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The voting for the next character reveal has swayed back and forth for the last week. It’s been so tight between David and Dr. Cable that I’m not even going to count the votes. I shall declare David the winner, and reveal Dr. Cable next week.

So without further ado, here is David:

Wouldn’t you love to see that dialog box on the left side? WOULDN’T YOU? Well, you’re not going to, because that would be wrong.

Shay’s Story begins about six months before Uglies, back when Shay and Zane are pals in an ugly gang known as the Crims. And, as related in the novels, Shay and Zane were going to run away to the Smoke with David’s help, but they “chickened out.” At least that’s what they told Tally.

Of course, the stories we tell about uncomfortable events in the past are often oversimplified. So I decided to come up with a more interesting reason for them to bail, resulting in Zane becoming pretty and Shay moping around until she meets Tally.

I won’t reveal here what really happened, but I can say without spoilage that Shay and David do spend a certain amount of time arguing . . .

Of course, as we all know from the novels, they do get together later in the Smoke.

There’s also some cavorting on the roller coaster . . .

One thing I liked about writing Shay’s Story (with Devin Grayson) was revisiting key locales from the original novels, like the roller coaster. Especially since we get to SEE them now. I love the way that artist Steven Cummings has made the Rusty Ruins come alive. (Well, it’s kind of dead. But you know what I mean.) In fact, I think I’ll do a whole reveal just for the Ruins.

Anyway, that’s it for this reveal. Next week it’s the deliciously evil Dr. Cable!

You can pre-order Shay’s Story at Indie Bound, BarnesandNoble.com, or Amazon. Or buy it on March 6 at a proper bookstore.

So David and Dr. Cable are pretty much tied in the voting for next week’s character reveal, and I’m missing some final images for them, so I thought I’d do an actual Fan Art Friday while the election continues!

Without further ado . . .

Here are three pieces from kikane on DeviantArt, showing Deryn and Alek in a semi-chibi mode:

They are so sweet! And I love all version of chibi-flying-whale.

From Savannah comes the unlikely genre of Legend Zelda/Goliath crossover!

I kind of like steampunk in its cute-comic form.

From Abigail, another in the new genre of Goliath Bonus Chapter art, aka Alek in a dress!

Of course, if they’re going up to Scotland to visit Deryn’s mom one day, we might get something like this scene from from Camille, featuring Deryn and Alek in kilts:

And here’s some cross-dressing cosplay from Lauren:

And from McKenna, a drawing of Deryn on a Huxley, looking down at the ground with a pensive expression:

From Ashley-wa, an entry into the classic put-yourself-in-the-ugies-cover genre:

And from Sophie, an Uglies cover collage:

I also got a huge PDF of Cl

Fan Art Friday is super late now, so I’m just waiting till . . . Friday. #isuck

But as you can see, I’ve made up for it below.

But first, shall we vote on the next character reveal? Here are your choices:

David
Astrix
Ho
Ryde
Dr. Cable
Random Special

Hmm. This one might be a bit easy. In any case, use this comments thread to vote, argue, and otherwise inveigle!

In the meantime, please enjoy this entire PAGE of art from Shay’s Story. It’s from early in the books, when Shay, Zane, and the other Crims are sneaking into New Pretty Town.

But what you really want to see is the BIGGER and ZOOMABLE version!
So click here for that.

And now to repeat the annoying news: The release date for Shay’s Story has been delayed a week due to paper shortages. (Because we decided to make it bigger, so you can see all the art better!) It now comes out March 6, 2012.

Pre-order Shay’s Story at Indie Bound, BarnesandNoble.com, or Amazon. Or buy it on February 28 at a proper bookstore.

I was all ready to reveal the manga version of Tally this week, and then realized that I didn’t have the final versions of the right pages. Oops. Then there was a bit of miscommunication, but now at last I have them!

So we are delaying Fan Art Friday (often known as Fan Art Sunday) for the Tally character reveal.

Remember that Shay’s Story (AKA “The Uglies Manga”) is all from Shay’s POV, and therefore starts about six months before the events of Uglies, back when Shay and Zane are pals. So Tally doesn’t enter until Zane and Shay have planned to run away and then “chickened out.” (That’s what they told Tally in Pretties, but it’s more complicated than that in reality.)

But when Tally appears, we are fully into the same events as Uglies, so some of the scenes below will be familiar. It’s kind of interesting, duplicating some Uglies scenes almost exactly, but in an entirely new context and from a different point of view.

