Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 24

Goliath Spoiler Zone

Oh, yes. It's that time of year: A TIME OF SPOILAGE.

Use the comment thread of this post to discuss all that happens in Goliath. If you haven't read the book, however, it might be wise to NOT LOOK AT THEM.

Seriously, don't let what happened to this person happen to you. I quote from the famous Specials spoiler thread, back in May of 2006:

oh god, i read the spoiler section before i read the book. i would have read the book by now but the bookstore doesn't have it in yet! i got the first two before the sale date. why can't i do that now!? crap i can't believe i read the spoiler section…crap

Those, my friends, are the lamentations of one who has been spoiled. So don't even drop in to say, "La-la-la, I'm not looking!" Because you never know what your eye might glean.

Just in case anyone needs it, here's my tour schedule for the next few days. (For the whole tour, go to my Appearances page.)

Thursday, September 22

4:30PM

RAINY DAY BOOKS

Unity Temple on the Plaza

707 West 47th Street

Kansas City, MO 64112

This is a "ticketed" event, but the tickets are more or less free. You just have to pre-order a copy of Goliath from Rainy Day, and you get two tickets along with the book. Click here for details and here to get tickets.

Friday, September 23

7:00PM

RED BALLOON BOOKSHOP

891 Grand Avenue

Saint Paul, MN 55105

Saturday, September 24

1:00PM

WILD RUMPUS BOOKSTORE

2720 West 43rd Street

Minneapolis, MN 55410

Sunday, September 25

1:00PM

MALL OF AMERICA (The Patio)

8100 24th Avenue South

Bloomington, MN 55425

Click here for details.

BEYOND THIS BE SPOILERS!

Goliath Is Totally in Stores!

If I haven't messed up my auto-scheduler, then today is the day that the final book in the Leviathan trilogy comes out! So, like, go purchase it, if you want.

It looks like this:

Note that the comment thread of this post is NOT for spoilers! That thread will post tomorrow, after you've had a genteel sufficiency of time to read the book. (You lot with the ARCs, just hold your horses one more day!) This thread is to blather about whatever, to brag about how you scammed a copy early, and to make your final predictions of who will kiss/kill what and when!

Tonight I will be in Missouri showing images from the book and explaining how Keith and I worked together. Here are those data (note that the address is not the one I posted a month ago, but it better):

Tuesday, September 20

7:00PM

ST. LOUIS COUNTY LIBRARY HEADQUARTERS

1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

St.Louis, MO 63131

(314) 994-3300

(with Pudd'nhead Bookstore)

Click here for a lovely event poster, and here to pre-order a signed book.

And here's my Appearances page, in case you want to check where I'll be the rest of the tour.

Oh, and here's the end-papers!

Click here for zoomable bigness. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

11 Things About Tours

For those of you who've been asking, here's how my appearances usually run:

1. In bookstore events, somewhere between 50 and 100 people show up. These numbers seem to be completely random, unrelated to either weather or local urbanization. Sometimes at book festivals and other large venues, hundreds appear. Those who come early sit closer, but no one is turned away!

2. Some people wear costumes! Specials face paint! Peeps contact lenses! Midnighters tattoos! This is all awesome.

3. First I do a half-hour talk about how Leviathan came to be, and how Keith and I work together. This presentation has many slides of his lovely art, which allow me to make hilarious visual jokes! Later in the tour, my schtick is smoother, but it is always stirring.

4. Next I answer all your burning questions about everything—the Leviathan series, the Uglies books, the Midnighters and New York trilogies, my adult books, my Powerpuff Girl choose-your-own-adventures, writing advice, or whatever. (Pro tip: Raise your hand early on when everyone else being shy, and your question will be answered.)

5. You can always buy my books at my appearances. Even if it's at a library, there will be a table with book. You can bring your old copies too. Because . . .

6. Then I sign stuff. This can take a while, but your patience is rewarded by exhausted/witty banter and the fact that I sign pretty much anything put in front of me. I pose for pictures too. In case of very long lines, some stores have rules, like, "only two things signed." (But I have been known to break these rules and sign extra things. Tell no one.)

7. HOWEVER, I would strongly encourage you to buy at least one book at the store hosting the event. I mean, it's in your interest to keep them in business! But please come up and say hi, even if you are penniless.

8. Please assume I don't how to spell your name, even if it's "Rick." (Cause there was this guy "Rique" once. Seriously. I have not recovered.)

9. The whole thing takes between one and two-and-a-half hours. Of course, most people are gone well before the end, because once your book is signed, your outta there!

