Patrick Ness's Blog, page 16

Carnegie Shadowing Site

Just wanted to take a moment again to point you to the AMAZING Carnegie Shadowing Site.  If you're unfamiliar, shadowing groups of young readers in schools and libraries throughout the country read all of the Carnegie and Greenaway shortlists, talk about them, argue about them, review them (in startlingly frank terms!), and then vote on their own overall winner.  There are already an incredible 11,000 reviews up, with two weeks to go!

I think it's one of the greatest things in the children's book world.  I'm lucky enough to have A Monster Calls shortlisted for both, but just look at all the talk and enthusiasm and opinion about all the books there.  There are also video interviews with me and a lot of the writers.  Great stuff, check it out, and if you're a shadower, a big, big hello from me.

Greetings to the new commenters (from all over the world) and enjoy the Jubilee.

Knife goes to Vermont & Israel

It's been a cool week for The Knife of Never Letting Go.  It's won the Green Mountain Book Award in Vermont, which is where readers grades 9-12 vote on their favourite book, so that's awesome.  A huge thanks and greetings to everyone who voted.

And the Hebrew translation of Knife has been shortlisted for a Geffen Award in Israel, which is an adult sci-fi award, so double cool.

More, more, more

I've been travelling (still am!) so haven't been able to update much in the last week.  Not that, after the news flood of last month, there's been much news.  But a slew of new commenters to say hello to!  I do read them all, and I would like to say that if there are ever any open auditions for Todd or Viola, you'll read about it here first, I promise.

In the meantime, how about some more music?  Let's call this The Playlist of Want, as ever, from my own iPod.

More, Sisters of Mercy - Though at over 8 minutes, a more accurate title might be "Enough"

More Than A Woman, Aaliyah - Poor Aaliyah.  When she was good, she sounded like the future.

More Than This, Roxy Music - A classic that predates even me. 

More Than A Dream, Pet Shop Boys - This album should have sold about 8 million copies.

More Than This, Peter Gabriel - Different from the More Than This above and my favourite track here.  I won't say why, but this might be a song you want to remember...

In the meantime, I'm on holiday!  My forehead is already sunburnt.  I wish you happy summer days and, as ever, more soon.

Win £1,000 books for your school

Teachers and School Librarians in the UK!  The wonderful folks at The Siobhan Dowd Trust (and if you don't know my connection to that, you really haven't been paying attention) are running a competition around the "Joy of Reading" where you could win £1,000 work of free books for your school.

Just share what you've done to promote the joy of reading in your school.  The ten best, judged by Michael Rosen, the Best Children's Laureate Ever, will get £1,000 of books for their school.  Details here.  Good luck!  The Trust really does some wonderful work...

(Also, not a clue how to get rid of that A before the pound symbol...)

Boy, it's hot in this library...

It's cold outside, but for some reason, this library where I'm working is about 100 degrees.  I've even propped open doors.

I'm just back from Edinburgh, where I had a terrific visit with Canongate, who'll be publishing my next adult novel in May 2013 (and don't worry, more YA novels are very, very much in the pipeline).  Again, it'll be called The Crane Wife, and it's lovely that you keep all asking questions about it, but I'm not saying anything yet at all, I'm afraid.  All in good time.

Meanwhile, I'm still writing, writing, writing.  Lots of stuff to come, lots of news to come, too, when it's all ready.  In the meantime, greetings to all the new commenters.  It's great to hear from you all, even if I can't answer every question (sorry!). I've also got buttons just there on the left for Twitter (on which I sark about quite regularly) and a Facebook fan page, if you're so inclined.  Good stuff coming...

What is it, anyway?

Currently in the midst of writing and re-writing a number of things, so much it often feels like my brain is going to bleed out my ears.  Let's hope not.  I do listen to lots of music while I work (and always) and noticed quite a few folks on my iPod trying to answer the eternal question.  I give you my No, That's Probably Not It playlist.

What Is Love?, Deee-Lite -  the lyrics sheet to this actually says *speaks faux French*

Love Is A Catastrophe, Pet Shop Boys - Well, of course, that's what they'd say.

Love Is A LaserQuest, Arctic Monkeys - Ditto

Love Is A Stranger, Eurythmics - It's savage and it's cruel and it shines like destruction...

Love Is A Losing Game, Amy Winehouse - Oh, when she was on, no one could touch her.

Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin, The Magnetic Fields - But a bottle of gin is not like love.

Warmest greetings to the new commenters, truly.  As ever, more soon.

Big new book announcement!

Oh, yeah, that's what I said.  This was supposed to come out next week, so I was going to have some fun building this up and teasing you all, but the internet is a leaky, leaky place so it was instead announced today, a week early.

Never mind, it's true!  The fantastic folks at Canongate Books have just bought The Crane Wife, my first adult novel in nine years, to be published spring 2013.

I'm pleased as punch.  ("pleased as Punch"?  Is it about Punch and Judy, thay saying?  We don't have Punch & Judy in America, and being pleased as fruit punch makes no sense, so...)  Anyway, very, very excited indeed, and don't worry.  This definitely does NOT mean that I'm not going to write any more teen fiction.  Not even a little bit.  Lots more to come on that front, stay tuned.  I TOLD you there were big announcements on the way...

Back from LA

Bit of gap in updates, I know, but I've been away in LA!  As I may have mentioned.  That's where I got the great movie news about The Knife of Never Letting Go, which is cool.  I do have other news, but I'm not allowed to say any of it yet, so as I always say, stay tuned, there's some cool stuff (well, I think it's cool) coming soon, I promise.  In the meantime, how about a Little Playlist, as always culled from my own iPod:

Little Red Corvette, Prince - Fabulous song, and - looked at one way - completely obscene.  So don't look at it that way.

Little Tornado, Aimee Mann - Oh, no, no, you don't know, you don't know.

All My Little Words, The Magnetic Fields - Now that you've made me want to die/You tell me that you're unboyfriendable.

A Little Respect, Erasure - Oh, you sing along, you know you do, and we all miss that high note.

Little Lion Man, Mumford & Sons - Everyone seems to moan about Mumford & Sons, but this is a great running song, especially when you sing the naughty word very loud.

Big Love, Jim Moray - And one "Big" song; Jim Moray's cover of Fleetwood Mac, revealing it was a stomping folk song all along.

Greetings to all the new commenters - I do promise that all movie news will be here first - and as I said, more soon.

MOVIE NEWS! Really quite cool movie news...

Charlie Kaufman, Oscar-winning writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which I think is one of the greatest films of the last 25 years) and Being John Malkovich, is going to write the script for the movie of The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Yeah, I know.  Seriously.  I don't even know what to say next.  Charlie Kaufman!  I just can't tell you how excited I am about this news...

LA Times Bookfest today

 VERY quick hit as I'm travelling and would like to get out of this hotel room, please, but a reminder I'm on (in a couple hours!) at the LA Times Book Festival.  Hope to see some of you there.

Greetings to all the new commenters; I really am sorry I can't respond to them all (I'd have no time to do any other writing!), but I do read every single one.  There's some exciting bits of news brewing, so as I always say, more soon...