Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 26

You Manga Questions, Answered

Good news: the Forums are working again! But as you can see the interface doesn't look all Leviathan-y anymore, which is sad. We're going to get that fixed, but I figured it was more important to make them work again before making them boo-tiful.

That was not scheduled maintenance, by the way, just a tech'splosion followed by some updates that we had to do anyway. Sorry for your withdrawal symptoms! I hope you spent the extra time learning French or something useful like that.

Okay, now for your manga questions! (All taken from the last comments thread.)

Do you know where you will be going on the Goliath tour yet?

It's almost confirmed. I will be posting the tour dates soon! Most of you will hate me, but that's the way it works, because you outnumber me and are widely distributed. (You should, like, all clump together.)

People on the west coast will certainly be happy, and some people in the middle too. No plans for anything outside the US yet, but I will be doing something in Australia this next southern summer. (If you're Brazilian, write my publishers and demand me! I want to go to there.)

Any particular reason you chose left to right instead of right to left?

This is original-English manga, which are usually done in the left-to-right way, cause that's how we English speakers roll. I read both ways without much bother, as I'm sure most of you do, so I didn't actually think about it.

Regarding the Uglies light novel in Japan- did you try to branch out and make the characters look different from that one?

My artist never saw those editions (even though he's in Japan), so we weren't starting with that set of images at all.

Where can we buy this manga?

AT ALL THE STORES (that sell manga or graphic novels) and on the usual internets. The publisher, Del Rey, has very wide distribution in stores, schools, and libraries, so it should be pretty easy to find.

Do you know when they'll be available in stores?

May 2012. That's as specific as I have so far.

You should, like, give us a slight sneakity-peakity every so often. Just enough to make us want it more, you know?

Yes, I do know. And I WANT you to want it more.

Luckily, there are lots of pages to show.

How, if at all, do you think the creation of this manga will influence the making of the movie? Do you think the casting director will try to chose actors based on their appearance in the manga, etc.?

Casting directors will probably pay no attention. With actors, it's more about stuff like fame and chemistry and salary. But I have sent manga pages to Lola (the vfx company involved with the Uglies movie), and they're doing "pre-visualizations" now, so it's possible that the architecture and tech in the film will be influenced by Steven's work.

There's no concerted effort at consistency, however.

So….which big announcement was the Croy project?

The manga! As one of the original Crims, he's in volume 1 quite a bit. Do you want to SEE HIM?

Anyway, will any pages be in colour, or is it all going to be in black and white?

Just black and white and shades of gray.

I honestly pictured dorm uniforms having a plaid kilt EXACTLY like the one in the illustration! Maybe someone important read my fanfic…JK LOLZ.

Yes. We ALL read your fan fic. And, yeah, manga is all about school uniforms.

What IS manga, anyway? What sets it apart from plain old comic books?

Well, as someone pointed out in the comments, "manga" is just the Japanese word for "comics." Here it means, of course, comics in a style that started in Japan but that has become global in reach and influence.

Steven has done both manga and western comics, and co-created Tokyopop's Pantheon High with his wife, Megumi. (He pencils, she inks.) And like I said, he lives in Japan. And our toner, Yishan Li, hangs out a lot in Edinburg, but does loads of manga for Yaoi press in the US and has been published in China as well. (SINO-SCOTTISH MANGA!)

But the reason I thought manga would make sense for Uglies is simple: manga has a set of codes for dealing with beauty that western comics do not have. And most of these codes match up with the pretty operation in the books.

Like, big eyes, anyone?

Pretty! (Whether or not you're into purple hair.)

There's a wonderful thing about text-only novels: you make things happen with words alone, so you can convince your audience of all sorts of things that would be hard in a movie.

For example (*SPOILER ALERT*), in the The Last Days I write about a band that rocks so hard that they can call up giant monsters from the underground. Now, if you adapted a film of that novel, the band would have to ACTUALLY ROCK THAT MUCH, or it would be stupid when the giant monsters arrived. And even if the band rocked a lot, some people would still hate the film because they simply don't like that sort of music.

But in a novel, you can just declare things and they become true (if you can write well enough, that is).

The same problem obtains with Uglies. In text, I can make you and your friend both think pretty Zane is wicked hot, even though you both have totally different tastes in lanky emo dudes. The power of the word!

