Patrick Ness's Blog

A quick hit today (I'm busy writing, writing, writing; things I can't quite tell you about yet, but it'll be exciting, trust me).  Today's hit is particularly for Canadians.  CBC Radio has a book programme called The Next Chapter, and this week they did children's book recommendations and had a nice little natter about The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and The Answer, which is very cool.  You can dowload the podcast here (it's "The Next Chapter", 14 December). 

I've always liked...

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It's been a busy week!  Not much time for updates, but I've got a few minutes just to say that The Ask and the Answer has been included in a number of new year-end round-ups, from as far away as the Ottawa Citizen, the BookPage in America, and both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times (by the wonderful Robert Dunbar).

There's also an especially excellent paragraph about it in today's Independent on Sunday by Daniel Hahn, one of the Booktrust Teenage Prize judges.  Very nice.

The Ask and...

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I'm finally over that pesky cold; I don't think the English weather is helping at all, it's been freezing and wet lately, pretty much everyday. 

But a nice mention for The Ask and the Answer in a year-end round-up in the Telegraph by Philip Womack, who incidentally gave The Knife of Never Letting Go one its very best reviews in The Literary Review.  Cheers for that!

I also wanted to mention a very excellent blog from the US called Books Not Bombs.  It's run by a high school student called...

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Since I've been back from holiday (in rainy Cornwall), I've been in rainy London, with a very rainy cold that hasn't left me feeling like updating much.  So, with no news, just a big hello to newest commenters:

Hello again to Jenny, who seems to have bought more than her fair share of copies, and to Ciara (cheers for liking that article, I believe it).

Hello to Natasha, who has an excellent question about the "I heard a maiden call" song.  The song is an old English folk tune called "Early One ...

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Well, my holiday's almost over (not quite, but almost), so just enough time to slip in and say that Lucy Mangan in today's Guardian said something very, very nice about the Chaos Walking books.  I've never met her, so it was a complete surprise, and an extremely nice one at that.  Cool.

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In haste, as I'm on holiday at the moment:

The Ask and the Answer has been shortlisted for the very groovy Costa Book Awards, alongside the lovely Mary Hoffman for Troubadour, the late Siobhan Dowd for Solace of the Road, and Anna Perera for Guantanamo Boy.  Good luck to all of us, eh?

And a very quick hello to all the new commenters:  Maria, Kaitlyn, Justin, Megan, Thomas, Nicki, Thomas (again, hi!), Ben, Brianna and Hannah.  Great to hear from you all.  More later, but now back to my...

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Busy week!  Wednesday was the announcement of the Booktrust Teenage Prize, which went to Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book, thereby beating The Ask and the Answer.  But don't feel bad for me.  The Knife of Never Letting Go won it last year, after all, and then Neil said very nice things about me in his press interview after.  I'm good.

Then last night I went to gig by the brilliant Decemberists at the Coronet in south London.  The Hazards of Love is easily the best album of the year, and...

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Well that sort of covers it, doesn't it?  Rachel Carlyle, in S Magazine for the Sunday Express, included The Ask and the Answer as an "award-winning must-read for this year".  Which is nifty.  She also included Helen Grant's The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, which I'm up against for the year's Booktrust Teenage Prize, which will be announced on Wednesday.

And all of you good folk who've been asking me what to read for the next 6 months until Monsters of Men comes out could do a lot worse...

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Had a fantastic visit to Swindon yesterday as part of the S10 Youth Festival of Literature.  What a great couple of groups I had.  Enthusiastic and interested and smart.  They've already left a couple comments on the Visitors page, too (hi, Faye and John).  An excellent day.

And there are a huge number of other new commenters, too:  Kendra, Jane, Rob, Virginia, Elizabeth (for a very thoughtful post), Rachel, Claire, Alison (with her nifty blurb game), Maddy and Sai, Laure (who's English is...

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Now, here's a nice surprise.  Would you like to see the UK cover of Monsters of Men?  It's pretty cool...

Like the others, this just gives a slight impression.  The book itself will be black and the white printing will be on clear acetate sleeve like The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer, with the Noise stretching all over the spine and the back, too.  Wait 'til you see it for real, it's awesome.

The US cover is also underway, and I'll debut that as soon as I can (it's...

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