Of course, there are some times when Devin and I decided to skip over a lot of the scenes in Uglies, using the wonder of montage! You may recognize these flashes from the book, when Tally and Shay are getting to be friends.

Here’s a close-up of a familiar scene in Uglies that gets swept past in this montage:

This scene is also directly from the book, but here only lasts one frame. It’s quite illuminating to see Steven’s vision of it:

What’s interesting is, when you read the book, Tally is the protagonist and is therefore the center of attention in this scene. But in the version above, you can see that Shay is the featured character. She’s literally foregrounded.

And finally, here’s an argument between Tally and Shay at a certain key point in the story:

Click here for a bigger version of this one.

The dialog is directly from the book, but as you can see, Tally has her back to us and we see Shay’s expression.

I didn’t realize any of this (at least, the visual aspect of it) until I started to look for shots of Tally, and realized that there were very few of her. Most of the time, she’s in the background and Shay’s doing something. Because the comic is all about Shay.

But there is a great shot of Tally from near the end of the book, when they’re in the Smoke. So here’s frizzy-haired, not very confident, under-suspicion Tally:

Hope you like her.

Two things before we get to Fan Art Friday:

1) Next Thursday, December 8 at 7PM EST, I’m going to be part of a Figment.com chat called “Forget English Class; What We Want to Do Is Write!” I’ll be joined by David Levithan, Robin Wasserman, and Lauren McLaughlin, whose book Scored inspired the panel.

This chat will be online, so ALL OF YOU CAN COME! Just click here for details.

We’ll be talking about how high-stakes testing warps education by taking holistic enterprises (like writing, thinking, and comprehension) and slices them into testable skills (like syllogisms and five-paragraph essays).

To prepare for this chat, Lauren and I actually took the essay section of the SAT, and had ourselves scored by a professional examiner. I haven’t seen our scores yet, but all will be revealed at the chat! (I think Figment are even putting my essay online. Yeesh.)

You can also click here for more about Scored, which is out now. It’s set in a dystopian world where every kid gets a Score when they turn 18, determining their prospects for the rest of their life.

2) There’s less than one week left in the Show Us Your Steampunk contest! Just take a picture of yourself in a steampunk outfit holding a copy of one of the Leviathan books, and you’re in. Click here for details.

Even if you don’t want to dress up, you should head over and check the contest out. There are some really awesome costumes and poses. (It’s a FaceBook thing, though, so you have to have an account.)

And now it’s time for FAF!

We begin with this Deryn chibi, by Jett-Wolfe98:

That is some cute stuff.

Also pinning our kawaii meter is this young-and-old diptych of Deryn by danakairi:

Yes, it’s Deryn in a dress. But it’s TINY WEE Deryn in a dress.

And to complete this chibi trifecta, here’s a lovely image of how Alek really feels about the air beast, from LilyFlowerG:

Okay, let’s leave the cute behind and switch to dark and brooding. Check out this moody picture of Alek in his engineering finery, from peibee-an-jay:

I always love seeing his princeliness covered in grease. Heh.

Now here’s some cosplay from Ben, who spent

I’m finally catching up on my FAF backlog. There were two weeks of tour-FAF with a Halloween FAF in between, a missed week due to the Shay’s Story cover (and laziness), and of course all those weeks I missed during tour. But at long last FAF is moving forward!

Here’s one image that was given to me on tour, but was forgotten because it was handed to me on an iPhone, then emailed. (It’s made of PIXELS.) It’s from Alli, is called “NOOOO!” and is a Tesla’s-eye-view of a certain climactic event in Goliath.

Yes, the end of a tesla-sparkle-cane looks like an ouchy place to be.

I like this one of Deryn by Hillary, called “Miss Sharp.” Clearly she’s in female clothing, but this must be a bit after the Great War ends, because it’s 1920s-looking. (I think.)

Really cool clothes, actually. I think Deryn will look excellent in the ’20s, which will also be her 20s. (Alek and Deryn were both born in 1899, after all.)

I LOVE this whale-o-plane combination of Leviathan and How to Train Your Dragon by Adventaim!

It just makes me smile.

And here’s some hydrogen-sniffer love from ladygreyembyr:

I like the texture on this one. But man, hydrogen-sniffers are anxiety-making when you really look at them. That’s what I like about Keith—he’s not afraid to draw some disturbing stuff.

