Patrick Ness's Blog, page 33

Audio Books!

A number of you have been asking about audio books for Chaos Walking, and I can announce that US audio versios The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men are on their way starting in August!  I'll keep you posted on details.

There are also exciting things in the works for audio in the rest of the world, too, very soon, so stay tuned for that.  But the message is, Audio is on the way!

As for Kindle (some of you have asked for that, too), we're working hard on the ...

Carnegie and Edinburgh Fest tickets on sale!

Neil Gaiman won the Carnegie Medal yesterday for The Graveyard Book, beating The Ask and the Answer.  How do I feel about that?  Well, I did review it for the Guardian and said all manner of wonderful things, so maybe I can take partial credit, eh?  Great fun at the ceremony, too.  Neil himself is a lovely guy, very gracious (and said very nice things about Chaos Walking, so really, we're cool).  Plus, great to meet all the Shadowers, too, including a few commenters on this site (Hi...

Carnegie Medal announced tomorrow

The winner of the Carnegie Medal is announced tomorrow.  I've been shortlisted for The Ask and The Answer and so I'll be at the ceremony, where I think I'll be meeting a few of you who've won a competition.  Excellent, can't wait.  Thanks for all the best wishes for award, too!  We'll see how it turns out tomorrow, eh?

Quick welcome to the new commenters, still loving to hear reactions to Monsters of Men.  More soon.

London Event in July!

Back from a great teaching week at the Arvon Foundation in Yorkshire.  Really terrific group of people and excellent writing.

Breaking news:  I'm going to be at Foyle's bookshop on Charing Cross Road on Thursday, 22 July, 6.30-8.30pm for the launch of Losing It, to which I've contributed a brand new short story (first review here!).  It won't just be me, there'll also be the most excellent Keith Gray, who edited Losing It, along with Bali Rai, Mary Hooper, and Sophie McKenzie.

Tickets are...

Away for a week

Which pretty much covers it.  I'm teaching an Arvon Foundation course this week with Celia Rees and Meg Rosoff, so there won't be updates for a bit.

Just time to say hello to the new commenters before I go:  ZombieGrenadier again (I have a mental picture, but I'd be more interested in what you think), Alex (here's a whole bunch of writing tips on all different kinds of subjects that I wrote for Booktrust), Eloise, Ben (who made a fan trailer for Le cercle et la fleche, out now in France)...

Photo in today's Times

A quick hit - and one that involves buying today's Times - that I'm in a photo spread featuring writers and actors and others who are members of The London Library.  I'm in a group shot with people like Sarah Waters, Kazuo Ishiguro and Philippa Gregory (who's tremendous good fun, by the way).  It's in the magazine and probably won't ever be online, if you can imagine such a thing...

Losing It review and event

Before I leave to teach the Arvon Foundation course next week, just a quick hit to say that the first review of Losing It is up on Bookbag.  They loved it, which is great.

I'll also being doing an event in London (at last!) for Losing It in July at Foyles with Keith Gray and others.  Details and how to get free tickets up soon.

Quick welcome to all the new commenters:  Amber (it's available on some booksites, but I'd hate for you to spend a fortune), Kelly and Jack (about the fan trailer, over ...

Bits & Bobs

Lots of stuff has been going on these past few weeks (scroll down to see it all).  I'm off to Yorkshire all of next week to teach an Arvon Foundation course with Celia Rees and Meg Rosoff.  Ought to be grand.

I keep being asked what's next after Monsters of Men.  The two big ones are things I've already discussed here on the site.  The first is a new short story in Losing It, a book for older teens about ... wait for it ... virginity.  Hot button stuff, I wager!  That's out 8 July in the UK.

An...

'Knife' in the New Yorker

A quick hit for a very cool thing:  The Knife of Never Letting Go gets discussed in the latest issue of The New Yorker in an article about YA dystopian novels.  Great to see YA fiction get the attention, eh?

Irish Times Review

There's just a great review of Monsters of Men in the Irish Times this weekend, written by the great gentleman of Irish critics, Robert Dunbar.  Really, really amazing stuff, very much appreciated.

I'm back from a fine few days at the Hay Festival.  A huge solo event on Friday evening, where I got to meet some great people (hello to you all again!), and then a fun Author's Question Time event Saturday morning, with big ol' panel including Morris Gleitzman and Horrid Henry creator Francesca...