Last chance to get the Humble Bundle: Pay what you want for 15 books, support charities, authors, read!

It’s been insanely cool to be part of the very first Humble Ebook Bundle along with Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Kelly Link, Mercedes Lackey, Paolo Bacigalupi and fabulous cartoonists including xkcd, Zach Weiner and Penny Arcade.

In two weeks, the bundle has sold to over 80 000 people and raised over a million dollars to be split between several worthy charities and the participating authors.

I’m going to say that again: A million dollars in two weeks.

Who says reading is dead?

It’s a very exciting experiment with new distribution models that, as Humble co-founder Robert Martinez says over on Huffington Post, “respects readers”.

Alison Flood wrote a great piece on the grand, mad experiment over at The Guardian, which looks at why it’s been such a surprising success.

You pay what you want, decide how to divide the money (between the authors, charity and a tip for Humble for putting it together) and the files are available in a variety of formats, DRM-free, which means no-one is going to remotely erase it from your e-reader.

Pay more than the average (currently sitting at $14.18) and you get bonus books, up to f $160 worth of kick-ass novels and comic collections.

The response has been terrific, in part because many of the contributing authors have super-high Internet geek cred of note, but also because people feel like they’re getting a great deal on high calibre books, and they’re being trusted and respected as consumers.

It’s been freaking awesome.

But it ends in 12 hours! So if you haven’t got one yet, you might want to buy it right now at HumbleBundle.com before it’s gone forever.

(And while we’re on the subject of Bundles, I also just bought the MacHeist app bundle for $29 which includes the world’s best writing software Scrivener (worth $45), which totally saved my ass managing a twisty time travel novel with three different intersecting timelines – plus some games and things. Totally worth it.)

Comics Signing at Reader’s Den & Fairest Reviews

This Saturday I’ll be doing a signing of Fairest #8, the first in the six issue Hidden Kingdom miniseries set in the Fables universe that I’m writing for DC Vertigo with art by the brilliant Inaki Miranda and coloring by Eva de la Cruz.

If you’ve never read Fables, don’t sweat it, all you need to know is that it’s fairytale refugees hiding out in the real world, but oldschool fans of Bill Willingham’s epic series will appreciate the cameos.

There’ll be cool giveaways, including original artwork by Inaki Miranda and the poster of Adam Hughes’ insanely gorgeous cover.

The first reviews are coming in and it’s really lovely. So cool and unreal to have a comic “for real life”, as my four year old daughter would say.

So here’s a round-up:

“Beukes takes advantage of the possibilities of her subject’s world to produce an astonishingly strong debut…Miranda’s art is bombastic, fueling the storyline with even greater energy” - Weekly Comic Book Review

“The Hidden Kingdom looks ot be as big, interesting, gritty, and fascinating as the real thing and it’s only getting started. Inaki Miranda’s art work really nails all of the characters, while having a certain style about his drawings.” - - Futile Position

“Rapunzel’s past comes to find her in a visually breathtaking attack by paper cranes in a flurry of broken glass and blood. Beukes niftily combines two allusions into one: a thousand origami cranes, which by Japanese legend can grant one wish, and death by a thousand cuts, a form of torture and execution from Ancient China. A detour to Brooklyn draws Jack Horner into the net of the story, and Rapunzel draws in a further portion of the Fableverse by appealing for help first from Fabletown’s government, and then, in desperation, from a seedier source… Miranda and De La Cruz’s [art and colors] jump from the noisy city chaos and the teeth of a new adversary to the muted, minimalist last page instills creeping dread and suspense in the reader for what trials and horrors await Rapunzel in her quest to be reunited with her children.” - ComicsBookResources

Beukes has done a fantastic job setting up this story. There is an air of mystery woven throughout, as well curiosity about Rapunzel’s tie to Japan and her children. For an introductory issue to a new arc, it sure gets the job done.
And the cover! Can Adam Hughes do no wrong? THE VERDICT: It’s a buy, especially for people interested in the Fables universe.” - Talking Comic Books

“A new story, The Hidden Kingdom, begins! Now, in all honesty, all I really need to do is show you all the cover and tell you the story is as hot… a must read story for long time fans of Fables!” - Bullet Reviews on ComicBooked

“Fairest #8 starts off a killer Rapunzel story. @laurenbeukes is a fantastically talented find! Sharp characterization and dialogue!” - @comixreviews

Humble Ebook Bundle

I’m completely thrilled to be part of this awesome thing! The Humble Ebook Bundle with a terrific selection of books at whatever price you want to pay!

The books included are Zoo City by, er, me, the brand new Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow, Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link, Invasion by Mercedes Lackey and Pump House Six by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Pay more than the average price (currently $10, although Wil Wheaton just bought the bundle for $242) and you unlock two extra books: Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Signal to Noise and Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.

Choose how much you want to pay and choose what percentage is split between the authors and charity.

DRM-free , naturally!

It’s all up to you.

