The Monsters of Men paperback comes out on 4 October in the UK.  Have you seen the cover?  The copper colour is actually copper foil, so it looks really cool as a physical object. 

Also four weeks and counting for the US release of Monsters!  That comes out 28 September, and I cannot WAIT to hear what you all think about it.

And meanwhile, the Swedish version of The Knife of Never Letting Go (called Tystnaden i bruset) is book of the month on Adlibris, their largest online book service.

Cool stuff all around, and greetings to the international batch of new commenters!

A quick Bank Holiday update (it's a holiday in England today, folks) to say that in the lead-up to the US release of Monsters of Men - now just a month away - there's a great article on the Huffington Post about Monsters and a little book you may have heard of called Mockingjay.  Really good stuff, and the writer is a great supporter of YA fiction, too.

Also, I think I have my first ever fan-generated site.  It's from France and by Ben, who you may have seen on the Comments page.  Check it out, why don't you?

Greeting to the new commenters, now back to my Bank Holiday...

Well, I've had a little co-ordinated invasion, I think, on the Comments page, in the best possible sense.  Quite a few people, all at once, are clamouring for more Chaos Walking and asking about the books to come.  Yes, I'm talking about you, Karly and Tiffany and Karen and Madison and...  Same class, maybe?  Reading group?  Good stuff, very happy to hear from you.

What I can say about all that is this:  My next book, planned for May 2011 in the UK, is called A Monster Calls and you can find more info about it here.  It's a different sort of thing, but I really hope you'll like it.

After that?  I don't really care for trilogies that suddenly keep on going when they really shouldn't, but whether there might be other stories to tell on New World, who can say?  I'm a real never-say-never kind of guy, and I just have to write what comes next. 

What I can say is that just yesterday (yes, indeed, 25 August) I wrote the first words of a brand new book (for after A Monster Calls).  I can't say what it's about just yet, but it's got some evil brewing in it (in a good way) that it's possible you all might enjoy.  Watch this space, eh?

I had a brilliant time at the Edinburgh Book Festival for the past couple days.  My Monsters of Men event was sold out, and I then had the longest signing queue of my life, which was brilliant!  I met tons of you, including a couple of excellent young writers.  The questions were great, the atmosphere really upbeat, I was very happy.  I think I even met FlossieTeacake who may have been disguising herself as "Rachael".

The Losing It school event with Keith Gray was the next day, and what could potentially have been a slightly uncomfortable hour was instead fantastic good fun.  430 teenagers listening and laughing and asking smart questions about a book on virginity.  A real pleasure, and a reminder once again why young adult readers are the best readers to write for.  Bookwitch wrote about this one with a photo or two.

A warm hello to all the new commenters (and yes, C, I do read them all).  A lot of questions lately about Todd and Viola's nationality, which is interesting.  Remember, they're from somewhere else, so I've always said (and mean) that they're the nationality you hear in your head when you read them.  After all, it could be you there in their place, couldn't it?

Busy day.  First up, in anticipation of the US launch of Monsters of Men, my US publishers Candlewick are asking for questions for a Twitter interview to take place on 29 Sept.  So if you've got anything you'd like to ask, give it a try!

Don't forget, I'll be at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Sunday at 4.30pm.  Looking forward to meeting you, if you're up.

The very snazzy Losing It trailer is up.  Those who've read it will know which scenes are from my story. 

And a warm welcome to the new commenters, too:  Brigid (again), Osama, Tasha, Karen (nothing wrong with talking to strangers in libraries!), Alli and Sarah.  There are questions that I know the answers to but that I like to leave you all to discuss.  It's more fun that way...

The Knife of Never Letting Go is officially out in Swedish!  It's called Tystnaden i bruset and the series is - rather awesomely, I think - called Kaostrilogin.  Pretty cool.  So, if you're Swedish, let me know what you think.

And a quick reminder I'm appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Sunday.  Hope to see you there.

And welcome to a hoard of new commenters:  Ben, Emma, Dan, Brigid, Rudi, Hannah, Jess (who's the official 1000th comment, by the way!), Christina, Abdulkareem, Liana, Zainab, Georgia and Holly.  Great to hear from you all!

Right!  There have been a lot of questions lately about eBook versions of Knife, Ask, and Monsters, particularly on the Kindle.  As in, where are they?

Well, you know all those different fonts I use throughout the books to demonstrate Noise and animal voices, etc?  It turns out, rather incredibly, that a number of eBook readers (including the Kindle) can't quite handle this just yet.  Yes, I know, amazing to me, too, but there you have it.

We're working very, very hard on solutions and, fingers crossed, we'll have one soon.  In the meantime, of course, the actual books (which are better anyway, aren't they?  I know I prefer the real thing) are available (next month for Monsters in the US).  Soon, though, for eBooks for those of you asking.  Hopefully very soon.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, hello to the new commenters:  Kim (very happy to hear from librarians!), Raya'an from Abu Dhabi (my in-laws lived for a long time in Dubai and Oman, so a big hello to the Gulf), Sarah (no, 1017 is definitely a boy, though I can guess why you're asking), David, Savannah, Katie, Tiffany and Abigail (I'd rather hear your answers to those questions, actually), Madeline, Kate (here's my reply!), Ronan and Lauren.  Great to hear from you all.

Well, there's not much, is there?  August being a very slow month for Europe.  I'm writing away, mostly, finishing up my next book A Monster Calls and already planning the one after that, which is tip-top secret but looks to be something delightfully evil.  I'll say no more, shhh...

A reminder, too, that I'm at the Edinburgh Festival on Sunday, 22 August at 4.30pm, so I hope to see some of you there.

And finally a welcome to all the new commenters:  Scott, Alex (it's not "blog", Alex, it's "biog" for "biography"), Gabriel (who seems to be the winning bidder for my Play The Shape Game "artwork"), Ben (from France), Hina, Kat and Maddy (from America), Stephan, Catie, and Joyce (from Puerto Rico!).  You're all very welcome.

A quick hit to say that in the build-up for the US release of Monsters of Men, Publisher's Weekly have just given it a highly-coveted starred review.  Excellent stuff, really, really pleasing.  Roll on September!

The ebay auction for the original artworks from the Play The Shape Game book is over, and we've managed to raise (by my count) over £11,000 for The Rainbow Trust.  The big ones were by Sir Peter Blake (who went for £2,650) and the brilliant Shirley Hughes (£1,000).  My, ahem, "artwork" went for a more modest but still flabbergasting £82.51, which was somehow more than both Ken Livingstone and Ian MacEwan.  Many thanks to all the bidders!

Also, a terrific review for Losing It over the weekend in the Irish Times by Robert Dunbar.  Great stuff!

Greetings to all the new commenters.  I'm hard at work on new writing, so things might be quiet for August, but Edinburgh Festival is coming up, so watch out for that on 22 August.