Derek Landy's Blog, page 25

Divergent

The cover is finished! The cover is finished! Are you ready to see it? Are you??
Well, unfortunately I don't ACTUALLY have it, but I've been assured that it's finished and that it's brilliant, and that I'll be able to show you all tomorrow.
Ahem.
The cynical among you may begin to suspect that all of this is the result of bad planning and borderline incompetence on my part, as I had promised to reveal the cover oh, maybe two weeks ago.
However- the nice and the kind and the generous among you might recognise this as a cunning way of drawing out the mystery and building the excitement, and regard all these delays and missed deadlines purely as brilliant marketing on my part.
It is, of course, entirely up to you to decide which of these kinds of people you are- cynical and suspicious (boo!) or nice and lovely and so very pretty (yay!).
So, while we wait for the cover to be revealed tomorrow, I now have a Blog post to fill, and I want to mention a book I'm reading which I think is brilliant. It's called Divergent, and it's by Veronica Roth, a new American writer. I've read the first hundred pages here- http://browseinside.harperteen.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062024022 - and I absolutely love it so far. It's set in a Dystopian future- because those are ALWAYS the best kind- where the population splits itself into Factions according to their personality traits. People are always telling me I must read The Hunger Games- and I will, I swear I will- but Divergent grabbed me from the first paragraph, and now I'm pretty much helpless.
Aside from the great idea at its centre, this book is REALLY well written. I make no apologies for the fact that I'm a snob when it comes to the quality of writing- no matter how wonderful the premise, I simply can't read it if the words don't flow like they should or the characters aren't genuine. I reckon I've improved as a writer since the first Skulduggery, and the later books are much better written than the first one (even if the first one remains my absolute favourite), but Miss Roth seems to have bypassed that awkward debut-writer stage completely. If she's this good now, how good is she going to be in five books' time? Scary good, is the answer.
If you're looking for something new to read, click the link above and try it out. 

I wear fedoras now. Fedoras are cool.

Just have to say- Doctor Who ROCKS.

That is all.

Bah! Delays!

Okay, fine, I HAD wanted to unveil the new cover sometime this week, but obviously that hasn't happened. I've been assured that I'll be able to do it sometime NEXT week, though, so hopefully that'll work out.

In the meantime...

I'm feeling much better these days. I haven't gone back training yet- I haven't recovered THAT much- but I went in for a few tests on Wednesday and they have pronounced me fit as a proverbial fiddle and told me that I'm pretty much immortal, which I knew already. But still, always good to hear a second opinion.

I did an event last night with John Connelly in Easons in Dublin that was a LOT of fun. John is a crime writer by day, but at night he writes the wickedest books for younger readers- he's written The Book of Lost Things and The Gates, and has just come out with his new one, Hell's Bells. He read an excerpt from Hell's Bells and, for the first time ever, I read an extract from one of MY books. I normally don't read aloud because I have a stutter, and I much prefer to just walk around the stage and ramble on about cats and dogs and weird-looking children. But last night I thought I'd do something new, so I read, and it was actually a lot of fun- but what made it cooler was the fact that it was an excerpt from the new book. I decided that it wouldn't be an action scene or a chase scene, or in fact anything to do with the actual plot. Instead, it was Valkyrie at home with her parents and her baby sister- so there was a LOT of her dad being his usual oddball self, which really seemed to go down well.

Afterwards there was a signing session which, ahem, kind of went on until AFTER the store had actually closed... But the Easons staff were all really cool about it, even though they had to stay late, and they seemed to be having a good time while I chatted and doodled and signed. I even met some people who visit this Blog- so say hello in the comments section, dammit! Especially you, Elizabeth, who came up to me after I'd signed her books and asked for a hug. Awwww. I LOVE giving hugs. Elizabeth now has a special place in my heart...

I'm just looking at my calender here for May... Let's see... Okay, I'll be at the Brighton Festival on the 8th, then I'll be doing something with Children's Books Ireland on the 22nd, and I'll be at the Wicklow Festival on the 28th. So if you're around, drop by and give me a hug.

Update:

While I'm not one hundred percent back to normal, I'm certainly getting there. The medication I've been given seems to have scattered my mind a little bit, making it hard to focus- but there are only a few pills left, and once they're gone, my great and glorious mind shall return...

