Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 39

Nano Tip #3: Dialog Spine Analysis

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After all your great responses to Monday's Nano Tip post, I though I'd spend one more post looking at the story. So many of you had cool interpretations and in interesting questions, so I thought I'd give you my own version.

(For those of you who haven't read the Dialog Spine Story, and most importantly the comments, you should go do that now. And don't forget Justine's Nano Tip #2 from yesterday.)

Now, the author's interpretation is privileged in some ways (people tend to give it extra...

Now with Added Tour!

First of all, thanks for all your fascinating thoughts on yesterday's Nano Tip post. It's been really cool hearing your interpretations of the story. All you Nanowrimo-ers should pay close attention to the comment thread; it's really important for writers to realize how different reader responses can be.

I'll be posting my own personal thoughts on the story tomorrow, but today you can read Justine's Nano Tip #2! Remember, she's doing the even-numbered days of November and I'm doing odd ones...

Nano Tip #1: Dialog Spine

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Welcome to Nano Tips, a month-long festival of writing tips from me and Justine. We'll be posting daily, me on the odd-numbered days of November, and Justine on the even-numbered days. This is, of course, all in celebration of NaNoWriMo. (And I think you know what that is.)

So here's my first tip: The Dialog Spine.

Many writers use the so-called "dialog spine" as a way of mapping out a scene. As a sort of "zero draft," they write just dialog, with no setting, action, or even attribution. It's a...

Yo, Canada

Okay, so the Canadian segment of the Leviathan tour starts next week.

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One cool thing is that I'll be appearing with Cassandra Clare (author of the Mortal Instruments series) and Holly Black (author of Tithe, Good Neighbors, and the Spiderwick books). On top of that, the Ottawa event has bonus special guest Keith Thompson, illustrator of Leviathan!

I've only done one event in Canada before, in Toronto, so I'll be meeting a lot of you for the first time.

Here are the dates:

Montreal
Wednesday...

Pass the Book

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One of the cool things I found out on the Leviathan tour was that the libraries of Howard County in Maryland are doing a little experiment called Pass the Book.

Here's how Pass the Book works:

Step One: Obtain six hundred copies of Midnighters.

Step Two: Tag each one with its own unique tracking number.

Step Three: Release them into the wild!

Step Four: Let people read the books, register them online, and pass them on as they see fit.

Step Five: Monitor them using the internets!

That's right, six h...

US Tour Over! (mostly)

I'm in Miami Airport, hanging out and waiting for the airplane home. I'm sleepy, exhilarated, and slightly addled by everything that's happened on the Leviathan tour—meeting a bunch of new fans, getting to know Sarah Rees Brennan and Robin Wasserman much better, and of course the awesome hotel fire!

But I've only slept in my own bed two nights since October 5 (TWO NIGHTS!), so it will be good to get back there. Justine just got back from the Austin Teen Lit Fest, where she had a blast, so the ...

Last Leg of US Tour

Thanks to everyone in the Boston and DC areas. Robin and I had a great time. When we got to Politics and Prose, we found out that Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi had just been there with their new Spiderwick book, and they left us a present:

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An original Diterlizzi! Thanks to Holly and Tony for being so sweet.

For signed copies of our books, head to Politics and Prose in DC, Hooray for Books in Alexandria, VA, the Children's Bookplace in Baltimore, or the Borders in Sterling, VA. We are...

Leviathan Downloadable

Still on the Leviathan tour, and I am SLEEPY. Thanks to everyone at RJ Julia in Madison and the Wellesley Booksmith for having me as a guest the last two evenings. And if you missed me, both of these stores have lots of signed copies of all my books sitting on their shelves.

In other news, the audio book of Leviathan is now available for download from either iTunes or Audible. As you may remember from this post, it's read by the inestimable Alan Cumming.

Click here to download from Audible. Or ...

The Leviathan Tour Continues! (Plus Photos)

Thanks to all of you who've come out for the Leviathan tour so far. It's been great. No matter how tired I am, you guys give me energy.

Speaking of tired, I have a grand total of one (1) day off at home today. w00t! It's going to be all about sleep and laundry (mostly laundry). And then I head to New England!

Sunday, October 18 4:00PM

In-store signing at RJ Julia

Location: 768 Boston Post Road

Madison, CT 06443

Monday, October 19 6:00PM
In-store signing at Wellesley Booksmith
Location: 82 Central ...

Leviathan Out in Oz

So I recently got the word that Leviathan is officially in stores in Australia. It launched on October 13 there, a week later than the US.

Apologies to my Aussie fans for having to wait. But now you have it! (Oi, oi, oi.)

The tour is still going great. No more fires, anyway. Had a wonderful event at Changing Hands in Arizona last night and at the 86th St. B&N here in Manhattan. It'll be nice to sleep in my own bed tonight.

I'll be in New Jersey tomorrow with Robin Wasserman. Come check us out ...