Young Wizards Book 10: the title

[Diane Duane]

June 23, 2011 -- EDITED TO ADD: We've now completed the contest extension that we added to accommodate the readers of Due to the appearance of this featured author profile at Author Turf. The winner of the sixth cameo is @texstar / Bianca Bickford. Congratulations to her, and to the other five winners!

And the title (which most of you will know now) is:

Games Wizards Play.

...And now, the initial contest having been handled, let me say that as the new book makes its way to and through the publisher (and because this is after all a book about games, on a number of levels...), there are going to be a number of competitions in coming weeks and months to mark the major stages. Some of these will not be announced on Twitter (by me or Lee, anyway) but will be exclusively for the Forum membership. And some of them are going to involve some rather nice prizes. So if you're a Forum member and have fallen a little out of the habit of visiting the Forums between books, I'd suggest you might want to change that habit a little and look in more often... or (at the very least) subscribe to one of the RSS feeds that will alert you when something of note is going on here. If you're not a Forum member, but you're interested in taking part in the events to come, please join the Forums and make yourself at home!

As I mentioned previously, the book's "long form" blurb has been posted here. That should give everyone something to discuss for a little while. And Lee is looking into some custom conferencing software that will let us have an online Q&A about the new book in a couple/few weeks.

Meantime, thanks to everyone who's participated! Keep an eye on the Forums: there's more to come...

[Elita Justice]

YES. I love the title, not just because it seems to pay homage to "Games People Play", which is just a wonderful concept, but because I read this title in an interview with you a couple months back, and it's been eating away at the back of my mind as a possible title ever since. So glad to finally get confirmation! Let the speculation begin!

[LifeSong]

Aaaaah I had to wait for it!! But now I know it!!!

Games Wizards Play. Games . . . Wizards . . . Play. gameS wizardS plaY. Nice! ^_^ As for speculation, my brain is dead right now, and so I honestly have no idea . . . does it have something to do with ROSHAUN?? It has to. Or maybe not. I dunno. But I'm hyper now!!

[running_alone]

I remember this title from something... can't remember what. I'm glad we're all official now, and I'm glad to know that it's well on its way to being published! I love YW!

I re-tweeted, too, and then ran around telling people. Wish we got extra points for that (just kidding). Kit Rodriguez was really, truly, my first crush (and the first in a long string of fictional characters I wish were real). It would be so very gratifying to get to be in a book with him.

Really, though, I'm so excited! I might have to finish up some fan art/fan music just for this occasion!

[Reading Redhead]

Went squeeing to a friend about the title. Her first response: "You mean like Quidditch?" No, no, wrong wizards, these ones are cooler. My mind actually went straight to wondering about the chapter title motif -- could it possibly be names of games? Dairine, Roshaun, and "hide and seek" just keep swimming around in my head!

Also retweeted. I've been following these books since I was in elementary school, now I'm headed off to grad school in New York in the fall, something I suspect I wouldn't have considered without the intervention of certain wizards at crucial moments along the way.

[summer-breeze01]

Wow, logging on for the first time in an extremely long time (yeah, I thought finally after a super-busy senior year I was going to have a life (read: time to hang out in internet forums) in college. Whoops). And although it took me a while to remember my login information, it was totally worth it because you guys have been graced once again with my wonderful presence!

Anyway, enough of that. This is super-exciting news! Of course I've already re-tweeted (question: how does that work since my username here doesn't match up with that one), and now I'm looking forward to reading everyone's reactions and all the speculation about what the plot will be!

Besides, not that I've ever needed one since I was given the first two books for my 10th birthday, but I now have a handy excuse for a YW reread for possible clues!

[sharklord]

Through miraculous coincidence, I happened to be looking at twitter (something I almost never pay that much attention to), and low and behold I see the most awesome thing ever. #epicwinning.

Also, I think wizards should play Khet (google it, it's awesome--think "chess-like game with lasers") with stronger lasers and tiny worldgates instead of mirrors.

Though it's been a while since I've been around actively (ha, now people who came after me are talking about how they've been away for a while--man I feel old) it's nice to see thinks are still perky over here! And yes, it seems I still have a problem with the overuse of parentheses haha.

