Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 16
July 22, 2012
Manual Art Reveal 4: Flechette Bat!
Hey, thanks for your patience while I was traveling. I had a great time and saw lots of lovely people. The signings and panel at San Diego Comic Con were lashings of fun, so thanks to everyone who came to them. Perhaps I’ll go through my photos from the trip and try to find some cool ones.
But right now it’s time for the Manual of Aeronautics art reveal! The votes have been voted and they have been counted, and what you guys wanted to see was the flechette bat.
A BAT. THAT POOS SPIKES. That’s what you wanted to see. Seriously, what does that say about you? I mean, you had a choice of many beautiful images, but you used your sacred voting rights to vote on a spike-pooing bat. Really?
Okay, as someone who wrote a trilogy featuring bats that poo spikes, perhaps I can’t point fingers.
EXCEPT AT THIS . . .
What’s that you say? This picture of a spike-pooing bat isn’t big enough? YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS BIGGER? Then I think that you should click here.
Or perhaps you’re asking me, “How did you come up with the idea of bats pooing spikes?”
The true answer is: I don’t remember. But flechette bats appear in the very first short story I wrote in the Leviathan universe, called “Mr. Darwin’s Favours.” This story was never finished or published, but it contained this somewhat familiar passage:
Jones and two others waited for him at the bow, where the Goliath’s colony of flechette bats were clustered to bask in the rising sun. They had grown noisy at the sight of the men, jousting for position on the half sphere of the bow. In their thousands, the ruckus of echo-location chirps sounded like an audience of old ladies clucking at some off-color joke.
“Now, now. Wait your turn,” Jones said, looking at Newkirk for approval.
The older man nodded sagely, and the three junior tenders began to throw the feed. In the hard light of dawn, flechettes sparkled among the grain, and waves of bats lifted from the envelope to catch mouthfuls of wheat and metal. Although he knew the bats were bred to do so, Newkirk always felt vague discomfort in his stomach at the thought of eating and passing the cruel pennies. Though, as Captain Digby often said, the strangeness of originated species only showed the extent of man’s mastery over natural life forms.
“Mind you don’t leave that lot out,” he said, pointing at a cluster of smaller bats on the starboard aerilon.
“Like feeding ducks as a wean, sir,” Jones said, casting a glittery handful in that direction. “Could never get bread to the little ones. No matter where you tossed it, the bullies always had their way. Nature’s way, I suppose.”
“Nature’s way is hardly our line, Jones,” Newkirk said, though he was glad to hear that the boy had at least made that long-ago attempt at equanimity. In the long run, animal lovers made the best tenders.
Weird, huh? As you can see, this story is partly from Newkirk’s point of view, and has no Deryn in it. There was no Alek either, just a few other POV characters on the airship, which was called the Goliath. Also, Newkirk is rather older, with the rank of “tender” rather than midshipman.
“Mr. Darwin’s Favours” only reached 2500 words long. I pillaged a couple of character names and some bits of dialog (like the above) but some stuff was really different. Like, message lizards were called “parrot dragons.” Shows you how much things change from the first draft of a novel (or a world) to the end.
Anyway, please use the comments below to answer this question: How many of you have explained the flechette bat’s unique poo-attack to parents, teachers, or friends? And how did that go?
July 9, 2012
Me in San Diego (PLUS VOTING!)
Okay, so it’s time to vote for the next Manual of Aeronautics art reveal. But first, my appearances at San Diego Comic Con have been finalized. There will be two signings, one panel, and two Cool Random Things. Keep reading to find out what those are.
Thursday July 12
noon-1PM
Signing at Mysterious Galaxy Booth #1119
I’ll be signing and chatting to anyone who drops by, and there will be plenty of my books for sale. SPECIAL RANDOM THING: Mysterious Galaxy may have secret advanced copies of The Manual of Aeronautics, which you can actually buy! There will be a code word or something. (Check back here to see if this becomes a real thing, rather than a thing that didn’t really happen, because I dreamt it.)
Saturday, July 14
4:00-5:00PM
Me having coffee with you.
That’s right. SPECIAL RANDOM THING 2 is that during Comic Con I will announce a phone number via this blog and my twitter (@scottwesterfeld). Text the name “SCOTT” to this number to be automatically entered into a contest. The winner of this contest will have coffee with me on Saturday at 4PM, at Comic Con. Or maybe instead of coffee we will saunter across the convention floor and pose with Full Metal Alchemist cosplayers. That is the sort of thing that would be fun.