On the other hand, when the movie is made, if you think the main actors cast as pretties are totally not pretty, or were way hotter back when they were "ugly," it sort of messes up the reality of the story. (This is why I'm working with a facial visual effects company as a financial backer, so they will have a real-world motivation to get that stuff as right as possible, and we can do computery tricks with people faces.)

But back to manga. In most manga, "pretty" is a style: big eyes and sparkles. (Not that we're going with sparkles, but you see what I mean.) Manga comes with a pre-existing package of ways to communicate beauty, even if your audience doesn't all agree on what's beautiful!

Remember when Hollywood used to do "ugly" by putting a fantastically pretty woman in chunky glasses with her hair in a bun? Her being unattractive was signaled by codes rather than actual unattractiveness, a polite fiction. (This, of course, created a generation who react to chunky glasses and hair-in-bun by saying, "Whoa. Hot!" But I digress.)

Anyway, that's where I started from. We'll see if this works.

And just so I don't look dumb, let me say that I do realize that western comics have beauty codes as well. But they're mostly kind of like this:

And I didn't want to go there.*

_________________________

*Yes, literal-minded denisons of the internet, I KNOW that manga has sexy girls and boys as well. But I think the codes are genuinely different, and the manga ones line up better with the Uglies canon. The proof will be in the pudding.

Behemoth in Paperback (US)

The day after tomorrow, Tuesday August 9, is the release date of Behemoth in paperback! So Keith and I made this poster for you all.

Click here for a wallpaper-size version.

And now for some more exciting news: The Ugies manga!

For those of you who haven't seen this elsewhere on the interwebs, my OTHER big announcement at Comic Con was the upcoming manga based on the Uglies series. I say "based on" but rest assured, this isn't simply the same story in graphic form. Instead, we're telling much the same story as in the novels, but it's all from Shay's point of view. (So who's we, you ask? More on that later.)

Now as you Uglies scholars know, Shay taught Tally everything she knew. Shay was involved in subversive activities long before the novels open, and was part of the Crims back then they were an ugly clique headed by . . . Zane. (Ugly Zane!)

And remember how Shay and Zane almost ran away to the Smoke together, but they both chickened out? Well, that's the story they told Tally. But what really happened back then?

In these manga—three of them, about 180 pages each–we will tell all!

Okay, we includes me, Devin Grayson, Steven Cummings, and Yishan Li. That's right, there are four of us. Here's what we all do:

Devin is writing the scripts. She's written lots of superhero comics, including a ton of Batman titles, but I was won over by a miniseries she created for Vertigo called User, which is about the fantasy lives of gamers in the real world.

Now you may be thinking, "Why didn't you write it, Scott? Arne't you, like, a writer and stuff?"

Rest assured, I outlined every book in detail, rewrote some bits, and approved every word. But, seriously, I don't know how to write comics scripts! And part of wisdom is knowing what you can't do. It's been amazing to see Devin adapt this story to another medium, and get into the mind of Shay. (A great learning experience that I may put to use one day . . . )

Steven is the artist for the series. He's drawn many western titles for DC and Marvel, and manga books for Tokypop and Udon. He lives in Japan, and has worked bravely through earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear meltdowns. Again, I've paid close attention to everything, approving all the characters, costumes, technology, and the architecture of the Smoke, New Pretty Town, and other locales. Of course, Steven brings his own flair to the characters' expressions and movements, and to the look and feel of the future. For me, it's kind of like directing actors who have their own style.

Yishan is doing the toning and lettering for the series. In other words, she shades Steven's art and adds the word balloons. Key steps, and ones I never really thought about much before this project. But you'll see below how Yishan's shading "lights" the scene.

Let me show you how this all works, starting with page 12 of the first manga.

We start with the script:

PAGE 12, panel one

ECU on Shay's interface ring as she gently puts it down on a bedside table.

1 SHAY: Good night, stupid room.

Page 12, panel two

Pull back for our first establishing shot of Shay's dorm room. It's very small and very basic, the only truly decorative elements (IMPORTANT!) being huge software-generated pictures of Shay as a pretty taking up whole walls, larger-than-life and overwhelming (not all identical, though – some variations on the theme; some with weird plastic surgery, cat-like or whatever, but all recognizably Shay). Scott says wall screens are cheap tech in this world, so the images can be animated, changing between frames (though Shay would be used to this, so no need to draw undue attention to it, just let it give the visuals an extra futuristic kick). But these aren't just projections, they're mammoth, digitalized photo-posters.