[Trialia]

Yay, book 10!

[PosiCat]

#10

Wow, 10 books already, it seems just moments ago I was holding the "Support your local wizard" edition of the first 3 books in my hands hoping there might be a 4th book. There's been a lot of life in between, on both sides of the pages. Congratulations on hitting book #10, and if you keep writing them, I'll keep reading them.

Dai stiho!

[Wizarding Monkey]

Yesssssssss!!!

WAHOOOOOOOOO!!! I am so excited to hear that the 10th book has been named! I've been a fan since before the 7th book was out in paperback! I remember the looooooooooooooooooong wait for book 9... I've been here since around 2004! Man... I feel kind of old now. LOL I can't wait until, if this does happen that is, the ARCs start to have the winners... Being able to read AWoM as an ARC had to have been my best Christmas present that year... LOL I... I... Ohhhhhh.... Is it bad that I also met my boyfriend in Cedric? My 6 year long boyfriend... We are going on knowing each other 7 years and dating 7 years too... Ohhhhh... This is going to be a GREAT GREAT time!! :-D

[running_alone]

Went squeeing to a friend about the title. Her first response: "You mean like Quidditch?" No, no, wrong wizards, these ones are cooler. My mind actually went straight to wondering about the chapter title motif -- could it possibly be names of games? Dairine, Roshaun, and "hide and seek" just keep swimming around in my head!

Also retweeted. I've been following these books since I was in elementary school, now I'm headed off to grad school in New York in the fall, something I suspect I wouldn't have considered without the intervention of certain wizards at crucial moments along the way.

I fell in love with New York when I started these books, as well. Now I love it for many other reasons, but YW is where it all started. I'm also hoping to head out there for grad school. Funny how life works out, isn't it?

[BeowulfMacCool]

I'm also hoping to head out there for grad school. Funny how life works out, isn't it?

Count me in as another Young Wizards fan/grad student. I've loved these books since I found "So You Want To Be A Wizard" in my elementary school library, some 15 or 16 years ago. Right now I'm just finishing off a marathon re-read of the entire series.

The title and blurb have me all excited. Given the notion of wizardly games, can we expect any references to "The Wounded Sky," or even "X-Com"?

[96bookworms]

pleeeeeeeaaaaaaase!!!!!!!! See, I've just gotten back from south africa/paris......and I haven't checked the webpage in a while. Can I just say that I am Sooooooooooooooooooo glad I picked this time to do it?!?!?

[FocusPunch]

I can't help it. Too many romance comedy movies. "games" leads me to think of romance. And of the TriWizard Tournament (what, I'm a fantasy fan! YW is my favorite). I read briefly about the book, and I'm VERY excited for it! Ha, I'm a sophmore in college now, and I remember finding I think the fourth one, in middle school, around six years ago. It's a series worth sticking around for. These will be my kids' bedtime stories some day.

I actually didn't understand, nor have the attention span to want to understand, a lot of the stuff that went on in the books when I was younger. Little details that I REALLY enjoy now. I've reread many of the books several times now.

[Gorramshiny]

When I first saw the title, I immediately thought of the Alan Parsons Project song "Games People Play". I looked up the lyrics and figured the first verse/chorus kinda applied (didn't want to post the rest, it'd be too long that way, and this makes my point well enough).
__________________________________
Where do we go from here
Now that all other children are growin' up
And how do we spend our lives
If there's no-one to lend us a hand

I don't wanna live here no more
I don't wanna stay
Ain't gonna spend the rest of my life
Quietly fading away

Games people play, you take it or you leave it
Things that they say, honor brite
If I promise you the moon and the stars, would you believe it
Games people play in the middle of the night
________________________________________

I thought it applied pretty well to where Nita and Kit are at this point in their lives. They're getting to a place where things aren't anywhere near as black-and-white as they were and they're getting into, for lack of a better phrase, "the big bad world". At least, that's what I got from what Tom or Carl (can't remember which) said at the end of AWoM. Other speculation (or discrediting of the idea) is more than welcome.

And it's interesting to see how many of us hold onto Young Wizards into our adulthood. I'm moving into my freshman year of college tomorrow and YW is still part of my life.