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Where in the world is Neal Shusterman?

2024 has been off to a whirlwind start! It began with the AMAZING news that I won the Margaret A. Edwards award –ALA/YALSA’s lifetime achievement award! What an incredible honor! I’m still reeling.

All of February was spent abroad, so I thought I’d dedicate this newsletter to world travel!

First, I spent two weeks visiting my son, Brendan, in Bangkok, Thailand where he works teaching English to language learners at a prestigious school. As Brendan works all day, I was able to spend my weekdays going to interesting places and writing up a storm! Tons of work got done in “All Better Now” – the first book of a new, big YA series!

Then it was off to Singapore, where Brendan and I spent a few days at the most sci-fi hotel in the world – the Marina BaySands. Spent two days speaking at Singapore American School – the second largest American school in the world.

From there it was off to Taiwan, where I spenta few days at the American School of Taipei, and the European School of Taipei.Got to visit Taipei 101 – one of the tallest buildings in the world, and the volcano – no lava, but lots of steam vents and boiling hot springs!

Next stop: Seoul, Korea, where I met with fans at a book festival, and visited Seoul Foreign School!

What I was most impressed with in all the schools I visited was the creativity and talent of students in the writing workshops I hosted! Wow!

The Creative Corner

Welcome to The Creative Corner where Neal answers the big questions about his process and the inner workings of his stories. Much more goes into a book than the actual typing (or, in Neal’s case, first penning) the words! This newsletter’s theme is Travel, so we’ve got to know about the settings, journeys, and environments that not only are brought to life in Neal’s works, but also inspired by real life locations and experiences!

Q: What settings in your books were inspired by real world places you've visited?

Whenever I visit a new place, I try to find ways of including it in my writing.  A few good examples are in Gleanings. London is an important part of “Meet Cute and Die,” Thailand is the location of “Black Knight’s Tango,” (which is only available in the Barnes and Noble special edition), and Barcelona plays heavily into “Persistence of Memory,” – although a lot of the Spanish flavor comes from Jarrod and Sofi, who are much more familiar with Spain than I am. 

When I was researching the Hoover Dam, for the Star Shard Trilogy, I went there specifically for the book, and took the in-depth hardhat tour—and what I learned and experienced became key aspects of the story.

Q: When you base a setting off a real place, is the culture of the fictional place similar to the real world place?

I always try to be true to culture – which can be a challenge if the story takes place in the future.  Then I have to extrapolate how that culture might have evolved, based on where the world has gone in that particular future.

Q: Are the characters from your fictional places inspired by real life people that lived in the inspirational location?

I never base characters on actual people.  I like my characters to be their own unique individuals!  But I do try to make characters true to the culture of the location where the story takes place—but I also have to be cognizant of not telling someone else’s story.  Sharing a fondness for a culture can easily cross the line into cultural appropriation—but I don’t believe writers should avoid writing about other cultures. How else do we learn empathy and understanding if we don’t put ourselves in other people’s shoes? But we need to be aware of how we’re doing it.

Q:  Of all the places your work has taken you, what are some of your favorites? 

Whenever I travel, I like to find cool placesto write. I’ve written on the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. I’ve written in the Sistine Chapel. I’ve written in the Starbucks that overlooks the infamous “Shibuya Scramble,” in Tokyo, I've written on tons of cruise ships, and I’ve written on the acropolis in Athens, right in front of theParthenon!

Q: If you could teleport anywhere in the world, where would you go to write?

It would have to be a place I’ve never been.  My current teleportation choice would be a villa on the isle of Santorini. But only if I could take some of my writer friends, and we could do a writing retreat together!

Q: Are there any real places or place names coming up in yet to be released work? Where? What's next?

In my upcoming novel “All Better Now,” I include things from my recent visits to Brazil, Australia, andSwitzerland.   I’ve recently visited Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea for the first time.  I’m sure that I’ll somehow include them in an upcoming book!  And I’m hoping to spend a little bit of time on an oil rig that’s been converted into a hotel, for my upcoming novel “No Such Place.”  That’ll be wild!

Speaking of travel, how about space travel?

Noah Prime must set out to save his friends and the universe once again in this jaw-dropping sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel, I Am the Walrus.  

Noah Prime never expected to wind up a fugitive hunted by aliens.

