Patrick Ness's Blog, page 29

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, 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.

Pre-order A Monster Calls

My next book, A Monster Calls, out on 2 May 2011 in the UK (and September 2011 in the US), is now available for UK pre-orders, if you want.  It's on Amazon.co.uk and Waterstones.com.  (Amazon incorrectly omits Siobhan Dowd under the author names, but we're working on getting that fixed right away.)

Anyway, no rush, it's not out for another six months, but since some of you have been asking...

Amazon podcast and Booklist interview

A big day of press for me in the United States!  Amazon.com have posted a video podcast of me that they recorded when I was in Seattle recently.  I have a remarkably quiet voice, it seems, but turn your volume up loud and check it out.

Also check out an interview I did for Booklist with the estimable Michael Cart, a real titan in US children's publishing and a very cool person to be interviewed by.  Nice stuff, I really appreciate it.

Greetings to the new commenters, and now I really must get writing...

Watch me online in a tux!

That is, of course, if you have nothing better to do with your time today.  But the Galaxy National Book Awards - for which Monsters of Men was nominated and which were on TV on Saturday - are now available to watch online for the next month. 

I'm interviewed twice in the opening 2 minutes, which is cool, and then the children's award is about at the 33 minute mark.  Note: this link may only work in the UK (and you do have to watch a few ads first) and, again, I don't know why you'd want to see it, but since some of you have asked, here it is.  Me in a tux, a rare sight!

Thanks to all the new commenters, sorry I can't answer all your questions, and the free pdf download of The New World story seems to be working again.  Check it out!

Me on TV on Saturday

But not on either X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing.  Last night was the ceremony for the Galaxy National Book Awards, and I got all fancied up in my tuxedo (that picture makes me look really smug, but what I'm really trying to do is not laugh at the bank of cameraman snapping photos of someone they've probably never heard of!).

Monsters of Men didn't win its category - losing out to a baby dragon - but the whole thing was celebrity-filled and filmed for television.  It'll be on more4 on Saturday, 13 November (this Saturday!) at 7.30pm, so tune in!  I was filmed a couple times, so we can all find out together how much made the final cut.

Monsters on Best Books of the Year (and other important stuff)

Monsters of Men was just named one of Publisher's Weekly's Best Children's Books of the Year in America.  Which is great news!  They say really nice things about it, too:  "Few books in recent memory have addressed issues of warfare, racism, misogyny, and human nature with such power."  I'm happy with that, eh?

I've also been getting lots of messages asking about the FREE Chaos Walking short story The New World on Kindle, and where to get it if you don't have a Kindle.  Not to worry!  You can download a free Kindle reader for your PC and then download the story, which would also allow you to download other Kindle titles.  OR, if that doesn't work, you can also download a (slightly less fancy but still free) pdf here.  My main goal is that everyone get it for free if you want it.

Tomorrow night is the big ceremony for the Galaxy National Book Awards, where Monsters of Men is shortlisted in the Children's Book Category.  It's being recorded for TV and will be shown on more4 on Saturday 13 November at 7.30pm.  I've got my tux, wish me luck! 

Carnegie Longlist and Hungarian Knife

While I've been away from my computer for a day or two, the Carnegie Medal longlist was announced and Monsters of Men is on it!  Which is brilliant, but even more so in that it's an incredibly strong year.  There are so many fantastic books on the longlist, you should definitely take a look.  Lots of great reading there.

In other cool news, The Knife of Never Letting Go has just been released in Hungarian!  It's called Kes A Zajban and they've even made a trailer for it.  I'd LOVE to hear from some Hungarian readers, so let me know what you think!

And welcome to the new commenters from all around the globe, including the 1200th one from a great-sounding teacher in Texas!  Don't forget to scroll down for a sneak peak at the cover of my next book.  More soon...

A Monster Calls cover sneak-peak

It's really far too early to be talking about this in detail, but the cover's all finished for my next book (after Monsters of Men, which is going great).  Here it is: 

It's called A Monster Calls, and I wrote it from the final idea of the great Siobhan Dowd.  Pretty cool, eh?  All ominous and moody and awesome.  And just wait until you see the illustrations inside by the artist Jim Kay.  They're amazing.

It's out in hardcover in May 2011 in the UK and September 2011 in the US, so this is just a teaser.  For those of you who keep asking, it's not a Chaos Walking book, but it's a dark, funny, and hopefully really moving story that I'm really, really proud of.  Needless to say, there'll be more info in the days ahead...

Me on the radio!

If you're living in (or near) Wisconsin today, tune into WUWM today at 10am Wisconsin time and listen to Lake Effect, where I am a guest! 

Everyone else in the world can just go here and click the 1 November program (when it's ready, sometime later today) and hear me all over again.

Greetings to the new commenters (and once again, I do read them all!).  More soon.

Galaxy National Book Awards

Monsters of Men has been shortlisted in the W H Smith Children's Book of the Year category in the newly re-launched Galaxy National Book Awards.  Which is nifty.  The shortlist is an eclectic one, and very cool to see Monsters in the mix.

Even more amazingly, the awards are going to be on TV!  I know!  How often does that happen to a book awards show?  They're going to be shown on More4 the evening of Saturday, 13 November, so just a couple weeks.  You might see me on TV.  I've already got my tuxedo lined up...

More news on this when I get it, but pretty cool, I should say.