But only for the next 15 days, so get on it quick!

Buy the Humble Ebook Bundle here

Fairest of them all…

The first issue of “The Hidden Kingdom”, my six-part standalone story for Vertigo Comics’ Fairest series is out today!

Fairest is a spin-off title of Bill Willingham’s incredible long-running, super-award-winning grandscale epic of fairytale refugees in the real world, Fables, that celebrates its tenth birthday this year.

Fairest #8 with words by me and art by the brilliant Inaki Miranda, colors by Eva de la Cruz and cover art by Adam Hughes, is the first issue in “The Hidden Kingdom” that will unfold over the next six months (ie. issues 8-13).

(It’s a stand-alone prequel to Fables. You don’t need to have read any of Fables of previous Fairest issues, although I’d highly recommend them and long-time fans will enjoy some of the cameos. New readers need to know that fairytale characters from the Homelands have fled the evil invading forces of the Adversary and are hiding out in New York City.)

Here’s the official blurb:

Rapunzel’s fast-growing hair is the least of her problems. Her adopted witch mother thinks she’s a slut, origami birds carrying a sinister message are attacking her window – and now, she has to defy Bigby and Snow’s orders to travel from New York to Tokyo and resolve a mystery from her troubled past. Hungry ghosts, talking cats, vengeful lovers scorned and monstrous yakuza await under the hot neon lights as Rapunzel seeks answers…and vengeance.

Comic Book Resources has a sneak preview of the first six pages

CBR also interviewed me about why I was intent on taking Rapunzel to Japan, how I got a break into comics through the absurd generosity and talent-spotting ability of Bill Willingham, who FORCED me to meet with his editor, Shelly Bond, in New York, and comics vs novels.

And over at the Forbidden Planet’s Director’s Commentary blog, Inaki Miranda and I interviewed each other about working together, handling sex scenes delicately (includes the line: “Is that panda scissoring Jack?”) Japanese pop culture, bad-hair days, our favourite scenes and influences.

We also pitted our art against each other, with my original layout sketch versus his… Click here to read it  (and see why I shouldn’t be allowed near a pencil).

Fairest 8 will be out in the UK and the USA today and in South Africa by the weekend. (Comic shops I know about include Reader’s Den in Claremont, Cape Town, Outer Limits in Cape Town CBD and in Melville in Johannesburg, Cosmic Comics, Smallville, and Zed Bees in Joburg)

You can also get it for iPad on Comixology.com. (South Africans will have to use iTunes vouchers)

I’ll be making an official “appearance” at Reader’s Den on 13th October to sign comics, books, poodles, people’s foreheads, whatever you like really – with some great giveaways, including a poster of the Adam Hughes cover and an original signed sketch by Inaki Miranda. Come along.

“I, for one, enjoyed our murder play date”

- my friend, Katherine Fitzpatrick on taking me novel location scouting for The Shining Girls in Chicago in April with her two year old daughter in tow…

The Shining Girls plays cover girl

It’s insanely cool to see The Shining Girls on the cover of Little, Brown’s US spring/summer catalogue. Especially as I’m in the copy-edits phase of working on the novel about a time-travelling serial killer, which means it’s easy to get caught up in fixing annoying typos and repeated words and clumsy sentences and one minor but annoying plot hole (thank the lit gods for good editors) and forget that it’s a book I’m pretty damn excited about.

Lovely to be reminded that other people are too.

And here’s a sneak peak of me reading from the novel at The Kitschies event at the Free Word Centre in London, appearing with China Miéville and Patrick Ness (I’ve linked to their brilliant readings as well)

Lauren Beukes reading from The Shining Girls at the Free Word Centre

Patrick Ness reading from The Crane Wife at the Free Word Centre

China Miéville reading Three Moments of an Explosion at the Free Word Centre

Donga Anthology Launch in Cape Town

Donga was a cool online literary zine in the early 00s that was one of the first places to publish my fiction as well as some other really exciting South African voices.

They’re launching an anthology with an evening of music and words on Thursday night, 7pm at Joule City, 1st Floor Spracklen Building, 107 Longmarket Street, corner Longmarket& Plein, Cape Town

• “A good place to go shoot tin cans, dongas are dangerous to people and animals. They undermine houses.”At the turn of the millennium donga was South Africa’s wildest literary journal. In the brief three years of its existence it thrilled on risk taking, publishing everyone from Lionel Abrahams, Robert Berold, Lesego Rampolokeng, Ivan Vladislavic, Kelwyn Sole and Ike Mboneni Muila, to Richard Fox, Aryan Kaganof, Gary Cummiskey, Bernat Kruger, Lauren Beukes, Nadine Botha, Toast Coetzer, Stacy Hardy, Pravasan Pillay, and many more. Now for one night only, to celebrate the launch of the new donga anthology edited by Alan Finlay and Paul Wessels, you get to party like its the year 2000! » read more

Some lovely coverage x3

I was interviewed by Comic Book Resources about my six issue run on Fairest, the Fables off-shoot, published by Vertigo and why I decided to take Rapunzel to Tokyo. Short answer: who could resist yokai, yurei and yakuza? (Watch out for news on a launch event at Reader’s Den in Cape Town with cool giveaways in October).