To be honest, he had never even believed in aliens…until a team of them blew up his house. He escaped—and managed to save the world—by using his mysterious ability to harness the traits of every animal on earth. Now he’s in hiding, and thinks all is well.…

…Until his friend Ogden buys a star for Claire, the most popular girl in school. However, instead of a quaint romantic notion, it turns out to be an actual real estate deal—andaliens from that star system abduct Claire to take her to the nasty, trash-filled planet she now owns.

It’s up to Noah, Sahara, and Ogden to cross the cosmos in search of Claire to save her and her strange new world from the evilest body-snatching worms in the galaxy.

This time it’s going to take a lot more than walrus blubber, cheetah speed, or skunk funk to save the day…it’s going to take friendship of the most extraordinary and extraterrestrial variety.

Critically acclaimed authors Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman are back with an action-packed, laugh-out-loud sequel to the NewYork Times bestselling novel I Am the Walrus, perfect for fans of Eoin Colfer and Rick Riordan.

End the school year with an author visit from me!

This could be your last chance!  Moving forward, I’m going to be doing fewer traditional book tours, so there will be fewer chances to have me visit your school. I have made this decision in the hopes of having more time to write more books for readers like you! 

Eric Elfman and I will be on this tour in early May for our new book, SHOCK THE MONKEY (second book in the NOAH Files series). It will be a very LIMITED tour this time – only a few locations. And while my usual presentation fees start at $5,000, this will be the last time I do steeply discounted stops in the form of a book tour. Want to snag one of the last spots and get a free visit? Read more below.

How are we choosing locations? Since we want to reach as many readers as we can in a short time, we're doing it differently than previous tours.

Whichever school districts are the first to organize a large district-wide event at a single venue, and can commit to a presale of 300 copies of the new book will get a spot on the tour. We're not limiting this to the just usual cities! It will all come down to which school districts are motivated to do a large district event. It could be anywhere. It could be you!

And for this tour, we're waiving our speaking fee in exchange for more pre-sales, and larger audiences.

If you're a teacher, librarian, or administrator, and are interested, fill out this form >> https://bit.ly/ShockTheMonkey_Signup

This form is NOT for students. Please respond only if you're a teacher, librarian or administrator.

Are you in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut?

If you’re just one school hoping for a visit and are in NY, CT, or NJ, we have a special offer for you. If you can commit to preordering 150 copies of SHOCK THE MONKEY, you get a free visit for just your school! Or 75 copies and a $750 author fee.

Fill out this form if you’re interested!

Looking forward to getting back on the road, and meeting readers!

Best regards,

Neal & Eric

Book covers from around the world

Since I’ve been traveling, I thought about all the different international releases of my books. Look how different a cover can be dependent on the country of origin. Same book–completely different interpretations!

The first photo is the original US cover at its release. The second is the cover now. After that, it’s French, Italian, Indonesian, Catalan, Polish, and Chinese!

From the library

Hello educators! I want to donate a new section of my newsletter to you.

I’d love to include a guest column whereteachers, educators, and librarians get to share their thoughts on happeningsin the classroom and how my books affect you and your students. Each newsletterwill have a prompt or theme. Since this is the first one, we’ll startsimple–Which of my books most impacted you?

Submit your piece here and you might be featured in the next newsletter!

Ask YOU anything!

Hello readers! This one's for you. In this new section of the newsletter. I get to ask YOU questions, and we’ll feature 3 of the most insightful answers in the next newsletter.

The theme of the first one is VILLAINY: Who’s your favoriteVILLAIN from my novels? What makes them the best (or worst)? And in a death match against all my other villains, who would be the victor? Submit your answers here or post your votes on socials using#AYAShustermania

Artist alley

There’s a lot in this newsletter for writers in our community, so I also wanted to include something for the visual artists like my daughter (who’s actually illustrated my most recent bookplates for COURAGE TO DREAM!)

In this new section, we’ll be sharing the previous newsletter’s art submissions, which will have a prompt.I’d like to see you illustrate a moment from one of my books, and, so we have a common theme for the next newsletter, let this be a shining or dastardly moment for one of my villains. You can choose any book, any scene, any villain. I can’t wait to see what you create.

Tag your submissions with #ShustermanArtistAlley on social media to enter your submission.

Fanart with links to original artists!