There's also a bed (see references at end of script), the previously mentioned bedside table with some kind of post-modern light, maybe a super utilitarian desk, and her hoverboard leaning beside a window just big enough for her to crawl through.

Shay has just put her interface ring down on the bedside table and is pulling down the blankets on her bed. She's not dressed for bed, though, instead wearing her normal day uniform including her hoodie.

NOTE from Scott: we need one specific balloon shape (and maybe font) for objects talking. It can be fairly obvious and zappy.

2 ROOM/ tailless: Sweet dreams, Shay.

2 SFX: TOK

Page 12, panel three

Shay pulls off the parka and shoves it under the covers…

3 CAPTION/SHAY: Got the coat-interior set close to body temp…

Page 12, panel four

…before shaping it to look as much like a person sleeping under the covers as possible.

4 CAPTION/SHAY: …not perfect…

Page 12, panel five

Shay then grabs her hoverboard…

5 CAPTION/SHAY: …but neither are the sensors in this bogus dorm.

Page 12, panel six

…and climbs with it out the window with a brief glance over her shoulder.

6 CAPTION/SHAY: Sometimes I think they want us to sneak out.

END OF PAGE

Okay, first I take a look at the script and add notes or edit dialog. Then Steven reads it and emails me and Devin with any questions. Once everything is clear to him, he does very rough "thumbnail sketches," which look like this:

At this stage, I approve things like the furniture and the general flow of the page. I love all the high camera angles and such. We've already discussed ugly dorm rooms, which are really basic, kind of like a rustic summer camp. And of course Shay and her dorm uniform have already been drawn a few times and approved.

With my blessing, Steven moves onto the pencils stage.

As you can see, lots more details have appeared. I still love the page, but I'm leery of the books on the shelves at first, because there aren't a lot of physical books in Tally's city. But Shay does take handwriting classes, so I can imagine her keeping a diary or maybe having some old-fashioned books around. Plus, technologies don't completely disappear. There are people who still write with fountain pens, after all.

Speaking of fountain pens, the next stage is inks!

I don't usually have comments at the inks stage, because everything has already been approved (and it's hard to erase now, dude!). But that's okay, beacuse it's starting to look pretty real.

Next it goes to Yishan for toning and lettering. And thus we have the final version:

Click here for the bigness!

So that's basically how it works, except with more emails between me and Steven and Devin (and our editor) than I've let on, plus lots of up-front design work on costumes and characters, x 180 pages for each book.

Phew.

But we are on our way, and the first manga will be out from Del Rey in May 2012. Of course, there will be lots of previews between now and then, especially after I get back from the Goliath tour.

Hope you like the look of things. Ask any Uglies manga questions you have below, and I'll try to answer them in my next post.

August Art Reveal

Hey, I'm back from Hawaii. Which looks like this:

In addition to hanging by the pool, I saw a whale while kayaking (dangerous scale discrepancy!), inspected a volcano by helicopter, and braved a tiger shark alert several times. Plus, ate lots of pineapples.

Pics will be provided soon.

As you know may have noticed, the August art reveal was hosted by my pals at io9.com. For any of you who missed it, or wanted to comment on it here, check it out:

Linky-link.

There's lots more to discuss, given the exciting news at Comic Con, so I will be posting again soon.

Fan Art Friday Fortnightly from Hawaii

I'm on vacation, but I've put together a quick FAFF for you! (Because of the love.)

It's always funny to me how fan art and fic is often a response to a very short, throwaway scene. Like the one in Leviathan, when Deryn is faking a bit of shaving. It's cool how these little slices of the character's normal, non-dramatic life are so compelling.

So here's "Shave Like a Man" by Mcl-Jessie:

And here's a slightly more intense scene from KuroPhillyDip, featuring the Leviathan series' second-favorite couple:

And another picture for you lady boffin lovers, from Marielleaster:

And here in a comical vein, "Lessons" by Awesometastic:

Okay, I'm on vacation, so I'm outta here. Thanks to all you fan artists, everywhere!

Don't forget, the next art reveal will be hosted by io9.com. So check in with them throughout the day next Monday, August 1.