The cover art for issue 2, below, is by the brilliant Adam Hughes. But the inside art by Inaki Miranda is also just awesome.

Charl Blignaut aka @sa_poptart, surely South Africa’s most interesting Tweeter, profiled me for City Press: The Writer Who Tamed Monsters (with gorgeous photographs by Casey Crafford and Christof van der Walt).

In the interview, I talk about upcoming projects including Fairest, the Zoo City movie in development and how I’ve been stalking actors like Idris Elba and Giancarlo Esposito, and my new novel about a time-travelling serial killer, The Shining Girls coming 2013.

The US cover from Mulholland is featured below.

You can read the first chapter here.

And finally, The Guardian listed Zoo City as one of their top 10 Contemporary African Novels!  (Thanks to Mari Hannah for the photo)

Animals that like rain and novel tolls

I’ve been in novel deadline hell (plus double dose kidney infection) for the last four weeks. It’s been lockdown at the keyboard and my husband has been basically operating as a single dad while I put in 8am-midnight work shifts.

I know how bad it’s been because my (almost) four year old daughter told her teacher, very excited, “My mommy’s finished her book. So now she can play with me!”

So it was great to get some real time with her this last weekend, hanging out, visiting friends, going to The Book Lounge, attending the madness of a four year old’s birthday party and going to watch Brave, which was brilliant, hilarious, warm, moving, high adventure unadulterated Pixar-goodness. K has pronounced the fiery heroine, Merida, her “favourite princess”. (We did buy the picture book to discuss the scary bear scenes before she saw it, because it is a very scary bear).

Huge thanks to @drwave from Pixar for sending the matching mom-daughter-dad Brave t-shirts and inside-out transforming Hamish-bear, all of which accompanied us to the 3D screening.

But the best moment on the weekend came visiting Sarah Lotz (aka half of SL Grey, aka half of Lily Herne), which was her first choice when I told her we could do anything she wanted.

Sarah is one of K’s favourite people (and, I recently discovered, the source of the terror among the kids in our neighbourhood of the story of the lion who lives behind the mound of dirt at the end of the park)

It was pouring with rain as we drove up to Sarah’s Noordhoek farm and when we spotted a horse wearing a raincoat, my daughter demanded to know why.

“Because she doesn’t want to get wet in the rain.” I explained, and then asked, rhetorically, rolling my eyes,  ”Because honestly, what kind of animal likes rain?”

K answered thoughtfully: ”Ducks do! And snails.”

“Oh yes. That’s true. Look, there are some more horses.”

“But mommy! They don’t have rain coats.”

“That’s why they’re hiding under the tree. They don’t like the rain either.”

And then we spotted Sarah’s horse, Donatello. A huge shaggy war charger beast, not unlike the horse in Brave. He was standing in the middle of the paddock. Proud. Noble. Soaked.

“<gasp> Mommy! Donatello is in the rain! He’s getting all wet! Why is he standing in the rain?”

I racked my brains. Dammit. “Um. Maybe he likes the rain.” Inspiration struck. “Maybe it’s because he has a little duck in him.”

To which she replied, indignant. “Well he must spit it out!”

It was awesome.

I’ve missed her.

Brighton and London in September

I’ll be in the UK in September for a few events I’m pretty damn excited about, including some sneak preview readings from my new novel, The Shining Girls, due out next year.

Here’s the line-up.

6 September: Brighton SF (Brighton)

Readings and chat with me and Brian Fricking Aldiss*, moderated by the wonderful Jeremy Keith. It takes place after the Improving Reality Conference (featuring Warren Ellis among other interesting people) and one day before dConstruct and combo tickets are available.

(*not his actual middle name. As far as we know.)

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7 September: dconstruct (Brighton)

A one day conference with a fairly incredible line-up of people from scientists and coders and documentary makers poking at all the interesting places technology and culture intersect.

I’ll be talking about imagined futures and the power of storytelling (hint: it’s got slightly more charge than an AA battery).

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11 September: The Kitschies present… Beukes, Miéville and Ness (London)

Genre’s smartest, most progressive, irreverent and entertaining lit award, The Kitschies, run by Jared Shurin and Anne C Perry, have managed to get all three winners of The Kitschies’ Red Tentacle, together for the first time. Me plus favourite author guys China Miéville (The City & The City) and Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls).

Readings from our new stuff,  a panel discussion about SF and social change, signings and most importantly, drinks!

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I’ll be in town with my family, so I’m not really doing too much press stuff, but if you’re a journo/blogger/podcaster and you want to get hold of me while I’m in town, email me. Lauren {at} lauren beukes {dot com} and I’ll see if I can make a plan.