Sunday July 15th
12:00-1:00PM
Room 25ABC
I’m on a panel called: What’s Hot in YA, with Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures series), Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me), Lish McBride (Necromancing The Stone), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), Melina Marchetta (The Lumatere Chronicles), Myra McEntire (Hourglass series), James Dashner (The Maze Runner series), and moderator Nathan Bransford (Jacob Wonderbar series). After the panel is another signing:
Sunday July 15th
1:30-2:30PM
Autograph area AA09 in the Sails Pavilion
Signing with me will be all the people above, plus bonus guest Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky). My books will be for sale here too, but I can’t guarantee there will be any Manual of Aeronautics left.
And finally, if you’re in Sydney instead of San Diego, you might want to check out my wife Justine’s book launch for Team Human:
Thursday, July 12
6:30-7:30PM
Kinokuniya Sydney
Lvl 2, The Galeries, 500 George Street
Sydney, Australia 2000
Justine will be in conversation with the lovely and talented Margo Lanagan. Come say hi! It’s free and stuff. Click here for the event details on Facebook.
AND NOW FOR THE VOTINGS
This will be the all-beastie extravaganza! Would you rather see . . .
1) The mighty Behemoth!
2) The fearsome spike-pooing flechette bat!
3) Or the all-knowing message lizard!?!
How do you even DECIDE such a thing when the choices are so awesomely Thompson-esque?
Oh right. You decide by voting—by number, please. And as always, feel free to use this comment thread to debate and inveigle your co-commenters.
Let the voting begin. See some of you at SDCC.
July 8, 2012
Team Human Chat Tonight
Just a reminder that I’m doing a chat tonight with with Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan, co-authors of the upcoming book, Team Human.
Here are some ways in which the chat may be interesting:
1) Sarah and Justine wrote the novel together in secret. They didn’t even tell their agents! (Sort of like eloping.)
2) It was the first novel either of them had collaborated on.
3) They have very different writing styles. (Sarah outlines everything. Justine wings it.)
4) They live on different continents. (Sarah was in Ireland during the writing, and Justine in NYC.)
5) And finally, the book itself is a paranormal romance, but it’s not about a girl who’s in love with the vampire. It’s about her best friend . . .
Basically, Team Human is the story what happens when your best friend falls in love, and then starts ignoring you. Except when she’s telling you in endless detail how amazing her new boyfriend is, or when she comes to cry on your shoulder when things aren’t working out. In short, TH is about how friendship can suffer when love is in the air, and about how much worse the suffering gets when the new boyfriend is a gorgeous immortal bloodsucker, and wants to turn your BFF into one too.
So we’ll probably be discussing the genre of paranormals overall, and how Sarah and Justine wanted to shake the usual formula up a bit.
But when does this chat happen?
Tonight! (Sunday, July 8)
8PM Eastern US Time
5PM on the west coast and 10AM Monday in Australia.
Click here to go to the chat page. Hope to see you there.
And here’s the official trailer:
July 5, 2012
Fan Art Friday!
Sorry I’ve missed the last two Fridays, but at last FAF is BACK!
Okay, so Dalek Week is approaching over at Deviant Art. It runs from July 8 to 14, and is a seven-day challenge, each day with a different Deryn-and-Alek-y theme. (Click here for more details.) So I thought I’d start with a couple of entries from last year’s Dalek Week.
First here’s one from the estimable PrinceofParties, which reminds me of a certain schoolyard taunt (containing the line, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G”).
So romantic.
And here from Sorcaron, a sorta metaphorical image of Darwinist and Clanker angels:
Those wings of Alek’s have an interesting story behind them. When Keith and I were first conceptualizing the series, Keith wanted to start with portraits of Alek and Deryn. (Those portraits appear in the original Leviathan trailer, and will be in the Manual of Aeronautics, along with newer ones of Barlow and Volger.) He spent a lot of time on frames that signified the warring powers, and which began the notion of two distinct Clanker and Darwnist aesthetics. Then Sammy Yuen, the designer for the original Levaiathan cover, used Alek’s Clanker wings on the cover. Since then, that visual motif has become the symbol of the series. So it’s great to see it here in angelic-Alek form.
And here’s Deryn doing some Clanker stuff, and I have no idea whom this is from, or where it was created. Help me!
And now some Japanese fan art! Thanks to Brita O. for sending these along.
Both from Pivix.net. I don’t know who did them, because the whole site’s in Japanese. But they’re really cool.