Uglies Movie Press Release

DAVIS ENTERTAINMENT AND LOLA VFX TEAM TO PRODUCE SCOTT WESTERFELD'S NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING FUTURISTIC TRILOGY. "UGLIES" BEING PREPARED AS FIRST OF THE PLANNED LIVE ACTION FEATURES

 

Project Signals Premier Visual Effects Company Move Into Film Production

 

LOS ANGELES (JULY 24, 2011) – Producer John Davis and the founders of Lola Visual Effects (Lola VFX) will team to finance, develop and produce a theatrical, live action feature based on Scott Westerfeld's New York Times best-selling "Uglies," the first of his futuristic trilogy first published in 2005.

 

The filmmakers have also acquired Westerfeld's PRETTIES and SPECIALS, the remaining trilogy installments published by Simon Pulse, a Simon & Schuster company, with total sales of over 3 million copies. Jacob Forman ("All The Boys Love Mandy Lane") will write the screenplay.

 

UGLIES will be produced by John Davis ("Mr. Popper's Penguins," "I, Robot") and Jordan Davis ("Jump In"), along with Colin and Greg Strause via their Hydraulx Entertainment banner. Lola's Edson Williams and Thomas Nittmann will executive produce along with Adam Schroeder

 

Lola is the groundbreaking visual effects company paving the way for an entirely new level of story-telling, most recently transforming Chris Evans into the 90-pound weakling Steve Rogers for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. The company was founded by Colin and Greg Strause, Edson Williams, and Thomas Nittmann.

?

Set in an Orwellian future in which teens undergo surgery on their sixteenth birthdays to become supermodel "pretty," UGLIES is the story of Tally Youngblood, one such "ugly" teen who is forced by authorities to forgo her transformation until she infiltrates The Smoke, a community of rebels who choose to retain their appearance and live outside of normal society. Tally soon discovers appearance isn't everything and her world is not all that it seems.

 

"'UGLIES' is a smart, youthful, and edgy trilogy peopled by sophisticated characters who have to navigate through a dangerous but fascinating world," stated John Davis. "We are at this time in the development of cinema magic where we have the proper technology to fully realize Scott's vision for the screen."

 

In addition to CAPTAIN AMERICA, Lola is the company behind Brad Pitt's youthification in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and flawless twining of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss in THE SOCIAL NETWORK.  With this technology and expertise, Lola will handle the dramatic transformation of characters into the "pretty" versions of themselves while Hydraulx will create the futuristic world of UGLIES, an exquisite yet eerie dystopian future.

 

Stated Greg Strause: "With UGLIES, Scott created a visually stunning world that capitalizes on the strengths of both Lola and Hydraulx.  Our partnership demonstrates the expanding possibilities of enhancing creative storytelling with innovative visual effects."

 

Hydraulx is an award-winning visual effects facility with work including 300, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, 2012, BATTLE LOS ANGELES, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, and AVATAR, the latter two films in 3D.  Founded by Colin and Greg Strause, the company leverages the Brothers' extensive filmmaking experience to provide a comprehensive and unparalleled photographic and photorealistic approach to visual effects.

 

DAVIS ENTERTAINMENT

Chairman of Los Angeles-based Davis Entertainment, John Davis has been a producer on more than 80 feature films and movies for television that have earned more than $4 billion worldwide.

Davis's three divisions–-feature film, independent film, and television-–develop and produce film and television projects for the major studios, independent distributors, networks and cable broadcasters. The Company, established in 1986, has enjoyed a long-standing first-look production deal at 20th Century Fox, though also  produces projects for all studios and mini-majors.

Some of Davis's films include the Jim Carrey starring "Mr. Popper's Penguins,"  "Gulliver's Travels" starring Jack Black; the hit sci-fi thriller "I, Robot" starring Will Smith; "Norbit," starring Eddie Murphy (in their fourth film together) for DreamWorks/Paramount; "Garfield," which earned $200 million at the worldwide box office, for Fox; the $100 million-plus hit Eddie Murphy comedy "Daddy Day Care;" the blockbuster "The Firm," starring Tom Cruise; "Courage Under Fire," starring Denzel Washington; "Waterworld," starring Kevin Costner; "Predator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; the two hugely successful "Dr. Dolittle" films, starring Eddie Murphy; the Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau trilogy "Out to Sea," "Grumpy Old Men," and "Grumpier Old Men;" "Alien vs. Predator," an action thriller combining the two classic creatures, and its sequel "AVP2," for Fox, among many others.

