scott westerfeld

If you don’t know who Scott Westerfeld is, you perhaps have something against reading the New York Times bestseller lists. He’s been all over the lists with his UGLIES series, including hitting the top spot. His latest, the fourth book in the series, is still on. So you can imagine how pleased I am to introduce to you my:

Interview with Scott Westerfeld

1. Hi Scott, thanks for coming on! First, there’s a tradition here to describe yourself in ten words or less. The closer you land to exactly ten words of an improv bio, the more points you get:

A novelist who is waiting for hoverboards to be invented.

2. Uglies is easily your most popular series to date. How do you think writing for YA is different than when you wrote for adults?

With adults, you can afford to meander for a while before starting the story. But teens are a little bit harder to trick, so you have to write in a more direct and disciplined way.

3. Why did you decide to add a fourth book to the Uglies Trilogy?

As I was touring around for Uglies, I started to notice that some kids would ask me questions like, “Do you live in a mansion.” In other words, they were trying to figure out how famous I was. It occurred to me that fame was very important to us in this society, almost as much as beauty (the two are related, of course) so it made sense to project the post-pretty culture into that whole world.

4. All the books in your Uglies Trilogy-in-four-parts have been New York Times bestsellers- but the fourth was your first to hit Number 1. How did getting to the top feel different than the first time you hit the list years before?

Well–and this is TERRIBLY petty–but it was Jenna Bush I was pushing out of the top spot. And she’d been on TV all weekend before her book came out, and was the presidents daughter, which was kind of cheating. So, yeah, it was fun to nudge her gently aside.

5. Was it ever difficult through the Uglies series for you to write in the voices of female protagonists, since you are a guy?

I get that question a lot, but it’s kind of funny–no one asks me how I can write like a teenager *three hundred years in the future*, but the gender divide seems to throw people. Like, is being female really more different than living in another era?

6. Some of your works have been optioned for films, and I’m sure all your fans are eager for any tidbits. What’s the latest news?

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