This one’s called “Thinking”:
And the text here says, “There’s no way jellyfish balloons can be that cute!”
Link to original. Kawaiiii!
And now a great Deryn poster from SarahD:
And finally, here’s some rare So Yesterday fan art from Camilla. It’s called “French Revolution,” which will make sense to those of you who’ve read the book.
Okay, that’s it for this FAF. Now I have to pack for visiting my dad in Savannah and San Diego Comic Con. Can’t wait to see some of you there.
Don’t forget our Team Human chat on Sunday!
Okay, let’s see Max on more time:
And make sure to watch the sequel, because the next time I see Rick Riordan, I’m totally going to call him “Rick RiorDAN.”
July 3, 2012
Team Human Birthday!
Team Human is out now! (In both the US and Australia. w00T!)
Click here for more about the book. Or here to read some of the scintillating reviews.
Here’s the awesome trailer!
If you do Twitter, there will be a big tweet-up about the book AT SIX PM TODAY (US east coast time) with the co-authors, Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan. Here are the details:
UPDATE: The tweet-up is over now but it went splendidly, and trended WORLDWIDE!
If you missed the tweet-up, come chat with all three of us at Figment.com on Sunday:
Sunday July 8
8PM US-ET (5PM Pacific Time, 10AM Monday AUS-ET)
We’ll be discussing what it’s like to collaborate on a novel, which should be interesting. Click here to find out more.
Okay, that’s it. See you on Friday for FAF!
July 1, 2012
Various Videos of Me
June was Audiobook Month, which I forgot, because it’s not like Halloween where everybody keeps reminding you it’s coming up (which seems unfair because audiobooks are at least as awesome as chocolate eggs). But allow me to make up for this with some Videos of Me.
First I go behind the scenes with Alan Cumming, audiobook narrator of the Leviathan series audiobooks and all-around awesome actor. (Floop! Nightcrawler! And now MacBeth!)
If you want to hear a sample of Alan actually reading the books, we can arrange that too. Click for the first chapters of Leviathan, Behemoth, or Goliath.
And lastly, here’s me in one of early prototype ads for Levaiathan. (You can see how much I’ve aged over the last three years. Touring does that.)
Hah, fooled you! Not actually me, but MaxSanKoll. A young YouTube talent who made this and a much weirder sequel, which gets bonus points for the Imogen Heap soundtrack,
Okay, return to your homes. FAF will return next Friday (or maybe Saturday) when I get to my dad’s house to chill out after my exhausting trip to New York. While there, I’ll be doing an online chat with Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan, co-authors of the upcoming book, Team Human. Mostly we’ll be discussing what it’s like to collaborate on a novel.
Figment.com Chat
Sunday July 8
8PM US-ET (5PM Pacific Time, 10AM Monday AUS-ET)
Click here to find out more.
Now go buy or check out from the library some audio books, even though it’s July.
June 25, 2012
Events, Online and Off
I won’t be formally touring this year, because I don’t have a novel out. But I might get to see some of you, thanks to several events I’ll be doing over the next month.
The first of these is an online chat with Figment.com.
Sunday July 8
8PM US-ET (5PM Pacific Time, 10AM Monday AUS-ET)
I’ll be chatting with Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan, co-authors of the upcoming book, Team Human. Mostly we’ll be discussing what it’s like to collaborate on a novel.
I’ll also be at San Diego Comic Con
I have three events in San Diego, two signings and a panel. The panel isn’t official yet, but will be soon, so check back here or on my Appearances page. But I do know when the signings are:
Thursday July 12
noon-1PM
Mysterious Galaxy Booth
I’ll be signing and chatting to anyone who drops by. Mysterious Galaxy will have plenty of my books for sale.
Sunday July 15th
1:30-2:30pm
Autograph area AA09 in the Sails Pavilion
Signing with me will be Nathan Bransford (Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe), and featuring Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), James Dashner (Maze Runner), Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures), Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me), Melina Marchetta (Froi of the Exiles), Lish McBride (Hold Me Closer, Necromancer), Myra McEntire (Hourglass).
Dalek Week!!!
And finally, those of you who create fan art might want to check out Dalek Week over at Deviant Art, which runs from July 8 to 14. Here’s the scoop:
Dalek week is a seven day challenge where you upload one deviation per day for seven days. Each day has a certain theme that you will need to centre your entry around. . . . After Dalek week, myself and the judges will decide on our favourite entries from each day. There will be one winner per day/theme.