Greek to Me

I'm interrupting my Comic Con cavorting to bring you the Greek cover of Leviathan:

Hey, I know it's just the original US cover with the title in Greek. But Greek looks pretty cool.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I'm at Comic Con, so check out my doings on twitter, or catch me in person if you're in San Diego.

Fan Art Friday Fortnightly on Saturday

Okay, it's time for FAN ART FRIDAY.

Technically it is a bit past time for FAF, because it's Saturday and everything. Apologies, but Leaky-Con was rather exhausting. There were many panels and signings and such, and then a trip to Disney World with Maureen Johnson.

I haz proof:

Ah, the fun we had in the hat shop.

Leaky-Con was really great. The Harry Potter fans, especially those at Lit Day, were just incredible. A nicer bunch of people you will never meet.

Here's proof of that fact, in the form of a pressie that Potter-fan Maya gave me:

See? Even when they're expressing scary sentiments, it's all beautifully cross-stitched!

Anyway, thanks to all the volunteers and staff and organizers of Leaky-Con and Lit Day. You were all awesome. Too much fun was had.

Oh, and thanks to Cassie-la for letting me borrow her hipster wizard sign:

It's the tree that makes it funny.

And now it's time for Fan Art Friday! Long awaited, but never abated!

We begin with "I Wish I Were a Man," from Awesome O'clock:

What makes this particularly cool is that it's based on a real US propaganda poster from 1917:

Nice work, Awesome O'clock. (Or may I just call you Awesome?)

And for some more of Deryn looking soldierly, check out this piece from Delinquent Unicorn:

This picture has what you call directionality!

And now for some Deryn and Alek action, starting with this delightful sketch from Shenli, called "Wandering Hands":

Awkward moment is awkward. It's amazing how many people have done fan art based on that one short fencing scene.

Perhaps you would like some kissing? If so, here's "Airmanship" by teaspoon00:

And for more kissing, how about "Engine Grease" by theprinceofparties?

Some of you may want some cool Leviathan desktops. If so, check out Art-Bandgeek's work. Here's an example:

But there are many more, featuring all the big characters.

Okay, so that's all I've got time to post right now, but there are many more pieces of fan art ready to go. I've just been a bit overwhelmed. Last week was Leaky-Con, and next is the infinitely more exhausting Comic Con, and then Justine and I are headed to Hawaii for some rest before the touring season starts.

What I'll do, however, is set up some auto-posts of Fan Art, so that you will all survive. And hopefully I'll get up some pix of cool stuff from Comic Con, both here and on twitter, where I'm @scottwesterfeld

And of course, there will be the August 1 art reveal, which will be hosted by io9.com this month. (I'll remind you here.)

See you at Comic Con, I hope!

My Comic Con Schedule

Update!

I've added my signing times below. I'll be signing three times during Comic Con. Sorry I forgot!

I'm headed to Leaky-Con tomorrow, and will be on panels all of YA Lit Day, also known as Wednesday. That schedule is right here. (It's been sold out for ages.)

Next week, July 20-25, I'll be at Comic Con in San Diego! (Also sold out.) For those of you coming, here's what I'm doing:

Thursday, July 21

4:30-5:30 Comics for Teens— Comics creators Cecil Castelluci (Plain Janes), Hope Larson (Mercury), Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), and Gene Luen Yang (Level Up) come together for a discussion of what makes a comic fit a teen audience. Do books for teens have something special that books for kids and adults don't have? Moderated by Scott Westerfeld (New York Times bestselling teen author). Room 26AB

Saturday, July 23

1:00 – 1:50 Saturday, July 23

Signing at the Mysterious Galaxy booth, #1119.

Sunday, July 24

11:15-12:15 Building the World of Leviathan, an Illustrated Steampunk Series— Bestselling YA author and Comic-Con special guest Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Midnighters) discusses how illustrated adventure novels disappeared in the early 20th century and how he worked with artist Keith Thompson to create one for the 21st, Leviathan, a steampunk reimagining of WWI. Lots of visuals (and some secret news about Uglies). Room 6DE

Signing after Scott Westerfeld Spotlight

Teen Libris will be handing out free copies of Bubbly to Bogus at this signing.

