Patrick Ness's Blog, page 7

JIM KAY ILLUSTRATING HARRY POTTER!!!!

My staggeringly wonderful illustrator for A Monster Calls, the lovely Jim Kay (who just beats David Almond as the loveliest man in publishing) has just been announced as the illustrator for a lavish, new, full-colour set of Harry Potter books. He was hand-picked by JK herself. I'm so busting with pride I don't know what to do with myself.

Interview at the DC National Book Fair

Hey, some nice soul has put up a video of me talking at the Washington, DC, National Book Fair.  Kinda fun, take a look.

More Than This has also popped up on some nice Best of the Year lists, including this rather cool one from Kirkus.

There's some exciting news coming up, too, on a number of fronts, so stay tuned! Greetings to the new commenters (and yes, I do read every single one and am so grateful, thanks everyone!).

London event (and America to come!)

Back from lovely, gorgeous Slovenia, where I had a wonderful, wonderful time.  You should go!

Holidays are coming, obviously, but I wanted to let you know I'm going to be at the Imagine Festival on the South Bank in London on 15 February!  Come along, I do shamefully few London events.

Also, stay tuned for some very excited news about a US tour at the end of January for the launch of The Crane Wife!  I mean, seriously, I'm going to be LOTS of places.  I'll tell you as soon as I can.

Thanks to the new commenters, and more soon...

Stop the presses! Shortlisted for UK Author of the Year!

Well, two updates in one day! I won't know what to do with myself. But I've just discovered I've been shortlisted for UK Author of the Year for The Crane Wife in the National Book Awards.  I'm up against some ludicrously fantastic people (Neil Gaiman, Kate Atkinson, Maggie O'Farrell, Jim Crace and Iain Banks), but what fun!  And for The Crane Wife, too, which is so pleasing.  Now, off to Slovenia!

Slovenia (and keep bidding!)

Just a quick reminder that I'm in Slovenia this week, so do please drop by and see me if you're Slovenia-ways.

And is open until Wednesday to be .  Though the current high bid is really quite awesome.

Greetings to the new commenters.  Off to Slovenia!

Your name as a character in my next book!

There's a FANTASTIC project going on at the moment called Authors for the Philippines, raising urgently needed money for hurricane relief.  You can bid on over a hundred cool things donated by authors including !  That's right.  If you're the winning bid, I will probably do something awful or terribly sad to you in my next book.  You might not even be nice, but that's just a risk you're going to have to take.  It's open internationally, but please bid in pounds.  Good luck!  And look around the site, there's amazing stuff.

In other (far more selfish news), the US publication of The Crane Wife is in January, and the countdown has been kicked off by an amazing review in Maximum Shelf.  I thought it was just going to be the interview with me that you see there, but golly.

Finally, I just want to say that I get a lot of requests through my comments section, and I just am so honoured and touched and LUCKY that people ask me stuff.  I wish I had time to answer them all, and I'm so sorry I can't, but I do read every single one (honestly, I really do).  I'm so grateful to you all, from all over the world, like Malaysia and Germany and even Utah.  Greetings to all of you, and I so hope I get to meet some of you on the road (like next week when I'm in Slovenia!).

Slovenia!

I'm off to Slovenia next week!  So do please come and see me, and I'm so looking forward to it.  Plus, it's my last book tour trip of the year (and boy, it's been a busy year), so looking forward to going out on a high note.

Hello to the new commenters (and congrats to the MSU class on your victory over Kentucky, by the way). I'm working like crazy on tons of stuff, so there's more to come...

Antwerp Book Fair!

Hi, there, I'm afraid I won't be doing any public appearances in Amsterdam after all (but a TON of interviews, so look for me in a bunch of Dutch and Flemish newspapers, including De Telegraaf), but I will be at the Antwerp Book Fair on Saturday!  I'll be speaking at the De Morgen stand (400C) with noted Belgian child psychiatrist Peter Adriaanssens, then signing after at the De Morgen stand (400C) and the De Geus stand (340C).  Hope to see some of you there!

Happy Halloween! And Dios de los Muertos. And Guy Fawkes...

Wow, I've been crap updating this in October, haven't I?  I've been very, very, very, very, very, very, very busy. And had a cold.  Are my excuses.

So what have I been doing?  Well, I can't tell you yet (when I can, I will) but I'm working, I'm working. In the meantime, both The Crane Wife and More Than this are out to be read, and The Crane Wife comes out in America in January (and it looks like I'll be doing some touring for it).  I'm also in Amsterdam, Brussels and Antwerp next week, including for the HUGE Antwerp book fair, then Slovenia later in the month.  Further details when I get them.

I also bought the new Arcade Fire and the new Lorde albums.  Good stuff, good good stuff.  Captain Phillips gave me motion sickness, and I quite liked the new Woody Allen (though I always wonder if he's ever met any black people).  And I do read all the comments, for which I thank you enormously and wish I could respond to them all.  More soon, I promise.

YET MORE EVENTS! This time in the Northeast of England.

So I'm back (ever so briefly) from so many travels I'm never quite sure where I am these days.  But there's more to come!  Especially if you live in the Northeast of England.

I'm at Leeds Waterstones on Friday 25 October at 630pm.  Tickets are available by calling 0843 290 8443.  Details (but not tickets) are here. 

Then I head on up to Gateshead for the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival.  I'll be there talking what sounds like interesting stuff at 1015am on Saturday 26 October.  Tickets are free but must be reserved.

Then I'm off to Dundee for the Dundee Literary Festival at 11am on Sunday 27 October.  Their website is a bit hard to navigate, but you can get (quite reasonable!) tickets here.

Greetings to all the new commenters and thanks so much for all the people who've been reading More Than This over the past month!  Really heartening.  More soon.