June 2011 Archives

Hi, all, tickets for the Edinburgh Book Festival are now on sale!  I'm doing two events, a solo event about A Monster Calls on Saturday, 20 August, and a panel event on dystopias with Moira Young on Sunday, 21 August.  Tickets are available here.

Also, rather sheepishly, but I've been getting requests for it:  if you'd like to HEAR me give that Carnegie speech (with all the ums and pauses and swearing), you can do so here.

Greetings to the HUGE batch of new commenters, including no less than the estimable Anne Fine, former Children's Laureate.  Excellent, great to hear from you all!  More soon...

I've won the Carnegie Medal for Monsters of Men, which is just unbelievably brilliant!  You should check out both the people who award it and the brilliant Shadowing Scheme that accompanies it.

I gave an acceptance speech, which included a defence of both libraries and young readers, and it's kind of taken off, unexpectedly.  You can read the whole speech here, and there's further coverage on the BBC, the Guardian, the Evening Standard, and the Bookseller.

There's also a really nice (and lengthy!) profile of me in today's Independent, though I do have to say I'm not actually 40 just yet. Inevitably, though.  And I was also on Front Row on Radio 4 (at about 22 minutes, after Barry Manilow!).

Thanks so much to all the congrats from the new commenters.  Busy days!

Quick hit today to say that the awesome event I got asked to do at Mr B's Book Emporium in Bath last week included The Bookshop Band singing two songs they wrote based on A Monster Calls.  And now you can see them, too.  One song is here, and the other here.  How cool to have someone write songs based on a book you wrote, eh?  Nifty.

Also, check out this "It Gets Better" video from a bunch of US children's authors and illustrators.  It really does, you know.  Take it from me.

The first official US review of A Monster Calls is in Publisher's Weekly today.  And it's very, very good, gosh!  A starred review (which is great) and lots of very nice things to say.

Also had a really good review in the Irish Independent over the weekend, so I shall now go and say bad things to myself in the mirror, lest I get a big head.  Ah, a big head!  That's a good place to start...

On Wednesday, I shall be doing an interview on Twitter from 1.30-2pm BST with the Carnegie Shadowing Group at Roundwood Park School, the day before the winner of the award is announced.  To have a look, follow both me on @Patrick_Ness and them on @RPS_Library and look for the hashtag #nessvisit. 

Greetings to the new commenters and, as always, more soon...

A real quick hit to say that the excellent Kim Harte was on Irish Television this week talking about a couple of books for young readers, including A Monster Calls, so check that out here.

There's also a podcast of me on RTE's Arena programme, and another where the panelists do a big, long review of A Monster Calls (though in the second one, they do get Jim's name wrong; it's Jim Kay), so check 'em out!

Greetings to the new commenters (and tons of writing tips here), more soon...

I can't believe how slack I've been on updating this lately, but I've been VERY BUSY with all the stuff for the publication of A Monster Calls.  I do have some things upcoming, though.

I've heard rumblings that my event at Mr B's Book Emporium in Bath on Thursday may be sold out, but give them a call and see.  In the meantime, I'm doing two events at this year's Edinburgh Festival. The first is a solo one about A Monster Calls on Saturday, 20 August, at 3.30; the second is a panel with Moira Young the next day, Sunday, 21 August, also at 3.30.  Hope to see you there at both.

In the meantime, Monsters of Men has, as you probably know, been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.  The winner is announced next Thursday, so fingers crossed!  But check out the Carnegie Shadowing Site.  There's video of me and lots of reviews of all the books.  A good site.

Also just to say again that you don't need an e-book reader to read the free Chaos Walking prequel short story "The New World".  Just go to this site and download it as a pdf.  Free for all fans of the books.

Thanks to all the commenters from all over the globe (and the poets, too).  Much more soon...

I've got a public event coming up next week at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath, on Thursday, 16 June, at 7pm.  These are a really different kind of author event, so take a look.  Tickets are very limited, but give them a shout for more info.  Hope to meet some of you there.

I've also just go brand new covers for the Korean versions of Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer, plus the Turkish version of Ask.  I'd love to hear from readers of both.

In the meantime (and completely un-book-related because I do get weary of only seeming to write about book stuff lately! I'm a person! I'm interested in lots of things!) here's the happiest 4 minutes of music you'll ever see in your life.  Greetings to the new commenters (I do read them all), and (much) more soon...

It's been a bit, hasn't it?  Sorry, but very, very busy and travelling and promoting (and writing!  Don't forget that).  In the meantime, there's been such a lovely flood of reviews for A Monster Calls on some terrific blogs, including Capricious Reader, Jess Hearts Books, It's a Book Thing, Ficsation and The Book Smugglers (and others I'm sure I've missed, sorry!). 

There's also, just today, a really nice review by a young reader on the Guardian Children's Book website.  Nice stuff.

I've also had a flood of copies of Chaos Walking in other languages!  At the moment, you can check out one, two, or all three of the books in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Swedish, Hungarian, and most recently, Korean (which I'd love a link for), Slovenian and now Bulgarian.  With more to come, including Czech, Serbian and Hebrew very soon.  I'm always DELIGHTED to hear from readers who've read me in translation.

Greetings to all the new commenters from around the world (and I've been to Canada several times, but can't make any promises about the biting).  Much more to come in the weeks ahead, just you wait and see.