The Clock Is Ticking!

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Visit Scott Westerfeld’s website!

Because you asked: a Leviathan countdown timer! For the counting down of glorious time! Time till Leviathan!

How does it work? Well, you just select and copy the code in the box below, then stick it in your blog or whatever.

Small warning, this is an American countdown timer, which is only accurate for North America. I’m trying to get exact dates for the Oz and UK editions, and will then make adjustments. But don’t fret, Aussies and Brits, it looks like your edition will come out the same week as the US one—maybe even earlier!

Enjoy the ticking.

And don’t forget, the Uglies e-book is still free, free, free. Click here to go to Simon & Schuster’s download site.

Free Tally!

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With Leviathan on its way (60 days and counting!) my publisher and I thought we would give you guys a little present. So for the next month, Uglies will be available free in pdf form.

That’s right: Free book! Free Uglies! Free Tally!

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Of course, this isn’t just free for you, my faithful blog readers. I mean, if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve got a copy of Uglies sitting around somewhere already. But if you have any friends, siblings, crushes, or enemies who you think might be interested in the series, why not send them over?

Cause, you know, people like free stuff.

Oh, and by the way, the first chapter of Leviathan is also included, along with an illustration you probably haven’t seen before. (That’s right, this is all a promotional scheme! Bwah-hah-hah!)

Click here to go to Simon & Schuster’s free download site.

Enjoy.

A quick technical note:
Obviously you can read a pdf on your computer, and both Sony e-Readers and Kindles take them too. If you have technical questions, feel free to ask them in this comments thread. I probably can’t help you, but hopefully somebody will.

Also: the download site asks for a US zip code, which is five numbers.

More Leviathan Art

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It’s getting near the first of the month, so it’s time for more Leviathan art!

In this Keith Thompson masterpiece we see the Leviathan itself, in all its living airship glory, mooring over the Regent’s Park. Check out all the cool details: the elephantines at work, the policemen holding back onlookers, and the little drama unfolding at the bottom—a pickpocket interrupted in progress, perhaps?

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In the printed version you can see even more details. But this gives you an idea of how intricate Keith’s work is. And as I keep saying, this is only one of fifty pieces of interior art. Two percent!

Click here to see the other two I’ve already revealed.

Leviathan for iPhone

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Hey, I just decided to whip up an easy piece of Bonus Stuff to put on the new site.

So here it is, the amazing Leviathan iPhone wallpaper!

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(Surprisingly, this took a while.)

Obviously, not everyone has an iPhone, or any sort of mobile phone at all. But this is pretty much the only thing I can do myself. Rest assured, though, the clever marketing people at S&S US and UK, and at Penguin Australia, will probably think of more and better stuff soon!

So leave your suggestions in this comments thread. What kind of Leviathan-related stuff would be cool for decorating your websites, Twitter feeds, phones, and other personal digital domains?

Bonus points for originality.

Geektastic Is Out!

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Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd is in stores now!

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This is one case where the marketing copy pretty much tells the story:

Acclaimed authors Holly Black (Ironside) and Cecil Castellucci (Boy Proof) have united in geekdom to edit short stories from some of the best selling and most promising geeks in young adult literature: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfield, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr.

With illustrated interstitials from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O’Malley, Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you’re a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic will help you get your geek on.

I’ve really loved the stories in Geektastic that I’ve read. A lot of them have the feel of being based on real events—strange encounters as science fiction conventions, amusing role playing incidents, and general mayhem both on- and offline. It gives a little glimpse into the dark underbelly of geekery.

Here’s an interesting article about the cover, in which it is revealed that those little geek icons are portraits of the contributors! Can you guess which one is me?

Actually, I’m just going to tell you. It’s this one:

geektasticscott

As you can see, I’m wearing all black and the pair of brass goggles that I use when working on my airship!

Update:
Yes, everyone, it is in stores now. Sorry about the earlier mislead. Never trust Amazon about release dates!

New Look!

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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:

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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!

Disquisitions on Alternate History

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Back at BookExpo America in May, Cassie Claire, Holly Black and I were on an Alternate History panel together. I was talking about Leviathan, of course; Cassie was talking about her followup to the Shadow Hunter books, called Clockwork Princess: The Infernal Devices #1; and Holly Black was talking about her 2010 book White Cat.

We managed to say some clever things about what it’s like to write alternate histories, why people read them, how researching is a pain, and why antibiotics are good. The lovely Jack Martin, the head of teen programming the New York Public Library system, moderated.

Enjoy!

Click here to see this on the BEA’s website.

Lindy Hopping: I Haz Proof!

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Those of you who follow my wife Justine’s blog know that two months ago she was challenged by various no-goodnicks to learn to Lindy hop. This bizarre challenge came about because she’s writing a novel set in the 1930s, when Lindy hopping (an early form of swing dance) was all the rage. Justine proclaimed that she’d only do it if her fans raised $5,000 for the New York Public Library. Which they did!

So we took lessons.

Justine doesn’t like being video’d, so I had to take secret footage. Heh, heh.

Go here for the rest of the story, and to enjoy the dancing!

Note that comments are turned off here. But you can always comment over there.

When recessions loom, libraries have the double whammy of having their funding cut at the same time as more people pour through their doors looking for help with job-hunting, learning new skills, and staying warm. So don’t forget to support the NYPL, or the library system of your choice.

Various Stuff!

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This is a quick post to keep all you non-Twitterers up to date.

1) Alan Cumming is performing the audiobook version of Leviathan! For those of you who don’t know, he’s a broadway actor who became famous starring in Cabaret. He’s also known to X-Men fans as Nightcrawler, and he was Fegan Floop (AKA the bad guy) in Spy Kids.

But I was a fan of his way back when he was unknown on these USian shores, and doing a BBC2 show called The High Life, which he co-wrote as well as starring in. It’s about two flight attendants on a somewhat miserable airline called Air Scotia, and really captures what it’s like to have a somewhat miserable job and dream of bigger things.

I knew then that Alan was destined for big things, but it never occurred to me that recording a book of mine might be one of them.

Epic win.

2) My interview with Ana Marie Cox is up on iTunes, and it’s free! So if you desire 35 minutes of me, Ana, and Lizzie Skurnick talking about YA lit and politics, you should check it out. Here’s how:
a) Search the iTunes Store for “Maddow 960”.
b) Click on the green Rachel Maddow icon.
c) Select the 06/30/09 episode.
d) Listen and be amazed (or at least amused).

3) Justine is doing another giveaway from our prodigious stack of authors’ copies. Post you favorite line of dialog from all of literature (no movies or TV) and maybe win a book! Click here to play.

That’s it. Only 87 days till Leviathan comes out!

Which is . . . a while.

Update
If you read Spanish, there’s a long interview with me in the YA journal El Templo de las Mil Puertas. Click here and flip to page 47.

Update
Winners of Justine’s dialog contest have been announced. Click here to see if you won!