In the meantime, I just want to let you know that at some stage over the next few days, I'll be posting the REAL cover to Skulduggery 6 here on this Blog, and not Tom's sketch that has been doing the rounds on the interweb. Along with that, you'll also be getting the official title, which may or may not be what you're expecting.

At the moment, Tom is finishing up the cover and it's looking- no surprise here- absolutely amazing. You better have a bucket handy, because when the cover is revealed your heads are going to explode and your brains are going to need something to leak into. Which is, I'll freely admit, somewhat gross.

Bah. Woes.

Hello there.

Sorry for the delay- I was hauled into hospital last week and have only just got out. I'd never been sick before, so it was a whole new and thoroughly dull/painful/annoying experience for me, one that I hope I never repeat. I'm still not recovered, so it'll be a few days before I resume normal service, but I know how much my Minions need their chatting space- so chat away...!

Woes and Joys

Oooooooh your Golden God is not feeling well.

Your Golden God is SICK, Minions. I'm not used to being sick. I NEVER get sick. And yet, here I am, sick and feeling miserable...

So why am I posting, you ask? Am I looking for sympathy? Pffft. I need NOT your sympathy. Sympathy is for the WEAK. I post, not to share my woes, but to share my joys.

Book 6 is finished.

I have emailed it to my editor and agent, and it is currently printing out for Laura, and I now have a few days to recover from my illness before I read back over it and spot where it can be improved. At the moment, it's a long one, about 10,000 words longer than Mortal Coil. Whether it'll keep that word count after the rewrite, I don't know.

But it's done.

Whole Lotta Pages

Yesterday I passed the 110,000 word mark on Book Six. I have three days to finish writing and then do a quick edit, so the word count could go either way. Bear in mind, though, that Mortal Coil was about 105,00 words- so it looks like the new one will be even longer.
As I get into the last few weeks of writing a book, I tend to get a little bit paranoid. I start to wonder if, maybe, the thing I've written is not a book at all- maybe it's just a collection of chapters that don't fit together into one long story. Maybe I've been wasting my time. Maybe I should have abandoned this idea before I started writing, and headed off in another direction. What if it's rubbish? What if it's awful? What if nobody likes it?

And then I remind myself that I am, in fact, the Golden God, and everything I do is absolutely wonderful, so naturally Book Six is going to be brain-punchingly brilliant.
These last minute doubts are nothing new, of course. I always get them. I'm sure that practically every writer does. The only way through them is to have faith in yourself and your own ability, and to keep on going no matter how anxious you get. It's not easy, to work on through your doubts, but if you ever want to be writer then it's something you're going to have to deal with, sooner or later.
It REALLY helps if you're arrogant- because so long as you don't take it seriously, arrogance can be a LOT of fun.
I wrote the last page this morning- or some of it, at least. I'm still going back through it all, linking things up, changing things, switching them around, writing and rewriting, so even though I'm on the last page, it doesn't mean the book is finished yet. But ohhh, what a last page. The first trilogy ended with Skulduggery being sucked through a portal- an act that had severe consequences over the following three books. The end of THIS trilogy, therefore, needs to have the same kind of impact on the next three.
I'm not saying the endings are in ANY way similar, because they're not. The Faceless Ones ended with the reader shouting "Oh God no no no NO!" whereas Book Six will end with the reader saying "oh... hell..." very, very quietly.

Just Because...

