Patrick Ness's Blog, page 28

Odyssey and La Guerre du Bruit

A bit book news-heavy, this one, I'm afraid, but good stuff.  The big news is that the US Knife of Never Letting Go audio book was made an Honor Book in the very prestigious Odyssey Awards announced yesterday.  Congrats to Nick Podehl, who did the reading, and Brilliance Audio who made it.  Good stuff!

Also, my number one French Fan Ben' (who you may have seen on the comment pages) is exactly right in saying that the French version of Monsters of Men is called La Guerre du Bruit ("The War of the Noise") and looks to be out next month.  It's got a cool cover, too.  Check it out, if you're a French speaker.

Welcome to all the new commenters (especially all the Japanese speakers; my class starts a week from today).  Nice to see a very early comment on A Monster Calls, about which there'll be plenty more soon...

Minna no Nihongo!

I don't know what that means yet, but I will soon, as I've just purchased my first set of school textbooks in, well, a very, very long time.  In two weeks, I'll be starting a Japanese language course. 

Why?  No other reason than that I want to.  I've been to Japan and loved it, Japanese is my favourite kind of food, Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite writers, I could go on, but really, I'm doing it just because I feel like it.  I'm pretty much a complete novice.  I can count to three and say "Excuse me", which is "Sumimasen", by the way, and which I actually used once at DisneyWorld to catch the attention of a Japanese woman who'd dropped her guest badge.  See?  Useful already and eager to learn more.  I wonder if Japanese will start popping up in my books...?

Greetings to the new commenters.  I'm thinking of adding an FAQ to my website, one of which will certainly be a very common question indeed:  Is 1017 a boy or a girl?  I know why you might ask, and the answer is he's a boy.  It's a big world with all kinds of people in it, thank goodness.

16 Miles

As I've mentioned, I'm running the London Marathon in April (15 weeks from yesterday, to be exact).  I'm raising money for Breast Cancer Campaign, if you'd like to donate, but mainly I just wanted to tell someone, anyone, that I ran 16 miles yesterday in my best time ever.  Runners will know how good that feels.

Now, that's not a marathon, of course, but it's the longest I've run in two years.  I had my water and my energy gels (which, frankly, "Strawberry Banana flavour" my ass), and off I went.  Got through some great tracks on my iPod (everyone from Green Day to Shakira to Bow Wow Wow (important not to be a snob about music)), much of which I shouted discordantly as I ran.  You haven't lived until you've heard my tone deaf rendition of "She-Wolf".

What's amazing about this is that I was no kind of athlete when I was a teenager.  I was one of those kids who sat at the back, quietly making the kid in front of me laugh his head off (so they got in trouble, not me).  I took up running as an adult, and now I'm about four marathons in and love it.  Wish I'd started sooner, but it's never too late (never too early, either).  Now if I could just do something about the chafing...

Book news today is that Monsters of Men has been shortlisted for the really cool Indie Lit Awards.  These are awards picked by non-publishing-affiliated bloggers (i.e. completely independent), so if they pick your book, you know it's because they like it and no other reason.  A real honour, I must say.  Check 'em out, the shortlists have got to be the most interesting I've seen.

Welcome to the new commenters.  I've had a well-earned day off running today, but six miles tomorrow, ten the next day and the road goes ever on.  14 weeks, six days to go.

Happy New Year

Happy 2011 everyone!  My year's begun with a broken Sky box and a broken car.  Looking on the bright side, lots of time for reading, eh?  This year will bring a new book by me and Siobhan Dowd, but this really is just to say Happy New Year to you all (and especially the new commenters).  In honour of the date, an EP of "New" songs from my very own iPod:

1. New Born, Muse - Muse is basically the best soundtrack to my books, you know.

2. New Dress, Depeche Mode - Sleazy electrobeat, years ahead of its time.

3. New Moon on Monday, Duran Duran - Because what's New Year's without at least one enjoyably naff embarrassment?

4. Down Is The New Up, Radiohead - Nope, I don't know what it's about either.  V dramatic, though.

5. New Year's Day, U2 - Of course, but it's from before they got all speechy.

Happy New Year, more to come...

Knife for a pound!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!  I did, really nice.  We had a good friend over for dinner, and then we watched DVDs and played on the new Wii.  I now have a sore arm from getting over-enthusiastic at Wii tennis.

Any of you in the UK get a new Kindle for Christmas?  Well (and sorry for the advertising plug here) Amazon.co.uk are doing a Twelve Days of Kindle promotion from now until 6 January where you can test out your new Kindle with 40 different books each costing just a Pound.  And The Knife of Never Letting Go is one of the 40, so for the next ten days or so, you can Kindle it in the UK for a single, bitty pound.  Not bad, eh?  UK-only, I'm afraid, though.