10. Unlike most tours, Justine will not be traveling with me this time. You need not bring her books or search for her.

11. Gifts are nice, but please remember that you outnumber me. (And if they're heavy, they will not make it home.)

That is all.

Final Fan Art Friday

I'm on tour soon (my Appearances page will tell you where) so I won't be able to post much until mid-October. So this is our last FAF for a while. *sniffs*

I've decided to end on a bang, with a set of Leviathan videos, but first let's do some regular art.

First, from the world of dreams and clouds, this random assortment of air and water molecules decided to make Huxleys!

That really does look like Huxleys, which is a bit cool. (Photo by hpaich of flickr, tweeted at me by @ohhmyhead. They may be the same person. ON THE INTERNETS WHO CAN TELL?)

This just missed the CAKE cut-off, but ONE more piece of kissing fan art is entirely okay. It's from Amy:

I love the blurry background, because it shows how the world fades into a blur when you're kissing. (Unless it's not-so-good kissing.)

I was a big doodler in my school days, because doodling's a great way for your hands to show you what's going on in your brain. It's like dreaming on paper. So I was happy to get this Leviathan-themed page of scribbles from Ema:

So many gears!

And now a couple of whacked-out-Alek drawings. I see a lot of these on the internets, drawings where Alek looks a bit mad. Maybe it's because he's so reserved on the outside, but we know he's all a-churn inside.

From Maria Luisa, a rather manic Alek plays cards with Deryn on the spine.

This equally manic, or just plain scary, Alek comes from Coffee-Bun:

AHHHH!

Let us move away from the crazy and toward the cute. An excellent piece of cosplay came may way this week, complete with a living, breathing Bovril!

Hannah claims in her email that this chihuahua's name is really Kip. But he does have eerily similar markings to a certain perspicacious beastie.

And a fancy-boots Dr. Barlow costume from Aurora Celeste:

It seems like Dr. Barlow cosplay is outpacing Deryn at the moment. And we don't get much Alek or Count Volger at all. WHERE IS THE VOLGER LOVE? Don't tell me it's because cosplayers are mostly female because a) probably not true, and b) girls can stick on mustaches too!

And now a hilarious submission to FAF from Katie. It shows how a novel can invade your reality, making everything a potential reference to the fictional book-world inside your head. Even a soda can.

Hah! That happens to me too. I get hypersensitive to one word, or name, and it starts to pop up everywhere.

And to finish, here's a quartet of Leviathan videos!

Let's start with some Darwnist rock (from LScribeHarris, aka Lorelai Quinn):

You know, I never thought of Deryn and Alek as being a power-ballad tupe of couple. But they do fly through the clouds on top of a really big airship, which is pretty rock-worthy.

Here's a more sedate book trailer from Erin in Queensland Australia:

From Spitballer09, a rather stylish cast pick video:

I feel like I've posted this fake movie trailer from Zozomagod before, but I can't find where, and it's pretty cool. So here it is (again?):

Of course, the youtubes are full of Leviathan trailers and videos. What are your favorites?

That's it for this week. See you on tour.

Goliath comes out on Tuesday!

TUESDAY.

Bonus Art Reveal!

The lovely folks at the Indigo Teen Blog are hosting a special Bonus Art Reveal for Goliath! I also gave them some text describing what's going on in this Chapter 15 image, which is a BIT SPOILERY of me! If you don't want spoilification, go look but don't read my text!

You have been warned.

Click here to see it.

You may remember this image as one of the nominees for an earlier reveal. So those of you who voted for it and lost, victory is finally yours!

Comment here or there, as you wish.

(For you USians in the audience, Indigo is a retail book chain and online store in Canada.)

Russian Covers Rock My World

Oh, yes they do rock my world. "Why is that?" you ask.

Well, first let us look at the Russian cover for Goliath. JUST LOOK AT IT.

The Huxleys! The airbeast's eye! DERYN IN JODHPURS!

I love her weird glove, and the awesome spikiness of the Leviathan's bridge. (Plus, she has red scarf, because is Russian cover! Da!)

I sent this to Keith and he was all, "Now that's more like it!"

Here is that image in a zoomable version of bigness.

But it's not just the Leviathan series that has enjoyed the Awesome Russian Cover effect. Check out the paired covers for Uglies and Pretties.

Do you see what they did there? DO YOU?

It's interesting to see what "ugly" and "pretty" mean in this context. Like, freckles are ugly? I think not. (Maybe they're zits.)

The only problem with this amazing visual idea is that, of course, Uglies is a trilogy, not a duology. So the Specials cover is lonely:

The hawk(?) is cool, though, because Tally's like a Cutter bird of prey!