Comic-Con Autograph Area

AA18 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

2:45-3:45 High School Bites— Let's face it: High school sucks enough without having to add a constant thirst for blood, going all furry under a full moon, or being hunted by all of the above. But for these YA authors, going back to high school was the best decision they ever made. Scott Westerfeld (The Uglies series), Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke and Bone), Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness), Debbie Viguie (Once Upon a Time series), Anna Carey (Eve), and Heather Brewer (The Vlad Tod series) discuss their characters' formative years with moderator Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy. Room 5AB

Signing after High School Bites

Comic-Con Autograph Area

AA3 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Also you might want to check this out:

Thursday, July 21

7:00-8:00 The Scoop at Simon & Schuster!— Get the inside word on Simon & Schuster's upcoming books and the chance to win exclusive prizes! Lucille Rettino (marketing director), Elke Villa (senior marketing manager), Carolyn Swerdloff (associate marketing manager), and Anna McKean (publicity manager) give you the scoop on upcoming books from exciting authors, including Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld, Orson Scott Card, and Becca Fitzpatrick. Hear what is going on with S&S's hot properties — Star Trek and The Smurfs — and get a chance to win exclusive giveaways. All attendees will receive a limited edition T-shirt for Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Prince. Room 9

That's it. I hope I get to see some of you while I'm on the road the next two weeks!

(I will be getting Fan Art Friday up this week, though, even if I'm not at home.)

Think of the Parents

I spent yesterday morning listening to the indefatigable Maureen Johnson. She was on the radio with a Wall Street Journal writer best known for decrying the state of young adult lit. You know the drill: "YA is too dark, too depressing, and is bad for the kidz!"

I am not here to argue against fact-free trend pieces, however. Maureen and the internet have already done that and done it well. And, you know, haters gonna hate, and shoddy journalists gonna shod. There's no way to stop that. Here's the problem I would like to address instead:

When these issues arise, we writers, librarians, booksellers, teachers, and editors know that the media is overblown and out of touch. We know that the huge boom in YA is helping young readers, because we see it in our in-boxes, our libraries, our stores, and our twitter feeds every day.

Sure, some books aren't right for some kids. But it's not like that challenge has recently grown insurmountable. In fact, connecting the right book with the right reader has never been easier. There are more specialist teen librarians than ever before, teenage readers are relentlessly networked, and book reviews from all perspectives are more plentiful than at any other time in human history. (Thank you, the internet.)

But someone has to think of the parents. Especially those who randomly turn on the radio or read the WSJ and are exposed to this alarmism. They may not know how to check out all those amazing stories tweeted on #YASaves. They probably don't follow comment threads on blogs like this one, where bookish teens prove hourly how smart, supportive, and savvy they are. Many parents don't know what "DFTBA" means, and thus may not realize how awesome their kids are not forgetting to be.

And the other side in this debate sounds perfectly reasonable. "We just want a conversation! We just want parents to be aware!" And they couch everything in that scary questioning tone: "These books MAY be turning your kids into cutters." Like when local news promos ask, "Are your cleaning fluids making you hate America? Story at eleven!"

Here's my problem with this brand of "reasonableness": Conversations have contexts, and awareness is always flavored by its catalyst. Let's take two examples . . .

A parent goes into a teenager's room and says, "I just heard from the wise people at the Wall Street Journal that the books you kids read these days are mostly dark and horrible and will make you cut yourself and take drugs. Let me check your books so I can make sure this is not true!"

Seriously. How do you think that conversation's going to go?

Eyes will be rolled, tempers will rise, and more than likely this parent will be made to feel dreadfully foolish. (Teenagers are good at this last bit.) Frankly, being easily manipulated by alarmists in the media is not a good look for anyone.

But let's say a parent goes into that same kid's room and says . . .

"Hey, I just heard that young adult lit sales have grown by double digits every year for the last decade. You teens read so much that it's the only profitable part of publishing! And now Hollywood wants to make everything you read into movies, and more adults than ever before are reading YA! And I heard that huge crowds show up at bookstores and rented venues when popular YA writers are in town! And that many YA writers have tens of thousands of followers on the Twitter machine, if not hundreds of thousands! And that every November countless teenagers support each other in WRITING THEIR OWN NOVELS! Holy crap, we didn't do that in my benighted day of juvenile sloth. It's just awesome how dedicated you and your peers are to reading. Can you please lend me some of these great books?"

My guess is that this conversation will go rather better. And, unlike the Wall Street Journal, this opening gambit is full of verifiable facts!

