Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 34

Request for Blogical Inspiration

I'm headed off to Comic Con in San Diego (schedule below), and will be seeing some (all too few!) of you there. So here's me sitting down between packing and enplaning, thinking I should get in one more blog post, because it's been a while, and yet . . .

I can't think of what to say. Seriously, there've been a bunch of cool news items about toxoplasma, some awards news, etc., but I have not felt motivated to blog them. Maybe it's being in the middle of the hottest summer in recorded history...

Behemoth Art Teaser

With the Leviathan paperback only month away, I figure it's time to show you a first piece of art from Behemoth. (Yes, I put this on Twitter a week ago, but it's still NEW, right?)

So . . . behold the Ottoman sultan's airyacht Stamboul, which appears about a third of the way into the novel.

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Image by Keith Thompson, of course. Click the image for a larger view.

As you can see, Keith has created a whole new style for the Ottoman Empire. It's sort of a middle eastern Clanker look, with elements...

Behemoth Cover Revealed! Leviathan Found!

A few weeks ago, I revealed the new paperback cover for Leviathan. Well, now it's time to show you the matching cover for Behemoth Here they are together:

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And here's Behemoth on its own:

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Although I loved the old cover style, this is also a really great look, especially with this new color scheme. The blue and green seems perfect for the Darwinists, just like the rusty metallic reds suited the Clankers.

But I'll let you guys say your piece in the comments, as NO DOUBT you will.

In other news, the ...

Locus Award/Appearance/Fan Art Friday

Just wanted to announce that Leviathan has won the Locus Award for Best YA Novel of 2009. w00t!

Congrats to the other winners, which include the wonderful Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, which won Best Novel. It was blurbed by me as follows:

A steampunk-zombie-airship adventure of rollicking pace and sweeping proportions, full of wonderfully gnarly details. This book is made of irresistible . . . it totally pushed all my buttons!

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Read more about it here.

Also winning for Best First Novel was Paulo B...

UK Trip

Justine and I are back from a lovely tour of Britain, so thanks for not wrecking the US while we were gone. I didn't do any public events there; sorry about that!

But we did get see lots of beautiful countryside:

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And amusingly named towns:

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And olde worlde pubs:

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And, of course, many wonderful and welcoming schools:

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So thanks to everyone at Simon & Schuster UK for having me, and special thanks to all the schools and the Scottish Book Trust. By the way, the tour was for the paperback release of

Meet Up Tomorrow

I'm headed on a mini-tour of the UK next week, one that will include many school visits but no public appearances (not my fault!). In this time I may or may not be posting here, but I wanted to inform you about the following meet-up on the Forum tomorrow!

Sunday, June 12th

US-EST 5PM

London 10:00PM

Australia 7:00AM Monday (um, sorry)

Come one, come all, and talk about stuff. Alas, I won't be able to participate. But I do drop by to answer questions on most meet-ups.

Here's a list of the rest of ...

The Mouse Does Steampunk

A few months ago, Disney announced something called "The Mechanical Kingdom," a set of collectable pins featuring steampunk versions of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, etc. Here's the wallpaper:

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You can get more wallpapers right here.

Of course, once a massive entertainment consortium like Disney gets involved with something alternative and kewl like steampunk, it gets sort of, I don't know, Disneyfied, and certain people will decide it's totally over. Check out the debate raging here at Brass...

Leviathan Rap in Italian

Really, the headline says it all: Leviathan rap. In Italian.

It's by Mondo Marcio (autotranslated Wiki page/original Italian), and I TOTALLY have to learn the language now.

For more about the Italian edition, published by Einaudi, click here.

Steampunk Panel at BEA

In case you didn't get to go to Book Expo America, here's my panel with sf author/blogger/activist Cory Doctorow, steampunk author Cherie Priest, and New York Public Library Manager Karen Grenke. It's an hour of us yammering about steampunk past and present, from childhood inspirations to current concerns for the genre. Check it out:

Steampunk Panel – SLJ Day of Dialog, BEA 2010 from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

For those of you in Italy, check out La Repubblica's Il Venerdì this weekend...

Leviathan Paperback Cover

Exciting news: The US paperback version of Leviathan will have a brand-spanking-new cover.

Here is it:

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Pretty cool, huh? But I'm not going to say more, because I want to hear your impressions and opinions first.

Four key points about the US paperback version:

One: It will appear on August 10, 2010, about two months before book two in the series, Behemoth, which goes on sale October 5.

Two: It will be printed on the same awesome thick paper as the hardback! You may have noticed how much heavier...