And I'm not sure if there's a Russian Extras yet. No word from my friends there. But thanks to @Radda_in_motion for letting me know about these covers. They really are splendidly pulptastic.

As you may have noticed, I've been linking to my Appearances page on every post. That may be annoying for those of you who have already checked it and been saddened, but if it saves even one life, then it's all been worth it. So, HEY LOOK, IT'S MY APPEARANCES PAGE!

My tour starts in only a few days. Must. Pack. Soon.

Provo Interview

Last year on the Behemoth tour, one of my favorite stops was at Provo, Utah, where they have an awesome teen author festival every year.

In addition to my usual presentations and signings, I did an interview there, which seems to have turned out pretty well.

Check it out:

Click here to see it on the YouTubes. Bigger! More controls!

Okay, that's it for today. Much more blogging this week, though, because I'm headed off on tour on Thursday. (Where am I touring? Check out my Appearances page to find out.)

Ciao for now.

Provo City Interview

Last year on the Behemoth tour, one of my favorite stops was at Provo City, Utah, where they have an awesome teen author festival every year.

In addition to my usual presentations and signings, I did an interview there, which seems to have turned out pretty well.

Check it out:

Click here to see it on the YouTubes. Bigger! More controls!

Okay, that's it for today. Much more blogging this week, though, because I'm headed off on tour on Thursday. (Where am I touring? Check out my Appearances page to find out.)

Ciao for now.

Fan Art Friday (11 days away edition)

This is our next-to-last Fan Art Friday before I go on tour. Blogging is really hard on the road, so FAF will be restricted to shots of costumed people at my appearances. (Which will be cool, but not the same. And mostly on twitter, where I am @scottwesterfeld.)

But luckily, this is an excellent FAF!

This first bootiful drawing was tweeted at me by @marksmaster, and is a really sharp-featured color sketch of Deryn and Alek hanging out and kind of smirking, like they share some sort of SECRET or something.

Check it out in full size, and you will be amazed.

Also tweeted at me was this comical bit of non-canonical non-cross-dressing, from Shenli:

It's Alek's expression that rocks it. He looks so happy.

Now for some cosplay! Debuted at Dragon Con last week was Heather L's interpretation of Dr. Barlow. Note the bee theme! The little jeweled bee is sewn onto the bowler, and the train in back is usually bustled up, but I'm showing you the down version so you can see how bee-like it is!

I'm always pleased when little quiet scenes, like the bees, make it into fan art. (This just in: This costume won the Best YA in Show at Dragon*Con! And believe me, the competition there is world-class.)

From Grace is this sketch of a scene from Behemoth, in which Volger hints at Deryn that he knows her secret, while Eddie Malone is standing right there!

That's my most comical scene in that book, so I'm glad it has this comic-looking sort of treatment. Heh.

And here's another nice one from Miyu999 (whom we met in last week's FAF), showing Lilit, Alek, and Deryn all, you know, hanging out:

Very sweet. (And a bit complicated.)

Not everyone draws, of course, so here's cool versions of Dr. Barlow and Lilit, as created by Diane on DollDivine.com:

Pretty cool for e-paper dolls.

And to round out this week's FAF, here's an awesome sketch of Leviathan characters from sorcaron1379:

Actually, it's just Deryn, Alek, and Volger in various costumes. But I'd love to see a full-cast drawing in this style. (HINT, HINT!)

Like the title of this post says, we are only 11 days away, and my tour starts even sooner! Check out my Appearances page to find out if I'll be coming near you.

Rejoice!

Steampunk on PBS

A neat little ten-minute video from PBS's Off Book series.

Watch the full episode. See more Off Book.

Pretty cool, huh?

In other news, here are a couple of places where you can order signed copies of Goliath:

I'll be at Pudd'nhead Books on September 20, and will be signing any mail orders they're holding for me there. Note that when you order from Pudd'nhead, you're paying full retail and for shipping, but on the online order form you can add a personalization, like "To José" or "YOU ARE A NINJA!" (Within reason, of course! If you kill my hand, it shall haunt you in scary ghost-hand fashion.) You can also order signed copies of Leviathan, Goliath, and the Ugies series this way!

Click here to order from Pudd'nhead.

Another option is Amazon, which has a signed edition. This is also full retail, but if you're a regular Amazon customer, you get their free shipping or whatever. These books will not be personalized, because I signed them a while ago. (And Goliath is the only option.)

Click here to order a signed edition from Amazon.

That's it for this post, but don't forget to check out my Appearances page to find out if I'm coming near you on my upcoming tour.