LITERATURE + LECTURES

Blue Willow Bookshop presents Scott Westerfeld, Tuesday, October 12 at 5pm. We're delighted to welcome Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series. He will be at Blue Willow to discuss and sign his newest YA steampunk novel, Behemoth.

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker Powers.

Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's ahead.

The Author Writes:

Scott Westerfeld is me. I’m the author of five science fiction novels for adults. I’ve also been an occasional ghost writer, which is like driving someone else’s car really, really fast for lots of money. (I could tell you what famous authors I ghost-wrote for, but then I’d have to kill you.) In my artsy days, I wrote music for artsy downtown New York dancers, some of which sounds like this.

I have written three sets of books for young adults. The first is called Midnighters, a tale of five teenagers born on the stroke of midnight, for whom time freezes every night, revealing a dark and terrible hidden world. All three books are out now.

My other trilogy is Uglies, set in a future where cosmetic surgery is compulsory when you turn 16, making everyone beautiful. Of course, there are some people who want to keep their own faces . . . but they’re not allowed. All three books—Uglies, Pretties and Specials—are out now. A companion novel to the trilogy, Extras, will be out in October 2007.

My third set of books is three stand-alone novels from Razorbill, all set in contemporary New York. The first is So Yesterday, about a cool hunter who runs afoul of a plot to end consumerism. The second is called Peeps, a "vampire" novel. The third is The Last Days, set in the same world as Peeps, which is also out now. I’ve also written a few short stories that you can find online for free, but be warned that all of them contain dirty words.

I was born in Texas, and split my time between New York City and Sydney, Australia. (I have more frequent flyer miles than you do.) You can read many personal details of my life on my blog. And consult the Scott fact sheet here.