And for you Uglies fans whose ears just perked up, this just missed the Halloween cosplay edition. Specials!

I must say, that line never gets old. I know someone who’s getting it tattooed on their arms, so we may be seeing it here on FAF soon.

Okay, that’s only five FAs, but Friday in the US is drawing to a close, it’s done here in Sydney, and I need to make lunch!

See you early next week for a special poll. (You will enjoy it.)

Hey, all. It’s Friday and time for FAF, but I’m delaying my weekly fan art feature till tomorrow.

Why? Because it’s time to reveal the cover for the Uglies manga, also known as Uglies: Shay’s Story!

The image is by Steven Cunmmings, the interior artist. It’s a picture of Shay herself, presumably just emerging from being made pretty. She has that pretty vacant look in her eyes. Of course, the book starts way before that, several months before the novels before the novels, in fact!

Click here for an interview with me and Devin Grayson, my co-writer on the manga, with Girls Read Comics Too. You’ll also get some images from the books.

Click here for my own FAQ, answering your questions about the books.

And here for the original announcement about the series back at San Diego Comic Con. More art to look at!

And finally, here’s the back cover of Shay’s Story, with all the promo copy.

See you tomorrow for Fan Art Friday (um, on Saturday).

Hey, everyone! I am headed to Sydney in a matter of days. DAYS!

But it’s almost Friday, so instead of packing I’ve spend the morning on this Hallowe’en FAF, starring you guys in wonderful steampunk and Uglies costumes. (Sorry if I’m missing a few names. I had a lot of these pics around.)

Let’s start with this awesome Stormwalker contraption:

That is one cool cosutme, though I fear it would be less than optimal for dancing. (Note that the kid on the right is wearing a Whoopie Cushion costume. Hmm.)

And here’s an awesome Mr. Sharp pumpkin:

I have a theory that the internets have improved pumpkin carving, because the potential audience for pumpkins is so much larger. Instead of mere dozens of people seeing your carving work, thousands will!

Here’s Dr. Barlow by Jett, complete with dog-with-streaked-fur-as-Tazza!

And now for a plethora of Deryns!

Sarah:

Lauren:

Sabrina:

Dixie:

And Lizzy:

And, because I am disorganized, another anonymous!

Julia sent me this goggle-gif:

And here’s a Deryn and

Yes, well. I’ve made it before the weekend ended. Fan Art Friday Fortnightly!

ComickerGirl has graced these pages before, but this is too funny to pass up. It shows Deryn and Alek doing some Full Metal Alchemist cosplay! Because you know Deryn would cosplay if she could, and would totally drag Alek along for laughs!

So I give you “Full Metal Darwinist”:

If you don’t know FMA, click here to see the relevant costumes. And then go read the manga and watch the anime (both of them!).

From Bridget, here are Alek and Deryn in a more clay-like form:

This is what we need, Leviathan stop-motion animation! Like Gumby, they could walk into other books and mess up the plots. Someone get on that! (And don’t forget to check out Bovril in the upper right corner.)

And now for you Uglies, from Seth, we have this painstaking rendering of New Pretty Town:

Hot-air balloons! Hovercars! Fireworks!

And from Star of Dusk, here’s a cool shot of Lilit:

I think Lilit is beloved of fan artists because she has such cool clothes. (Plus she’s awesome.) Her sleeve ties are the best. One day I’ll ask Keith where he sourced them from.

I’m pretty sure that IsabelStar has appeared on FAFF before, but this is so moody and lovely:

Click here for the bigness!

By the way, that one’s called “Austrian Princes Turning Gay.” Heh. But princes? Hmm.

Thanks to all our artists for your many efforts. If you want something included in FAFF, please send it to me, even if you’ve already sent it! (I get lots of mail and I lose track of some of it. It’s a thing I do. DON’T HATE ME.)

The next post on this blog will be ALL THE TOUR DATES. I’m very excited about seeing you guys soon (some of you *sniffs*), and about Goliath finally coming out. And I’m also excited about taking some time off after that.

What will I be doing next? Well, that’s an interesting question. There is, of course, the Uglies manga (aka the Croy Project) and the Manual of Aeronautics (aka the Leviathan Full-Color All Singing and Dancing Art Book). But there are also various secret projects which will be revealed here once they have taken some sort of publishable form.

Watch this space for revelations.