Off out to do some more marathon training, but first, I do get asked a lot where people can write to me (physically, not email, which is better, don't you think?).  It's super-easy; just open up your copy of the books to the page at the front with all the tiny writing and write to me care of my publisher's address in whatever country.  Every one of them forwards your post along to me, so easy as that. 

Happy New Year if I don't get back here before then!

Christmas!

Yep, as you may have noticed, the diary's been slowing down in recent days, but hey, it's Christmas!  And I'm snowed in.  Again.  Which doesn't happen often in southern England, so twice in a month is really something.

I've also noticed this year that the diary has really turned into an "I'm doing this, here's a review of that" type thing, where all I ever talk about is work work work and self-promotion, etc, etc.  Which isn't how I started this diary, so I think that's going to change.

Not that I won't keep telling you important things like where to come see me if you want or when a new book comes out, but all work and no play makes a diary a dull, dull place.  So as we head into Christmas (Merry Christmas and all other December holidays to everyone) and greet the New Year, a pledge for a less promo-centric website.  Maybe I'll even do a redesign in the new year, who knows?

In the meantime, happy holidays, welcome to all the new commenters (a ton of you), and I leave you with this: Have you ever noticed that Chewbacca is basically just Bigfoot?

Monsters of Men on Best of the Year lists (and a really cool write-up from a librarian, which is even better)

Monsters of Men has made it onto a couple of Best Books of 2010 in the US and in Ireland.  First up, the Washington Post's Express newspaper made it the only children's book on a list that included David Mitchell, Nick Hornby and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is brilliant.  They also called it "2010's most insane young adult/sci-fi novel."  I'm happy with that.

And in the Irish Times, the estimable Robert Dunbar put it on his list of favouries of the year.  A real honour.

Finally, the librarian at Clydebank High School in Glasgow wrote up a really nice review of my visit there a few weeks back on the Scottish Book Trust website.  I can very easily say right back how great the audience was there:  attentive and funny and asking great questions.  Good stuff all around, and I must say, a rather nicer feeling than even end of year Best Of lists, eh?

King Lear and then the government...

Saw King Lear at the Donmar this week with Derek Jacobi, the hot ticket of the winter season.  He's just staggeringly good in it; the first time I've ever been moved to tears by Shakespeare.  Didn't really dig the fellow playing Edmund, but Jacobi's amazing.  The run is sold out, but you can get standing tickets on the day.  Check it out.

The next night, I went to a drinks reception at no less than the Houses of Parliament.  It was for the All Party Writer's Group, particularly talking about the PLR.  But also a chance to meet MPs, Lords and Ladies.  A nice party, after which I went out to dinner with friends Meg Rosoff, Mal Peet, and Anthony MacGowan.  Extremely good fun, with conversation that would been quickly disqualified from the Blue Peter Awards.

Video and press!

There's now a whole page up on the Scottish Book Trust website talking about my tour of Glasgow schools last week, which was terrific fun (lots of comments from people who were there).  It includes a video of me talking to Chris from SBT, and though I think I look pretty tired (I had a cold, but yeesh, I need a holiday), it was a great week.

Monsters of Men also got a fantastic mention in the Telegraph over the weekend.  They called it "one of the greatest ever sci-fi triliogies for teenagers", which is cool.  Also, an equally cool mention in the Post in Ireland on Sunday.  Nifty stuff.

Greetings to all the new commenters.  If you'd like to donate to my Marathon fund-raising, that'd be great, too, though at the minute, I'm completely snowed in, so training is suspended for a day or two.

Please give!

As I've mentioned here before, I'm a marathon runner.  I'm running the London Marathon next April, and I'm raising money for charity along the way.

My next book, as many of you know, is A Monster Calls, finishing up the final idea of the brilliant Siobhan Dowd who died of breast cancer.  In honour of her and of the book, I'm raising money for Breast Cancer Campaign and I'm already off to a roaring start, nearly £3,000 already, which is great.

I'd be delighted if anyone out there were willing to sponsor me, too, and raise money for a great cause in memory of a great writer.  Just go to this website and donate online, easy as anything, and you'll get a personal thank you from me.

Greetings to the new commenters (and I'm sorry I can't answer all your questions!), including a number of brilliant students from some of the schools I visited this week on my trip to Glasgow with Scottish Booktrust.  A great week, met a ton of cool people, and really liked Glasgow, too. 

But if you are able to donate, that'd be brilliant, big or small.  Many, many thanks in advance.