Paperbacks

Book Six is going well, I'm sure you'll be happy to know. I have another week before I send it in for my editor and agent to read- and of course it has to get the seal of approval from Laura too.
But today we are not talking about Book Six. Instead, we are talking about the new paperbacks.
I never assume that you all know the difference between a hardback and a paperback (er, apart from the fact that one has a hard back, and the other has a softer back) because I find myself explaining the intricacies of publishing to my family again and again on a worryingly regular basis. So, to start, a short lesson.
The first time a book is published, it will usually be published in hardback. This is when the book is brand new, so it will be bigger, it will have hard covers, and it'll be more expensive. At the same time as the hardback is out, a trade paperback is released. These are NOT the same as a regular paperback, because they're the same size as the hardback, it's just that the covers are softer. You'll usually find trade paperbacks in airports, because travellers don't like carrying around hardbacks, which are heavier and more awkward. In Ireland, we actually get relatively few hardbacks, for some reason, and most of the brand new books on sale are trade paperbacks.
With me so far? Excellent.
In much the same way as films are released in the cinema, and then a few months later they're released again on DVD, books go through a change. Approximately six months from the launch of the hardback, the paperback is released. Paperbacks are smaller and cheaper, and easier to carry around.
Paperbacks are also re-issued every once in a while with new covers, in order to attract new readers. And that's what's happening with Skulduggery.
In April, we're going to get all the paperbacks released with new covers. You've already seen the front covers, but our dear friend Tom Percival has been hard at work on the BACK covers as well- which you will soon be able to see over on the Facebook page (hi guys!). These new paperbacks will fit in alongside the Dark Days paperback in terms of style- and from now on, we'll be getting one cover for the hardback, and a totally different one for the paperback. Which is SWEET.
As I said, the main reason for redesigning the paperbacks is to entice new readers to pick them up, but the thing that struck us is that some of you lot will probably buy these paperbacks just BECAUSE of the new covers, even if you already own the original books. Because, you know, you're all nuts, like. And I started to feel pretty guilty about that. I didn't want you spending your money on multiple versions of my books when all you'd be getting is the same (admittedly brilliant) book with (admittedly brilliant) new covers. So, my UK and Ireland Minions, these new paperbacks, which will be out in April, will have new short stories attached for your reading pleasure. More Skulduggery goodness!
Each short story takes place a few months after the book it appears in.
Skulduggery Pleasant will have "The Lost Art Of World Domination"- a story that, I think, has only been available in Australia and New Zealand up until now.
Playing With Fire will have "Gold, Babies And The Brothers Muldoon", in which Skulduggery and Valkyrie go up against a trio of goblins.
The Faceless Ones will have "The Slightly Ignominious End To The Legend Of Black Annis", which is a Tanith Low solo story for all of you who miss her...!
Dark Days doesn't get a short story yet- we have to wait until we sell all the ones that are out there already and reprint it, and then we'll include one.
Mortal Coil gets "The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous", which focuses on Charlie Smith's fantastic creation, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie's efforts to help him out of a spot of bother.
I had an absolute blast writing these stories, and I hope they ease the pain of forking over your money for any of you who are going to buy them.
Oh, almost forgot. Another nice thing about reprints and new editions is that I get to go over the books again and get rid of mistakes. You may remember me asking you for any mistakes you've noticed. Well, I made a note of all of these, and all those corrections are now done.
Er, well, MOST of them. There's still one mistake in Playing With Fire that hasn't been corrected. On page 14 of the PWF paperback, it reads:
"The owners of the Waxworks Museum had closed it down after the events of the previous year, and set up a new and improved version in another part of the city. So now the new building stood quietly beside its neighbours, humble and drab, its front doors closed and locked and sealed."
When it SHOULD be:
"The owners of the Waxworks Museum had closed it down after the events of the previous year, and set up a new and improved version in another part of the city. So now the old building stood quietly beside its neighbours, humble and drab, its front doors closed and locked and sealed."
Alas, this mistake was missed yet again, so we'll have to wait until the NEXT reprint before correcting it.
But the biggest change to the paperbacks is to do with Valkyrie's AGE, and this is a relatively big one.
Somewhere around the third book, I stopped concentrating on what time of year each book was set at, and what age Valkyrie was in each one. Basically, I made it so that, by the time Mortal Coil came around, there was no WAY she could have been sixteen. It just didn't make sense.
So, I've gone back over the books, and adjusted them slightly. This is something I should have been doing all the way through, but I messed up. Entirely my fault.
Er, but if you're looking for silver lining, we now know what month Valkyrie has her birthday! It's August! Yay!
So, a quick rundown on our corrected timeline.
Skulduggery Pleasant: takes place in June, when Val was 12.
Playing With Fire: takes place 11 months later, in May, when Val was 13.
The Faceless Ones: takes place 6 months after that, in October, when she was 14.
Dark Days: takes place 11 months later, in September, when Val is 15.
Mortal Coil: takes place 3 months after Dark Days, in December- when Val is STILL 15.
Basically, the biggest change to the books is that in Mortal Coil Valkyrie is a little younger than she at first appeared.
Ahem.

Valkyrie's New Sibling Is A...

Okay- ready for the first official piece of news about Book 6?

A few days ago, I got a brand new niece to add to my collection. Little Clara can now join the twins as they scuttle along the floor, with their cousin Sophie looking on with great amusement.

And as I promised, Valkyrie's brand new sibling will be following suit- so Val is getting a little sister. Yay!


Any GIVEN name suggestions will be greatly appreciated...!