this piece of paper on my wall will remind me:

Note the word counts scrawled (by a madman, apparently) at the bottom of every day. As you can see, Extras has already surpassed Pretties (81,250 words) and Specials (77,500 words) in length. It may even reach the brick-like thickness of Uglies (87,625)!

But things are getting tight on the time front. For this reason, I have taken to writing in strange new environments. Including this hotel room:

Clockwise from far right: me, Lauren McLaughlin, Maureen Johnson, and John Green. Justine is being the hovercam.

Why this hotel? Well, a small collective of us have been writing together, I found a random deal on a suite, and decided that a new spot might be stimulating. The views were cool.

John Green, who makes a video for his brother every other day, documented the event. You can watch that here. It shows you exactly what a writer’s life is like. (No, really.)

For more evidence of my deadline insanity, here’s Maureen’s interview with me while I’m trying to write.

I think I’m the only one still writing. The others just blog about writing. It’s all very self-referential.

If you’ve written me fanmail in the last few months, this approaching deadline is why you haven’t heard anything. I’m sorry!

In 100 hours I will be free . . .

Extras Cover

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The Extras cover has gone in a new direction, which I think is pretty cool. I never was quite down with the first version.

Let me know what you think!

Update: This comment thread is full of massive Specials spoilers. Be warned!

Update 2: Extras is available now for pre order!

Update 3: This cover is an April Fool’s joke, people. The art is from a quick sketch by Katerate, more of whose fan art can be found here.

Foreign Friday

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A couple of recently arrived foreign editions for your weekend delectation.

First, a radical interpretation of Uglies.

The covered face is really dystopian and dark, despite all the vibrant colors. The physical book has lots of shiny on the cover, with that classy trade paperback heft. (And note the locket she’s wearing.)

Here’s something that just occurred to me. Polish, like any other language with adjective/noun number agreement, has plural adjectives. So “brzydcy” is a normal Polish word in a way that “uglies” isn’t. And any translator who didn’t know the English title would reverse-translate “Brzydcy” into “The Ugly Ones.”

This means that all my words like “uglies” and “pretties” sound perfectly normal in Polish, not like future slang or even slightly odd. Obviously this goes for a ton of other languages—all those in which adjectives can be pluralized and used without nouns to mean “the x ones.”

Hmm. I wonder if it feels a bit less alien because of that.

Of course, Australians say “littlies” and “crumblies” anyway. (And “pressies” for “presents,” “Chrissie” for “Christmas,” “musos” for “musicians,” etc.)

Polish speakers can click here for more.

And now from Germany, an old-school sf rendition of Risen Empire.

Loving the title: WorldStorm! Perhaps more properly: Storm of the Worlds, but come on: WORLDSTORM!

An important note: Weltensturm puts Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds in one volume, like they’re supposed to be.

Thanks to Eduard for sending that.

Update: The cover of Extras will be posted here on Monday.

Extras Cover Image

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Thanks to Tara-wa’s brilliant cheating in comment #38 of my last post, the entire image has been uncovered:

Yes, this is Aya, the protagonist of Extras. This is the cover shot.

And no, that pattern in her eye is not regular cosmetic surge, because Aya is only 15. It’s something called an “eyescreen,” which allows constant access to the city interface.

Anyway, I’ll be showing the real cover here soon.

Enjoy! And thanks for all the guesses.

Random Update

In largely unrelated news, there’s an article in NEA Today about the Indiana One Book/One School program for Uglies. You may remember it from this post, and because they made an awesome uglies cake. The article mentions me on page 2, and—ego flare-up warning!—uses the term “rock star.”

Ahem.