That sounds fun, and I can’t wait to feature some of the winners here.
Click here for more details about Dalek Week.
June 22, 2012
Manual Reveal 3 (Clanker Uniforms)
Welcome to part 3 of the Manual of Aeronautics art reveal. As you may recall, the voting for part 2 was very close between the Stormwalker and the Clanker uniforms. The Stormwalker won by a hair, but second place counts!
So rather than vote again, let’s just get with the Clanker uniforms. I know from my mail that lots of you cosplayers have been waiting for these color versions, so you’ll be pleased by that, and by the detail on these. (Of course, they’re a lot more detailed in the book. Computer screens have about 100 pixels per inch, but printed paper is between 600 and 1600 pixels per inch.)
This reveal shows what Alek and Volger would typically wear into battle.
Alek is wearing a typical walker pilot’s uniform. Above the waist, it’s based on the historical Austrian cavalry officer’s uniform, but the trousers and knee padding are special for pilots. You would bang the crap out of your knees and shins working in a walker, Keith surmised, and designed accordingly. (Also, Keith told me that the pilot’s pickelhaube helmet has a special foldy-downy spike, so he won’t poke his crewmates).
Volger’s is more of a classic cavalry uniform, because he wasn’t really in an armored unit. (He just got stuck riding around in the Stormwalker.) Note his crazy flat-topped helmet, which is called a schapska. Schapskas are typically worn by cavalry units that used lances, though by 1914 most of them would have switched to rifles and swords (especially in the Leviathan universe, with armored walkers roaming around). Volger doesn’t actually wear his schapska in the book, because he never appears in full dress uniform.
This page in the Manual itself will also show the walker crewman uniforms, such as Klopp, Hoffman, and Bauer would wear. And there’s another two-page spread with four Darwinist air-navy uniforms (sailors, riggers, officers, and midshipmen), complete with all their various patches and equipment.
Hope you like these, and keep up the costly!
You can pre-order the Manual from the usual online joints: Powell’s, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or IndieBound. And it will be at your local bricks-and-mortar store on August 21.
June 19, 2012
New Extras UK Cover
Back in early April I announced the new UK Uglies covers, which look like this:
They are beautiful, are they not?
But here’s the thing, they left the best for last. Behold the incredibly beautiful new Extras cover:
Love the yellow and black together. Like bees!
Again, these are the covers in the UK, not the US. So you probably won’t be able to find them outside of the Commonwealth. But it’s not like the new US covers aren’t awesome too.
See you later this week, with the next Manual of Aeronautics art reveal: The Uniforms of Clanker-land!
June 15, 2012
Fan Art Friday (At Last!)
It’s still Friday on the west coast of the US, so I give you Fan Art Friday, the technically not-late edition.
First, here’s a great video from Christina and Douglas, visualizing the Faceplay software from “Facing the Future” (Also known as Chapter 4 of Uglies).
Ugly to Pretty – WIP from Christina Hall on Vimeo.
Pretty cool, huh? I’ve always thought this would be a cool scene in the movie.
If my embed isn’t working for you, click here to check it out on Vimeo (and slightly bigger!).
And next, a very amusing cartoon from Soraia, riffing on the Perils of Pauline chapter in Goliath:
That whole chapter came about because I was researching William Randolph Hearst, and found out that he was behind the Perils of Pauline series of films, which began in 1914. So I decided to watch them, and discovered that in the very first one, the eponymous heroine gets blown away in a hydrogen balloon, not unlike a certain Scottish cross-dresser! So I just HAD to show Alek seeing the movie as part of his education that girls could do cool stuff.
Though I’d like to claim that I planned this symmetry between books 1 and 3 from the beginning, it’s merely a coincidence. But it proves that if you do your research, you will be rewarded. And coincidence or not, I’m super glad to see it pop up here in fan art form.
The dialog in this comic is quite funny, so click here to see it bigger and zoomable.
Here from Carly is some rare Midnighters fan art, showing Jessica at a certain climactic moment in Blue Noon.
That’s a scene that I had planned from back in book 1, as you will see if you look at chapter 4 of The Secret Hour. Sometimes I am good at first-shoeing things.
And here from MoonieBalloonie, a pensive-looking Lilit:
I always love how distinctive Lilit is, thanks to her cool Armenian attire.
And finally, from Victoria, some Dalek!
Okay, I’m headed to America soon, so I must go pack or whatever. (My only public appearance will be at Comic Con.)
Hope you all have a good weekend.