Make no mistake, we writers want parents to talk to their kids about books. But don't do it because some newspaper uses fear to generate web hits. Do it because reading is awesome and your kids are awesome.

There's a problem here, though. The parents who are reading this post (on a YA writer's blog) probably don't need this advice. They can see through the malarky without my help. They've already noticed that the only "science" referred to in the WSJ's articles was a study of 1970s anti-drug public service announcements. (Because nothing is more relevant to 21st-century young adult literature than 40-year-old TV ads.)

But how do we reach those other parents, the ones whose innocent minds might be corrupted by these fact-missing anxiety-mechants? Parents can't be expected to protect themselves these days. A recent study of hair cream ads from the 1920s proved that the media's coverage of YA has gotten 37% darker in the last year alone!

Now, I'm not advocating banning the Wall Street Journal. It has many fine articles in it I'm sure, some of which no doubt cite actual facts instead of the vague impressions of random people wandering YA sections. There are always exceptions, after all, even in newspapers named after the street that recently stole $700 billion of our money.

All I'm asking is that teenagers take an active role in discussing young adult lit with their parents.

Kids, you don't want your parents' first exposure to YA to be in the dingy recesses of a fear-mongering financial newspaper. It's your job to help them understand how twitter hashtags work, what NaNoWriMo stands for, and how to do the nerdfighter hand signal. It's your duty to introduce them gently to the lighter sides of fan fic, before they stumble across a cache of Snape dub-con Mpreg epic poetry. (Um, maybe just wait till your parents are older before tackling fan fic.)

In many cases, of course, your gentle persuasion may not be enough. Some parents are too easily influenced by frightening images of teenage culture gone awry. Darkness sells, after all. For these, a simple call to the Wall Street Journal will cancel your subscription, saving both money and heartache for your beloved parent. Be sure not to leave an empty space in their lives, however. Ease them over to something more wholesome, like, say, the School Library Journal. They'll hardly notice the difference.

My main point is this: you understand young adult lit. You get how much it's grown, how much it means to you. Make sure that your parents understand that too, and they'll be ear-plugged against the profiteering panic-peddlers wailing like sirens on the rocky shoals of our culture.

Thank you for listening.

Goliath Art Reveal! (July)

Okay, I only counted the first 150 votes, then skipped ahead to see if anyone else did, because counting is slow and annoying. So I'm using Ren W.'s count at comment 250:

Number 1 – 26

Number 2 – 18

Number 3 – 47

Number 4 – 123

These are more or less accurate, I'm sure, and I think we all know who won.

NUM-BER-FOUR! NUM-BER-FOUR!

So here it is in all its unredacted glory . . . "Kappa Surfacing"!

Keith Thompson

Click here for a GIGANTIC version, that will BLOW YOUR MIND when you zoom on it.

As you Pokémon fans have already pointed out, kappa are Japanese beasties. But they go back to before the Pokémon fad, of course, as part of Shinto folklore.

When I was your age, people often called Shinto "the national religion of Japan," but these days it's more common to call it "the indigenous spirituality of Japan." The thing is, Shinto is a set of practices that come out of folklore and myths rather than a structured religion. There's no single sacred text or founder figure, no Quran or Buddha or Bible, but it does have priests (male and female). It's part of everyday Japanese life, both as a link to the traditional past and to nature and the divine.

So I figured that Japanese boffins would take their inspiration from creatures like kappa (who are water spirits), even if they were using the life threads of real creatures to make them.

What's also interesting is that most people who practice Shinto are also Buddhists, Christians, or whatever. This Japanese readiness to mix outside cultural practices into their own (and to put an unexpected spin on them, as anyone who's ever read manga can attest) is why I decided Japan had to be both a Darwinist AND a Clanker power.

(Yes, everyone in the modern world mixes up all sorts of stuff from outside cultures, but it seems like the Japanese are particularly awesome at it, and have been since at least the 1860s.)

Anyway, that was my thinking behind the kappa, and about how Japanese boffins would approach fabrication overall. Also, the Japanese Navy was bad-ass back then, so they had to look pretty scary too. And Keith is good at scary.

Keith News

If I haven't mentioned it here before, Keith has an art blog now as well as his usual site.

There, you can buy big prints of two pieces from Goliath already! Both "Secrets in the Rookery" and "Crashing a Bash" are available.