Scott Westerfeld's Blog, page 42

Chapter 1 of Leviathan, Read Aloud!

Back in late July, I blogged about visiting the recording session for the Leviathan audio book. I got to meet and hang out with Alan Cumming, the voice talent for the audio version, and listen to him work.

And now you do too!

Leviathan has two main characters, one Scottish and one Austrian, which makes Alan perfect for the role. He's Scottish himself, so no problem there, and he gained fame in the US for his role in Cabaret, so we knew he could do Germanic accents as well. He's a very dramatic rea

Melbourne Writers' Festival

Greetings, Victorians!

Next week Justine and I are headed to the Melbourne Writers Festival. I'll be doing five events, and at all of them I'll be revealing fabulous Leviathan art and talking about the series, as well as other Deep Topics as listed below.

Note that you have to get tickets for these events. The Sunday event Justine and I are on is a bit pricey. You can book tickets here. All my other events are only $6, and you can book them here.

See you there!

Event 1
Day: Sunday
Date: 23/08/2009
Time

Avatars and Wallpaper

Introducing . . . some more Leviathan downloadables!

First, the delightful Avatar/Icon with Spinny Gears:

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And a selection of wallpapers:

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I promise I'll do a more substantive post soon. I've been thinking about some interesting stuff i want to share with you about writing. But for the moment, enjoy the freebies.

And don't forget, the Uglies e-book is still free here at the Simon & Schuster download site.

The Clock Is Ticking!

Visit Scott Westerfeld's website!

Because you asked: a Leviathan countdown timer! For the counting down of glorious time! Time till Leviathan!

How does it work? Well, you just select and copy the code in the box below, then stick it in your blog or whatever.

Visit Scott Westerfeld's website!

Small warning, this is an American countdown timer, which is only accurate for North America. I'm trying to get exact dates for the Oz and UK editions, and will then make adjustments. But don't fret, Aussies a

Free Tally!

With Leviathan on its way (60 days and counting!) my publisher and I thought we would give you guys a little present. So for the next month, Uglies will be available free in pdf form.

That's right: Free book! Free Uglies! Free Tally!

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Of course, this isn't just free for you, my faithful blog readers. I mean, if you're reading this, chances are you've got a copy of Uglies sitting around somewhere already. But if you have any friends, siblings, crushes, or enemies who you think might be interested i

More Leviathan Art

It's getting near the first of the month, so it's time for more Leviathan art!

In this Keith Thompson masterpiece we see the Leviathan itself, in all its living airship glory, mooring over the Regent's Park. Check out all the cool details: the elephantines at work, the policemen holding back onlookers, and the little drama unfolding at the bottom—a pickpocket interrupted in progress, perhaps?

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In the printed version you can see even more details. But this gives you an idea of how intricate Keith's

Leviathan for iPhone

Hey, I just decided to whip up an easy piece of Bonus Stuff to put on the new site.

So here it is, the amazing Levitahan iPhone wallpaper!

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(Surprisingly, this took a while.)

Obviously, not everyone has an iPhone, or any sort of mobile phone at all. But this is pretty much the only thing I can do myself. Rest assured, though, the clever marketing people at S&S US and UK, and at Penguin Australia, will probably think of more and better stuff soon!

So leave your suggestions in this comments thread. Wha

Geektastic Is Out!

Next Saturday, August 1, Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd will be in stores!

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This is one case where the marketing copy pretty much tells the story:

Acclaimed authors Holly Black (Ironside) and Cecil Castellucci (Boy Proof) have united in geekdom to edit short stories from some of the best selling and most promising geeks in young adult literature: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth

New Look!

I know what you're thinking: "Um, new haircut?"

No, new website!

Given that Leviathan is coming out on October 6, I thought we should retire the old Extras look and get all steampunk'ed around here. Hope you enjoy the gears. (Mmmm . . . gears.)

Thanks to all the folks who made this possible, especially Deena Warner Design and all the folks at Simon & Schuster. Without them, this wouldn't look so fabulous. In fact, it would look exactly the same as it used to, because I'm way too busy these days to

Me in PW

There's a cool profile of me in Publisher's Weekly this week. Much is revealed about Leviathan, but in a non-spoilery way.

Click here to read it!

You can't see this on the online version, but they use this awesome steampunk portrait of me by Theo Black.

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