Patrick Ness's Blog, page 15

US news and vote for me!

A very quick hit from my holiday (which I'm still on, so leave me be!) to say the excellent news that I've agreed a deal with Penguin Press to publish my next adult novel The Crane Wife in America!  That looks to be later next year, and they publish amazing folks like Zadie Smith and Ali Smith, so I'm delighted.

I'm also extremely delighted to say that A Monster Calls has won the Staffordshire Teen Book Award, which is voted on by young readers, so that's just brilliant.  Many, many thanks to everyone involved.

AND the Russian version of The Knife of Never Letting Go has been nominated for an award there, and you can help by voting for it!  Just go here, press the blue button underneath the Knife book jacket (the one with the boy and the wolf), then "like" it on Facebook.  I've got great publishers there, and they'd love your support.

Now, back to the sun...

BBC Breakfast

Well, annoyingly, I can't find it on iPlayer, but I was on BBC Breakfast this morning, debating darkness in children's books with another YA author who, rather surprisingly, brought up the dead, self-defeating idea of labels for children's books again.  Go ahead, label children's books, see how suddenly darker they get to push the label's edge and how much children will over-reach to read books that are "too old" for them.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, and I say that knowing it probably wouldn't hurt my own sales any.

It's summer holidays!  So no updates here for a little bit.  Don't despair (oh, please, don't despair).  I've got lots at the Edinburgh Festival coming up, and more things soon.  Greetings to the new commenters, and now for a wee rest.

Quick hits for 4th of July

Happy 4th of July, everyone.  And I do mean everyone, why should the rest of the world have less-than-pleasant 4ths of July just because there aren't any fireworks?

A few quick hits today.  The estimable John Green said very lovely things about A Monster Calls in Time Magazine this week.  Have a gander (and read some John Green books).

I'm being interviewed by Mark Lawson at the Children's Media Conference in Sheffield tomorrow night, then on a panel with Meg Rosoff on Saturday at the UKLA Conference (where A Monster Calls is shortlisted for the UKLA Award, which is cool).  Then I'm on holiday, so leave me alone! 

No, really, in the meantime, don't forget about me at Edinburgh Festival, lots of cool things to see.  Greetings to the new commenters, and there are things still brewing so, as always, more to come...

Edinburgh Book Fest tickets onsale!

Tickets for all my events (and indeed, everyone else's) are now onsale for the Edinburgh Book Festival in August.  The site is quite busy this morning, but fear not, lots of time and lots of tickets available.  My events again are:

I'm one of the five keynote speakers (along with Ali Smith, Irvine Welsh, Ahdaf Souef, and Aharon Appelfeld) speaking at the Edinburgh Writers' Conference, a recreation of the infamous one from 1962, with Norman Mailer, Mary McCarthy, William S Burroughs and others. The keynotes (mine's on censorship) deliver a 15-minute polemic, which is then debated - hotly, they're hoping - by 50 writer delegates and then the public. I'm on the Monday, the 20th of August. Come give me some support. Or argument.

Also on the 20th of August, I'm doing a massively cool thing where I'm chairing China Mieville's big event. We're in conversation, so if you like him (or me), it's a good 'un.

And of course I'm doing my own event about A Monster Calls and what might come next, chaired by the terrific Keith Gray, on Thurday 16 August .

Hope to see a lot of you there!

Cheshire Book Award

Just found out that A Monster Calls has won the Cheshire Book Award, which is fantastic!  These regional awards are brilliant (and I know because I've won a few, smiley face emoticon), because they're chosen by really committed young readers themselves, which such an enormous compliment and endorsement.  HUGE thank you to everyone involved in Cheshire, I'm delighted.

Edinburgh Festival! (I'm there a lot)

I'm doing a whole bunch of different things at the Edinburgh Festival this year, so I very much hope to see a lot of you there.

First up, I'm one of the five keynote speakers (along with Ali Smith, Irvine Welsh, Ahdaf Souef, and Aharon Appelfeld) speaking at the Edinburgh Writers' Conference, a recreation of the infamous one from 1962, with Norman Mailer, Mary McCarthy, William S Burroughs and others.  The keynotes (mine's on censorship) deliver a 15-minute polemic, which is then debated - hotly, they're hoping - by 50 writer delegates and then the public.  I'm on the Monday, the 20th of August.  Come give me some support.  Or argument.

Also on the 20th of August, I'm doing a massively cool thing where I'm chairing China Mieville's big event.  We're in conversation, so if you like him (or me), it's a good 'un.

And of course I'm doing my own event about A Monster Calls and what might come next, chaired by the terrific Keith Gray, on Thurday 16 August

The links are all on the dates and tickets are on sale 29 June.  Greeting to the new commenters (some really heartfelt ones that are brilliant, thank you) and hope to see some of you in Scotland in August.

In Defence of Teenagers Comment article

Thanks so much, everyone, for the very kind words about the Carnegie/Greenaway wins for A Monster Calls!  Really wonderful to hear, thank so much.

The Guardian asked if I would expand on my Defence of Teenagers in my acceptance speech and turn it into a Comment article for their editorial pages.  The online version is here, if you're interested.  I also review the unusual and striking Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers in the Guardian as well.  Have a look.

A Monster Calls wins both the Carnegie and the Greenaway

I'm pretty sure you all know this by now, but yesterday, A Monster Calls won both the Carnegie and the Greenaway, which is the first time that's ever happened in the history of anything.  Turns out I'm also only the second person to win two Carnegie Medals in a row.  All in all, a bit overwhelming, but I'm SO pleased, especially for Jim Kay winning the Greenaway and that people will have more reasons to talk about the late, great Siobhan Dowd.

There's been a ton of cool coverage of it:  a big thing on the BBC, a really good article in the Guardian, a very thoughtful blog in the Independent, a profile of me and Jim in the Telegraph, a How We Made in the Guardian about the book, plus a bunch more all over the place.  You can actually hear the whole ceremony online, including mine and Jim's speeches on the Carnegie site, too.

Thanks so much for all the congratulations and nice things you've all been saying in the comments section and on Twitter.  An amazing day yesterday, not least meeting the fantastic Shadowing Groups who came to the ceremony.  Wow.  I really do need a lie down.

Shadowing and the Inky!

Just back from a great day talking to a couple hundred Carnegie Shadowers in Berkshire.  I'll use the opportunity here to tout the Shadowing Scheme again (it's brilliant) and ask you to wish me and Jim luck for Thursday's big announcements.

In the meantime, A Monster Calls has been longlisted for the Silver Inky in Australia, which is cool, especially against a heckuva strong list.  Vote for me if you're Australian!  Or you know, whoever.

Greetings to the new commenters. More soon.

Upcoming

It's been quiet lately, but there's a lot of stuff upcoming.  Today, for example, I review Chris Cleave's Gold in the Guardian, and they also announce this year's Guardian Children's Fiction Prize longlist, which has some really good stuff on it (and if you're eligible, be sure to enter the young critic's prize).

Next week, is the Carnegie Medal ceremony, so keep your fingers crossed for me (and Jim in the Greenaway), but again, lots of good books here to check out.  The week after that, the Edinburgh Festival programme is announced.  Couldn't possibly comment at the moment, but that might be of interest...

A bunch of school and library events in the next month, too, plus conferences and writing and so on until, frankly, I get a well-deserved holiday in the sun, thank you very much.

There really is more coming soon, I promise, and in the meantime, greetings to all the new commenters, this time from as far as Morocco (and that YouTube video by Ellie is pretty cool...)