June 2010 Archives

A number of you have been asking about audio books for Chaos Walking, and I can announce that US audio versions of 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 programming (all those different fonts make ebooks an especially huge challenge for my books) so stay tuned for that as well.

Hello to all the new commenters.  Great to hear from you, especially about Monsters of Men!

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, William).

In other news, tickets for Edinburgh Book Festival go on sale tomorrow.  I'm appearing on Sunday, 22 August, at 4.30pm to talk about Monsters of Men.  And you can also get free tickets for my Losing It event at Foyles, Charing Cross, on Thursday, 22 July at 6.30 by emailing events@foyles.co.uk.  Again, that one will be about the Losing It anthology with Keith Gray and others, but I'll also happily sign Chaos Walking books, too.

Greetings to the new commenters, thanks for all the Carnegie best wishes, and more soon.

 

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.

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 FREE, just email events@foyles.co.uk to reserve a place.  Even though it's for Losing It, I'll also happily sign copies of Monsters of Men and the others, too.  Hope to see you there!

Huge greetings to all the new commenters (too many to name)!  Some great new ones, too.  And so many that I'm really going to have to start thinking about a re-design, huh?  Hmm, time to put some thinking into that...

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), Sarah (not sure you looked all that hard, it's in my short story collection, after all :-), Ava, Anna and Meg.

Back in a week!

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...

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 4,000 views now), Eva (I'd have to say A Wrinkle In Time), Ally, and the Richmond NY Book Group (honestly, it just happens; I wish I knew why).

Sorry I can't always answer everyone's questions, but it's great to hear from you all.

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.

And of course, I'm currently working on a book inspired by the last writings and ideas of Siobhan Dowd, also for young adults.  This one could turn out really cool, a real special little thing if I get it right, so I'm working hard!

And after that?  Well, I've got some real mischievous, evil ideas for big books like Chaos Walking which I think you all might like.  So, lots to come!

Welcome to all the new commenters, especially the guys from ZombieGrenadier, teenage makers of the fan trailer for The Knife of Never Letting Go.  3,000 views and counting!

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?

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 Simon, who was a hoot and a holler, as my southern grandma used to say.  Great fun all around.

I've also just received the first copies of Losing It, an anthology for older teens which has new stories by people like my own good self, Keith Gray, Jenny Valentine, Melvin Burgess and Anne Fine.  It's out 8 July, and more about it soon.

Greetings to the new commenters:  readers, librarians and teachers alike! 

I'm off to the Hay Festival in Wales tomorrow, getting there a little early for my events on Friday and Saturday.  It's a huge, popular festival open to everybody, so I hope to meet some of you there.

And here's a helluva cool thing.  A couple of young guys who call themselves ZombieGrenadier have made a trailer for The Knife of Never Letting Go on YouTube.  How awesome is that?  Seriously, hats off, guys.  Brilliant stuff.

Also, too, there's now an American version of the Monsters of Men trailer as well.  Check it out.

Finally, big welcome to the latest commenters from all over the world:  Rebecca, Emma, Louis (yes, Louis, definitely the third book in German; it's called Das brennende Messer and is out 1 October), Bethany S, Linden, Rebecca, Sarah, Roy (there's a Swedish version coming, Roy, and we're working on Norwegian!), Megan, Veronica, Zoe and Melanie.

I always edit out spoilers, but I do read all your thoughts on them, so feel free to write whatever, and I'll just edit out stuff that's not for the public.  See you in Hay.